once upon a time • finnick odair

xii. amber clarson

"This entire arena seems to be laid off like a clock with a new threat every hour," Katniss explained as the group of six walked toward the Cornucopia, "but they stay only within their wedge. It all starts with the lightning. Then blood rain, fog, and monkeys. That's the first four hours. At ten, that big wave heads over there."

"Wiress, you're a genius," said Finnick as the group settled on the rocks of the Cornucopia.

"Well, the tail points at twelve," said Devon, noticing that the Cornucopia's tail was pointing at the big lightning tree.

"Yeah. I think that's where the lightning strikes at noon and midnight," Katniss agreed.

"Where?" asked Beetee.

"That big tree," said Katniss, pointing to the big tree where lightning struck.

Beetee eyed the tree meaningfully. "Good."

"Hickory dickory dock. The mouse ran up the clock," Wiress muttered. "The clock struck one, the mouse went down, hickory dickory dock."

As Wiress sat on the rocks muttering, the group gathered not far from her to organize their findings.

Devon drew a big circle on the sand. "So at twelve to one lightning. Then one to two is blood. Then fog. Then monkeys."

"And at ten to eleven, the wave. What about everything else? Did you guys see anything?" asked Katniss to Beetee and Johanna.

"Nothing but blood," said Johanna.

"Doesn't matter. We'll be safe as long as we steer clear of whichever sector is active. We know at least half of the time, anyway," said Devon.

Finnick sighed. "Yeah, relatively speaking."

Just then, they heard a gasp coming from where Wiress was, and all turned to see Gloss slicing her throat.

Within seconds, Katniss shot her arrow at Gloss straight in the heart before anyone else could react, and he fell backward into the water with Wiress still in his arms.

From Katniss' right, Cashmere came running toward her with a vicious yell, and Katniss didn't notice until Johanna pushed her out of the way and killed her with a throw of her axe.

Before Katniss could even recover, Devon noticed a familiar face coming up to the Cornucopia with a crossbow in his hand. It seemed that his hand had fully recovered from the hit he took a few hours ago, no doubt from the help of Capitol-made medicine.

"Yoosung," Devon breathed.

"Devon," Lucian greeted, before shooting the crossbow, which Devon managed to avoid.

"Lost your shooting skills?" Devon mocked.

Lucian snarled and took up a knife in hand, but Finnick was quicker and the two went down tumbling as Enobaria also came up to the Cornucopia, a sword in hand and her fanged tooth gleaming in the sun.

"Twelve," she growled.

"Two."

Devon could see that Katniss was aiming at her but knew that she wouldn't be able to shoot with him, Finnick and Lucian blocking her sight. Even if he crouched, Katniss couldn't shoot because the other two men were fighting right next to him.

So instead of trying to crouch to give Katniss some view, he took out the knife he had kept throughout the Games and threw it at Enobaria.

The knife hit Enobaria's leg, and Lucian yelled at her before doing anything more. "Sibal, run!"

At those words, Enobaria turned and ran, and Lucian, whose neck was almost about to be pierced by Finnick's trident, managed to flip over and shove Finnick to the ground. At the same time, he stood up and ran away in the direction where Enobaria also ran.