I'm a (Bad) Friend [vraven v bards]

[marguerite harvard d2a (zori)]

*

“COR-DEEL-YA.” My voice echoed across the canyon and filled in the valleys because I couldn’t surprise what rose up out of my chest or the grin that spread across my face. We’d both survived the separation, a minor miracle. Or some sort of twist of fate. I doubt we’d know until the end came for either of us, but for now, we could look into one another’s eyes again, could laugh until our lungs burned, could catch a cloud and sail right out of here.

I’d chattered on like my littlest sister did, barely pausing to catch my breath, even with the altitude having me short of breath or the ache in my shoulder shooting down my back. It wasn’t because of how little we had left together, though I suppose at some sort of subconscious level we both knew. It was that for all that I’d left behind and lost over five days, I could still hold onto something familiar. Someone who I’d atagonized and who’d given me a healthy dose of reality gave me strength, and courage, to continue.

She helped erase the sound of sword through throat, made the blood underneath my fingernails dim in the fading maroon of sunset.

“…and then, then – he comes at us both crossways, cuts me deep across the shoulder, and I – get this, get this!” I tightened my palms around an imaginary sword, puffed out my chest, and jabbed forward, “When I cut forward I turned, and he took a step and the sword, I don’t know, I just sort of – uuurg – right into the fucker’s neck til it came out clear the other side. You wouldn’t even imagine how much blood…”

She’d doubted it happened, which – since when have I ever been the unreliable narrator?!

But it’d been better she cut me off and cut me down. Even if it hadn’t been the scolding of celebrating putting a whole life out of commission, I couldn’t escape the heaviness that trailed alongside it.

Someone’s son had died today.

I couldn’t get out of her what came from her fight, not while I stitched up the gash on my shoulder or when we’d finally gotten down to the meadow and set up camp. Maybe on account of how I’d bested her in terms of body count. That had to be the reason, right? Cordelia had grown up living and breathing how to kill, but here was the dope from ten upstaging her day after day.

“You know, I just wanted to say, you don’t have anything to worry about. With me. I mean, even if I’m the one putting up numbers for the alliance at this point…”

I’d meant to keep going when the anthem blared and Kaius’s face came around first. Kaius. Huh. Well, that solved that mystery.

“Oh.”

Charlie’s face appeared and faded just as quickly, and suddenly, I felt like a chill had set across the remnants of the meadow.

It hadn’t meant to be this way.

At least, not the way that I’d written it in my head. Charlie was the heir, and I was the spare. He was the prince, and I was the fool.

He’d have worn a crown with distinction, someone even my sisters would’ve been proud to see come home.

I guess life just doesn’t work out, not like we dream it.

But I’m still here, Charlie.

Still cracking jokes, as though I hadn’t seen my allies cut apart, or the boy I’d kissed dead before I could even say goodbye.

Nah –

“Goodbye, Charlie. You fuck.” I stood up to salute the fading anthem. “Couldn’t even wait to get away from me, huh? All the boys I kiss, I swear.”

What he’d given me hadn’t been much, but that didn’t make it any less wonderful. A rainbow’s still a rainbow, no matter how many times it fades to oblivion.

“I think I’m… I’m gonna turn in. I’m bushed.” I spent most of the night with my eyes closed, pretending that the half-way point hadn’t just come and gone. And that I’d never thought it’d be me here, close enough to home I could taste the juniper in the wind.

---

“That bird keeps circling us.” I sat around our camp staring back at the mountain from where we’d been.

The afternoon sun had come in hot, and I wished I could drink the last of my water, even though I knew I had to start saving some of it. Just in case.

Shadows started to spin in circles overhead. I held out my hand to catch some of them, and marveled at how they moved in between my fingers.

Huh.

“Cor.” I looked up at the sky, now a darker black, growing in a swarm of birds overhead. “I uh. I don’t think they’re just looking for seed.”

I launched myself at my sword when the screeching started. A whole hoard of them started down, and I rose to meet them.

“Hey bird brains! Come at me.” I puffed out my chest and tried to channel whatever had burned through my body yesterday.

[cachimorro olentzero attacks the vraven with his sword]

v4cX_5ZUX|sword
[block]

accuracy day 6!

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[miss lol]sword·sword

[k!ah]

“COR-DEEL-YA.” My name echoes through the mountains, and I turn to see a grinning Cachi. Initially it took me back to see him look at me as though he was excited to see me. Who would have thought that farmer boy from 10 would ever look at me the way he was. I would have never guessed. And yet, here we was, rushing towards me, grinning from ear to ear and I felt my shoulder slump with relief, my lips pulling back to match his grin.

He had survived, I had no idea how, but he had, and I was glad, genuinely glad to have him by my side once again, his lips flapping in the breeze. We had come so far, Cachi and I. From the start I had been so hard on him, against our alliance from the moment Alpha had pitched it... Yet, now, I couldn't imagine getting through this without him. I relied on him more than I cared to think. And deep down I knew that it was a mistake to allow myself to bond with him, because in the end he would have to die for me to make it home... And just the thought made my heart ache.

As we walk, I glance over at him, smiling at he chatted, barely taking a moment to breathe. Yesterday, when faced with Mr silent, I had found myself missing Cachi endless talk, his stupid commentary on every silly thing that we did. "Then, then – he comes at us both crossways, cuts me deep across the shoulder, and I – get this, get this! When I cut forward I turned, and he took a step and the sword, I don’t know, I just sort of – uuurg – right into the fucker’s neck til it came out clear the other side. You wouldn’t even imagine how much blood…”

Wait, what?

Did Cachi just say that he killed someone? Stabbing them through the neck in a way that was conveniently the same way that Alpha had died. I look at him with doubt, raising my brows, "so, your saying, that today you managed to slit someones throat with ease... And yet yesterday, you could barely hit a target? Cachi- come on, be honest with me. You don't need to lie." I give him a long look, before flicking my hair over my shoulder, looking at him with half a grin, "I can't even imagine you killing someone... You're as useless with thats sword as Alpha was dodging that spear." Harsh, but true.

“You know, I just wanted to say, you don’t have anything to worry about. With me. I mean, even if I’m the one putting up numbers for the alliance at this point…” He continues, and I almost laugh- I might have, but the last words to slip from his lips have my stomach tying itself into tight knots. I had not mentioned what had happened today, the fight that had taken place, and the life I had taken. Partially because he had barely given me a chance to speak... But mostly because I was scared how he would react to the truth.

So I stayed silent, forcing myself to smile and giving his hair a quick ruffle, "wow, thanks, I feel so much safer already."

And then the anthem is blaring, faces appearing in the sky. Charlies is the last to appear, his name and district beneath his photo confirming my suspicions. From the corner of my gaze I notice Cachi's reaction. I notice the way his face falls, momentarily forgetting the mask he wore so closely. Fuck, I couldn't tell him, I wouldn't. When the anthem ends he says goodnight, and I am left staring at the sky, at the space that had been Charlies face, the face of the boy I had murdered.

---

Cachi watches the sky, pouting at the birds that circled us from above. “Cor. I uh. I don’t think they’re just looking for seed," he says suddenly and I roll over from my position underneath a tree, watching as the shadows turn into mutts. Another fucking pack. Instantly Cachi is on his feet, running at the mutts with his sword raised above his head. Of course Mr Killer misses.

"Killer moves, tribute slayer."

Instinctively I reach for my own sword, but at the last moment opt for the spike mace I had taken from Charlie, it was time to smash the shit outta some poultry.

[ Cordelia attacks mutt ]
eHvg2SLnylspiked blunt
[ 6.5 damage ]

spiked blunt

[Baby Wessex d9b [earthling]]

VRAVENS

The currents had changed yesterday from something predictable to something sinister.

The bonded pair of vravens didn't much mind the weather. When it rained they preened in their twig nest. When it was sunny and still they road the hot currents aloft, reaching for the clouds. And when it was windy they spread their wings wide and circumnavigated the entire arena. Always, they went in search of prey. They fed one another wings of grouse and guts of rodents. It sustained them. But what they really wanted was to feast.

They'd been watching for six days now. Waiting. The prey grew thinner, sicker, more deranged. And then Malestrom took flight and they, the bonded pair, dove into their nest and hid. But even they could not hide from the pulsing purple corruption. It stained the edges of their feathers and turned their beaks black.

When they emerged the next morning they felt have starved and half delirious. The corrupted breeze bandied them back and forth, tossing them mericlessly about. They tried to circle but instead drew ovals and stars and criss-cross messes in the sky. Still, they stalked. Still, they hunted.

“Hey bird brains! Come at me."

With a screech, they were only too happy to oblige.

"Killer moves, tribute slayer."

The vravens snickered and cawed.

[Vravens attack Cachimorro; talons (knife)]

uEL6dcAf6nknife

[Deep Gash on Stomach -- 9.0 damage]

&

[Vravens attack Cordelia; talons (knife)]

knife

[Stabbed in Back -- 9.0 damage]

knife·knife

[marguerite harvard d2a (zori)]

*

Taunting the mutts was pretty up there with ‘things that in hindsight probably hadn’t helped the situation.’

Then again, I found my footing most often in the places where I wasn’t supposed to step, and having not failed me yet, I’d be damned if I weren’t going that same direction.

“Oh damn, that ain’t good.”

My sword managed to miss not one, but both birds, and I’d left my undercarriage wide open for their assault. I’d stumbled back when the razor’s of one and the beak of another found my stomach and laid through my flesh. Reminded me of the buzzards that stalked farms during the drought. Birds that got one whiff of carrion and made it their life’s ambition to pick the bones clean.

“No bones about it,” I held a hand to my stomach and stared with one open eye as they circled Cordelia, “Looks like we’re plucked. Heh.”

You had to hand it to Cordelia though. She was a lot of things – arrogant, a narcissist, unpleasant, fat headed, she snored too loud, probably had a host of trauma she was holding onto, an unmitigated disaster of a human being when it came to real emotions – but she was not, in fact, one to miss when it counted.

“Hell yeah bitch!” I shouted over the caws of the oversized feather fucks.

We still had each other’s backs, didn’t we? I mean, she didn’t have to at this point. There were only ten of us left, which meant it couldn’t be a more than a few more sunrises before one of us managed to haul ourselves out of this hellhole. She could’ve left me for dead, or even helped finish what the birds couldn’t, but here we were, a career and chucklehead side by side.

Don’t get it twisted, though. I bet she still found it a numbers game, or the backup of another set of hands to take on the mutts rather than some well-worn loyalty to one another.

“Okay, why don’t we try this again.” I rolled my neck and gripped my sword with both hands.

What sort of flow had I gotten into yesterday that got that boy killed? Where was that fever, the anger that pulsed through my whole body, ready to boil my blood and throw out any last sense of sorrow?

“Stupid fucking birds. I hate you birds!” I snapped shifting one foot over the other as I watched them circle. “I hate you! You hear me? You got that, tweedled dee and dumb?”

I thought about my sisters watching me at home, Xavier, and all the boys that thought wrote my sorry ass off as soon as I’d gotten on the train. Of how I wasn’t ready to join my mom or dad just yet. I had business to finish.

And I thought of Charlie, how he had the fucking nerve to leave without even saying goodbye.

Wasn’t that just like a man to get a taste and turn into a literal ghost.

“I hate you!” It felt good repeating, and I did my best fuck-you-up snarl. I hopped forward, reaching into the pit of my chest, “HRRRRRNG!”

[cachimorro oltenzero d10a attacks the vravens with his sword, with feeling]

yyW6jhdorCsword
[+4.5]sword

[k!ah]

so sorry to filler, very busy today, will fill in tonight

[ Cordelia attacks mutt ]
o_kSQ7CBVhspiked blunt
[ 8.5 ]

spiked blunt

[Baby Wessex d9b [earthling]]

VRAVENS

“I hate you! You hear me? You got that, tweedled dee and dumb?”

The screech that followed soundly distinctly like, "we do not much care for you either." Up they swept racing away from the flashing blades. But they weren't quite fast enough. A knick here, a deeper cut there. One of the vravens spun wildly when Cordelia connected with its wing. It drew in a great gulp of air and held it, flying high and away.

At the peak of their ascent, the vraven CAWED with a mighty bellow, and dropped like a rock on top of the tributes.

[Vravens attack Cachimorro; talons (knife)]

0t1EfA0cvbknife

[Miss -- 0.0 damage]

&

[Vravens attack Cordelia; talons (knife)]

knife

[Deep Gash on Left Thigh -- 8.0 damage]

knife·knife

[marguerite harvard d2a (zori)]

*

I let out a howl when Cor sliced into one of the birds. Though it was going to burst open from the feathers that scattered, but it managed to correct and get a gust under its wings.

“We got this, you hear me?” I spat out across the grass and wiped a hand underneath my chin. We’d gotten busted up in the bloodbath, cut apart by mutts, lost both allies and somehow managed to survive whatever the hell yesterday was, and we were still in this thing.

And personally, I’d never been the type to want to hang out in the low, low – too many people let the serious shit grind them into the dirt. No one could ever accuse me of being serious, and while I wasn’t going to fuck around with these overgrown ravens (I know some things about birds, okay?) it didn’t mean I couldn’t find the hype.

Especially after they came diving back down again like a pair of bombers.

I turned by back and pitched into a run. Their shadows cast long over me, the angle closer and closer, until when it was just about to disappear, I threw myself to the side. They went long and their talons met air, and I couldn’t help but laugh my ass off as I tumbled across the grass. Growing up around roosters and cows, you could tell how and where an animal was going if you just took the time to see the little things, like the angle of their shadows.

Cor wasn’t lucky enough to duck and weave. I grimaced as they laced into her again.

“You really like to get rocked by mutts, don’t you Cor. What is that, some kind of weird fetish?” Come on, find that anger.

If there was one other talent that I had, it was making Cordelia blow a gasket. One, from what she thought was my utter contempt for taking the world around me seriously, and two, from poking the bear. But you haven’t seen fury like Cor when she’s pushed too far. And that was the Cordelia I needed right now, one that wasn’t going to get rocked at every fucking turn, even if she kept hitting them back just as hard.

“Yo, y’all are gonna taste real good over an open flame, you know that?!” I shouted back up at them, sword raised, sights set on slicing both of them in half. Yeah. We could get someone to sponsor us a set of bricks, some foil, lighter fluid, and I’d introduce the girl from one to a real cook out.

I started off in a run toward the corvids and took a deep breath.

“Let’s carve these assholes up, Cor!” Anger could be good, especially when it was them or us.

“HRAAAAAAAH!”


[cachimorro oltenzero d10a attacks the vravens with his sword, with feeling]

D2RHw5SQF4sword
[+3.5]sword

[k!ah]

My body was breaking.

Fresh stitches ripped open as the mutts claws become buried into my back. I scream in pain, my eyes brimming with tears, and I could have sworn I heard the mutts snicker at my distress. It was infuriating, and rage flashes through me, blinding and hot and I rip my myself from the mutts claws as it tries to take off with me in its grasps. Growling I fling my bat at it, watching with satisfaction as it tears through one of its wings, drops of blood raining down as it desperately tried to escape my reach. "Thats right, fucking run you brainless coward!"

It did not like that.

Not one bit.

"Shit," I mutter, my body too slow, unable to avoid the beast as it strikes at my upper leg, once again ripping open the stitches that I had carefully placed only a day ago. "Mother fucker!" I howl, one hand trembling as it instinctively moves to protect the reopened gash. Each day my body was forced to carry a new scar, gruesome and twisted, they littered my body as a constant reminder of the things that I have done, will continue to do in my fight to survive.

“You really like to get rocked by mutts, don’t you Cor. What is that, some kind of weird fetish?” Cachi words push through the pain, and when I turn to him I am reminded that his face is free from scars. It seemed to be me who took the brunt of the attacks, my blood staining my white shirt crimson. My face was too pretty to be scared like a fucking delinquent. And yet it was, he had barely a graze. It was so bloody annoying.

"Get your head in the game, Tribute slayer. Or do you like it when I carry the team?" I say as I dodge an incoming attack, my heart in my throat as its beak misses my neck by the width of a hair. That was close.

Panting, I watch as Cachi advances once again, a cry on his lips as he throws all his weight behinds attack.

Though its not enough.

His blade barely provoking a thin like of blood and a few ruffled feathers.

"Dude, are you sure you killed someone yesterday? Cause I am have a really hard time believing it."

[ Cordelia attacks mutt ]
gnA_SrEBMWspiked blunt
[ BROKEN RIGHT KNEE -- 7.0 ]

spiked blunt

[Baby Wessex d9b [earthling]]

VRAVENS

With feeling.

And they feel it, the pair of vravens. Every swipe, no matter how small, tarnishes their feathers. It's harder to get aloft, to fly away. But still their bellies growl. Hunger is not so easily tamed. Instead of climbing sky high they now circle just out of reach. They snap their beaks and click their talons. Maybe it's the sound that draws her. Almost impossibly one of the tributes strikes out and breaks the leg of a vraven.

It sings a hideous song and snaps back.

[Vravens attack Cachimorro; talons (knife)]

hKKJuM_LgGknife

[Deep Gash on Right Calf -- 8.0 damage]

&

[Vravens attack Cordelia; talons (knife)]

knife

[Shallow Cut on Back -- 4.0 damage]

knife·knife

[marguerite harvard d2a (zori)]

*

“I already told you, I killed that kid from five. He got it right through the damn neck!”
The birds took the opportunity to sail in and land another clean blow across my leg, which – ouch? They didn’t even wait to see the blood pouring down my leg. Another set of caws that sounded suspiciously like they were laughing at us.

She just couldn’t believe that when it came to fighting for my life against a real person that I’d deliver. And to be fair, every time we’d been up against people or mutts I hadn’t exactly shown any sort of prowess. Was yesterday just a lucky shot? Had I, in fact, stumbled right into the poor kid’s throat while he’d been off balance? Maybe my face should’ve been glaring down through the anthem instead of his (though I feel like I’d probably have been cheesing in my picture. I don’t do a lot of doom and gloom looks).

But lucky or not, I was still here, and he wasn’t. It hadn’t been the other kid that’d done the deed, even though he sure acted sour enough about it. When it came to footnotes mine would at least have some remark about yesterday. As though that’s what really mattered here, kill count and days and whatever other stupid little measures they’d put together after we’d died.

My sisters wouldn’t be looking at any of that. Xavier wouldn’t either. But then we understand how to measure someone that’s close to us. Not in the few days we’re put through something traumatic but everything that came before (or god willing, after).

“Get it together…” I muttered under my breath and stared at the flagging birds.
I narrowed my eyes and pulled up my sword again.

“You think y’all aren’t gonna pay for that?” I wiggled my leg and glared up at them. Stupid birds. I let off into a hop, skip, jump and stab at them with as much might as I could muster.
“HRRRG!”

[cachimorro olentzero d10a takes a huge swing at the ravens with his sword]

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