Last chapter of the day.
Shado Trare
District 6
In the Hunger Games, the fools will always be the first to fall, he had said to me. You must not be one of those fools, rather exploit their weaknesses and make them the fools. That was the only advice. I can't think about who specifically said it to me, as it wouldn't surprise me if the Capitol had some device that could read minds.
Almost time for my meeting with Rogue at the Cornucopia. No tributes have died, and the Gamemakers have not interfered. There's either something happening, or something is going to happen. The pain in my arm returns, and I wince. The storm died out about an hour ago, but the pain has not. Hopefully, someone will think to send something to sponsor me, I've certainly earned it.
I can barely flex my fingers, and I can only wrap it in a bandage. Another voice, another strategy. Any wound on you can be exploited by your opponent. Let them know not of your weakness, and kill them by any means possible. The same style, different teacher. Again, I don't want to think about who said it.
I unwrap the bandage, and pack up camp. I turn and look at the mountain standing among the twilight. I walk toward the mountain, and find the climbable section. I begin to climb. As I get higher, the air grows colder, and I'm glad I grabbed the coat from the Cornucopia. Hopefully, there will be some medicine at the Cornucopia.
After maybe thirty minutes I reach the top. I'm gasping by then, of course. The loot is just sitting there. If any of the other tributes were smart, they'd have taken the food by now. An arrow zooms past my head, and I snap around to see the girl from 5 standing there. "Finally. You're here. I was beginning to think I might have to kill your friend if you didn't show up........."
I pale. "Where. Is. He." She looks inquisitively at me. "The one who killed five Careers is worried about his own teammate? There's a surprise. And, he's, eh, dug himself into a hole." She points to the hole about eight feet deep several yards away. Funny I didn't notice that before. I walk over and look down to see a shivering Rogue. "Well, look what you've gotten yourself into!" I yell at him.
He stands up. "Cut it with your damn sense of humor. She captured me when she wanted to get you." I chuckle. "That much is obvious," I say. The girl's voice comes from right behind me, startling me. "You conveniently forget I'm here. Seems a bit out of character for you. Oh, and by the way, what happened to your arm?"
I jump back so that I almost fall in, and then realize she noticed my burn. I cuss viciously. "So, you know I killed them?" I ask. From the pit below, Rogue adds, "With a little help from me!" I look at him. "Shut up." She raises her eyebrow. "You're avoiding my question. Eh, doesn't matter. You're dead anyway."
She quickly notches an arrow and snaps her fingers across the bowstring. I sidestep, and unsheathe my sword. I slice the bow in two, leaving two broken pieces of wood. She pulls a sword from her sheath, and attacks. Our blades clash, and we cross our blades. I move in closer for more leverage.
I force the crossed blades to go higher, leaving her stomach exposed. I kick her, and she's sent sprawling to the ground. I pull out my second sword. These aren't my usual broadsword. These were the swords I was going to give to Rogue. My regular sword is somewhere in a tree. I'll get that later.
She gets up, and I attack with both blades, hacking at her with a controlled ferocity. I sidestep her counterattack and use both blades to send her sword clattering off the cliff. She does the smart thing, and raises her hand in surrender. "You are a formidable opponent," she says, "........despite your skin problems."
That's it. That's the thing that always gets under my skin. People often underestimate me because of the pimples scattered across my face. I know He would say that is a good thing. She smiles, as if she knows she's struck a nerve. "I'm tempted to push you off the mountain for saying that," I say calmly. "But I'll take pity on you this once. I don't kill without reason. He would say that that would be illegal, you know."
She looks at me inquisitively. "Who's He?" I silently curse myself, and then yell at her, "GO!" She stumbles off, and runs down the steep slope. I find a rope at the Cornucopia, and lower it so Rogue can get up. He climbs, and once he reaches the top, runs off and immediately grabs some bread lying there and starts eating.