Author Games Compilation [Cycle 2]

Task 1 ▵ The Fall of the Empire [EEK]

With the sifting of coals in the forge, an angry glow rises in intensity, bringing a heat-wave with it, warm enough to make sweat sprout beneath the collar of Eloise's shirt. She throws her arms up as a defense from the aggressive spray of sparks as her mother delivers the final few blows to her heated iron, but really, it's premature; they fall to the floor and fizzle out, just like they'd never existed. She huffs and smells burning air.

"Have you packed a bag, Ellie?" Her mother turns to her, lifting the visor away from her face. She takes this moment of freedom to wipe the moisture away with the back of her hand.

With pep, Eloise nods and bounces on her heels once. "Got my reaping clothes and everything. If we leave now, we can even get to bed early enough for beauty sleep. But, y'know, that also sort of requires you to, I dunno, stop working?" She says it innocently enough, sweetly enough, with her hands clasped behind her back. It's met with nothing more than a stoic raise of her mother's brow, though, and a tired blow of a lock of brown hair from the woman's face.

"This is the last one before we go," she finally says. Her arm thrusts forward, driving the iron amongst the coals again. "I've still got a quota to meet to keep this house like a home. The reaping only makes it that much harder. I don't see why we all need to inconvenience ourselves with it."

For a while, these sentiments used to shock Eloise; now, she regards them with a roll of the eye. "You don't mean that. It's for a good cause, dad said so. Census things. Riot prevention. Keeps everyone safe, yeah?"

The iron emerges from the coals, inflamed with bright orange, and her mother strikes the glow with a hammer, molding it to her will. "Most everyone, sure. I'm all for peace and order, don't get me wrong. But with all I've done to help them achieve that, you'd think they wouldn't mind leaving a little family of three out of the mix."

The visor hiding her mother's eyes also hides the grin that slips onto Eloise's face. She chews the smile, sucking her bottom lip into her mouth as she tries to hide the bubble of energy that her chest has become. "But that'd mean we wouldn't get to see firsthand the tributes representing us. Isn't it exciting?"

"Thrilling." The clanging stops as the woman lifts her new weapon - the blade of a sword - up to her critical eye. It seems to be good enough for now, so she sets it aside and sets to sifting the coals again. Ellie's seen this a multitude of times, how to extinguish an otherwise constant burn. It's always enthralled her, how hot a flame can burn, how far its warmth can spread, before being stomped out, just like that. "I don't expect much this year, though. More idealistic rebel children, angry at the world."

She wants to share her secret. She wants to release it into the open to cool the air, but she can't; even though her chest flutters and her fingertips tingle, she keeps her intent to volunteer locked tight behind her teeth, instead settling for a teasing, "I guess we'll see!"

A warm chuckle leaks out of her mother's mouth. "I guess you're right." And just like that, the strange burning in the forge disappears, leaving the coals no more glorious than they were before being tossed from the bag.

The train is quiet when the sunlight finally disappears, a silent declaration that they're finally cutting through the mountains headed out of Two.

Tunnels have their own unnatural light, though. Dim yellow flickers past them every now and then, lighting up one side of Eitan's uninterested face, and certainly illuminating half of her antsy one. Her mouth is twisted up to the side, uncertain, uncomfortable. It's not that she's displeased with her presence on this cushioned couch here, oh no, nor is she particularly afraid of where it intends to take her - she knew the risks when she lifted her arm out of the pool of eighteen year old girls. It's that instead of smiles, she'd received frowns; instead of praise, she'd received panic. It leaves something...sour. And even though their journey to the Capitol won't be a long one - a few hours, tops, and that's counting on slow travel - she can't stand the thought of sitting here, motionless, the whole time. The concept makes her muscles stiff.