A Part to Play // Hunger Games

9 // Tired of the Manipulation

"And my mind may be in pieces, but I will not be manipulated" - When We Fall (-AllFandoms-)

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TW: blood and mention of murder

It was day six and Aria was more nervous than ever. There hadn't been any deaths since day two and the girl had a feeling that the Capitol was becoming impatient.

She was almost done scouting the woods, at least most of it, having already walked for miles on end. The girl had managed to find the end of the Arena, seeing nothing but another frozen desert to the distance and decided to go back, making a mind map of all the cameras she could find and where the biggest number of animals resided.

She was just chilling on her tree when she heard them. A loud roar filled the air and she knew the Capitol was taking matters to its own hands.

'Mutts.' The youngest tribute thought to herself, untying the rope around her and shoving it, together with the sleeping bag, into her backpack, climbing down the tree and taking off to the opposite direction of the sound.

She knew they were getting closer and had no choice but to run as fast as she possibly could.

The girl knew, for sure, that she was heading towards another tribute, if not more than one. Knowing how much Snow 'adored' her, she was probably being sent towards the career pack.

She needed to think of a way to escape the mutts without having a run in with another tribute. And that was when her head started to work overtime.

As the young girl heard the sounds getting closer, she turned around for a mere second, but it was enough to see the three huge lion muttations that were pursuing her.

It was at that moment that she finally came up with an idea. She would need to distract them long enough to be able to set a quick trap, knowing it had to be strong enough to hold at least two of the crazy animals. The other one she'd deal with later, using her boomerangs and shurikens.

The girl thought about a trap she had learnt in one of the stations back in training. It wasn't perfect, especially due to the time limit she was working with, but it would have to do.

She cursed herself out for not thinking about it earlier, but knew deep down that her brain was otherwise busy, thinking about running and keeping her from being devoured.

Setting to work immediately, the tribute threw one of her shurikens as far as she could, lodging it in a tree trunk to her right, the sound distracting the mutts for just enough time for her to hide inside a cave and start to work on the trap's elements as she heard the animals go out to investigate the noise. The mutts would still be able to smell her for sure, but the cave was only big enough for a small sized human or animal. They wouldn't be able to enter.

Weaving as fast as she could, the young girl made herself a few ropes and got out of her hideout, hoping what she'd managed to do would be enough to hold two full grown lion mutts, given she didn't have any more time.

Setting out the trap was easy, it being the fastest one she knew how to do and her motivation being right there, slowly approaching as it bared its knife-sharp teeth at the twelve year old girl.

Her hands worked instinctively, having spent so much time doing the same thing during training, when she'd built each trap over and over again, until she'd reached perfection.

Her timing couldn't be more perfect, even if she tried. As soon as she finished setting things up, the first lion jumped up to attack her, jaw wide open as it tried to reach for the youngest tribute.