Heart of Gold • Finnick Odair

-38-

Katniss wakes with a gasp, glancing round to see all her allies are still safe and alive. She sees a wave of misty fog from the corner of her eyes, watching as it dances through the jungle bushes towards her.

She reaches a curious hand out towards the mist but instantly recoils her dirty fingers in agony when they touch, causing nasty puss filled scabs to form. She falls to the ground with a scream, alerting the others, "Run! Run! The fogs poison!"

Finnick stands, crouching for Mags to climb onto his back whilst Peeta takes lead followed closely by Katniss. Rosalie follows once she's made sure Finnick is coming too.

The group sprint through the jungle, Peeta slashing at plants with his machete as they progress further. Finnick's breathing is heavy from the extra weight but he manages to keep up without complaint.

The fog is no longer just following them but is encircling them as Peeta makes a sharp turn to avoid the misty air that is now coming from all directions.

Katniss trips causing the blonde to turn and help her back to her feet, resulting in a face full of nasty boils as well as his leg being caught in the grasp of the acid fog. He fell to the ground, unable to walk, and Katniss dragged him to keep moving with the help of Rosalie.

Just behind the three, Finnick yells out in pain as he and Mags fall to the ground nearly surrounded by fog. Finnick's pleas and small cries for Mags to get back on his back were the only sound from the two as Mags silently obeyed.

Peeta fell to the ground again, shuddering in pain, he seemed unable to move completely. "I can't carry him," Katniss sobs.

"We'll take Peeta, you get Mags," Rosalie states, determined.

Finnick and Rosalie take Peeta's arms, wrapping one around each of their shoulders as they half carry, half drag, the boy away from the fog whilst Katniss carries the lighter woman on her back.

Things seem to be going well until Katniss manages to trip again causing both her and Mags to tumble to the ground. She yells out in pain as the fog wraps round her leg. She stands but doesn't allow Mags to get on her back again, instead dragging the woman along with her as she yells, "I can't- I can't carry her too."

The two fall to the ground again as Peeta stumbles too causing them all to be on the floor, exchanging desperate glances for an idea.

Rosalie makes eye contact with Mags when she feels the elderly woman squeeze her hand before turning to Finnick and kissing him on the cheek as Katniss begs Peeta to get up.

Finnick screams Mags' name in a painful cry as Rosalie watches silently in shock. She admires the elder woman's bravery but curses Snow for her having to be in the sacrificial situation in the first place.

"Finnick, we have to go, please!" Katniss begs but he's not listening as he looks into the fog for his mentor just to be met with a cannon in reply.

Katniss looks at Rosalie in desperation as she brings herself back to reality.

She crouches in front of him in time to see his face fall hearing the cannon fire. She places a hand on his cheek to gain his attention, "Finn, we have to move now or we'll all die, cmon, please."

Katniss watched as Rosalie May, the Capitol Flower, soothes Finnick Odair, the Golden Boy. If she were being completely honest, she'd say she was surprised by Finnick's soft side towards his mentor and Rosalie. She had no time to assess it though as Finnick snapped out of his trance and grabbed Peeta's right arm. Rosalie grabs his left whilst Katniss walks ahead with Peeta's machete to cut down anything in their way.

In their haste to escape, Katniss leads them to a cliff edge and they all fall down just after the fog has grazed the back three's backs.

Tumbling, rolling, pounding down the hill, the four hit the bottom with a thud.

Finnick, Peeta and Rosalie are practically paralysed from pain. She manages to move her head in the direction Katniss is looking at just in time to see the fog approach. Before it can hit them, however, it seems to slam against an invisible wall before dissipating into thin air. She can hear Finnick trying to breath through the pain, it's no doubt he got the brunt of it at the end.

Turning back round, Rosalie sees Katniss crawling towards a small area of what appears to be water.

As Katniss dips her fingers into the salty liquid, she screams from the burning sensation but soon quietens down when the pain is replaced by a feeling of relief. She rubs at the skin that had once been full of ugly white boils to find they had been completely removed, the water around her hand became a cloudy white.

"The water, the water helps," she informs her allies as they are unable to see what she's doing.

Rosalie was the next to join her, being closest, and immediately copies Katniss by placing her hands into the water followed by her arms and then, eventually, she crawled in so her arms and legs were submerged. Once the pain eased, she lay down in the water, allowing it to remove her injuries. Once her body was done, she washed her face, neck and ears.

Katniss is the first to speak up when she sees Rosalie get out of the water, scab free, to collect Finnick, "it'll be too much pain if you do it all at once."

Rosalie nods, asking for some help to get him over to the water.

Peeta and Katniss gladly help the District 11 girl drag the boy over. Once he's lay next to the area, they leave her to clean him.

Katniss goes to collect their weapons whilst Peeta looks for something to hold water in from the spile.

Finnick, who is still in agony, has his eyes squeezed closed as he continues to breath through the pain. Rosalie whispers soothingly by his head, "it'll be okay Finnick, i'm gonna take the pain away."

She started with his legs as they were closest to the water and were shaking the most. Finnick tried his best to suppress his screams as she washed him from the feet up. Once she got to his face, she sat in the shallow water herself and placed his head in her lap as she gently cupped water and let it trickle down his face. Once he could move again, he kissed her cheek and went off into the water to swim a little, probably to get any areas she had missed.

As she sits at the edge rubbing her hands, subconsciously picking at her skin, Katniss walks over and cautiously sits beside the older girl. She didn't know exactly where they stood, having noticed the way Rosalie flinches every time the girl reaches for her bow.

"Hey Archer." Rosalie greets her with a small smile nonetheless.

"Hey." Katniss fiddles with her hands, rubbing them in the water as she tries to find her words. "You know, Rue talked about you a lot in my Games. What they showed on screen wasn't even half of it." Katniss didn't miss the way Rosalie's eyes watered but she didn't stop either, for some reason she feels she needs to know Rosalie doesn't blame her. She feels some sort of weird need for validation from the victor, or tribute.

"I'm really sorry about that...Rue. She shouldn't have died she didn't deserve that, I'm-" Rosalie cuts her off,

"Don't. You don't have to be sorry. You helped her, you looked after each other. You did everything you could, I know that. And so does her family." Katniss looks at Rosalie with an unsure expression. "Believe me, I see them nearly every day back home, they hold no resentment for you. They're thankful for your help."

Before Katniss can say anything else, Finnick appears by Rosalie's side with an empty expression on his face, similar to the one on Rosalie's face when she'd seen Chaff die.

He sat beside Rosalie, who kissed his cheek softly as she rested her head on his shoulder. His eyes seemed to lighten at the action but his face stayed blank until Katniss speaks, "I'm sorry about Mags."