Caged | The Hunger Games AU ✓

xii. serendipity

twelve - serendipity

- - - ➳

conclusion: sleeping in trees is not comfortable.

i wake up early the next morning with a sore everything. my neck and back kill from resting against the trunk, and my butt aches from sitting on the branch for so long. my legs are sore from running and my arms hurt from all the hacking at leaves.

basically, i am miserable.

i look down at asher to see his branch empty and the pack nowhere to be seen. my heartbeat quickens and that wakes me up instantly. did he leave me without anything but my weapons, rope, and a blanket?

anger crackles within me like a thunderstorm. stupid, thalia. that's what you get for trusting the first person who offers to help you once the games start. with my luck, he had staged that entire ordeal with the careers, only pretending to be my ally so he could know my strengths and weaknesses. he must have taken the rest of our supplies right back to that camp. 

i hurriedly untie the rope from around my knees and try to carefully climb down, but my legs are asleep. i let out a tiny squeal as i lose my balance and slip off the branch, falling helplessly toward the ground. then, just as i am about to hit the ground, i land in someone's arms.

i have my eyes squeezed shut and open them to find asher looking down at me. i am so relieved at the sight of him that i release a magnificent breath through my mouth. he sets me down.

"you alright, twelve?" he asks as i brush myself off. the rope and blanket land on the ground next to me.

"yeah, fine," i say. i start stretching and cracking all my joints.

asher winces. "ah, that is disgusting."

i smirk. "don't like the sound of cracking joints?"

he shakes his head. "i think it's gross."

because i'm that bad of a person, i go right up to his ear and start cracking all my fingers. he immediately recoils and shoves me away while i laugh.

"you're evil," he declares, though without any venom. "you're not getting breakfast." he motions to a huge leaf piled with berries and a little piece of the cheese. "while your lazy butt was sleeping, i actually did something and got some berries." he scratches the back of his neck and looks back at them. "the thing is, i don't know which ones are poisonous and which ones aren't."

i stare at him as he looks at me sheepishly. "are you serious." i don't say it like a question.

"i didn't learn this stuff in training, okay!" he defends.

i raise my eyebrows. "did you seriously spend two days just throwing knives?"

"maybe..." asher trails off, then meets my amused gaze. he throws his hands out in exasperation. "fine, okay, i did! you're the genius and i'm not! happy now?"

i sigh. for a career, asher is pretty inexperienced at anything besides knife throwing.

i walk to the leaf and start individually separating the berries one by one. the poison ones go to the left and the ones that are fine are at my right. i do this as quickly as possible then stuff the bad ones in my pocket. when asher looks at me incredulously, i shrug. "they might come in handy."

asher and i split up the berries and cheese as evenly as we can, then pack up. "we should get a move on," asher suggests, "get farther away from the careers."

i nod and we continue on our way, running despite our stiff joints. we are going slower than usual, but that's okay.

suddenly i crash into someone. raising my knife, i almost stab them on instinct when the person yells at me.