She didn't know how long they might have sat there if it weren't for the arrival of the silver parachute, which glided down through the foliage to land before them.
No one reached for it.
"Whose is it, do you think?" Livia quizzed finally.
"No telling", Finnick jeered, "Why don't we let Peeta claim it, since he died today?"
Peeta untied the cord and flattened out the circle of silk.
On the parachute sat a small metal object that Livia couldn't place.
"What is it?" Livia asked.
No one knew.
They passed it from hand to hand, taking turns examining it.
It was a hollow metal tube, tapered slightly at one end. On the other end a small lip curved downward.
It was vaguely familiar.
A part that could have fallen off a bicycle, a curtain rod- anything, really.
Peeta blew on one end to see if it made a sound.
It didn't.
Finnick slid his pinkie into it, testing it out as a weapon.
Useless.
"Can you fish with it, Leilani?" Livia wondered.
Leilani, who could fish with almost anything, shook her head.
Livia took it and rolled it back and forth in her palm.
Since they were allies, Haymitch would be working with the District 4 mentors.
He had a hand in choosing this gift- that meant it was valuable.
Lifesaving, even.
Haymitch's gifts, or lack thereof, carried weighty messages.
Livia could almost hear him growling at her-
"Use your brain if you have one."
What was it?
Livia wiped the sweat from her eyes and held the gift out in the moonlight.
She moved it this way and that, viewing it from different angles, covering portions and then revealing them- trying to make it divulge its purpose to her.
Finally, in frustration, she jammed one end into the dirt, "I give up. Maybe if we hook up with Beetee or Wiress they can figure it out."
Livia stretched out, pressing her hot cheek on the grass mat, staring at the thing in aggravation.
Peeta rubbed the tense spot between her shoulders and she let herself relax a little.
She wondered why it hadn't cooled off at all now that the sun had gone down.
She wondered what was going on back home.
Her brothers, Gale, Prim, Madge.
She thought of them all watching her from home.
At least she hoped they were at home.
Not taken into custody by Thread or other peacekeepers.
Being punished as Cinna was.
As Darius was.
Punished because of her.
Everybody.
She began to ache for them, for her and Peeta's house, district twelve, for the woods- a decent woods with sturdy hardwood trees, plentiful food, game that wasn't creepy.
