xxxix. what-ifs

905 33 1
                                    

chapter thirty-nine

IT WAS TRAINING DAY

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.


IT WAS TRAINING DAY. Finnick hadn't come down to the training center yet. Octavia sat on the ground in the fire making section of the training center. She rolled a smaller stick between her palms quickly, creating friction on the larger log. Once it began to smoke, she fed the fire with her breath and with smaller sticks until it began to burn.

She heard clapping behind her. Her eyebrows furrow as she turns over her shoulder. An older woman with dark hair looks excited for Octavia. Octavia tries to remember her name.

"Wiress," someone else calls, it was a man. He wore glasses and had darker skin. Octavia recognized him.

"Do you think you could show us?" Beetee asks, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose with his finger. Octavia nods, patting the space next to her. Beetee and Wiress sit.

Octavia hands Beetee a small stick as she sets up the fire board. Octavia digs a small socket into the log before looking up at Beetee.

"Put the stick there, and then you're going to move your hands quickly back and forth, like this," she instructs as she demonstrates the movement. Beetee nods.

He begins to sloppily drill the stick into the board, Octavia does her best to let him figure it out himself.

"If you move your hands down a bit, and-"

"And faster." She's cut off. Octavia doesn't have to turn around to know that the voice belongs to Katniss. Beetee and Wireless look up at the girl on fire for a moment before returning their attention to the fire.

Once Beetee develops enough friction to create smoke, Octavia gently feeds the fire for him. He looks to the girl with a smile.

"A little brute force," Wiress says.

"Is always helpful," Beetee finishes, "thank you," he says to Octavia.

Octavia nods in response, matching his smile.

"By the corner of the table," Wiress says. Katniss, Beetee, and Octavia follow her line of sight.

"Plutarch?" Katniss asks.

"No, next to him," she says. Octavia and Katniss equally squint while Beetee raises his glasses.

"Ah, a forcefield," he says. Octavia tilts her head to try and see what he was seeing.

"How do you know?" Katniss asks.

𝑺𝑻𝑨𝑹𝑮𝑰𝑹𝑳 ,  𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐢𝐫 Where stories live. Discover now