Jeopardy: The Fourth Quarter Quell

Daisy-Fruit - Venus

Venus

It's nice to just wake up steadily, feeling the sun on my face. Normally I'm woken up by Chase or Kale but this morning I'm allowed to rise groggily, letting sleep hang in my mind for a moment. I'd almost forgotten what it felt like. Sleeping in the open air is strange too. Back home we're sheltered from the wind but we can still hear it hammering away at the walls, and so far here we've been cocooned inside the poisonous atmosphere at the Cornucopia. This is...pleasant. Calm. I almost expect to hear birds singing, except there aren't because there aren't any birds. Has there been before? I can't remember.

I wait a moment, savouring the comfort, before uncurling myself. Back at the Cornucopia we slept back-to-back but we don't need that now. I'm not worried that Luxury is suddenly going to attack, which I'm sure she would have done if Elton hadn't turned into her punchbag because it was obvious she didn't like me at all. She might have liked Chase until he didn't say a word to her and acted as though she wasn't really there. Must have been strange; one who never stops talking and one who doesn't start. Kale's the happy medium in our family. For a moment my youngest brother appears in my mind, not fourteen like he is now but seven years old, this massive grin on his face as he throws his arms around me, his big sister, home from training and with bruises all down her arms. Chase had only laughed and said I was obviously too slow.

I got quicker, though.

I find myself echoing Kale's grin as I spot Chase, flat on his back with his hands behind his head, mouth open and a trickle of drool down his face. It must be uncomfortable to sleep like that, but that's probably why he's done it. The lazy lump.

The wound on his forehead is clean - I made sure of that before we went to sleep - and there's no blood through the bandage I fashioned from my shirt sleeve.

My arms are stiff so I stretch them out, relishing the slight creaking in my muscles. Top four; we stayed awake to hear the cannons because we're far enough away by now that we're out of reach. We can take our time, then head back so the Gamemakers don't think we're boring.

Then I look up.

A parachute dangles, caught in a branch about halfway up the tree. Even Chase won't be able to reach it, and neither of us can climb. The box that dangles from it is an optimistic size, something useful, I'd bet, but not cumbersome. We have thoughtful sponsors.

How to get it down? I size the distance up again, but there's pretty much no way that I'm going to get it down alone. Even if I was a more...standard height, it'd be tricky. So I take up Chase's machete and jump as high as I can, trying to cut the lines that the box is attached with.

It's inelegant, but since when have I been elegant?

I'm sweating with effort by the time that the strings snap. The box falls almost straight into my hands; it's lighter than I was expecting. Whatever it contains isn't that heavy and doesn't rattle, so it's probably not a weapon. We don't need weapons, though; I've got my knives and Chase has a machete. They'd only be a hindrance.

It's berries, of all things. Not like the berries that we get back in Two, small and and dark and almost impossible to chew. These are huge and speckled and look like they're about to burst with juice. My stomach growls just looking at them.

The packets will keep. These won't, and it'd be a shame to waste a sponsor gift. Looks like we got sent breakfast.

Bitterness explodes across my tongue as I sink my teeth into the smallest berry. My eyes water with it and I throw it back into the box, thick white juice seeping out from the bite marks. The taste sticks to the inside of my mouth even though I spit to get rid of it, and there's clumps of white in my saliva. It looks untidy on the floor so I grind it into the ground with my boot, screwing up my face to try and get rid of the disgusting taste.