The Girl From The Ocean

Hunting

Raych agrees and rolls up the sleeping bag, puts it in the baga and hoists the bag on her shoulder. All she picked up from the Cornucopia was a knife, and it's evident she's ashamed. I don't dwell on it though, and soon we are on our way.

That night, we hibernate in a willow tree. The droopy leaves conceal us as we munch on fish. We found a small river and I had expertly speared us a dozen fish, that we cooked over a small fire. Raych had also managed to kill us a rabbit. The carcass made her feel sick though, so I gutted it. It wasn't a lot different to the thousands of fish I have gutted in my life, just maybe a bit more gory. I'm just picking flesh off of a fish bone when a cannon booms. Another had gone off earlier, and each time my gut had twised, hoping it wasn't Jaephin,because even though Finnick told me to protect myself, I still want Jaephin to win if I don't. Of course I don't share any of this with Raych, especially after we discover that the two dead tributes are the twelve year old from 5, Tilila her name turns out to be, and Raych's own district partner, Ovil. I announce that we need a guarding system and she should take first shift. This way she can have time to mourn. The sound of her muffled sniffs breaks my heart. 

The booming of another cannon wakes me up in the morning and just as I'm stretching another unfamiliar noise reaches my ears. I wake Raych up and silently through the leaves we watch the hovercraft. We look at each other, saying with our eyes what we don't dare to  say out loud. If a tribute has just died and we were close enough to see the hovercraft, how close are we to the potential killer or killers?

We sit there, huddled in the sleeping bag, weapons in our hands completely frozen. Then they come. We hear them a mile off, talking and trampling the ground noisily. The careers.