The Paylor Games~Katniss' daughter (The next book is sorta up!)

12

I was freezing all night, curled up as close to Bin as possible. But when I woke up this morning, I literally sprang out of the sleeping bag. It must be at least 95 degrees and the sleeping bag projects body heat, there are two bodies in the sleeping bag. Besides Larr, I am the first one awake. I want to start cooking the animals, because I am starving. First I gently unzip the sleeping bag and try not to wake Bin as I slide him out of it. I go over to Cato to do the same, he wakes for half a second, but I convince him to sleep. I just unzip Eevie's bag and she wakes up, obviously a light sleeper. 

"Whoa, it hot." she says, this makes me laugh. "Where are you going?" she asks when I start collecting everyone's bags. "You leaving us, and taking our stuff?" 

"No, of course not." I start. "I'm gonna cook the game from yesterday and sort the items Bin got."  

She stays silent for a second then smiles. "I'll help." she crawls out of her bag, grabs my bow and one of her axes, she also throws Larr's mace in his direction. "Can you check the area? Don't be noticed, just make sure we are safe. Those boys might already be searching for Ariel." Larr nods and walks out with us. Eevie and I start emptying the bags Bin brought and separating them. I end up with a package of dried fruit, some wire, and a bottle of iodine. We don't really start talking until the fire is going. 

"What do you mean? The boys are looking for me?" I ask. I think of the four boys teaming up to kill Cato and Bin. The boy from Eleven and Four, and Sean there was another, but I don't remember who. I shiver. 

"I overheard them talking while they set up camp by the lake. They want to kidnap you and kill Bin and Cato when they come searching for you." she tells me. 

I almost spit out the water in my mouth, but I manage to gulp it down first. "Great." I whine.  

Eevie stays silent for a while, then gains up courage to say something. "So, I was awake when Bin came last night..." I blush at the though of her seeing me jump on top of him and kiss him. "I also noticed that Cato wasn't sleeping..." she tells me. 

I feel my eyes widen, then shut tight. I start shaking my head in my hands. "No, no, no, no, no..." I whisper. Cato knows how I feel about Bin, but seeing that must have hurt him. 

"Ariel, he stayed up for a long time last night." Eevie says. She scoots over to me and puts an arm around my shoulder. She rests her head on my shoulder and I put mine on her head. When I am with her, I feel like I am with Keeslie. Feel like I am home, trying to get Keeslie to take free strawberries. I feel safe with my best friend. 

Eevie notices the tears before I do. She wipes it away with her sleeve and helps me take off my jacket. "I don't know what to do!" I cry. Eevie is very smart and I can tell she knows exactly what is going on. She might even suspect a few things happened last night. "I think... I think..." 

"Shhhh..." Eevie covers my mouth quickly. I look around and pull her arm away from me. I grab my bow and arrows and she grabs an ax, she hands me my sword and I slide it into my belt. Eevie grabs my shoulder and we start walking into the trees. I feel the adrenalin and I start walking faster. I look around a large tree and see a person, so I shoot. When the arrow hits the tree I realize that people have feet, trees have trunks. I walk over with Eevie still gripping my shoulder and grab my arrow. 

"Maybe you didn't hear anything." I whisper to her. Right then, I feel her be pulled away from me. I turn around and see nothing. "Eevie!" I yell. I turn around quickly and start climbing a tree, every branch I climb I want to turn around, to see if I can find her. Is Larr okay? Is he hurt? I didn't hear a cannon so he can't be dead. I climb to a good branch and wipe away a tear from earlier, look around in every direction until I see her golden hair. Larr was the one who grabbed her, and right now he is swinging away at a girl who also has a mace while Eevie climbs a tree. His leg is bleeding, but the girl is perfectly fine. I lift my arrow and aim, take a deep breath. Nothing exists around me, not the trees, not the animals, only her and me. I release and the arrow sinks into her head. I hear the cannon boom as Larr turns around and falls to the ground. I jump out of the tree and sprint towards them. I pull the arrow out if the girl's head and hand her mace to Larr. 

"Eevie! Get down! Larr is hurt and we need to get him back to camp." I yell. She swings out to a branch and lands just feet away from me. I search the girl for weapons, but other than her mace, all she owns is a box of matches. Eevie and I grab Larr's arms and pull him up, and start walking back to camp. We almost make it back, but I am grabbed by a large tribute. He pulled me so hard that I dropped my bow and arrows. "Go Eevie!" I yell. I turn to my apponent and draw my sword. He laughs and pulls out an ax. He is from District Seven, Eevie's district partner. I take a step back but bump into a tree. He swings at me but I jump out of the way just in time, I hear a loud thud as the ax impales the tree. I jump forward with my sword and try to hit his arm but he throws himself back. He charges at me and knocks me to the ground, my sword falls from my grasp. he jumps up and grabs my braid, and pulls me by it. 

"Ow ow ow!" I scream. I start kicking and hitting him feircly. He grabs his ax out of the tree and lifts it above me. He is about ready to kill me when another ax flies threw his neck. I hear the cannon and I scream in horror when his head crashes down on me, I am covered in his slick blood even before his body falls on top of me too. Cato and Bin, with their weapons in hand sprint over to me, I see them both sigh in realief when they see that I am not dead. Cato throws the body off of me and Bin helps me up. Eevie is laying againts a tree with wide eyes, stairing at the body that she just beheaded. Her district partner. Maybe even her friend. I am panicking from everything that just happened, breathing very fast, making awful sobbing sounds. Bin hugs me tight and strokes my head. 

"Shh shh it's alright Ariel. Everything is alright." he whispers in my ear. Cato rushes over to Larr with the first aid kit. I fall to the ground and cry in my hands. Why did Paylor do this? Neither the boy or girl would be dead if she didn't! I hate her! Bin sits with me and wraps me in his jacket when I start shaking.  

"Mom... Dad..." I whisper over and over again. I want them so bad right now. I finally know what they both went threw. I want to apologize for all the years that I have been so rude to them. "I'm sorry!" I cry. I burry my head in Bins chest and cry there until Cato announces that Larr is all patched up. 

I stopped crying about ten minutes ago, but I am still shaking like crazy, it's not because I'm cold, I'm scared. I stand up and walk with everyone back to camp.