BLOOD ON MY HANDS || Finnick Odair

eight; cave dwellings

Even with time passing throughout the day, the seven of them staying in the original order they had fallen into, Eden still found himself falling prey to many aspects of the coastline's beauty. That's what Beau bad called it, anyway. But he didn't seem to be the only one letting his guard down.

Lara and Ivy had both fallen into a comfortable chatter that neither seemed to second guess, and even with Flora settled comfortably in his arms, Volt seemed to be relaxed. But he knew it was what had been intended by the game makers;

They had reached a cliff face just after what Flora guessed was midday, and Beau looked almost happy to see the surging waves trying to claw their way up the jagged rock to them, then wither away in a flurry of rolling white foam and deep blue splashes.

For the first time in his life Eden and Flora were seeing water somewhere other than a puddle, or in a large basin to be spread equally through out the cattle troughs.

And it was beautiful.

It was peaceful enough, too. As peaceful as the arena could get, anyway. They didn't bump into any tributes, but for the next three hours they heard randomly spaced out cannons as the others bumped into each other and fought to the death. Each time one sounded Flora visibly flinched, and each time Eden only squeezed her hand tighter.

The seven walked well into the afternoon, and it didn't occur to anyone that they should stop for a rest until Ivy pointed out the sun — or whatever was programmed to create the difference between day and night — was beginning to set. It created colours in the water that made it look like paintings he'd seen in the capitol, but found it unsettling that the final colour to present itself was red before the fake sun set completely.

As the capitol anthem rang out in the sky, they hastily found a small break in the canopy of trees and situated themselves to they were as hidden as possible.

He helped Flora sit next to Ivy, then took a seat in front of her. He was mildly surprised when Beau landed in the space next to him, but didn't say anything when he didn't either. For the first time since they'd started moving, he noticed the thin layer of dew that had built up on his skin from the misty air, now that night was beginning to fall and it was getting chilly out. He understood why the jackets were meant to reflect body heat, now.

At first, the sky had been dark when the anthem ended, but it was soon replaced with the faces of the tributes who had died in the bloodbath; Lark from 3, Isla from 4, Silas from 5, both tributes from 7 and 8, Raven from 9, and Hoiza from 11. Then, the sky went dark as if nothing had happened.

The seven sat silently for a moment, doing the mental math.

Nine tributes were dead.

Fifteen were left.

Seven were right there.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry about Isla," Eden murmured, head tilted to the left so only Beau would hear him.

He shrugged his shoulders in response to it, but he could see his jaw clench and felt his own shudder of disgust as well.

They allowed themselves another few minutes to sit and rest before having to get up again, knowing Flora would be needing it if what they were planning to do for night fall followed through. When they finally agreed to get up, Eden kept an arm hooked around Flora's shoulders.

"I bet the Capitol has never seen a team of seven before," Lara commented softly into the night air, causing them all to pause and think about it.

Volt chuckled. "I don't think they've ever seen a career team up with someone from 12, either," he hummed while giving Rin's shoulder a slight nudge.