Under the Moon

Chapter Fourteen

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The Cornucopia was still the gold horn it was every year, but beyond that, nothing in this arena was the same as the previous ones. Off in the horizon, a forest of small, fluffy pink trees topped with whitish cream, with striped red and white trunks made my mouth water. A river of creamy red liquid was flowing from the Cornucopia through the forest. A chocolate and mint smell came from the ground and I realized that the soil was made of chocolate and the grass was mint. Vines made of colorful licorice hung from the trees and rock candy lined the stream bed. This was the best arena I had ever seen! Nobody would ever go hungry here! The sky was also unordinary, with pink clouds dotting the lavender sky. The fact that we were surrounded in candy made the games appear ridiculous. Twenty-four teenagers were expected to fight to the death among thousands of sweets? It never crossed my mind that the candy would be unsafe to eat; that would defeat the whole purpose of the theme. I wanted to see Copper's expression, but I knew that if I even slightly moved, I would be exploded off my pedestal. I waited as the final numbers of the countdown were counted. "3, 2, 1!" the sound of the horn played as all the tributes ran toward the Cornucopia. I was small and fast, so I ran through many of the larger tributes and grabbed three large colorful bags from the mouth of the Cornocupia. I sprinted into the cotton candy forest and looked around for Copper. I saw him, holding on a vine and nimbly climbing up the tree trunk made of twisted candy canes. He was the only boy tribute who looked good on his purple suit. His darkly tanned skin and copper colored hair made the outfit seem almost white. He looked like he belonged in this candy land; he looked like a magical creature of sorts. He got to the top of the cotton candy tree and let the thick licorice vine down for me. I threw the sacks on my shoulders and held tightly in the vine, kicking my feet on the candy cane trunk. "Zeze! Check this out!" Copper said with his mouth full, "This stuff is delicious! Have one!" He pointed to an apple that looked like it was made if millions of sugar crystals. "I can't! Can't you see I'm climbing!" I shouted. I was only two feet below him. He plucked off the fruit and held it in front of my mouth. I opened my mouth to grab it with my teeth but he pulled it away at the last second and stuffed it in his own mouth. "Hey!" I protested, "That was mean!"

"Don't worry; there's plenty of them! Let me help you get up here," he said as he grabbed my hand and pulled my up beside him. "Here!" he said, plucking another sugar apple, and holding it in front of my face, "Your well-deserved treat!" This time, he actually let me bite it and a rush of sweetness overwhelmed my mouth. It was as though the one bite was made of billions of pieces of sugar. He gave me the rest if the apple and I devoured the whole thing. I plucked another apple and ate it. When I picked my third one, Copper said, "Hey, enough! I've only had two!" He lunged for it but I pulled back. "It's mine! Pick another one!" I said as I stuffed it in my mouth. "Bad little Zeze!" he teased, his mouth full of cotton candy, "Too much sugar isn't good for you!"

"Yeah? Well look who's talking?" I laughed. "Hey let's open these bags and see what's inside!" I said.

"Good idea," Copper agreed as he pulled the five bags he had grabbed to my side.

"Woah, we have a lot!" I said.

"That's the point. If you aren't picky, you can get more stuff easier!" Copper responded as he opened his first bag. "Ooh, it's a sword!" he said as he slashed at the cotton candy above us. I opens my mouth and allowed the falling pieces to dissolve in my mouth. He pulled out something else from the bag. "A sleeping bag!" he exclaimed, "And a slingshot." I nodded my approval as I opened my smallest bag. "A blow dart gun!" I said, "That won't be so hard to shoot. And a coil of rope. A pair of gloves. And a ... Slinky?"

"Hey isn't that a good thing? It could be the wire you wanted!" Copper said. I examined the slinky. It was definitely metal and the loops made it extremely conductive. It was just what I needed! I nodded at him as a put everything back in the bag. The stuff in the rest of our bags consisted of an assortment of knifes, a couple of spears, a bow and arrows, a dozen of tiny bombs, another sleeping bag, needle and thread, a blanket, four canteens full of water, iodine, and bandages. We had more than enough weapons and food. We had no idea where to get more water and I still needed two hollow metal rods to make my force field work. Our rejoicing was interrupted by a cannon noise. Surprisingly, no one had died during the rush to get the stuff at the Cornucopia, something which was odd and unusual. But I figured out that was probably because the hungry, weak tributes who usually get killed first, had ignored the supplies and had run straight to the candy-filled forest. Now though, someone had died. I looked out from a patch in the tree I had hollowed out by eating the cotton candy. I saw Sapphire, standing with a huge grin on her face above a dead tribute. I recognized him to be from District Twelve. He was sitting on the ground, in plain view, eating the chocolate grass, and Sapphire had simply stabbed him in the back with her knife while her allies stood watching. She giggled, a high pitched childish giggle of glee, when she realized that the tribute was dead. She left him to go down to the river, where a clump of skinny twelve and thirteen year olds sat, eating the rock candy. She gave her knives to Ray, who handed her the bow and arrows. She shot an arrow through the head of a girl about my age and then through the back of a slim boy. They immediately slumped down to the ground. "This is so fun!" she squealed as she grabbed a knife from Ray's hand and threw it at the remaining kid. Four kills in less than 10 minutes. Killing people was fun for Sapphire. She was the only one who had killed anyone so far, and I was pretty sure that she had a great chance to win the games. A much greater chance than I. Probably even a better chance than Copper. A moment later, a hovercraft came to collect the bodies.

Sapphire said, "Now I must find Copper and that little witch, Zeze! We will kill them next!" She stomped into the forest, followed by her allies. And every step they moved, the got closer to our tree. Thankfully, sitting on cotton candy makes absolutely no sound, so when Copper and I pulled in out knees and arranged the cotton candy to cover us all, Sapphire didn't notice. I breathed a sigh of relief. Suddenly I heard Shona's voice, "There! I saw something move there!" My heart nearly stopped when Sapphire pointed her arrow at where Shona was pointing. It was at our tree. In fact, it was exactly where Copper's head was.