13. The Lion Tamer - Consequences

Teslee Urbańska, District 3, 4th Place Tribute of the 10th Hunger Games

"What have you got there?" Teslee asked.

The boy from Seven ignored her. He was on one of the lower beams of the climbing frame, carefully trying to place a small and interesting-looking white object on one of the beams so it wouldn't fall off. Teslee walked over.

"Hey, Seven," she said. "What's that?"

"Oh, this," Seven said. He seemed startled at the sight of someone approaching him."It's a paper rabbit."

That made sense. Teslee knew that the boy from Seven really liked rabbits. He'd told her he had a pet rabbit named Atsumori waiting for him back home.

"Where'd you get it?" she asked.

"I made it," Seven said. "I wanted to give it to my mentor but… I didn't think she'd want it."

"Does your mentor not like rabbits?" Teslee asked.

"I don't know," Seven said. "I hope she does. I just don't know if she'll have anywhere in her house to keep this."

"She's a Capitol girl," Teslee said. "She should have plenty of space in her house."

"It's not about space," Seven said. "It's about… whether she'd want something that I made with my hands. Something just sitting around, reminding her of me."

Teslee was very confused. Did Seven and his mentor not get along, like Teslee and Urban didn't get along? If that was the case, surely Seven wouldn't have made something for his mentor in the first place? Teslee certainly wouldn't have gone all the way through building a robot before deciding not to give it to Urban. Or maybe Seven liked his mentor but she didn't like him back.

"If your mentor doesn't want it, can I have it?" Teslee asked.

Seven looked down at the paper rabbit in his hand. He seemed troubled. He'd been sick a lot lately. Maybe he was worried about the games.

"Fine," he said. "Only if you'll leave me alone."

He tossed the rabbit down to Teslee.

Five days into the games and Teslee was trying to figure out who to kill first.

She and Circ had spent days working on the drones. Their progress had been interrupted many times by other tributes trying to kill them and by the snakes that'd been released yesterday evening that'd taken Circ's life. But now Teslee was sure that the drones were ready. If she sent them to target a tribute in a high place, the drones would knock that tribute down to their death.

Teslee looked up into the sky for a target. She only saw the boy from Four and the boy from Seven, the one with the pet rabbit.

Realistically, the boy from Seven was the more dangerous of the two. He was much older and he'd just been chasing Teslee and Circ down with an axe before the snakes had arrived. He was fast, too. When Teslee had been clinging to the pole for dear life, trying to process that Circ had just died in front of her, she'd briefly wondered where Seven had gone, and that was when she'd spotted him climbing the scoreboard. How had he got over there so fast? He was like a greyhound.

But then Teslee thought of Atsumori, patiently waiting for his master back in Seven. She thought of the crumpled paper rabbit still in her pocket. She thought of Seven's words in the zoo. Only if you leave me alone.

Did he mean 'Only if you stop bothering me,' or 'Only if you spare my life'?

Teslee realised what she had to do. She gave her drone, which she'd named Dominik, a gentle pat before sending it out into the sky after the boy from Four.

I'm sure Seven doesn't wanna kill me, she reassured herself. He was probably just going after Circ because Circ was a meanie who thought animals are dumb.

She didn't consider that Seven would be able to climb down from his scoreboard and sneak up on her without making a sound.

She didn't consider that the boy from Four had a leg injury which would've made such a feat impossible for him and the noise he would've made would've given Teslee time to run for her life.

Teslee Urbańska would soon learn that her actions had consequences.

I hope you enjoyed the Teslee Chapter. It's a little short for my liking (I'm sure I could've got a lot more out of her interaction with Treech) but I'm on a very tight schedule so this'll have to do. Luckily, I don't have a major character scheduled until Saturday, so I can keep doing shorter chapters for the next couple days if I have to.

Our next act will be The Puppet.