18 DAYS

CHAPTER 16: The Cave.

*LEMON*

DAY 12

As expected, the pills worked like a charm. Or more like a miracle. In less than two hours, Cato was back in fighting shape, his leg healed like nothing ever happened. Only the two puncture points near his malleolus, and a slight pain in his tallon as a proof it happened.

After they got out of the water, once all the dirt and the sweat was washed away like a bad dream, Cato and Clove had gone out to find food. When they left the Cornucopia Clove had managed to grab few weapons and pieces of clothing, but not enough food to sustain them until dawn.

"Something is going to happen soon."

It only took them a couple of hours before completely giving up on animal hunting. It was no use. Even if they'd managed somehow to make a fire, neither would be skilled enough to actually catch a prey to grill. It wasn't so much because their weapons couldn't kill small animals, they just realized every creature in that forest could hear them coming from a mile. They were as stealthy as a herd of bulls in a china shop.

"Yes I think so too.", Cato agrees.

As to not get lost, he had found a dirt path guiding their way back to camp. It was easy to follow even through the thin fog floating in the forest, drizzle sticking to their already wet hair.

 Clove pauses to grab a few berries from a bush along the trail:"They launched the fire on day four because no one had died since the bloodbath on the first day. It's day twelve now, and the last kill was on day nine. Four days, like last time..."

Maybe Katniss Everdeen was skilled to survive in the wild, maybe even for years. But the one thing Cato and Clove were skilled at was thinking ahead of the Capitol. They knew better than anyone the way the Gamemakers thought, allowing them to always be one step ahead on what they were up to.

"There is going to be a feast.", she puts the berries in a bag with an intent look at her ally.

Cato sneers. Delight painting all his expressions. The Hunger Games typically include feasts each year. Gathering what tributes desperately needed, they are used to bring the remaining of them together if the Gamemakers think the game is getting slow. Taking into account what Clove said, the Games are getting boring. Paired with that the Arena was too huge for a chance encounter from the barely six tributes left...

"Yeah. I agree that's most likely."

"But we don't really need anything. You are healed now. And okay we could use more sustenance, but we are not starving so..."

Wether or not there was going to be a feast soon, Cato and Clove had agreed to stay one more night at the cave to make sure that he was fully healed. And to get plenty of sleep before going back out hunting for opponents.

Cato snaps his fingers with recollection: "When Glimmer died during the Tracker Jacker attack she had the bow on her."

Clove's eyes widden, realizing what it means. "The bitch is good with that. I seen it during training back in the Capitol. Even with our weaponry skills, there is no way we'd survive an open battle against her. Unless we take her by suprise..."

On that, they both turn around to look at where they came from. Just to see a devastation of broken branches, turned over ground and tore down bushes.

"That's not happening.", they both smile, containing a laugh mocking their failings.

"That's what we'll find at the feast. If we are being realistic, I think I can fight Thresh one and one even in this condition. It'll be hard but I'd manage. Either of us can take Peeta. Unless he got help from some sponsors, that wound didn't go anywhere. And even without it he's still pretty weak. So in all fairness, Katniss' long range fighting is what we are worried about. And the Gamemakers know that."