i told you, i'm on your side // scout's honor

[Python]

a r i e l .

In a moment of calculated panic, Ariel sprinted away from the sign. She had been warned that following the winds of the storm was her best option, because within that storm was the eye of calm. There were weapons, supplies, medicine, and she knew better, but when she couldn't find her allies in the storm of sweaty faces, she decided it wasn't worth the energy. She could lose sponsors for this, she didn't care. Her training score could be enough to keep her afloat, but that hope would trickle down the drain if she didn't group with her allies.

Ariel knew she could run until her bones were bruised. Running and hiding in the furthest corner of the land had always been an option weighing on her mind, but she also wasn't one to betray her word. She made a pact with these other tributes, and ignoring that could anger them. As much as she trusted herself in the wilds, having a pack was the smartest choice. This was not home, where she could trust when the trees might fall and what lied in the depths of a river. She had to remind herself that no matter how beautiful and real it looked, she was in a minefield.

She waited until she felt safe. No thumping footsteps behind her, no hasty breathing, no swishing of blades. In the distance, sunlight twinkled on a sapphire surface. There was a brief sigh of relief. Water. Easy as that.

Areto was her shadow, arriving not moments later. Blade and Avriel followed, and she was no longer aware of the sweat beading across her brow. She was happy to be among familiarity in dire circumstances. The uniforms were silly, and if she weren't afraid of an arrow piercing her body at any given moment, she would've laughed at them.

The sound of a cannon ripped her from that joy. Everybody knew what signaled.

Since it wasn't one of them, she elected to ignore it.

"So, if I'm not mistaken, there's a lake way over there," she said, pointing.

[ariel picks up trail mix and iodine tablets]

elegant

[gamemaker kelsier]

a v r i e l .

"Whatever mess you're in
The demons you've been fighting
Know that your quest is only just beginning"

For what feels like a long time, all Avriel hears is the sound of his breath and Blade's mixed together with the steady pounding of their feet. He's still holding onto her hand, it's warm, just to stay together of course, and they don't stop running until the sounds of the bloodbath are far behind them. It's lucky that Areto woke him from his stupor, lucky that Blade was so easy to find in the chaos. Somehow, the four of them are together.

Then the cannon sounds.

It's different than on the tv, there's always a cut scene right after, or you've already seen the tribute die. Here, there's just a few seconds of absolute silence and all of the sound that he hadn't registered before is absent. Then it comes rushing back, the wind through the canopy of the trees, birdsong, the distant shouting, it all comes back except now it's different, now someone is dead.

Areto leaves to go find out who and for a moment, Avriel wants to stop her. It doesn't make sense to go, splitting up is a terrible idea, but Areto is already leaving when he thinks to stop her. Of all his allies, he feels the gap between them the most, there's no point in breaking her shaky trust further.

It takes him a moment to let go of Blade's hand, he's almost forgotten that he was holding it and when he does, Avriel suddenly feels the littlest bit less safe.

"There's a gap through the trees," he says with a nod, "When Areto comes back, let's go there."

"Are either of you hurt?"

[avriel picks up iodine tablets and trail mix!]

[✨ zozo.]

🗡

His touch pulls me out of my trance, electric.

"Come on,"

For a moment we're back in the training centre and I'm a girl, all rage, all blades. He's a boy as calm and content as he is now, and the feeling leaves me sure of nothing else but Avriel as I take his hand and flee.

Momma screams in the back of my head about Nine and the rumours whispered between district lines and I grip his palm tighter as we run, my other hand clutching the sheath of knives to my chest like my heart may stop without them.

His pulse is quick but steady. My palms are clammy and I wish they weren't, I wish I had run home instead of walked every day of my life up until today. I wonder how many bloodbaths he's run from before, how many times he's plucked a friend from battle to safety, how many people he's had to stop from jumping headfirst into the temptation of bloodshed before it's too late.

I wonder if he can feel the pattering in my veins, uneven and fatigued. I curse myself for caring, for fleeing, for wanting to stay. Eventually we stop running and I regain my breath and my equilibrium, wiping beads of sweat from my brow as we find Ariel of Ten - harmless. (For now, my anxieties warn.) The knives stay clutched in my balmy grip until the canon fires and I jump with fright, forgetting what it means. Forgetting what this place is.

It is a beautiful day, and someone is dead. Areto sees all the fear plastered in my wide-eyes, ripe and ready for the taking. Instead she leaves us for a moment to investigate. Only when she steps away through the trees do I sigh, collapsing to the floor to regain something that feels like calm.

A lake sounds good, Areto's protection better, I nod along dumbfounded with a tight jaw and the echo of canonfire in my ears. Guess I'm still in shock. These are the things I'm going to have to think about now. Death and water and protection, one down, twenty-two to go, it's all so overwhelming, swelling in my chest and spreading through my body like a fever. I'm not ready to make these calls. Even harmless Ariel - perhaps not so harmless, has-ideas Ariel - is ahead of me.

"Okay," is all I can manage to heave out, pulling the knives tight toward my body as I curl into myself at the base of a tree. "Sounds good. And- no. I'm okay."

I think? At least I'm not dead.

God I hope it wasn't Chad. God I hope it was. God I shouldn't have taken to him so much. I saw a glimpse of him talking to the kids with the bloody weapons as Avriel took my hand and convinced me with two soft, intended words to run. That big dumb idiot grin and his big dumb idiot words. On the train I'd thought it'd be us two out here, and look how that turned out.

I hope they took him in. I hope they killed him on the spot.

Better them than I. Better him than I.

I can't tell which version of myself I hate more.

picks up some things in maint! gets her sponsorship goodies!

[Python]

a r i e l .

Ariel knew she was putting blind trust in these tributes. She should've questioned why Areto was willingly returning to the Cornucopia, but swallowed her words. Her excuses weren't good - it's not my business, but it is, she can take care of herself, but this is the hunger games. Weird catastrophes happened in the Games, that was the reason why careers didn't win every year. It was the reason why people like Flynn had crowns upon their heads.

It was the reason why Ariel had a chance to see home again.

Avriel and Blade were also content to accept the change in plan. She welcomed the distraction, scanning her uniform from collar to socks for bloodstains. If there was pain, she didn't feel it yet. The power of adrenaline allowed her to run through the forests of Ten wearing scrapes, cuts, and bruises. If she had an arrow in her back, she would feel it soon enough.

"No, I think I'm all good!" She patted herself down just in case. No aches or pains, no wet spots, no tears in the fabric.

Blade looked untouched, as did Avriel. It was a miracle they had escaped without a scratch, yet it also felt like a breeze. All they had to do was run.

Now came the issue of resources and weapons, but they had a body of water glimmering at them in the distance. There was hope in those glimmers, they just had to focus on one step at a time.

"Why do you think Areto went back?" she asked, innocently.

elegant

[gamemaker kelsier]

a v r i e l .

"Whatever mess you're in
The demons you've been fighting
Know that your quest is only just beginning"

It takes Avriel a solid minute to realize that he didn't really expect to make it this far. He's a kid that's gotten so used to the worst case scenario that he just assumes its shape before it can fully form to hurt him, and in the back of his mind, he was preparing to die at the cornucopia. It's surprise that clings to him, surprise that numbs his thinking and slowly reveals the concept once again that someone is dead.

Instead of the horror that he should be feeling, Avriel only feels the smallest flicker of hope. That's one less person between him and escape, one less person between him and a train ride home to his siblings. After the luxury of the training centre, their little house in Nine seems even more decrepit, but when he thinks about the falling apart kitchen, longing pushes through him in waves.

It shows up on his face in a slight frown. Has Duke put their father's watch back together or is it still sitting in pieces on the kitchen table, just waiting for Avriel to get home? He's lived in the present for so long, day-to-day just trying to survive, it's strange to try and imagine a future now. The concept of seeing Billie and Duke again is too sharp.

So he lets go of it, he puts the two of them out of his mind and focuses on Ariel and Blade. His hand is empty where Blade left it but he grips a sharpened tent pole in the other. He's never used a spear before but Avriel's always been determined when it comes to learning new things. Ariel didn't seem to manage to get anything but Blade is holding a bundle of knives so tightly that for a moment, he's afraid that she's going to cut herself.

He settles down beside her to wait for Areto and places the spear on the ground between them slowly as if to show Blade that it's safe to let go. She tells him she's fine but she seems pale and the way that she sits so curled inwards tells him otherwise. He knows that feeling, the way the world seems too bright and the air itself holds weight to it that presses down, it feels like being buried alive.

He wants to help Blade but he knows how he seems, awkward kid from Nine, too quiet and rarely looks happy. "You'd have an easier time fitting in if you'd just smile more," the school counselor used to be fond of telling him that. In grade nine, his homeroom teacher had sent him to the principal's office for 'looking too intimidating.'

"I dunno," he says in response to Ariel's question, "Can't pretend to understand how careers think."

Areto looks at him funny anyway, the same way that people have been looking at him his whole life.

Like he's a wolf in sheep's clothing.

[✨ zozo.]

🗡

I'm half-frightened, half-relieved with how in-tune Avriel is to my senses. He lowers his weapon and his body to the grass and places them both gently, eyeing the blades in my hands. It's okay, his actions seem to say, sending a sense of calm through me. I don't trust calm in this place, but I stupidly trust him, so my hands release them anyway and the weapons join his spear on the grassy space between us. Close enough should danger approach, far enough to let him know I understand.

We are safe. For now.

I hate the impending doom in that thought, how it tacks on to the end of every thought I have. We cannot understand how Areto's mind works - for now. Ariel is all good - for now. I can trust to lay my weapons down in the presence of Avriel - for now. I don't have to kill anyone - for now. I don't think I want to - for now.

It is an abyss. I'm standing on the edge and I don't want to jump but I know I'll have to. Down I go, spiraling, until Ariel speaks, voice confident and clear, and it's made apparent that I am the most unhinged of us all. I run my hands down my arms, raised with goosebumps despite the heat, and look up to the sky.

In the glare of the sun and the blue of the sky, tiny specks of white litter the expanse above us. At first I just think it's my vision, dizzy and fighting the pressure of my blood, but the longer I look and the harder I squint I can make out the faint stings of parachutes floating over our heads toward the shimmering glare of the lake.

"Look," I say, pointing to the gifts in the sky as they trail over us - their soft beeping filling the silence. "We should follow them to the water."

Beacons of hope, my curiosity gets the better of me. I want to see who they're for, what they contain, and quietly, if anyone else dares to lure themselves toward our final destination.

At that thought I stand, unsheathe a knife and toss the rest to Avriel. "You were better with these than I ever was," I add with a sheepish smile.

blade flees.