Death Valley [LPG vs. 3 Honey Badgers/ Day 4]

[Deleted]

Cassie Radke

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I knew how Shadow felt now. That night in the maze where he had lain against me the entire night crying, I knew that pain, I understand why he cried. It hurt, it really did, but what good what it do to cry? He wouldn’t hold me, I didn’t want him to-- no that was my job. This whole area was cold, no matter how close we pulled ourselves together. I was almost hoping the cold would numb my body, that maybe it would take away the pain that seemed to be ruling me. I wanted relief for Shadow as well though, for his body was pressed against mine, his little hands covering the wound in his stomach, and I had no doubt in my mind he was in pain.

This was my third night in this place, and I was almost sure it was never going to pass. It seemed as though it would just be stuck there, and that everything we did from now on would be in the dark, almost as if we would be fighting more blindly than we already were. What chance did we have now?

If not being able to sleep was bad enough, it was even worse that just as you did fall into a light sleep, the sun began to crawl into the sky. Inch by inch it made its way up, coating the sky with colors that almost made you forget you might die today. It was one of the prettiest things—wait definitely the prettiest thing I had seen since I had been here. For the first time in days it almost felt right to smile. It almost felt right to just stand up and be excited about something other than another death. This was a real reason to be happy.

I looked over to Shadow, made sure he was still asleep, and stretched out. It felt good to be alive. That’s one thing I never thought I would—well think. But then again, I had never imagined getting stuck to an oversized ice cube either. Speaking of that thing, wasn’t it still in my bag? My bag was just out of arm’s reach, and after a display that could have mostly been avoided if I had just stood up and walked over, I pulled out what I had been looking for. Cassie, remind me again why you decided to bring that with you?

I remembered that song that I had been singing to Shadow as I had held him up to the sun as it rose. The words to it were now blurry, but the general idea still remained. It was incoherent anyway, what would the difference be now? I would have lifted Shadow again, but since he was hurt, I didn’t want to injure him anymore than he already was. I thought about it for a moment before looking around and my eyes falling on one object in particular. Cassie, you’ve got to be kidding me right now. I walked over and looked at it for a moment, and the disgust that was inside of me could probably be easily read on my face. I have got to get rid of that thing soon. That thing. That’s all I could refer to it as. But, as tradition must go, I picked it up and raised both eyes and tongue. Let’s hope this doesn’t attract anyone… or anything. “As ioyama baihi Baba.” The words, if you could even call them that, were incoherent and more like grunts or prehistoric noises. “Ihi uhm ioyama.” Loud and clear, and pretty sure that if I wasn’t a laughing stock yesterday, I was now. If Shadow didn’t wake up soon I was done with this and going back to sleep. “Ioyama.” That was it, I was done with that stupid song, and if Shadow by some strange chance hadn’t woken up, I would just go over and wake him up myself.

But whether you consider this my luck or not, I saw him staring at me, half-awake and probably more than half-disturbed. I mean, I was standing holding a severed tongue up to the sun singing a song that didn’t make any sense before, and most certainly didn’t make sense now. Seeing his looks of confusion made me set the tongue down beside a tree, hoping that after we moved on it was something I would never have to see again. I motioned for him to get up and follow suit. We couldn’t stay here much longer.

I’m not really sure how we ended up back in the massive orchard. I wasn’t really complaining either, as I did happen to prefer the towering trees to the ice cube we had just left behind. I didn’t, however, prefer the thing that now stood before me.

[drops tongue]

[attacks Honey Badger 1, flail]
[dice=200+12000]
[deep gash on chest; 9.5]

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[semper]

s h a d o w b i s o n

Once more the sensation of loss struck you hard when Mantel’s face flashed across the sky. The poor boy from Ten – you honestly hadn’t thought he would make it very far, but he proved you wrong. You remembered meeting him in the training center and actually having a nice conversation; it hurt to know that his smiling face was no longer there. No longer breathing, no longer thinking, no longer being. Mantel had a family back in Ten and you hoped they were mourning him because it meant he was loved. No mourners meant you were by yourself, and being alone meant painful isolation. An aching void that would never be filled. You hoped – in a futile manner, more than likely – that there would be at least one mourner when you drew your last breath. Perhaps there would be another person or two beside your father as they lowered your short casket down into the earth.

So you sunk back down beside Cassie, face burying itself into the fabric of her shirt. Unlike the previous night, you begged for sleep to take you and numb the flaring pain in your stomach. The wound had since stopped bleeding but it refused to stop being a grief; however, what pained you more was the knowledge that you had cut out her tongue, forever silencing your district partner. She made it rather clear that it wasn’t your fault but you still felt wretched even though it could very well have saved her. And, honestly, you reacted far more lively than she did and it was her that was affected. She just continued to hug and comfort you while you tried to apologize (all it was though was incoherent mumbling) until the sun went down. Luckily for you sleep came quickly, drowning out the mental and physical pain.

You were woken up from your dreamless sleep by Cassie’s singing once again. You rubbed the sleep from your eyes and were very slow in sitting up, feeling the scabs over the wound tearing and stinging. Eyes looked up to see Cassie holding something and when the song was done she dropped it, and to your disgust it was her severed tongue. You quickly looked away and slowly got to your feet, gathering your items.

It was a slow going while you walked, trying to not move too fast and rip the scabs even more. The familiar trees of the orchard began to pop up and you breathed a small sigh of relief, glad to be in a place you knew already. (There was still a dark cloud above the place, though, and not the one that was letting loose all the rain.) Your pace quickened until you spotted a strange animal slinking along the ground. What on earth? You were content to just watch the creature but Cassie took a different approach and charged at the thing, so you quickly followed suit and grabbed the pair of pliers from your pack.


[attacks badger 1 – pliers (blunt)]
[dice=200+7000]
7192 -- Bruised Right Arm -- 2.0

i’m faking glory
and send a smile over
and the stories brand new
but i can take it from here
i’ll find my own bravado

[/size][/justify]
[rand=96076398994773631645921114832162954671111493371436195257450453937]

[charade]

Payne - (HB 1)
It was a good day to be a honey badger. Payne might not have been the leader of their little trio, but that didn't matter, not when he had found a patch of mushrooms to root through; he even found a couple beetle grubs by the roots. Slimy yet satisfying. He was dimly aware that something smelled odd in the orchard, but he didn't pay much attention to it. If it kept to itself than it was either no threat or food. And if it decided to bother him and his siblings then it either no threat or food that didn't know it was food. Apparently, it was the latter, because one of the oddest types of prey he had ever see came rushing at him, striking him across the chest with its tail. A moment later and its pack mate scratched at him with claws; claws that were laughably blunt. Payne yawned, disregarding the the blood dripping from his wound. Like most of his species, he didn't care. He only reacted.

[Attacks Cassie with claws]
[dice=200+2000]
[dg on chest; 9.5]
Bleeding the enemy where it had bled him was a bonus, and he took a moment to savor the taste before circling around to take a look at the other creature. How would it stand up to his claw? The short answer was that it wouldn't.
Bane [HB 2]


Snapping his head up from the mushrooms, Bane felt a low growl forming in his throat. As defacto leader of his siblings, this was an outrage. Did the new creatures think themselves the masters of the orchard? The fools. They merely adapted to the orchard. He had been raised by in it. Molded by it. He had't known there were other area's around until he was already grown. The intruders would pay for their insolence with their lives. Bane would make sure of it. Nothing got away with attacking his siblings. He would break them, but first they would suffer. Snarling, he leaped at the creature with the longer tail.

[Attacks Cassie]
[dice=200+2000]
[dg on back;8.5]
His teeth sank into the creature's back, but he let go a second later and hopped back, eager to see what it would do next.
Huffle [HB 3]


Huffle might have been the only girl, but that didn't mean she let her brothers do all the fighting. They were bigger, but she was fiercer, and she had long ago lost count of the creatures that had picked a fight with her and died. Let them go after the faster prey, she wanted the weaker looking one. The weak ones were usually more fun to take apart or so she had always found. And Huffle had always been good at finding things, especially blood.

[attacks Shadow with claws]
[dice=200+2000]
[sc on left thigh; 3.5]

Huffle growled in disappointment. If she didn't do some real damage soon, her brothers would never let her live it down.

[rand=73132245452143255502966619096696440592691302299503601382998749614]

[Deleted]

Cassie Radke

[/font][/center]

The initial pain that comes with being hurt is definitely not the worst. Most likely, your adrenaline is already pumping at lightning fast speeds through your veins, desperately telling your body to hold on and keep fighting, even if it’ll kill you. So when two of the badgers slice at me with their claws, the strikes do hurt, but they are also put to the side, as it is important to get out of this. It doesn’t, however, prevent me from letting out a cry of pain, the blood flowing out of my back and chest. I’ve been covered in dirt and blood for the last three days, but not my own, and I was hoping to avoid that for as long as possible.

I could tell Shadow was being attacked too, but I didn’t think his cuts were too deep. Really deciphering what was going on was difficult, because when you don’t have a high pain tolerance, things start to go blurry pretty quickly. I was pretty sure there were about three of the creatures, and two of us. We have been outnumbered for the last two days, and if we didn’t get ourselves together soon, we would be done for.

What were we still doing here? Why was it still us and not Hope? Or Eden, why wasn’t she still here instead of us? They were more favored than we were, but really, almost everyone was more favored than we were. Was there anyone actually less favored than we were? At this point it was doubtful.

Wait, why badgers? When I had ever watched the games, which wasn’t often really, I had always favored the mutts to the tributes. The had been interesting, and it was nice to cheer for something other than a human. But now, standing here, I wasn’t so keen. Animals, or whatever they are, didn’t really have a motive, they just fought because this was their home. Humans, on the other hand, mainly the thirteen of us left in the arena, all had something to fight for, even if it was lost inside us. When you are threatened with death, all you can do is go down swinging.

So I did.

[attacks Honey Badger 1, flail]
[dice=200+12000]
[miss; 0.0]

But I didn't do it well.

[rand=542906055226922840284032747149567330111097544434185931219253689]

[semper]

s h a d o w b i s o n

fillering cause i'll be super busy tomorrow and i have an essay i need to write laskdgljs

[attacks badger 1 [Payne] - sword]
[dice=200+1000]
1106 -- Shallow Cut on Back -- 4.0

i’m faking glory
and send a smile over
and the stories brand new
but i can take it from here
i’ll find my own bravado

[/size][/justify][rand=52986930008046338350254227407277917814730666577848288054554723203]

[charade]

Payne - (HB 1)
The thing that had attacked him had been surprisingly easy to retaliate against. Perhaps too easy. It tried to lash him with its tail again, but the attack went wide, spinning over his head with a whoosh. Then the one with the blunt claws tried to use it's tail as well. And it's tail was sharper. Payne breathed heavily; he was starting to feel tired, but that didn't mean he was ready to quit just yet. As the enemy now in front of him would find soon find out.

[Attacks Shadow with claws]
[dice=200+2000]
[sc on chest; 4.0]

His blow landed, but it was nowhere near the power in his first strike. That didn't make any sense to him.

Bane [HB 2]

It was clear that the creatures wanted to take the apples away from them. Couldn't have been the mushrooms or the grubs because he and his siblings had eaten all of those. Bane found the creatures infuriating. Was Payne the only one worthy of their challenge? Why wouldn't they attack him? As he was pack leader, it was the right thing to do. With an angry hiss, he swiped at the creature that was bleeding less.

[Attacks Shadow with claws]
[dice=200+2000]
[Block; 0.0]

Bane snarled and churned up some dirt with his claws. How dare the enemy block his claws with its tail. And it didn't even bleed! He was the leader! He was not supposed to miss. Ever.

Huffle [HB 3]


Huffle could hardly believe her luck. Her dumb brothers were actually going for what was now the harder challenge. Fine by her, leave it to sis to close up shop. Twisting her lithe body away from her first target she launched herself at the other creature with her teeth bared. Hopefully, she'd do better this time.

[attacks Cassie with teeth]
[dice=200+2000]
[ Stabbed in Bicep; 8.5]

Tearing into the creature's arm gave Huffle a sense of satisfaction, especially since she had spilled blood on the ground and her brother bane hadn't. She'd have to nip his ear for missing at some point.

[rand=118677782360464335363747957162559261211617616936568760080093052238]

[Deleted]

Cassie Radke

[/font][/center]

Badgers were creatures that I didn’t know much about—not until now anyway. They really weren’t that big in terms of size, but the sheer power with which they attacked me was overwhelming. I didn’t know what pain felt like, but if this really was it, I didn’t want it. I just want to run away, to feel nothing again. Why couldn’t I void out the flames shooting through my body? That’s what I needed, the nothingness that came with ignorance. Ignorance is bliss, or so they say. But I think it’s true. I hadn’t realized the extensiveness that one simple gash caused. It lit my whole arm ablaze with an inextinguishable fire, the flames not dying down, despite the water that would be thrown over it. The fire wouldn’t stop growing, the oxygen adding to it with every cut the badgers inflicted. Why wouldn’t they stop? Why wouldn’t they leave me alone? But they’re doing the same thing that we’re doing, trying to survive, and I couldn’t blame them.

[attacks Honey Badger 1, flail]
[dice=200+12000]
[crushed skull; x]

[rand=9744223090820014523702814010903286695134174078700646219658665359]

[semper]

s h a d o w b i s o n

LSKDJGLSKGJLSKGJSLKGJHSLK cause cassie can't flee yet not leavin her nope

[attacks badger 2 [Bane] - sword]
[dice=200+1000]
1023 -- Stabbed in Neck -- 40

i’m faking glory
and send a smile over
and the stories brand new
but i can take it from here
i’ll find my own bravado

[/size][/justify][rand=11228131758980453921502719866111931434394768439233638923118589446]

[charade]

Payne - (HB 1)
The tail swung for his head again, but Payne only yawned; the tail had already proven itself ineffectual. That was his last thought before his head was effectively nailed to the ground.

[Payne has died!]


Bane [HB 2]

Bane hissed in dismay, they had killed his pack brother. But that was alright, he was the leader of the pack and therefore not to be trifled with. It was a good day to make a kill. Opening his mouth in a fearsome snarl, he pounced, only for something sharp to erupt out of the back of his neck.

[Bane has died!]


Huffle [HB 3]

Huffle blinked rapidly, trying to process what had just happened. One minute her brothers were attacking and the next the smell of their blood filled the air. They did not move. They were dead. Growling in anger, Huffle pawed at the ground before swiping at the creature that killed Bane. Honey badger's didn't care about the odds. And honey badgers never felt threatened. She could take out both of the creatures by herself. And then she'd enjoy the spoils of battle. That was the honey badger way.

[attacks Shadow with claws]
[dice=200+2000]
[sc on back; 4.0 ]

[rand=4250471983104944574091772316023780832553631626073368953811004758]

[Deleted]

Cassie Radke

[/font][/center]

Faster than I could count the remaining number of kids in the arena, the badgers were gone as fast as they appeared. Well not so much gone as dead, but either way was fine by me. As long as they wouldn’t hurt me anymore, I didn’t care if they went to the moon. I guess there’s more fight left in Shadow and I than I, or anyone for that matter, realized. I would survive to hopefully see another sunrise, and now, that’s all I could ask for, and even that was pushing it a little. I was one day closer to going home, one fight closer to the warmth of the district I hadn’t appreciated until now. If I ever got home, I would fall face first into the ground and yell out how much I loved it, because now, sitting in a place that was so uncontrollable, the uncertainty shook my body, making me realize no matter what cards you pull, they are still in control, always. That scared me more than any mutt.

[receives med kit from sponsorship]
[uses 5 ft. of bandages]
[uses needle and thread]
[uses medicinal plants from inventory]
[collects x2 medicinal plants and x1 edible plants]
[Cassie has fled]

[semper]

s h a d o w b i s o n

("Swing like hell, fight like the devil.")


[uses first aid on Cassie]
[flees]

i’m faking glory
and send a smile over
and the stories brand new
but i can take it from here
i’ll find my own bravado

[/size][/justify]