Magical Tide (Finnick Odair)

Chapter 5

A few days passed without any incidents. The maze made it difficult to find other tributes which was making the careers restless. Also, they were running short of water. The maze didn't have any visible water source and they depended on their sponsors and their gifts. But now, the Gamemakers raised the price of water so high that they were no longer gifted water. After three days, Amynta decided to leave.

"Nothing is going to happen if we just stay together doing nothing. It's pointless to wait around. I'm leaving the pack."

As a last parting gift, made a vicious attack on district 2 girl's mind, then left into the maze with her belongings.

The thirst must have meddled with other tributes' intelligence or they were exceedingly stupid. Plantations couldn't exist without water, and there were vines everywhere. They covered the walls thickly, creating a curtain, which meant that there was water somewhere near the ground.

Amynta walked for a good while and began to scrape and dig at a crack on the bottom of the wall with her knife. After prying away slabs of stone for hours, she found a small waterway flowing with water. It seemed that the gamemakers made the water flowed right beneath the walls, so whenever a tribute decided to dig up the bottom of the wall, they could find water to drink.

While she was filling up her water bottle and having a nice drink, a constant beeping sounded above her head notifying her of a silver parachute. In the container there were her favourite butter rolls, chunks of ham and cheese, a plastic container of salad and apples. For the first time during the game she had a good hearty meal.

 While she was munching on an apple, a cannon sounded then it was followed by another. 

Twelve down, eleven to go.

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Couple of days passed, and four more tributes died. Amynta didn't know what killed the three of them, but she did kill one.

She was eating berries she picked when a silver parachute landed in front of her. A short fishing spear was attached to it and with it came a note from Finnick, telling her that she was doing great so far.

The spear reminded her of Finnick's game, where he slaughtered his opponents by tangling them in a net and spearing them with his trident. Immediately, she cut some vines from the wall and made a crude net. It wasn't very good but it was indeed useful when she came face to face with a district 9 boy. 

When he charged at her with his knife, she threw the net, the weight of it making him stumble a bit. He was trying to regain his balance when her fishing spear pierced his heart, killing him instantly. 

Amynta stepped back and watched as a hovercraft came down and took the boy's body. She could still feel her spear pushing and slicing through his flesh, giving her an uneasy feeling, but she brushed that aside.

She didn't have time to become sentimental.

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Because she was quite liked by the capitol with her cynical charisma and levelheadedness, and because her mentor was the Finnick Odair, she got a lot of gifts from her sponsors. This time, Finnick sent her a bottle full of antitoxin tablets. She immediately understood the meaning behind it. 

By now, all the surviving tributes had found the underground waterway. It meant that no one would die of thirst now, but the connected waterways also meant one thing. They could be killed by poisoning from long distance.

Finnick knew that she ran an apothecary and that she could identify poisonous plants. And Amynta knew from the very start that the leaves of the ivy vines were poisonous when they were mashed into pulp. 

Filling her water bottles one last time just in case, she picked some leaves and began to mash them between two stones. She threw a great amount of leaves into her water hole, practically stripping the vines bare. Poison started to travel down the waterway and after a few moment cannons started to sound. The tributes were all dispersed in the maze, so they didn't know what killed the others. They never guessed that there was something wrong with their water.

Five cannons were sounded that day, and only three tributes were left in the maze.

The gamemakers decided to help the tributes a bit by herding them to the center of the maze where the Cornucopia was. The walls started to close in on them, making them run as fast as they can. 

Amynta burst into the open field to find the district 2 girl slumped against Cornucopia. She was a mess with her hair disheveled, dirt on her face, her face gaunt from hunger and thirst. She also looked a bit mad and she was, due to Amynta's severe legilimence which messed with her  sanity a little.

She was taking her last mouthful of water she saved when a scream sounded from the maze. The entrance to the field was closing with a tribute running between it. He had a desperate look on his eyes but Amynta just turned away from the gruesome scene until a big thud indicated that the wall closed, with the male tribute between it.

"So, it's just me and you is it?" the other girl giggled.

"...I guess so," Amynta answered, adjusting her grip on her spear. Her opponent was weakened, but her madness could give her surprising strength. 

"I knew you would be the last one," the girl said, "the district 1 tributes were idiots and you were way more skilled and alluring than your district partner."

After circling each other they charged. The girl launched herself with a battle cry while Amynta blocked her attack. She stumbled and fell, but managed to stop the blade from plunging into her head, making the knife stop just inches from her face. 

"Just, die already!"

"...There's someone waiting for me. I need to go back home," Amynta grunted. She pushed the girl off of her and smirked. "I just need to kill a single mad bitch. I can't stop here now, can I?"

Unknown to her, a crazed look was making her eyes gleam dangerously as well.

They glared into each other's eyes and Amynta performed legilimence again, this time muddling the girl's mind viciously. The girl cried out and lost her balance because of the severe headache and Amynta took her chance to plunge her spear in her stomach. 

The last cannon sounded and she slumped down as if all her strings were cut while Caesar Flickerman's voice rang out throughout the arena.

[And we have our victor! Amynta Snape, the victor of the 68th Hunger Games, everybody!]