𝐌𝐀𝐃 𝐖𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐍 - 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘪𝘳

― 𝐬𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧

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chapter seventeen: not that great of an ally, are you?

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𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐓 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆, 𝐕𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐀 𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐍𝐒 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐋𝐀𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐒𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆. A groan escapes her lips as she rolls over and wriggles out of her parka-cocoon. With a start, she realises that she's feeling no pain. Visha's fingers tremble as she rolls up the top of her bodysuit. Her eyes widen; there is no more gaping hole in her stomach. Instead, there is a small, circular scar lingering on her flesh. 

"Oh my god," Visha whispers to herself. Turns out, she wouldn't have to hunt down the F.O. person and kill them― what a relief. 

She stands up and slips into her parka, cringing as her eyes land upon the shredded left sleeve where the mutt had tried to take a bite of her wrist. She looks around, but doesn't find her allies anywhere within the cave; they must be outside. Her backpack, however, is laying in one corner of the cave, along with her katana and spear. Visha pulls on her scabbard and sheathes her katana inside. She also stuffs a knife into her thigh holster. Then Visha slowly makes her way out of the cave, eyes widening as they land upon Orion and Rye's figures playing in the water. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me," Visha mutters to herself, stomping over to the duo. "What are you two doing?!" 

"Uh... taking a bath?" Orion says, although it sounds more like a question. 

Visha's eyebrows shoot up. "With your clothes on?" She says skeptically, hands on her hips. "11 and 12 are weird districts." 

"Hey, you can't blame us for not wanting to give everyone in Panem a show!" Orion replies with a wide grin, and Visha snorts. 

"You're ridiculous," she says. 

"And you're probably stinky," Rye retorts, sticking up for his ally. "Get in here." 

Visha shakes her head, "Absolutely not!" and backs away. She ends up tripping over a root and falling. "Shit," she mutters to herself, standing up rapidly and trying her hardest to brush off the dirt and the snow. 

"Looks like you truly need a bath now," Orion laughs as he makes long strides out of the pond and runs towards her. He grabs Visha by the arm and pulls her loudly protesting body towards the water. She manages to loosen her scabbard and deposit it onto the shore of the pond while Orion pulls her protesting body into the water. 

Rye splashes her seconds later. 

Visha sputters, shaking her head like a wet dog, and turning to give the boy the most murderous look she can. 

"Oops," Rye says, not sounding very apologetic. 

"I'm gonna get you for that," she warns. "Watch your back, breadsicle." 

"Ooh, I'm so scared!" the blond mocks, waving his hands in the as if in surrender, before splashing Visha once more. Upon seeing her drenched and dripping hair and scowling face, he cackles. "What are you gonna do about that?"