Day 3

Location: In the forest

Ally: Malia

Event After helping little ones, Malia and I went to find a place to rest. We found ourself against other tribute and had to battle for our life

Injuries; Whip mark on the arm (healing) cuts on arm, legs and face (healing/starting to disappear), sratch in the face, injury in the leg, drugged with Tracker Jacker Venom

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When Malia woke me up, the sun was already high in the sky. It was warmer than usual. She had gone filled our water bottle with fresh water and had cracked iodine in it. While she explain to me how'd she got the tablet, we ate and drank in the safety of the house. Part of me was so proud that she manage to do that on her own. I knew she was feeling weak next to me and was trying to prove the world that she wasn't. I hope she would see with what happen what I felt already; she was stronger than she could imagine. 

«As much as sleeping on a bed was nice, we should move. » I said as we pack our things. «I don,t want to extend my welcome and it's the second morning with birds, let,s not have a third.» She seem to agree even if, I could see, she was reluctant to leave this safe heaven. It took me convincing to actually move. And it was in the threat of the game maker being bored and setting the thing on fire that she finally cross the door. 

The sounds of familiar voices screaming for help ripped Arland, Kyera, and Nessa out of their deep sleeping. The voice that had tugged at Nessa’s mind was that of her fifteen-year-old sister, Natalie. Her screams for help filled her head. She tried to block out the ear-piercing shouts, but to no avail.

When I arrived downstairs I stop on my heels when I realize it just wasn't one crow and one little person but instead a family of little people and a flock of crows going after them. Either I'm going mad or the gamemakers really ran out of ideas. I stand there, with my weapons frozen not knowing if to go after something that might not be real or to get the crows out of here and save the family of little people. For all I knew this could be another nightmare of mine; my brain playing tricks on me.

"It's a human!" I barely heard one of the little people shout as they ran around trying to protect each other from the beaks of the crows. Then one of the crows managed to grab one of the little girl and he was already flying away with her. I don't know why but I lifted my arm and let my whip hit the bird, bringing it down before throwing my knife at it. Killing it without a hesitation. If I was going crazy, I might as well embrace it. 

"What are you?" I tried to speak in my most calm voice as I shield their tiny bodies with my own after I ran towards them. For little people that were getting saved they didn't look very happy. On the other hand, they looked even more afraid at the fact that I was there. 

"We're borrowers and you just saw us. We're not suppose to be seen!" one of them replied to me. Then everything began to make sense in my head; the sugar cubes, the empty dollhouse. Everything. And a little smile formed on my face as I shot to my feet and ran to my pack. By the time I return to the borrowers they were already running around once more, trying not to get eaten by the crows. Unzipping my pack I crouched low and place it on the ground, motioning them to get inside it.

"Get in. I'll drive them out." I explain to them. After a lot of hesitation from their part and a crow almost eating one of the little girls they ran straight into my pack, seeking for shelter. Half zipping up my pack I placed it carefully to the side before turning around to face the crows. "you know I had once loved birds. Now...not so much." I said through my teeth as I cracked my whip in the air. The noise alerting the crows they had a new threat. The hunters were now being hunted. 

From my experience with the woodpeckers I knew that hitting them with my whip would only do so much and my knife was nothing when I had a dozen beaks attacking my skin once more. The familiar sting their beaks brought to my body was no longer so painful but I still flinched as they now attacked me. I was not hoping Elias had saved some of that cream he had gotten because my once healing wounds were now letting out my red blood. Staining the floor. 

My eyes scanned the room trying to find a way to drive them out. I knew that they wouldn't like shinning objects but as far as I was concerned a cloud hung over us, shielding us from the sun. That only left me with one option. I guess Elias wouldn't be very happy about how I was going to wake him up.

Rushing to the little kitchen I grabbed two pots that were laying there forgotten. They were rusty and I could just feel the bacteria on my hands as I picked them up but I ignored everything else and banged both pots together. The noise making even me jump. I wasn't going to spend hours killing those damn birds so the least I could do was drive them away. Stepping over the dead bird I continue to crash both pots together, attempting to make as much noise as possible. Their beaks and feet once more scratching my already marked skin. Now and then I would grab my whip and slash at one of them. It was a constant war between us both but thirty minutes later the last crow flew out the door and I shut it close, falling to the ground. Next time I see a damn bird I will kill it. 

Catching my breath I craw back to the pack and unzip it. "they're gone. Sorry about all that." I say with a little smile as I watch the family of borrowers walk out of my pack. This had to be the weirdest shit I had ever seen! Their little heads looked around the room and all of them smiled when they realize that only the dead bird remain. 

"Thank you for saving us! How can we ever repay you!" the male said. Shaking my head I sat back, my arms sore from all movement I had done. "You don't have to. It was nothing."

The afternoon was almost over and the sun had us sweaty. Malia allowed -forced- me a few hour of sleep by napping near a tree. I didn't trust them anymore but the shadow cutting the sun was more than welcome and she could wake me up if needed. When  I woke up, I drank what was left of our water and get some more. «Did I slept for long? Missed any cannon?» I ask as I cracked our last iodine tablet into the water. We will have to be careful now. «I kinda slept like a rock.» I said with a grin. And I did. Honestly i was sure in the arena I would sleep with an eye open. But was I trusting Malia that much? That I allowed myself full sleep. Honestly, I was surprised at myself.

My breathing was heavy and I moved around in my sleep. Just like I had predicted Roman and Fay faces were haunting my dreams. My lips rapidly move as I tried to make words and when two cannons echoed in the arena. I let out a scream. 

Shooting straight to my feet, I covered my mouth and realize I was shaking. Two more people were gone and my heart was beating rapidly. The shock from last night was gone because even in Elias arm I didn’t feel safe. I don’t think I would ever feel same. 

Distant rumbling had me rolling over. “Five more minutes,” I mumbled to no one in particular, trying to fend off the tendrils of consciousness that threatened to pull me to waking. But to no avail, I opened my eyes finding them sticky as a white film obscured my vision. Panic seized as I shot bolt upright on the bed. I dragged my hand up, touching my face to find…cobwebs. Pulling them away from my eyes I looked down, finding our little friends had been quite busy during the night. I heard a faint buzzing from the corner, a winged friends spinning a web in one corner before circling back to the bed.

The echo of two cannons pulls me to consciousness early in the mooring. I sit up and grin to myself as it confirms two more tributes dead. Two less obstacles in my way.

However my celebration is cut short when I feel small tickles across my legs and coming around my arms from my back. I jumped up and threw the blanket across the room, revealing a colony of those things thats were upstairs.