District 12's First Victor

CHAPTER 10 - BACK TO THE ARENA

I wake up and feel that Thorne is still stroking my hair. I'm still not quite sure why he is here or why he is helping me out so much but doesn’t matter - it's a nice change from the arena where everyone is trying to kill me. I should probably get back, though. The gamemakers are almost certainly wondering where I am.

I pull myself up and out of Thorne's grip and grab my crutches. As I move, Thorne looks up at me, slightly confused and upset that I have pulled away.

"I have to get back, Thorne," I explain. "The gamemakers are probably wondering where I am by now."

He nods and says, "Stay safe and I'll try see you tomorrow."

I walk out of the hut and Thorne follows. When I get to the edge of the lake, I pass him the spare crutches and he plants a quick kiss on my cheek before I can turn and dive in. I can feel myself blushing as I dive into the water. As I swim, I run my hands along the bottom of the lake, since that worked well last time. I am in about the middle of the lake when my hands hit something long and smooth. I feel along it and find it is the trident so I grab it and take it with me, remembering my promise to Thorne.

When I surface back in the arena, I find everything is just how I left it - as if I had never left. Part of me wishes I had never left but I'll have to worry about that later. At first when I see this, I think it is a good thing but then again, this is the arena - anything can happen. I decide to set up camp for the night, even though it's only early afternoon. I want something more permanent so I can stay here for a few days. I grab my stuff and find a cave a little way from the lake. It is the perfect size for a camp so I grab some nearby branches and rocks and set to work trying to disguise it from my fellow tributes - which is easier said than done. It is almost night time by the time I finish. I crawl in through the little gap I left myself down the bottom and pick out some game for me to cook outside but I am distracted by a scream.

I wonder who that could be… It might be the careers hunting someone. I will go investigate, since I don’t want them to find my cave by accident! I crawl out of my cave with my set of knives strapped to my belt and pick a nice, tall tree to climb. When I et to the top, I see the girl from 2 is chasing after the 12 year old girl from district 10! Part of me wants to just leave them to their chase seeing as I can't keep up anyway with my leg but I know I would feel guilty if I didn’t at least try to help the girl from 10. She's so young and I believe that she deserves to live longer than the girl from 2 will ever allow. Besides, the girl from 2 made fun of me at the very beginning of the games and I want to show her that I really do stand a chance.

I climb down and walk as fast as I can to cut them off. It takes a little while but suddenly I can see them. I make a loud noise which causes the girl from 2 to pause and turn for a moment which gives the girl from 10 time to get out of my way. Then I throw one of my knives. It hits her in the back as she turns to continue the chase. She screams in both shock and pain before collapsing forwards. I walk towards her and crouch beside her.

"I'm better than you expected, aren't I?" I whisper to her so that only she can hear. "I bet you weren't expecting that."

When I stand up once the girl from 2 has died, I notice that the girl who she was chasing, having heard the dead tribute's scream, had stopped running and had been watching me talk to the girl.

"I'm not going to hurt you," I say, before turning to pull my knife out of the girl's back. Probably not the best thing to do since I'm trying not to be threatening but I can't just leave it there…

"I heard your scream and came to see if I could help," I explain.

She moves a little closer and I beckon to her to follow me away from the body so they can collect it.

I take her near my camp, but not close enough so that she knows exactly where it is - I'm still not entirely sure whether she is a ally or enemy. I smile, hoping that she can be my ally. I don't really need any more enemies in these games…

"My name is Anya. What's yours?" I ask.

"Jay," she whispers. Obviously she isn't entirely comfortable around me yet, either.

"That's a really nice name…" I comment. It reminds me of the mockingjays that flit through the trees. I used to sing to them when I was little and they would always sing back. It was great fun.

"Are you hungry?" I ask, "I have food to spare. Wait there."

Walk the long way around to my cave and pull out a rabbit from my bag. I walk back to Jay the way I came and sit down to skin it and remove the organs.

"Well, if you're going to eat with me, can you grab some firewood to cook this with?" I ask and, to my surprise, she goes and collects some branches that have fallen off the trees nearby.

Once she comes back, I light the fire and cook the rabbit before sharing it with Jay. I try to make some coversation but she doesn’t seem to feel like talking. Whatever suits her, I guess…

After our meal, I offer to share my cave with her for the night but she declines. I do manage to get her to take some extra food and matches to wherever she left her stuff, though. I don't need it all and I can always go get more.

As she gets up to leave, she smiles at me and says, "Thank-you, Anya. May the odds be ever in your favour."

"Any time," I say, returing the smile. "And you too. Stay safe."

Then, she turns and leaves. I walk back to my cave and settle down in my sleeping bag. I hear 2 cannons. There were only 2 deaths today and they were both caused by me. I shudder. I never expected to be such a ruthless killer. I just hope I don't have to kill Jay, I think as I drift off to sleep.