#kahente.task

For as long as she could remember (which in this moment was not a long time), her biggest fear had been drowning. There was no recollection of the overcoming of that fear, no recollection of all the other, far scarier things there were in the world to be afraid of. All she knew was that the thought of drowning terrified her, and there seemed to be no escape from the never-ending stream of it.

As the water levels rose, she attempted to seek higher ground, tried to find some place to hide to wait out the incoming storm, but there seemed to be no way to avoid it, and she only got farther and farther from the terrain that she had been pacing for the last hour or so. 

The water was up to her chin in no time, and she prepared herself for drowning, prepared herself to die with no recollection of more than half of her existence. However, muscle memory took over from there, and instead of drowning, she floated to the surface.

She had no idea where or when she had learned to do this, and the very fact that she was lying on top of the water as more was added underneath her scared her more than the water itself, but she waited it out, readjusting herself every now and then like she had been doing it for her entire life.

By the time the water began to drain, Kahente had lost track of time, had no idea how long it had been since she woke up that morning, but a memory suddenly came crashing back into her brain. Why her father wasn’t with her, why her father might have been dead at home while she was...wherever she was. 

Cancer.

It was at this moment, her head in her hands trying to massage out the pain she felt from the new memory in her brain, her hair dripping water all over her freezing body, that she ran across another person for the first time since her last kill.

“P-p-please,” she managed to squeak out, involuntarily shivering, appearing the weakest she had ever been. “D-d-don’t kill me, I have to get home to my f-f-f-father.” // starter for @huntedhunter

Despite her best attempt not to, Kahente fell asleep. It was stupid, it was dumb, she knew it, but if now wasn’t going to be the time to get at least a little bit of rest, she didn’t know when the time would be.

The feeling of the ground shaking underneath her was what woke her, and she woke with a start, her heart skipping a beat. Was she dreaming? Or was the ground really moving from underneath her? 

She stood up, bow at the ready, unclear of what was next.

And then, in the distance, she saw them.

People? Was that what they were? She didn’t know, but she didn’t have the time to figure it out. Quickly, and without thinking it over too much, she collected her things and started booking it as fast as she possibly could in the opposite direction.

Was this happening to everyone? Was everyone being attacked and chased in this manner? She didn’t know, and she didn’t know if she wanted to find out the answer, so she kept running, grateful that she had slept when she did, grateful, grateful, grateful.

Boom.

The first cannon sound made her realize that she was not alone in this. Other people were fighting, whether or not they were fighting these same things that she was. 

She took the moment to turn around, watching them burn everything in their path. The tree she had slept against, the place she had dropped down from the cloud. It was all burning in front of her.

It seemed metaphorical.

She remembered the conversation she had with Hunter the day she met him, about the viscose factory, about how angry he was, about how stupid he was to burn things to the ground. She didn’t understand what he meant at the time.

But now, being chased by computer generated humans, her lungs felt like they were what was being set on fire, and she understood how a person could be that angry.

Another cannon.

She was angry that this was what she was spending her time in the arena doing, she was angry that the chance of getting to go home seemed to simultaneously grow and shrink with each moment she was alive and other people perished, she was angry that she was still cold, she was angry that these fucking creatures refused to stop walking towards her.

Her bow and arrow would have to finally get some use, and she shot an arrow at the one in the front, hitting in the shoulder. They all paused for a moment, staring at the site of the impact, before running once more. Nothing would stop them, nothing would cause them to slow down, and the brief moment of catching her breath was not enough. She backed up away from them, trying to use the small break she could to her advantage.

She was ready to run, she was ready to keep fighting.

A third cannon.

Right now, you are watching your life through a television screen.

This cannot be real, the voice in your head, the terrible act you feel inclined to commit, yet somehow, your body keeps walking forward. You are not in control anymore, and this terrifies you more than you can say, but there is nothing you can do to stop the motion.

It is as if you are floating in a bubble above yourself, looking down at your body, empty, soulless, awaiting command.

Animalsssss, that’s what they are, all the beingssssss in thisssss arena, all the humansssss. They’re all animalssssss.

You see your head nod up and down, robotic, stoic, in complacent agreement with the voice.

Show them what you do to animalsssssssss. Eat them alive.

Another head nod and you’re off, turning towards other creatures, attacking like you’re feral.

You are not in control anymore, and while your body is doing unspeakable things, your mom and your dad are in the back of your head. What are they thinking watching this, watching you, blood dripping down your face, staining the t-shirt Satine gave to you?

You are a killer now, nothing else.

There is no time for gamessssssssss.

And by this point, you’re not even aware of the difference between the voice in your head, and your own thoughts.

By the time you’re back in your body, your skin is stained red. There is a foul taste in your mouth, you feel like vomiting.

Kahente avoided the water like the plague. Swimming was not something she was proficient in, and she wasn’t going to test it. Now with food in her stomach, she felt like she could stand up, look around, explore, but the moment she got up on her feet, something reached out of the water she was near and swallowed her whole.

It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, and even once they did, she could still barely see. She, once again, found herself in a situation in which she didn’t know where she was, and that terrified her in a new and different way.

Reaching around for a moment, her hand came into contact with something slimy and she realized that was the wall of whatever room she was in. It was quiet, too quiet, and dark, too dark, and it immediately filled her with the knowledge that she was not supposed to be here.

But then, after holding her hand almost directly in front of her face, the pungent and unmistakable smell of fish wafted into her nostrils, and she immediately began to gag, realizing where she was.

Inside the stomach of some sort of fish monster mutt thing.

How the fuck was she going to get out?

She began walking along the whale’s stomach lining, keeping her hand on the “wall” like if she was in some sort of maze. She had to get out, this she knew, but how was what she didn’t.

The walls seemed deceivingly thick, like she could break through them if she tried hard enough.

Glitter.

Of course, the hand to hand training she had done with Glitter, of course this would be the time to use it. She straightened out her stance as much as she possibly could, getting ready to punch through this wall. She knew she could, and believing was half the battle, so by the time her fist made contact with the whale’s flesh, she felt her hand sink further into the wall.

It sent a burning sensation through the injuries on her dominant arm from the girl the first day, but she knew she had to keep going, no matter how much it hurt her to do so.

She kept punching, exactly how Glitter had showed her, until she almost felt the outer lining of the whale.

Before placing the last throw, she took another deep breath, and threw the last punch, as water flooded into the whale from the whole she made.

Swimming was something she did not know how to do, but she knew she had to get out of here, so she jumped through the hole she made, into water that used to terrify her, and feeling like this might be the end.

She didn’t know what to do, and began to sink to the bottom of the body of water, flailing her arms to try and save herself. There was no direction here, no inkling of instruction, and she silently wished that she had spent more time with River so that he could have taught her.

Her feet made contact with the floor not long after, and she looked around her, trying to find something to hold on to to get her out of there. She could only hold her breath for so long, could only pretend this was all going to be okay for so long, before she knew that this would become her watery grave.

As much as she tried to stay calm, it didn’t work, and her plans all seemed not be able to work. She began to feel light headed, like she needed to breathe, like she was going to either pass out or get lungs full of water, when she saw a creature swimming next to her.

Instinctively, and with her last bit of energy, she reached out towards it, gripping firmly as it swam closer to the sky.

When it felt like she was not going to be able to take it anymore, she finally saw the sun again, and gasped for breath the minute she broke above the water, using her other arm to grab onto the shore and push herself onto it, before collapsing, unmoving, to the ground.

That morning, Kahente was already angry. 

Everything leading up to this moment had led her to just being flat out frustrated at her situation. Life wasn’t fair, she had known that for a long time now, but there was something about this situation that seemed even more fucked. Everything from the low score at training, to the uncomfortable interview; it seemed as if this entire city was rooting against her.

As much as she wanted to believe that, deep in her, she knew that wasn’t true. She had Satine, and River and Glitter, and maybe that would be enough to get her through.

The maze of hallways to get to where she was supposed to go seemed never ending, but when she finally entered the preparation room, it seemed cold and unforgiving, just like she found the majority of the city to be. It was an appropriate send-off.

The tracker implanted in her arm sent a sharp sting through her body, and she stared at the place it was implanted for a moment, amazed at how the wound seemed to heal almost instantly. This was what they used their medical tech for, apparently, tracking people in arenas of deaths as opposed to healing those who needed it in the outer districts.

She didn’t know if there was something else that was supposed to be happening, some sort of other task she was supposed to complete before being sent to her death, but before she even had the true opportunity to question that further, her eyes felt heavy, as if everything about her situation was telling her to close her eyes and sleep.

Fighting the urge to rest seemed pointless, the need to shut her eyes was overwhelming, so despite her every instinct telling her not to, her eyes fluttered closed and she fell asleep.

When she woke up, the first thing that she noticed was the way the wind felt on her bare skin. Where was she? Why did the ground beneath her that she was laying on feel so warm and inviting, like she could lay there forever? Thanks to some unknown urge in her head, she stood up, began walking around, her eyes settling on the people around her who seemed to be doing the same thing. 

Who were these people? Who was she?

And why did the seemingly never-ending view from the edge of her cloud seem to be calling for her to jump off of if like this was what she was always meant to do? Like her life, however long it has been, has led her right to this moment?

She stood at the edge of the cloud, the sound of a harp playing in her mind. She didn’t know what the instrument was, why it was playing, but it relaxed her to the point where she just didn’t care, smiling at the people on either side of her who stood at the edge too.

Her feet carried her without her mind telling her what to do, and without thinking about it for longer than a few seconds, she jumped off of the cloud, falling to the word below.

The burning sensation on her back was hard to ignore as her wings began to catch fire, and she swatted them out with her overly calloused hands, hands that she had never seen before, hands that were injured and beat up to the point where it made her sad that those were hers.

A couple burns was nothing compared to the lifetime of scratches and injuries her hands had endured, but none of that was at the forefront of her mind in this moment.

As she landed on her feet, she looked around, picking a leaf off of her skimpy outfit in an area when it could be picked from and placing it on the burn marks on her back, before wincing at the searing pain in her head that was causing her attention to shift. 

1. sword fighting

2. hand to hand

1. ask a mentor about their games (glitter)

2. train with a mentor or trainer from a district other than your own (glitter)

3. work with another tribute to gain a new skill (cricket)

4. talk about the reapings with another character (cricket)

Being gawked at was a new thing for Kahente.

Back home, it wasn’t like she was viewed as conventionally beautiful, it wasn’t like people stared at her as she walked through the center of her district because she stood out appearance-wise, she was so used to passing through the shadows, to being unnoticed. that standing on a platform in front of the entire nation felt completely foreign.