Risks [Reyes ~ Day Seven]

[Sunrise Rainier D2 // [Thundy]]

I will not! I won't go quiet!
Oh tell me that you won't, you won't go

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I feel like I've lost a part of myself as I hobble out of the tower, but for whatever reason I can't wipe that smile off of my face. Something has clicked somewhere in my brain, and now my chest feels as lighter. My legs are no less tired and the blood is still dripping from my wounds, but I'm alive. Ha! I stop just as I exit the tower and use my lone needle and thread to stitch up my wounds, but it won't be enough. I'll have to face tomorrow with all these cuts and bruises --

But my sponsors don't fail me. Another tiny parachute falls from the sky -- is this the last time? I've quite enjoyed these little gifts -- and I leap towards it, tearing it open to see a med kit, which I open up immediately. I gingerly pluck the needles and threads from the kit and use them to stitch up my wounds until I there's little use left in the supplies, then I stuff them away and fling my bag over my shoulder.

"Thanks for all of this," I say, lifting my head up so the cameras can see me smile. I'd be dead if not for my sponsors, and really I owe them my life. If only I can survive just one more day..

Trekking out into the sands, I don't see any other bits of sand flying up in the air except for what's stirred by my cleats, so there's nobody else around. It's just two of us left now, me and one other. The boom of Avon's cannon rings through the air as I leave the tower, and I smile. I can live because of her, I think as I twist her glaive's handle around in my hand. I could live through all of this.

With a shake of the head, I turn around and around, searching for any sign of movement. Nothing big, not really, but there's this sort of shape.. out in the distance. I walk forward a bit, but even then I can hardly make it out. Could just be a mound of sand, it blends so well. But I can't help myself. I press forward some more, step after step kicking up a bit of sand into the air. As I near the thing, it's clear it's not a tribute. The colors are too off -- it doesn't look like this odd uniform.

Stepping forward again, I see it resembles some sort of mutt. I stumble backward almost immediately, waiting for it to pounce at any second. This would be my death!

But it doesn't move. I wait one second, two, three, and nothing happens.

"Umm.. " I say, as if that will stir it from its slumber. But it doesn't move. Perhaps it wants me to move closer so it can attack? No, no. It would have attacked already. I don't understand. Why isn't it leaping at me? Such claws, too -- Ripred I hope it doesn't move.

Spotting something on the side of it's neck, I step forward and read the words written there for me.

Your ancestor knows me,
Grandfather shows me,
Though each man will fight me,
none wins.

Mountains ignore me,
But none can outscore me,
None know when infinite me
begins.

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This thing has been left here for me, from the Capitol. And they never, never waste a good mutt. And riddles are meant to be solved -- this is for me.

Crap.

Wrinkles? Baldness? I sit down in the sand next to the bizarre creature, rubbing my hands together. My ancestor? My Grandfather? They're both dead, so how would I know anything about them?

What do they both have in common?

And that's why I think wrinkles and baldness, at first, but then maybe my grandpa wasn't bald. Maybe they had full heads of hair when they died. God, I'm an idiot. Think, think, think. I don't know, they're old? But I don't say it aloud, because there's more to the riddle -- and men are different than mountains.

What can beat both men and mountains? Men I understand -- you get cranky and old after working for so many years, and then you die a bitter death with scorn for humanity still in your heart. Or perhaps that's just how I've imagined my death. God I'm a cynic.

Mountains.. mountains last forever. Of course, I've never really seen them up close, except for the tribute train heading towards the Capitol, when wonderful vistas were everywhere and all you could see where those hills. But it doesn't matter! I know nothing about mountains, except that they're tall and strong and unwavering.

But then.. even more unwavering than the mountains is the mysterious me. Whatever it is, it's infinite. This infinity is taunting me. Am I not like my ancestor and my grandfather, soon (or not so soon!) to be dead or worn from years of difficult life? I won't ever have infinity. So little.. time.. left..

The arena is a giant hourglass.

Perhaps it shouldn't be so obvious, and perhaps I'm wrong, but it doesn't matter. I'm an idiot and I don't have forever and this is my only answer.

"Time," I say, looking up at the glass encasing me.

They're taunting me.

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[Reyes uses his needle and thread for -10 damage, then receives a med kit and uses 1.5 needle and threads and then his first aid for -3 to bring his damage back down to 0]
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[aya]

Upon hearing the tribute's answer, the sphinx narrowed its eyes at the tribute, then leapt into the air on powerful wings, stirring up a cloud of blood red dust. It hovered there for a moment, claws poised, before it flew off, the riddle having been answered sufficiently.

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