Sea Serpent

Sagittaria yawned out loudly as the sun started to come up, she felt utterly exhausted by this point, she then would look up at Emerald “Anywhere we can sleep without being seen?” she said pulling out a small water bottle from her bag that she still had and then took a sip before then giving it to Carcinus.

   Emerald swung herself down to the soft ground. She stood and quickly teased her hair making sure everything was still in place. She prided herself in being able to keep herself looking movie star perfect for the past three ways. Em was very strict on herself when it came to her looks and wouldn’t do anything to put that in jeopardy, and that included fighting, running too much, climbing, and sleeping on the ground. Of course, she had already broke three of the four rules, and depending on where they decided to sleep, the fourth also. 

A soft ray of sunlight broke through the thicket of the forest, marking the start of the fourth day. It was then that Carcinus felt how cold he had been in addition to the weariness. All he wanted—and perhaps needed—was a few hours of rest to get refreshed again. Of course, he would rather do it somewhere safe, secluded, and sheltered from the snow, so the idea of a cave sounded very appealing.

Sagittaria was in slight panic knowing what was coming after them, the game makers must had been nuts to try and kill off this many tributes this early in the game. She garbed her bag and sling shot quickly before making a dash for it with the other two. Being as fast as she was it wasn’t that hard to keep up. The three of them ran and ran, and ran “I-I can’t anymore…” she gasped slowing down “We need to find a spot where they can’t get to us…” she huffed.

 ”If that’s what they were trying to do, they certainly succeeded. I left my fucking whip back there, and I don’t really feel like going back only to get my face ripped off. Look we need to get on something high. Maybe in the trees or something like that. We can’t take our chances.” Emerald said as she panted against the closes tree. How in hell could she forget her main weapon? All she wanted to do was earn their trust, and that was her karma. 

When they finally stopped, Carcinus was heavily panting and exhausted, but most of all he was desperate. It had been a truly long day. Too many things had happened, what with him fleeing from the alliance, running miles and beating a tribute bloody, and Emerald showing up just when he thought they were safe. But apparently that still was not enough.

The young woman would growl softly under her breath, her arms still not letting go of her hold on her slingshot. Unlike the blond standing before her, she knew that with a powerful sling shot such as this one provided from the capital and the round stone as ammo, she could send it flying into her skull no problem.

  “Yea, well most of us are going to die if you haven’t already figured that one out. One of us gets out of this alive, and all I want is to have a chance and take down the big dogs, wouldn’t you say so?” Emerald felt a burning in her eyes like right before she would cry. She couldn’t cry now, or maybe it would just buy her way into this little love fest. Emerald dug deep down inside of her bringing up past memories she wished she could just get rid of all-together. She felt tears begin to form in her eyes and she was about to put on the performance of her life. 

It would be a stupid move to trust Emerald. He knew that much. So another counter argument was already well on its way out of his mouth, but then the unexpected happen. It seemed that Emerald was on the verge of tears. He did not know what her angle was or whether or not she was putting on something for the cameras, but it was a distraction nonetheless. Not a word escaped as the menacing whip fell and hit the ground.

The young woman looked to Emerald with big eyes after noticing she was there, and then garbed her sling shot and then a stone off the ground and aimed it at the girl. “Drop the whip and step away slowly.” she threaded pulling back on the elastic “Or I won’t hesitate to kill you.” hissed the young blood.

  “They were beginning to bore me, honestly. Plus, who wants to be around when they decide to go at each other? I’m just pissed you didn’t wait up, Cary.” Emerald giggled slightly. Her hand tightened on her whip as she eyed the two other tributes. Her main threat was the boy and his spear, but the girl didn’t seem to be too much of a threat. What was she going to do- pebble her to death? Swinging the blades around her shoulders she took stance to deflect anything that would come her way. 

The fabricated giggle coming from the other career made him scoff. "Oh yes, I could see how they would just bore you to death." A part of him still thought it suspicious about Emerald bailing on his old allies so early in the games. Obviously it had to happen at some point, but he had not expect her to bolt on the third day with no reason whatsoever. If anyone was going to leave after him, he would have suspected it to be one of the outlier tributes.

The young woman looked to the young man noticing how sad he actually seemed. The blond would nibble on her fish a bit more before then feeling just horrible herself; why did they both need to die? would they need to kill one another… she felt sick to her tummy and then just stuck the fish in the snow and then sat back and garbed some water and sipped on that to south herself. “T-thanks… you caught some yummy fish.” she said softly.

  Emerald had been with that group for such a long time, but it was time to take her leave. They thought she had just gone hunting. Little did they know she had no intention of returning to them. Did it really matter at this point? The group kept getting smaller and smaller. Em knew they would have tried to kill her sooner or later- they always try to kill the girls first. It was somewhat of a sad departure, because she was beginning to like her District partner. Em knew nothing would happen past the Games due to them both being dead. 

It was quite a moment to have, most of all in the arena. A part of him still felt slightly off with having beaten bloody another tribute just hours ago, but Sagittaria was there with him, and that alone made things so much better. Carcinus slowly relaxed. He let his guard down for the few minutes to truly revel in the distance—or the lack of it—between the two of them. And by doing so, he also let the exhaustion from all the running earlier that day to creep back into him.

Sagittaria would smile and nodded her head “There was only me and my sister who really cooked with my mom, it was more of a girl’s time on the weekends we always had.” she smiled happily and then would continue to cook the fish before then sticking them in the snow in-front of the fire to finish cooking before then getting up and looking around. She then got some of the extra clothes that had been ripped and such from her bag and set them down under them on the snow, before then leaning against the little wall she had made.

It was obvious that Sagittaria had much to go home to. It had always been obvious, even since their Reaping Ceremony. She had parents and siblings and maybe friends, and Carcinus was beginning to think that she might be the one who deserved to go home the most in that arena. Of course others might disagree with him on that. But to him, the rest of the tributes did not truly pop in mind, as he never got to know them as well as he did Sagittaria.

The young woman let out a small laugh and then nodded her head, she dug a small little hole for the fire, and then would start finding branches around the small area. Pointing out to him which ones were good and which ones were too small or too big for the fire they would want. She then used bark as tinder for the fire and smiled once it was all ready.

Sagittaria got into work immediately. While she did, Carcinus followed her lead, taking the branches and logs while at the same time learning from her. The pile of woods eventually built up into a bonfire, which he then lit with the match she gave him. The fire started small but then grew as it licked more and more twigs. The warmth emanating from it felt incredibly nice after the especially hard day.

The young woman smiled and then nodded her head and picked the both of them up, and then put it with her other fish she still had. “Tonight we eat well!” she laughed and then would shake her head. “Not bad at all pretty boy.” she said giving him a kiss on the cheek and then picking up their things.

It was a bit silly how even after everything they had been through, Carcinus' stomach still jumped nervously when she gave him a peck on the cheek. The smile stretching on his face was inevitable, and for a moment he could almost feel warm and comfortable in the freezing weather.

Sagittaria was a bit sad when he did in the end pull away from this kiss. She really had strong feelings for the boy, she rather be back home, warm under the heat of the sun just cuddling with him on the beach. Although she thought about how it would be hard for them to have met without the games. It still didn’t change the fact that she didn’t want to be there, in the games, fighting for survival.

Testing the water, he dipped one leg in before the other. Needless to say, it was freezing cold, its temperature immediately piercing into his skin.The warm water of District 4 sea would have been preferable, but such was not a choice. He was just about to make a stab at his first fish when a he heard a cannon fire, breaking his focus.

"When would they ever need this kind of stuff? they aren’t in any need of it." she pouted softly and then would look to him with a soft smile. "Carcinus…" she said taking a deep breath. She was hoping deep down that this might help them win popularity which was never a bad thing. She reached out and took his face into her hands and then kissed him deeply. "Thank you again… for coming with me…" she said sweetly and then ran her hands threw his hair and then looked to her arm and started to move it slowly.

The kiss was sudden and completely unexpected. It took a while for his mind to register what was going on before then earnestly returning the gesture and curled one arm around her waist. Carcinus did not know if they had been some sort of a couple to the audience during their stay in the Capitol, but if they had not been, they definitely were at this point. A part of him was nervous about the image given the rebellion of the 74th Hunger Games, but another part knew it was going to earn them a lot of sponsors. In the end he decided to go with it anyway. It was not like they were going to pull a nightlock stunt and get away with it. The gamemakers would be careful not to let such thing happen again.

The young woman nodded in agreement with what the boy had to say. He did have a point, normally in alliances there was always plots of murder. For some odd reason she felt pity for them, but it was short lived.

He gave her a quizzical look, knowing full well there was something she was not telling him. What was on that note? But as she quickly changed the subject, he decided to play along. "Yeah, they do." Carcinus nodded. "Three people at once for the last two days—we didn't go hunting on the first—but now that I'm gone, they might shake things up a bit soon." There were only four of them left. The wisest strategy would be to have two on every hunting trip and he was sure someone in the alliance would think of that.

The young woman packed the knifes into the pocket of her bag, as ll as her kitchen knife, and she let Carcinus carry the spear while she dragged the axe along with her. “Maybe sink them to the bottom of the river if we can’t find them?” she said curiously, knowing that few people would be willing to jump into the frozen cold water. She then told the boy of how she jumped into the coldest water she had ever swam in, and then told him that was why she cut her long thick beautiful hair.

Sagittaria's story made him realise that she had probably gone through more things than him in the arena. While he was spending most of his time in the Cornucopia area, she was out adventuring the landscape. He was grateful for that, because otherwise both of them would just be confused and lost. Weaponry skills were truly not the only thing that mattered in the Hunger Games.

The young woman would smile and then nodded her head softly “I know.. I’ve seen her before, I think we talked if only for a moment.” she said with a small shrug and then would take the boy’s hand and adjusted the bag sitting on her good shoulder and continued on. “She actually was the one to throw the knife into my arm.”

Carcinus reached into the inner pockets of his jacket, hoping the things he had brought with him did not fall out during the run. "A bottle of water and a small pack of crackers." He shook his head at the pathetic amount of supply in his hands. That would barely keep them nourished for two days. If only he had thought things out, if only he had planned things better... His trainers back at home had got to be shaking their heads at him right this moment.

The young woman looked to him and then would gulp and would look down into the valley spotting how far away the cornucopia actually was from this very spot. She would then turn back to look to the boy and the nodded her head “I’m fine… I just need something to tie around my arm to stop it from bleeding out anymore.” she said taking out an extra shirt from her bag and handing it to the young man. “Mind helping me?” she said softly.

Carcinus only nodded, still feeling like he had lost a fraction of his mind. He then quickly tied the shirt around Sagittaria's arm. "I can go back, but after the stunt I just pulled they wouldn't let me out of their sight. Which means it would be difficult for me to find my way back to you."

The small girl quickly rolled away from the two of them and then hid back towards her things as she heard the groaning in pain, and the screaming and it was all just horrible to think about. She felt her heart race when she finally realized who the other boy was, she got up and then grabbed the spear tightly to stop him from stabling the body anymore.

It all felt like a haze. Carcinus could feel weariness creeping into his arms, but they did not stop. His spear kept bobbing up and down, looking for spots that had not yet been covered in blood. It was only when he heard Sagittaria's voice that he could snap out of it. Realising what he had done, he threw his spear to the ground and watched as the other boy slowly bled to the very end.