POV Seneca Crane

The overpowering scent of roses filled Seneca's nose, he wanted to gag but he was in the garden of President Snow himself and gagging in front of him would get Seneca imprisoned or worse. Instead he stood there calmly, watching as Snow set down the report and continued pruning his pure white roses, "And this symbol has appeared on all the dead tributes?" He asked, not even looking at his Head Gamemaker.

Seneca nodded, "Yes sir, Caesar's been able to spin it as a way for tributes to mark their kills. And seeing as up until now the tributes doing the marking were from One, Two and Four it was believable. But now four who aren't allied with those tributes have also been using the mark."

"And these tributes are?" Snow asked, not looking up from his roses.

"The tributes for District Eleven, Thresh Gunthorn and Rue Calla, who just recently died, and those from District Twelve, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark." Seneca explained to his President, a little startled that Snow had taken his attention away from his pruning when he had said the Everdeen girls name. That reaction was very strange for the usually unfazed President.

"Katniss Everdeen? Was she not the one who shot an arrow at you during her training session?" He asked pointedly, he had been very disappointed with Seneca for giving her a 12 for the stunt she pulled.

Seneca looked abashed by the question, "Yes sir, she was."

"And now she has started marking dead tributes as well?" Snow said to himself, as if not wanting Seneca to respond, which he didn't. Better to remain silent than anger the President even more, "Hmm, she is an interesting tribute." Snow returned to his roses as he lifted his voice, showing Seneca he was addressing him now, "Seneca."

"Yes sir?" Seneca looked nervously at Snow, not sure what the old man would have him do next.

"I think we should implement a new rule. With just the tributes of District Two remaining they may turn against each other. Best to keep that from happening until the very end." He cut off a wilted rose, a serious but calm expression on his barely aged face.

POV Katniss

"You're leaving?" I looked at Thresh in surprise. He had been in our little group for a day and a half. We had eaten and Thresh had tended to mine and Peeta's wounds. It turned out my left ear was horribly mangled from the explosion and Peeta was suffering from an infection in his leg from the newly opened wound. That night we watched Rue and Marvel's faces light up the dome. Thresh took the first shift of look out while I nursed Peeta who was getting worse. He had developed a fever and the ointment was helping with the inflection in his leg.

I only went to sleep after Thresh said he would watch over Peeta, knowing full well Cato and Clove would be searching for us thirsting for revenge. He woke me after six restless hours of falling in and out of sleep and I took over the watch so he could rest.

It wasn't until this morning when I handed him a leg of rabbit that he had told me he would leave us today.

"Yes." He answered looking at Peeta who was laying in the large hollow log we had found to sleep in, "You need to watch him and since Rue's gone there's no reason to remain allies anymore."

He had a point. He had only allied with us because we were allied with Rue. Since Rue had died, it was no wonder he was breaking off the alliance. Though I was surprised he was also using Peeta as an excuse for leaving our group.

"I understand," I went to the basket and filled it with one of the rabbit I had cooked, some berries and his share of the bread and cheese he hadn't eaten, "Take this. As a parting gift. Rue would want you to have it."

Thresh looked as if he was going to protest, but he stopped and took the basket, "Thanks. Here." He took something from his pocket. It was a bracelet, crudely made with yarn and plastic beads, "It was Rue's trinket. Mintie made it for her when they were younger. She'd want you to hold on to it."

I took the bracelet and held it in my hands, taking in a deep breath to keep from crying, "Thank you Thresh, good luck."

He nodded, "Next time I see you, we'll be enemies, so I won't hesitate to kill you or Peeta."

"I understand, I still wish you luck." I said cordially, I was going to make sure we parted with no ill feelings. He nodded again and walked off in the woods, away from me and Peeta for now.

As he walked away I went over Peeta and sat beside him, his fever was getting worse and I had nothing for it. I sighed and lay beside him whispering even though he couldn't hear me, "Thresh is gone now too. It's just you and me again."

"He left?" Peeta said, startling me as I didn't realize he was awake.

"Yeah, he said it would be easier if we didn't stay together." I explained, stroking Peeta's hair gently.

Peeta looked so tired, and his forehead was hot to touch, "I'm glad he stayed as long as he did." He said with a slight smile.

I chuckled, reaching over to grab our backpacks to do a count of our supplies. For food we had a second rabbit. I had caught it an hour ago along with the rabbit Thresh and I had eaten half of it. So we actually had one and half of rabbit meat. Along with the rabbit meat we still had a couple handfuls of berries, half of our thirds of the bread and cheese, we also had some nuts and roots Rue had gathered the day before as well as a box of dried fruit I had found in Marvel's pack. I rolled my eyes at the sight of the fruit, what an idiot, who takes only dried fruit with them on a hunt? We also had four containers full of water, which was good as Peeta and I could take two containers each. That would last us at least four days.

As for the food, I could spread the rabbit over three meals. If I mixed the berries, nuts, roots and dried fruit together it could last us five or six meals. And the bread and cheese could last us another two meals. All together we had enough meals for five days which wasn't bad.

I packed the food into Peeta's empty bag and started an inventory on our weapons. We had Rue's slingshot with a few rocks for ammo, several knives, a spear with spare heads from Marvel, Peeta's own spear and finally my three knives and my bow with about eight arrows left.

We also had some miscellaneous items too. Rue had carried extra socks in her bag, she had said she was planning on making them into weapons with some of her rocks. Which was so resourceful of her. I wiped away a tear at the memory of her demonstrating the weapon for me and Peeta. The idiot Marvel had brought a leather pouch with his extra spear heads and a flashlight inside, at least he had the sense to bring a first aid kit, that had been a small help when Thresh had dressed our wounds. As for me, I still had my sleeping bag, though Peeta was curled up in it right now, as well as some rope and a little left.

I sighed at the large inventory Peeta and I had, as I packed the smaller weapons and miscellaneous stuff into my bag. I had sent Marvel's spear into a pool of undrinkable water to clear any traces of us being here and woke Peeta back up as he had fallen asleep, "Peeta hun. We need to get moving again, we have to find a safer place to camp out tonight."

Peeta nodded, slowly but shakily wiggling out of the sleeping bag. I helped him to his feet, letting him use his spear - spearhead unattached for safety - as a crutch like cane. As I wrapped up the sleeping bag I heard the anthem sound in the noon sky. That wasn't a good sign since it meant there Claudius Templesmith had a new addition to make the games more enjoyable for the Capitol.

"Attention tributes, attention!" Claudius said calmly from an unknown place. "The regulations requiring a single victor have been... suspended! From now on two victors will be crowned if both originate from the same District! This will be the only announcement!" As his voice faded from the sky, I looked at Peeta with hope in my eyes.

"That means..." Peeta whispered, the same hope in his eyes.

"We can both go home if all the other tributes die." I finished and he nodded, taking my hand weakly. I have a chance to be with Peeta for the rest of my life. I wrapped my arms around him, and hugged him tightly, "I'll make sure you get better I promise."

"It's okay. I'll be fine. I can still walk. My leg will be better in no time." Peeta panted, trying to keep himself up on the spear cane, only dropped back down to the ground.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, and the Hunger Games don't happen every year." I said sarcastically and began to re-bandage his leg. It's getting worse than I thought possible. The bleeding had stopped thanks to the ointment but the wound was dark purple and swollen. "Peeta, the stab wound is completely swollen. I've seen it before with my mom's patients. It's inflected and the only type of medicine I know is one the Capitol has access to the ingredients used. I don't know how to make it with those ingredients, and it costs a fortune to get."

"What about Jérémie?" Peeta asked, his face still hopeful.

"I think Jérémie already sent us the one medicine gift he was allowed to send." I reminded him, wrapping his leg and helped him to his feet. "I'm sorry Peeta, I don't think Haymitch or Jérémie will be able to help us." I sighed, I had to distract him with something else as we walked to find a new camp site. "Do you remember that day three years ago? In the meadow?"

Peeta looked at me and wrapped his arm around me to support himself. "Of course, how can I forget? You were in the meadow waiting for me. You looked so happy to see me that you ran towards me. Then you handed me a beautifully decorated box." I could see Peeta's eyes fill with the memory of the past. "I can still recall the look in your eyes when I opened the box."

As could I, I even remembered what the contents of the box were. It was a beautiful wooden box made of red oak that held a long wooden paint brush painted silver with black bristles and a palette of paints. I thought it was the best gift to represent his passion for painting.

"You grinned at me saying 'Happy Birthday'. My family had forgotten, apart from my dad, but you remembered. I didn't care what happened after that." He paused as he began tracing my lips with his free hand as we walked and continued. "All I knew was I wanted you to know how I felt. I remember wrapping my arms around you tightly and kissing you with all the love I felt. That was when we both realized we cared for each other. That day three years ago just because of your kindness."

I held him pulled closer to me. "I love you so much, Peeta. Please don't leave me... ever." I told him with tears coming out of my eyes. It was the first time I cried since this whole mess had happened.

He started to stroke my hair gently. "I promise that we'll be with each other until the end. I would never leave the girl who has never... Katniss what happened to your ear?!" Peeta almost yelled the words, in his panicked voice.

Oh no. I forgot to tell Peeta what happened. "A piece of debris hit my ear yesterday."

"What?!" Peeta's face looked serious despite the sweat rolling down his face. "And when were you planning on telling me?"

I hated it when he used that voice. "I didn't think bleeding was that bad. I would have told you had I known but Thresh didn't say it was all that bad when he looked it over. Please don't be upset. I love you too much to not tell you things." I told him and kissed his forehead.

"I know you would, it's just I worry about you, Katniss." He muttered, limping away from me.

I let out a deep sigh, "I know." I said under my breath and followed him to a place we could find to conceal ourselves better.

It was almost another hour later when we found a hollow tree that seemed to have fallen during the fireballs days earlier. It looked sturdy enough though it was scorched in some places. I lay down my sleeping bag and got Peeta to lay down inside it. He refused unless I lay down with him.

I could feel his breathing getting heavier and his body getting hotter. I put a hand to his forehead.

"Peeta? You're burning up. Are you ok?" I asked him, leaning closer to his body. He felt like I was lying down near a fireplace.

"Yeah... yeah I'm..." he fell then, breathing heavily and sweating harder. I looked at him in fear. I couldn't think of anything that would help him. I had no medicine to help, no plants that grew nearby that would relieve his fever or the pain he obviously felt. I worried so deeply that I almost didn't hear the anthem booming in the sky again.

Claudius' silly voice echoed through the entire arena, "Attention tributes, attention! Commencing tonight, there will be a Feast at the Cornucopia. This will be no ordinary occasion. Each of you needs something... desperately. And we plan to be... generous hosts. That is all." The announcement soon faded as quickly as it had come.

"The medicine... I whispered looking at Peeta who was still out, "But how can I leave you like this?" I whispered, snuggling against his burning body. I couldn't go, feasts were death traps like the Bloodbath but very late into the Games. They were set up when the Gamemakers felt like the Games were becoming too boring to watch. So a Feast was organized. Sometimes a table of food would be laid out and tributes would fight for the right to eat it. Other times a bag would be placed on the table and tributes would fight to win the contents which were either a powerful weapon or a piece of moldy bread. It wasn't uncommon for the Games to end during or soon after a Feast was organized.

But I still wasn't sure if I should go. Peeta was too sick to travel with me and I couldn't leave him here where the Careers might find him. I lay beside Peeta, the problem racing through my head. How the heck was I going to get to the Feast to save Peeta without him coming or being found out by the Careers?

It was late into the evening, almost the hour the Feast would begin when my answer floated down nearby our little hollowed tree. I almost didn't notice it, but the faint flickering light it gave off helped me see the metal canister sitting near a root nearby. I got up slowly so as not to disturb Peeta and walked towards it.

It was definitely a sponsor gift, the little parachute that had gilded it down made that obviously. I opened the lid to find a canteen and a spoon as well as a note, 'Feed this to the kid and get his medicine. Don't eat it or you'll be sleeping like a baby. H.'

I opened the canteen and found it contained a portion of hot lamb stew. Just like the one I had mentioned to Caesar during our interview. I sniffed its contents and realized it was laced with a sleeping drug and a potent one at that, as I got dizzy just from smelling the stew.

With a sad but determined expression on my face I went back to Peeta and shook him awake, "Peeta, you should eat something. I made some stew. Will you eat it?" I asked him, getting close so the spoon was close to his lips.

He opened his eyes a bit and then sipped the stew, "Is this rabbit?" He muttered, his delirium was obvious in his slurred speech.

I said nothing as I grabbed another spoonful and had him eat it. Then another, and another until he had eaten the entire bowl and fell back in the sleeping bag, sleeping as soundly as if he wasn't injured.

"Good." I whispered and kissed his hot forehead, "I'll be back with your medicine, I promise." I then got up, hide the hollow as best I could and headed towards the Cornucopia.