Call of the Capitol

The boy from District 9 was not someone Ayla had talked to or even paid much attention to during training. Aside from his size, he’d seemed like someone that she could write off almost immediately due to his clumsiness, apparent lack of intelligence, and lack of combat skills. She had evidently been wrong, deciding that he must have been smarter than he looked if he’d made it this far. Or perhaps simply brutish and able to pin down any tribute that got within arm’s reach.

Ayla picked up the crossbow as it replenished with another bolt, this one coated with a sticky substance on the end. Poison? It had to be; there was no other possibility. Ayla said a soft thank you to Marlee for the weapon and lifted it to aim at the boy who was distractedly fighting another tribute.

Pulling the trigger, Ayla smiled as she heard a pained yell from across the arena: the bolt had landed in Maxwell’s side, albeit avoiding any vital organs by embedding itself in the fat covering his ribcage. While she was happy she had hit her target, she realized that with his large mass the poison would be relatively slow in taking over his body. And he had turned and was heading her way, wielding a large sword and what looked like a bull’s head?

Looking left and right, Ayla realized she had no way to run unless she wanted to jump off her platform again, and that was a trick she had already used too many times. And then she looked up: chains held the platforms up from some invisible source high above their heads. Drawing a deep breath and feeling herself shifting, she jumped up to grab the chains, and with her monkey hands and feet began climbing up further and further. Maxwell began hitting the chains with his sword, trying to shake Ayla off, but she clung tight and simply screeched back down at him.

Ayla had seen Anatolia and Mallory take down the girl from Eleven the previous night, and during her scrutiny it had seemed the girl was capable of using the skills of warriors. She had the agility of a ninja, the strength of a Gladiator… it was incredibly fascinating, actually. The girl from Seven had interested Ayla since she met her during training and Ayla couldn’t help but think that they could have been friends in other circumstances.

Anatolia’s warrior skills meant that she most likely would have the ability to hunt any animal, no matter the size, Ayla decided. And so for this final task, she pushed her abilities to the back of her mind, knowing that this battle would be one of pure skill. And unfortunately, it seemed Anatolia had the upper hand. But with only one leg, one eye, and one ear, her balance was no doubt thrown off.

Quite a bit of water had accumulated throughout the arena from Zale’s fighting, and Ayla was determined to use this to her advantage. Wrapping the end of her wire around a bolt in her crossbow, Ayla began cranking the generator furiously. Anatolia had turned to her and crouched in a fighting position, apparently gathering the skills of some warrior. Before either could move, though, Ayla fired the bolt toward Anatolia. The girl from Seven dodged it, as Ayla expected, and the bolt hit the wet platform under Anatolia’s feet. The electricity from the generator travelled through the wire and into the wet platform, up through Anatolia’s body.

Anatolia had not had the agility or balance to jump off the platform in time due to her missing leg and eye, and her body began shaking violently as the electricity coursed through her system. She let out a scream and Ayla saw her opportunity to fire another bolt. Willing the precision she had inherited from her mother, Ayla aimed as Anatolia tried to get up, and hit the girl with the bolt in her good knee, shattering her kneecap. There was no way for Anatolia to stand now, and her entire upper body was still twitching from the electricity.

Stopping the generator, Ayla saw her opportunity to reach Anatolia’s platform to finish this. Her side was aching more now from the wound Marlee had given her, so it was painstakingly that she reached Anatolia’s platform. She began to take a deep breath, but before she could shift, Anatolia plunged her sword into the bolt wound from where she lay. Ayla screamed out in pain as Anatolia dug the sword deeper, and suddenly her pain was turning into anger, into frustration. Why wouldn’t this girl give up?

“Stop it,” Ayla groaned. “Let go of your sword and let me finish it!”

But Anatolia kept digging her sword in, kept twisting the blade as Ayla’s head clouded with anger and pain.

Ayla knew very little about Gabriella other than her being Leo’s district partner, but the girl from Two had made quite the impression during her interview, when she not only showed off her combusting abilities to the Capitol, but to the other tributes as well. She and Leo had not done much the night before, so Ayla still felt somewhat in the dark on what this girl’s deal was, but she didn’t have much time to ponder this. A huge fireball was coming her way, and Ayla only barely had time to duck behind her shield before it hit, knocking her back towards the edge of her platform but not quite harming her. Stepping forward in case another one hit, Ayla lifted the crossbow she took from Marlee as she ducked behind the shield again and fired one towards Gabriella. The large bolt went flying through the air, towards an arm that didn’t seem to be sitting quite right. No doubt the bolt could take her arm off, but when it hit Gaby’s shoulder, it didn’t go through. Almost worse, it bounced off with a sharp crunch as she shrieked in pain. If her arm wasn’t broken at this point, her shoulder definitely was.

Ayla was sweating at this point, and as another fireball hit her shield she had to let go of it due to the heat of the metal going through even to the leather strap. She glanced around her platform for a minute, unsure of what to do and wanting to avoid the middle of the arena, where the other tributes seemed to be battling each other. The last thing Ayla needed was to be caught in the middle of hand-to-hand combat.

Without thinking, Ayla left her materials safely on the platform and dove off towards the abyss, hearing the shocked gasps of other tributes as they witnessed her apparent suicide. But on the way down, she transformed into a small bird, flying around through the platforms towards Gabriella’s. The girl seemed pleased with herself- so powerful that she could cause another tribute to give up as opposed to fighting against her powerful abilities. But as she was smiling at her job well done, Ayla flew up into her face, taking advantage of her distracted seconds of arrogance.

Gabriella shrieked, attempting to swat away the bird at her face, and hitting Ayla’s thigh with fire as Ayla pecked at her sore shoulder. Flapping in her face and getting as close as possible, Ayla did her best to make Gabriella flustered and frazzled by pecking at every inch of her unprotected body. The bird was flitting to and fro, pecking and biting Gabriella’s legs and knees, her face and neck and arms. Finally, Ayla transformed into a larger bird- her beloved crow- and drove her head into Gabriella’s shattered shoulder. Gabriella was so overcome by pain that she stepped backwards, not seeing the edge of the platform.