The Non Mortal Games

1: Magicia: The Reaping

My name is Magicia Hexopia and I am the writer of the Non Mortal Games. Now though, it's turning into a story of two, told by two different viewpoints, Magicia and Metallica.

Claudius Templesmith's voice rang out across the arena.

“WELCOME TO THE FIRST EVER NON MORTAL GAMES!” He yelled. I'm standing on a plate next to James, my fellow tribute, and Quicksilver and Ben are standing on my shoulders. Makenna, the showoff demon, is floating in thin air next to our plate. I sigh. I never wanted to do this, the Capitol had no right to pick on the non mortals like this. We have one shot. Just one shot to pull this off and get out of Panem for good before they decide to kill us all.

Where did this start? Well, let me tell you...

It was a cold day in District Twelve as I hunted in the woods for my family and myself. I was furious at myself because I should have done it a while ago as Lefia, my sister, was sitting in a cage so she didn't go all agro on any mortals who came to visit. Yes, you heard that right. Mortals. Lefia was a vampire, and so was her mother until she died. I was a demigod, daughter of Hecate and Hermes. Yes I know, why would the Ancient Greek gods live in the districts etc etc etc. But Mother and Father had given me life back in the year 1999. From then I had lived in a mortal host until I'd gotten back my own. But this was my body, as I had immortality and had lived for countless years.

As I headed home, the Reaping was on my mind. The idiots in the Capitol had decided exactly 100 years ago that every year, 24 tributes would be sent into an arena to fight to the death, rather like gladiators, and 23 tributes were sentenced to die. Doing the math, that would be exactly 2299 tributes who have died for this sport. It was cruel, cold and heartless.

Just as I got home, a compulsory program came on. It was the president deciding on what cruel twist the Games would have this year, as it was the 100th.

“To remind the districts of the ancient cultures of magic that fought in the war, this year the tributes will be reaped from the pool of non mortals in every district.” The president declared. My eyes widened and before I had realised it I had thrown my knife at the screen. It shattered the glass and the screen, and I sank to the floor. No.. James, my best friend, would have to go. He would die. And the only girls were Nadia, a fallen angel, Lefia, my sister and I. Lefia began to sob, and I stood and took my knife out of the TV furiously. They had no right, those evil bastards. As Makenna began to comfort Lefia, Quincy and Ben came running in, Quincy in his humanoid dragon form.

“We heard everything” He said furiously. I nodded, and sat down on a chair, knowing that this was too much. The non mortals would... gods, I didn't even know who the non mortals in every district were. There had been too many to count before the war, and after no one had been allowed out of their district.

The next twilight, instead of going to night school, the last session of it before the Reaping, all of the non mortals in district met up in the woods. Lefia and I got there first. When we were younglings, James, Nadia and I had found a special place in the woods, with a small pool and trees around. As we got older, Lefia had joined us there, and it had become our special secret between the four of us.

James was a fallen demon, kicked out of Hell for rebelling against Lucifer. Nadia had left because she was a kind hearted soul, no idea how she'd gotten kicked out of heaven, not. Around mortals she was kickass and didn't take orders from anybody. We didn't spend much time in the mortal world. We didn't eat mortal food, we hunted in the woods for blood and flesh of animals, sometimes a stray mortal if we were lucky.

“Well, what are we going to do?” James was furious; his eyes were changing colour every two seconds. (He used quite a bit of objectionable language but I won't put that down here)

“Well what do they expect us to do?” I asked. “If we run they will try to track us down. No tributes from District Twelve means less fun to them” James nodded. I'd always been the good reasonable one. James was impulsive and reckless sometimes but he and Nadia had a soft spot for me. In the dimming light his eyes, now blood red, were glowing.

“If Lefia gets called up I'll volunteer” I said, causing her to glance up. “She wouldn't be treated well there” James nodded. All of us were hunters. We fed off life.

Nadia spread her pretty black feathered wings. I did the same with my own silver dragon wings, and then flipped backwards into the pool. It was a few metres deep and about twenty five metres square.

“Has the Capitol considered how hard it is to really kill a non mortal?” James was still pacing. “After all, specialised species can only be killed with specialised weapons. And a lot of us have guardians as well” Quincy and Ben nodded, and Makenna just splashed me.

“Let's just swim for now. For tomorrow don't forget there'll be two not four” Nadia said. We all nodded, and swam under the rising silver moon.

The next day at the Reaping, I wore a black dress, one that I had kept from Olympus. It had a tight bodice and a loose skirt, and was comfortable.

No suprise, James was chosen for male tribute. He had to do something to prove he was a non mortal, though. I had no idea how the Capitol had managed to get ahold of the names and districts of all the non mortals and put them into a list.

“I am James” he said simply, and Nadia and I glanced at each other. A show of power... We would show them power. With a single flap of her wings, the sky turned pitch black, and she raised the moon. I brought up a storm, lightning and wind and rain. The mortals cowered, and Nadia and I lowered the spells again, grinning. We hadn't had the chance to do serious magic in God knows how long.

“W-well th-that s-s-seems to b-be in o-o-order” Effie's replacement, Pinkie, stuttered. I laughed, the sound echoing around the areas. The mortals looked at us. They were afraid. 

“Oh, be afraid, we bite” Nadia added, making me grin. Lefia grinned as well, her fangs showing. It was too much for some of the mortals. They fainted, screamed or tried to run away.

And my name was chosen.

“I will come back to you, I promise” I hugged Nadia and Lefia. I turned to the mortals.

“You will regret what you have done” I said quietly, my voice ringing with fury. Instantly, all were silent, and James and I were taken to the Justice Building.