Blue Belittled

[Kire]

Chapter 16

I shook myself awake, horrified to find I had drifted asleep. Iro, beside me, was still resting. I saw no one had come along in the middle of the night and taken our stuff, let alone slit our throats.

I rolled over and was about to get out when I heard Iro's voice, sounding stronger than it had last night. I sighed quietly in relief. It wasn't as bad as I had thought. "Ki... M-morning."

I couldn't help but smirk. It was just like Iro to strain himself in order to greet me. I looked at him and placed a kiss on his forehead, which had cooled from what it was before. Another weight off of my shoulders. "Morning sleepy."

I put a hand to the side of his face, and then got up. "When was the last time you ate anything?" Iro just stared at me, blinking as though he was trying to remember. I dug out the fish and the rabbit and dragged him, still in the sleeping bags, to the tree so he could lean against that. I handed him the strips of rabbit. "Here, eat this." He didn't move, still too tired to really do anything. I gave him a gentle smile and held out the morsel for him to eat.

He bit into it and chewed it slowly, tired muscles working to move his jaw. I gave him his half of the rabbit, and was about to start giving him some of the fish when he protested. "You have to eat too." His voice was hoarse, but he was growing stronger every moment.

I kissed him on the lips, lingering for a moment before whispering. "Don't worry about me, I have food too." I pulled it out of my pack and ate a strip of rabbit, to convince him. "See, I'm fine."

He nodded, and I went back to feeding him. I had a feeling he actually could feed himself now, but I didn't bother telling him that. I didn't mind feeding him. Then I brought up the rule change. "Did you hear the announcement?" He nodded, a small smile touching his lips, I smiled too and took his hand. "We can get through this together." I kissed his cheek.

He lightly pulled me close and kissed me again. I fell into the kiss, not wanting to break away and return to the Games. With him I was safe; with him I was somewhere where I didn't have to worry. "I love you." I whispered, meaning it with every piece of my heart.

"I love you too Ki." He stroked the back of my hand with his fingers. Looking down before meeting my gaze with his soot-gray eyes. My breath caught in my throat and I leaned against the trunk beside him. He put an arm around me and pulled me so I leaned against him. I sighed, my heart filled with a misplaced joy as I gazed at the area around us.

I managed to get the half of the fish in him, and some more of the fever herbs. He fell asleep and I lay him down before getting my bow and walking to a near-by pool. I was close enough that I could see and shoot anyone who approached. Checking the pool, I was relieved to find about eight or nine fish living there. I caught three, all with the same arrow, and returned to where Iro lay asleep.

Starting a fire, which was easier this time, I put the fish on spits and left them to cook. I went back to the pool and filled our heavily deleted water supply, treating it with iodine drops and letting it sit. I ate a few of the berries that were in the packs, and went back to check the fish and Iro.

Iro had woken up, I guess from the smell of the fire, and was glancing around as I came back. A look of relief crossed his face as he saw me. I guess he had been worried when he saw I wasn't there. I held up the water jugs in answer.

"Are you thirsty?" I ask, coming to sit beside him as he sat up.

"A little." His throat sounded dry, so I passed him the water. He drank it, emptying almost half of the jug. I drank from the same jug, then put the lids on both of them and put them away.

It was only as I looked over our supplies that I remembered something. "What happened to your sword?" It was his first major weapon, and now it was gone. The thought worried me, but I just hope it was gone for good.

Iro raises an eyebrow at me. "You don't remember?" I stared at him, blinking. He muttered to himself as he remembered, "Oh, that's right you were unconscious." He looked at me, a grimace on his lips. "I lost it when we had to run from the firestorm. I suppose it was melted, but there's no way to be sure."

As if in answer, trumpets sounded. I made a face, two important announcements within a few hours, must be a new record. "Attention tributes. I would like to welcome you all to a feast, located at the Cornucopia." I snorted and shook my head, what was the point in going; we had plenty of food here. "You may be shaking your heads at me, but listen up. Along with food, there will be lost weapons and something you can't go without. It will be in a pack marked with you district's number. Remember, it's at the Cornucopia at noon. Good luck to you all." And it cut out.

I raised a sceptical eyebrow, oh, so now they're going to bribe me into getting myself killed? I don't think so. I looked at Iro and was surprised to see he was considering. "You know Ki, you should go to that." I blinked at him, confused as to why he said 'you' and not 'we'. He saw my look and answered it. "I'll stay to the sidelines, because I'm not quite steady on my feet, and so I valiantly save you in case of need."

My gaze slipped into a smile and I giggled. "Oh, so you're valiant are you?" I gave him a flirtatious look. "News to me."

He grimaced and gave me a shove before the smile took over his face. "No really, I think you should. There might be arrows there, and a sword. We could use them. Plus, whatever the item is that they're talking about, it would be nice to have."

I sighed, then shrugged and nodded. "I suppose it's worth a try." Iro gave me a smile, I pulled the fish from the fire and handed him one, taking one for myself and cutting the other one into strips, which I smoked. "Now, eat, I want your strength up before you attempt a valiant rescue." I grinned at him. He gave me a flat look before smirking and digging in to his fish. We had another hour or two before noon, but I thought it would be best if we got set up before then.

We packed up and made our way to the Cornucopia, trying to seek out a good place to set up our watch. Finding a thick bush by two trees, we set up a small camp, setting it up so Iro would be able to run if he needed to, or he would be able to get to me quickly if I needed help. With that done, I waited until it was almost noon, and then fitted one of my precious arrows to the string. I just hopped I would find more arrows; I didn't think seven arrows would be enough, even if I was careful.

I watched the Cornucopia, standing up as I saw the table rise from beneath it. I swept the area with my eyes before I ran to the table, spotting a pack with the number twelve on it, sitting on top of a bundle of arrows and a sword. Grinning to myself I sprinted over to it.

Putting my back to the table as I reached it, I turned to see if there were pursuers. I saw the two tributes from nine, the girl running to the table while the boy ran too, his knife drawn and eyes on me. I lifted my bow, drew the string back, aimed and loosed. The arrow sailed directly into his chest; he didn't have enough time to gasp before he fell, violently shaking. The cannon to signal his death went off.

The girl yelled, and looked back, before turning around and continuing to the table, scared to look at me. I didn't bother shooting her; she hadn't given me reason to. I grabbed the pack and shouldered it, slinging the sword over my other shoulder and grabbing the bundle of arrows in my open hand. With one last look around I ran back to our hiding spot, ducking down beside Iro and handing him the sword. I placed the extra arrows in my quiver, now I had twelve. I took a look at our pack, it was of medium size and it was green. I was about to open it when I heard a scream. I stuck my head above the bush to see the girl from nine clutched in the broad shouldered boy's grip. He glared at her, and then shook her aggressively. "Where's my pack? What did you do with my pack?" The girl whimpered, it sounded like she was denying knowledge of his pack. My mind flashed and I remembered knocking a pack off of the table when I drew back the string to shoot the boy from nine. I grimaced, but didn't do anything.

Turning back to Iro I gestured to the pack, then nodded to the direction we had come from. He nodded and we got up silently, walking back the way we came. After a few moments we heard a cannon shot and I knew the girl from nine was dead.

We decided to stop, there was no point continuing to run away if we only had one opponent. The Gamemakers would drive us together again. Instead, we sat down and opened the pack. Inside we found gloves without fingers, a wrist guard, night vision glasses and a sharpening tool. We each put on a pair of gloves, I got the wrist guard and we stowed the night vision glasses and sharpening tool for later. Discarding the pack, we headed for a tree.

"We may as well sleep now, if we can. Save our strength until we face off against the boy from one." Iro had a good sense of logic, and I followed it, finding an open tree and climbing it. We didn't have to worry about the broad shouldered boy; I would bet he couldn't climb trees. We went up to about thirty feet before settling in. There were two branches that were really close to one another, so we set up the larger sleeping bag there. I just hoped we wouldn't fall out of the tree. It would be fitting for our last opponent to win because we fell and broke our necks. We tucked under the edge of the bag, trying to block out the daylight as best we could. I slid over to lay beside Iro, pressing my back to him. I felt him turn over and wrap his arms around me, pulling me close. Shutting my eyes, I willed myself to fall asleep, which wasn't hard. I still hadn't gotten enough sleep to make up for the two days I had spent searching for Iro.

I drifted off, only aware of Iro's breathing and the sound of his heart as I fell asleep.

[Kire]

Chapter 17

When we woke it was late evening, and I judged that the deaths of the day would be shown any time now. Sure enough, after a few minutes the sky lit up with the Capitol's symbol. Panem's anthem played and then the faces of the boy and girl from nine flashed in the sky. We still had to find the broad shouldered boy, or wait until he found us.

Stretching, Iro got up and organized his sword and pack, putting the sleeping bag back in it. I slid my quiver and pack over my shoulder, grabbing my bow as I donned the wrist guard and gloves. Iro had put in his gloves as well, and he looked at me as we were about to leave.

"From the looks of it, if we want this over with we're going to have to chase him, I doubt he's going to try and attack us. It would be two against one, and he's smarter than that." His eyes were hard, I knew he hate to hunt down this guy we didn't even know, but it had to be done. If we ever wanted to leave, it had to be done.

I nodded, a cold sensation in my heart. "I know." We're going to have to hunt him down, and shoot him like a deer. I hate it, and you hate it, but we have to do it. I wished I could tell him that, but all of Panem was watching, and I couldn't give them any hint that we hunted at home, I'm sure it didn't matter anymore, but you never know.

The look in Iro's eyes showed me that he understood what I thought, even if he didn't hear it aloud. "Alright, let's get this over with." He pulled out his pair of night vision glasses, and I took out my pair. Putting them on, we climbed down the tree.

Now that I thought about it, I knew that the Gamemakers had intended us to hunt down the boy from District one when they gave us this pack, and probably the two from nine as well, but they had been killed so all that stood in our way was the boy from District one.

That means he must have gear that enables him to hide. Things that will make it hard to track him, that may stump us while our prey makes its escape. I shuddered, that was a sickening thought, to think of someone as 'our prey'.

I didn't bother putting an arrow to the string, knowing it would be a while until we found and caught up to the broad shouldered boy. I gestured towards the Cornucopia; we should start there, as the last known location of the boy. I inwardly shook my head, maybe I should just refer to him as 'our prey' after all, and then it might not be so hard to take him down. Just pretend he was a deer. I grimaced, and Iro gave me an understanding look, before making my way to the golden statue.

Finding the tracks at the Cornucopia were easy, we just had to find the blood stain left from where he had murdered the girl from District nine before following the deep tracks to the table. From there, the tracks grew shallower and shallower. Over the course of the three days since the tsunami the combination of the Gamemakers drying the grass, as well as natural evaporation, caused the ground to become extremely dry and even cracked in some places. They had left some of the pools, but the shallowest ones had evaporated. Dead fish and other animals we strewn around, beginning to decompose. Since the smell was everywhere, and had grown subtly, I didn't even notice it.

I ignored the constant presence of dead animals and focused on tracking, which was getting more and more difficult as we went on. Now we only had a clue when there was a flipped rock, or a broken twig, or if we were lucky; scuffs in the dirt or a foot print. This was going to be harder than we thought.

Exchanging a look with Iro, we broke out into our slowest hunter's jog. It was just enough faster than walking to be worthwhile, and just enough slower than a jog to allow or us to see any marks that had been made on the environment.

Slowly, the tracks grew further and further apart, until we couldn't see any anymore. Grumbling, we returned to walking, frustrated about losing the trail. "How are we supposed to track and kill him if we can't see his trail?" It was Iro who asked the question out loud, but we were both thinking it.

"Maybe we should think about where he would have to go, rather than where he's been. If we know he'll run out of water, or food, we need to find where he will go to get it." Iro nodded, it seemed he agreed with my plan.

"Right well, if you were him, where you go?" His eyes were on me, no doubt thinking about his own question so he could compare his answer to mine.

I paused to think about it, what would I do if I was alone against two people who were going to hunt me down? I would get the hell away from them and find a way to get them off my trail. Now, where would I go? I would go the furthest distance from them as I could... I would throw them off the trail by making a fake one and going the other way. "Iro, we have to turn around and go the other way. He isn't even going this way, all of these trail marks aren't his."

Iro nods, he came to the same conclusion, and we turn around. "I should have expected as much," he mutters, "He's not stupid, in fact he's quite smart. We should have thought of this earlier."

I put a hand on his arm. "It's alright, we'll find him eventually." I looked into his soot-gray eyes and saw the pain in them. He really hated this, but we had to do this. We had to do this if we ever wanted to get out of this place, this hell-hole.

He saw my thoughts in my eyes; he must have because he pulled me close and whispered in my ear, "I know. And I'm glad I have you to do it with me." I hugged him back, still wary of being attacked but deeply touched that he would say such a thing. He was treating me like a support, and wasn't that what I wanted to be for him, wasn't that what I was for him this whole time? I buried my face in his shoulder, not saying a word. Slowly he eased away and we began to move again, back towards the cornucopia.

Reaching the golden statue once more, we searched for tracks going in the opposite direction. It took a few minutes, but then we found them, heading in as opposite of a direction as you could get. We followed them, and this time it was easier to follow. There were lots of scuffs in the dirt, and flipped rocks. They eased off the further we got from the golden statue, but they were still clear enough to track by. We kept going even as pale streaks began to mark the sky. Eventually it became too light to use the night vision glasses and we stowed them in our packs.

As we tracked the boy, my mind wandered. How much longer will they let this go on? How long will it take for the Capitol citizens to get bored of watching us follow a trail they can't see? I also wondered about the muttations that were present in most Games, they hadn't been introduced yet, which was odd. Generally they were let loose at about this time. Then my mind gave me gruesome images of what we would have to deal with, wolves the size of bears with red lights for eyes and razor blade teeth. Lions that had a snake for a tail, bat wings, and the head of a goat and a large lizard on either shoulder. Dogs that had three heads and lizard tails. I shook my head, there was no point worrying about it, if it was going to happen, and it was going to happen. Nothing I could do was going to stop it. Shows how caring the Gamemakers are.

At one point, I caught a flash of white through the trees, and went after it, only to find that it was a piece of fabric caught on a branch. Remembering how clever our opponent was, I picked up the fabric but went in the other direction. He probably wanted to throw us off trail.

Sure enough, it was like we thought. He must've gotten careless after trying to throw us off again, because now the footsteps were deep and there were telltale signs everywhere. The tracks were recent too, which sent us into a quick jog. I put an arrow to the string as we moved, an easy feat after all of the times I had practiced it at home. We came across a line of footprints and our pace increased until we were almost running, our steps as quiet as if we didn't even touch the ground. A hunter's stealth and speed was our best friend right now. I heard the crunch and snap of twigs and the brush of cloth as our prey crashed through the underbrush.

And then there he was, rushing through the forest, torn and tattered clothes on his back. His head was bowed as he charged through branches, a hand in front of his face to protect it from the whipping twigs.

I drew my bow and took aim, still tailing him. I judged for distance and speed, pulling the string to its fullest extent. Then I loosed.

And a there was an in-human scream as a giant bird dropped to land not ten feet in front of us, my arrow in its breast.

[Kire]

Chapter 18

I stared at the dead creature at my feet, shocked into silence. I hadn't heard it as it approached, and hadn't seen it when I aimed. It must have been quick, or I had been paying a very poor amount of attention to my surroundings.

It took me a moment to realize that it wasn't any normal bird, and I wondered how it could have taken me that long to notice. The evidence was plain. It had the body, wings and head of an eagle, but it had a lizard's tail, and its legs had more scales on them. The hooked beak on its face had serrations on the edges and a forked tongue lolled from between it. It struck me, this is a muttation. It's so strange... a lizard and an eagle. What a horrid combination. Then I saw it's eyes. Leaf-green.

"Iro," I whispered, stunned, "It's the leaf-eyed girl from district two!" In shock I stayed frozen, until a screech woke me from my startled trance. Turning, I saw near twenty more of those bird things flying at us. I drew and knocked an arrow, picking my target and loosing as I yelled to Iro, "Hurry, we have to kill them!"

The bird I had chosen fell to the earth with a sickening thud. Iro drew his sword and waited until the birds came close, watching and anticipating carefully. I saw two of the bird-lizards fly in pursuit of the broad shouldered boy. Maybe they'll kill him. Or even if he kills them, at least we will have less to face later.

I loosed three more arrows, and three more bird-lizards fell to earth. I couldn't risk missing a shot, I didn't have enough arrows as it was. In fact, I only had seven and there were fourteen more mutts. I might be able to retrieve my arrows after, but I would have to resort to throwing my knives and hoping Iro could deal with the others. As I loosed two more arrows, I saw Iro take one of his throwing knives from his belt and take aim, once the two birds I had shot had fallen, he threw. A gargled scream came from one of the bird-things as it tried to claw out the knife in its neck. It dropped, as did the one I had picked as my next target. I saw one knife, and then another lodge themselves in the mutts, both victims dropped. I killed two more before Iro's last knife hurtled at one of the six remaining mutts. It dropped and I saw Iro hold his sword in two hands once more. I shot down two more of the birds before I was out of arrows. They had made it to us at that point, and Iro swung the blade of his sword in a wide arc, slicing off the head of one of the three remaining beasts, and the wing of another. Them he turned to face the final mutt as I drew one of my hunting knives and launched myself at the bird-lizard with the one wing.

Raising my arm, I brought it down with as much force as I could muster, landing on the bird-lizard heavily as my knife sank deep into its breast. I felt a terrible pain in my left shoulder as I did, and turned to see the thing had bitten my shoulder and a thick stream of blood was flowing from under it's beak. Slowly, I got up, taking care to extract my shoulder from the creatures bite and avoid putting any weight on my left arm. I managed to stand, though very unsteadily. I watched as Iro cleaved the last bird-thing in half, and then silence fell as the two halves of the creature hit the ground. First one side, then the other.

I gazed at the scene before me, wincing as my shoulder throbbed. The area around us was coated in blood, feathers and the bodies of the mutts. Iro made his way over to me, stopping to sheath his sword and retrieve a couple of his throwing daggers. His eyes were full of concern and his face paled as he saw the extent of my shoulder wound.

Biting my lip, I turned to try and look at my shoulder. What I did manage to get a glimpse of was blood-soaked edges of ripped fabric, underneath which dripped blood. I shuddered, causing me to wince from the pain.

Iro came up to me with some bandages, and just as he was about to wrap my wound... WOOSH. No. Please no, don't make us run now. I turned to look at the source of the noise and saw a fallen log had caught fire.

For a moment I thought it might not spread, but soon sparks jumped from the wood and more trees caught fire. Growling in pain, I attempted to retrieve at least one arrow from the body of the nearest mutt, but Iro grabbed my good arm and dragged me away, grabbing his pack as he went.

I gave up fighting him and just ran, out towards open land and the lake. If we could just reach it in time... My shoulder throbbed with each step, and the increase in my heart rate caused blood to start spilling heavily from my wound. I clenched my jaw and kept running, becoming nervous as my arm began to go numb.

It felt like we ran for hours, though it was probably only minutes. Finally, we reached the open area around the lake, and I froze as I spotted the broad shouldered boy. He was a little ways down the lakeshore from us, and he seemed to be fighting to catch his breath. Behind him, fire raged, sending pillars of thick smoke into the air. Even the air in this clear area was beginning to thicken with smoke, giving the surface of the lake a hazy appearance.

I looked at Iro, who gave me a soft look, which hardened as he gave me a nod. He drew his sword and turned to face our last opponent. This is it, I thought, it all comes down to this. If Iro loses, I'm dead too.

The broad shouldered boy drew his own sword and the two boys faced off, assessing each other and gaging manners of attack. They made their way towards one another, taking slow, deliberate steps. Eventually, they were about ten feet apart, eyes locked like they were having a mental battle.

Iro stuck first, launching forward as if to stab the other boy in the gut, then swiping at his left arm. He managed to give him a long gash down his arm, which immediately began to bleed heavily.

I was watching as the broad shouldered boy went to retaliate, swinging his sword towards Iro's legs, when I was hit by a heavy wave of dizziness. I looked at my shoulder, and was dismayed to see that my whole arm was beginning to pale, probably my whole body. I opened my mouth to call to Iro, but my words died on my tongue as I had to fight the urge to vomit. This was bad, this was really bad. I was losing more blood than I thought.

Down the lakeshore, the boys continued to fight. Iro had successfully wounded the other boy on his right thigh and given him a deep wound in the gut. In return, he had received a slash to the back of his calve and blood dripped from his left shoulder. It seemed that Iro had the least grievous wounds. Maybe he could win this after all.

The broad shouldered boy lunged and swung his sword in a huge arc, aiming to behead Iro. I watched in horror as the blade came closer, and then sighed in relief as the sound of metal on metal rang from where they stood. Then there was a grunt and I saw the broad shouldered boy fall to the ground. It seemed that Iro had kicked his bad leg from under him.

As he fell, he sprawled on his back. Iro took the opportunity to swing his sword in a graceful arc and plunge it into the other boy's chest.

And with that, the other boy, the last career, our final opponent, our biggest threat, was dead. The canon boomed to announce his demise. At last, we could leave. A small smile touched my lips at the thought. We could leave.

[Kire]

Chapter 19

But nothing happened. Nothing left, except the blood from our bodies, turning the ground red under our feet. My knees gave out as I saw the worryingly large pool of blood beneath my feet. Iro turned to me at that moment, and the horror I saw in his face drove me to stay conscious. If I fell asleep now, I wouldn't wake up.

I looked up at Iro, my strength waning. He just looked at me with utter horror and pain in his eyes. We both knew what had to happen. One of us would have to kill the other, there could only be one victor.

As if to confirm our terrors, the trumpets sounded. "Attention tributes. Congratulations for making the final two. Unfortunately, the rules have been discussed and are required to be reverted to their original state. Thus, there can only be one winner. Good luck tributes, and may the odds ever be in your favor."

I closed my eyes and let out a heavy, submissive sigh. Opening them, I held my knife up to Iro. It was hilt first, unmistakably a sign for him to take it. "Do it." I whispered. "I won't survive anyways. You're stronger, you deserve to live more." My hand wavered from the effort, but Iro didn't take the knife. I forced my voice louder. "Do it." I growled the words, thrusting the knife at him, wasting more precious energy. If Iro didn't do something soon I would be dead in a few minutes anyway.

Iro shook his head, but took the knife. He looked at me and raised the knife. I nodded and dropped my hand, leaving my chest and neck open for him to sink in the blade. For a moment, I thought might do it. I didn't know whether to be glad or disappointed.

Then I heard a small splash as the knife left Iro's hand. I stared at him in shock. As I gazed, he stripped himself of his weapons and threw them in the lake. He next removed my knives from my belt and threw them away as well. I just gaped open-mouthed as he did this. What is he doing! I thought. How is that going to solve anything? Is he going to kill me with his bare hands?

Walking over to the packs, he retrieved the bandages and returned to me. Gently, he wrapped my shoulder. I finally managed to shut my jaw. "Ki..." I looked deep into his eyes. "I don't care about getting out of here, I don't care about the games. I don't care about life. I'd give that all up as long as I don't have to see you die." My breath caught in my throat. He leaned close and whispered, so low so only I could hear it. "Only one victor. But there has to be one victor..." He kissed me so the audience wouldn't get suspicious. At least, I think that's why. But how sweetly he kissed me, surly this was more that just part of a ploy.

As long as it wasn't a good-bye kiss.

He drew away slowly, not wanting to end the momentary bliss. I didn't move, just watched him carefully. He gave the smallest flick of his eyes towards my belt, and I suddenly knew what he meant. He hadn't taken my toxic berry mix from my belt, and now we would use my momentary epiphinany to save both of our lives. I responded by acting as if I didn't know what I was doing and reaching to my belt with slow, smooth movements. I removed my deadly berry concoction, carefully placing the package between us and baring the contents by releasing the covering. Still relatively fresh, the berries were as deadly as ever. I reached out with one hand and grabbed Iro's right hand, turning it palm-up. With my other hand, I took a random grab of the pile and placed the resulting berries in the hand I still held. I was glad to see there was only one nightlock berry, which he could easily get rid of without too much suspicion. However, when I did a random draw for myself, I found a large ratio of the berries to be nightlock. I inwardly winced, but continued.

Pushing the rest of the berries towards the lake, I managed to 'accidentally' drop a few berries into the water. I was glad to see at least two of them were nightlock. I turned to Iro. "On three." He needed no explanation.

"One." I held my hand out, as did Iro. We only gazed into each other's eyes. This would take a great amount of care. One false move and we could both die.

"Two." I raised my hand a little, Iro mirroring my movements. Maybe they would stop us before we had to risk ourselves. If so, they should do it now. But nothing happened so...

"Three." Too late to turn back now. My eyes never left Iro's and I sent a mental thought to him, hoping he could see it in my eyes. I love you. His gaze didn't falter, even as both of us raised our hands to our mouths. I felt the first berry brush my lips as...

"Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to present our 99th Hunger Games victors, Kiar Fero and Iro Haemon!" The announcer's voice was full of undisguised panic. I spat the berries out and ran to the lake to wash my mouth and hands thoroughly. Iro did the same beside me. Then he pulled me close and kissed me again.

A beam of light fell down around us and we were transported to the inside of the hover ship. Hands grasped us and pulled us apart. I screamed and flailed, trying my best to get to Iro. I couldn't lose him to them now, not after what we had just done. "No! Don't take me away! Please!" But no matter what I did, they continued to drag me further from him. "Iro!"

He was shouting for me too, reaching out with a hand, eyes panicked. "Ki!" And then my world went dark. I heard Iro shout my name one more time, then the blackness swallowed me completely.

•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•

Blurry whiteness greeted my vision as I opened my eyes. I looked around, desperately searching for any sign of Iro. Seeing none, I tried to figure out where I was. My muddled brain couldn't make heads or tails of any of it.

I looked over to find needles sticking from my arms, and my shoulder wrapped tightly. I panicked, about to thrash and attempt to rip the tubes from my body. Just as I was about to, I was hit by a huge wave of blackness. And the dark sea dragged me under once again.

•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•

Slowly, I came awake. I opened my eyes to the same whiteness I had viewed before. This time, I found I wasn't as lightheaded as before, and my shoulder wasn't as painful. I turned to look, but I still had tubes stuck in me, a few less than the last time though. I saw my shoulder was bound lighter than the last time, and my many injuries from the games had been healed, only faint scars remaining to show they had even occurred.

I tried to get up, but the movement made the needles shift under my skin. I yelped at the pain and lay back down. A sudden sense of emptiness filled me as I thought of Iro, and wondered how he was fairing. I didn't have much time to think of him, because blackness crept at the edge of my mind. It rushed forwards and seized me again.

•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•

Blurry whiteness, a familiar sight by now. I blinked a few times as my vision cleared, sharper than it had been before. I turned my head to look at my shoulder and found no bandages and, even more astonishing, no scar. As a matter of fact, there were no scars anywhere on my body, no signs I had ever been in that blasted arena. My skin shone and my nails were perfect ovals.

I twisted and found there were no more tubes and no more needles. Sitting up, I saw there was a tray of food left for me. It wasn't anything special, from what I glimpsed it looked like gruel, but I quickly got up and grabbed the spoon beside it. Plunging the metal utensil into the mush, I scooped it out in a large heap and shoved it in my mouth. It had a horrendous texture, but the taste was alright, and I was starving.

When I had finished my grisly meal, a woman entered my room. It took me a moment to realize it was Tria, one of my prep crew, who had helped me to look absolutely gorgeous during both the opening ceremonies and the tribute interviews. "Kiar! You're awake, good!" Her voice was almost musical in her joy at the sight of me. I couldn't help but smile, it was nice to know she cared. Her gaze flicked to the empty bowl and she made a face. "I see they fed you slop, and you ate it."

I burst out laughing at her expression, I couldn't help it. When she scrunched up her nose and narrowed her eyes like that she looked like a displeased mouse. She gave me a cross look, which slowly changed to a goofy smile. "Well, let's go then. It's time Vinec saw you." Hearing my stylist's name made me brighten. I had missed him more than I would like to admit, but I now that I could see him again I was happy.

She handed me a shift, then led me out of the white box that I had been in, and down an equally blank hallway. Eventually we reached a more familiar area and entered a door to Vinec's study room. I'm not sure what the official name for it was, but it reminded me of my father's study, so that's what I refer to it as.

And there was Vinec, beaming at me as Tria ushered me inside. I ran to him and he opened his arms to embrace me in a tight hug. "Kiar, I have been waiting for so long to see you again." He looked me over with knowing eyes, examining me from head to toe. "You look well." He gave a nod. "And it seems they listened to me about not putting in the implants."

"Implants?" I squeaked. I bit my lip, it seemed my voice was rusty from not being used. I hated when my voice sounds off, especially when I'm surprised. It always sounds like I'm scared of whatever the surprise was.

Vinec just ignored the change in my tone and gave me a grim smile. "They wanted to make your bust larger, and, I believe, fill out your cheeks a bit as well." I could tell he hadn't liked the idea, and was grateful that he had stopped that from happening. I would rather be myself, not some falsified model to be shown about like a toy.

Vinec grunted, then made his way over to a dresser. Opening the door, he daintily selected one of the outfits and carried it over to me. It was an almost sheer pale blue-gray dress, the colour matching my eyes perfectly. There was a dark pearly-gray ribbon around the waist and the sleeves and base of the dress faded gently into black. I felt my jaw slacken as I stared at the marvel before me. "V-Vinec it's beautiful..." In my overwhelmed state it was all I could manage to say those words.

A bright sadness flashed in Vinec's eyes, as if he was so happy he was sad. It was slowly replaced by a hard look. "Kiar, before you go anywhere, before you even put on this dress. I need to tell you what the situation is." Something in his tone made my attention rivet to him. This was of deadly importance, I was sure.

After a pause, Vinec continued, "Your stunt with the berries was not taken lightly by the Capitol. The citizens saw it as an act of love, but the Gamemakers saw it as an act of rebellion. You are in grave danger. Whatever happens, you must give them every reason to think that you were just acting out of love