Willow Weeps: The 32nd Hunger Games Fanfiction

Chapter 6: The Girl with Hazel Eyes

Chapter 6: The Girl with Hazel Eyes

After the confrontation between Giselle and the boy has died down I decide to sneak away from the careers and over to the nature section, where the young boy is sitting by himself. While there I look through the catalog, learning of poisonous plants, and ferocious animals. I look through what they have listed and begin to realize that the gamemakers have purposely created the dangerous animals to be the most filling while the passive ones have barely any meat on them. I would have to kill about five birds to get a decent meal. I leave for a moment to get a drink from the water fountain.

When I return to my work, the young boy is waiting for me, smiling a nervous smile. He outstretches his hand, his eyes pleading with me to take it. His eyes are blueish purple, which I think is normal for District Threes. His blond hair is ruffled, and his brow is furrowed.

 "Conrad," he states, his voice still shaky.

"Willow," I reply, shaking his hand while being mindful of his wrist.

"I know," he says, "I saw your reaping tape." Of course he has, most of the tributes have seen them. My prep team took too much time with me so I didn't get to, but I think I'll watch them soon. He leans in and scrolls to the bottom of the list of creatures I'm looking at, taps and an animal name, and it appears on my screen.

"These are not aggressive, and they have quite a lot of meat on them," he states, "They live in tree trunks, so hopefully they are easy to come by." 

"Thanks," I say, happy for any extra help.

He leans in once more and whispers "I know what you're doing," his voice is serious, yet mischievous. 

"Alright then," I start to walk off towards the "how to start a fire" tutorial, but he grabs me by the scuff of the neck.

"Allies?" he asks. I think for a second, and I wonder what he thinks I'm doing.

 "Look, no offense kid, but I'm fighting to win here, and you just made an enemy of the careers. I'm grateful for your help, but I'm not sure I can win with you as an ally. If you don't attack, I won't attack, but that's all I can say," I wish this wasn't reality, but it is. The boy frowns.

I go back to my work, but there is little more to learn in this section, so I quickly walk over to the section on fire. I don't know if I'll ever use this, since the smoke will give away my position, but you never know.

I'm a quick learner, and I start a fire in ten minutes, even though I had to switch my sticks out four times. I'm almost done with most of the nature sections, and I think of going to my room, when I realize there is a section on making traps. There are already two people working, but as I approach, one leaves, so there is only one girl left. She's making a trap big enough for my leg.

She looks my age, maybe a bit older. I sit down next to her due to the lack of room.  She stops to look directly at me, her hazel meeting my blue, and I see her choose to smile.

"Hi Willow, I'm Amber. District Six," she seems nice enough, so I respond. 

"Hello Amber," I pause "What are you making?" 

She stops, smiles, then responds. 

"A career trap. I'm going to set them up all around my camp, and if the careers are stupid enough to step on one their foot will be gone like that," she drops a small rock into the center of the trap to demonstrate, and it snaps shut with deadly force, "I can also uses it for animal traps!"

She starts to work on resetting her trap.

"You're not with the careers are you?" she asks.

"No, I'm not," I reply.

"How well can you fight?' she asks, I now know she is looking for an ally. 

"Most people in my district have been training their whole life, so I know my way around a weapon or two," I reply, "You?" I ask.

She stands up and says, " I'll show you,".

 She strides over to a training dummy, grabs a sword, and hacks at it. She slices its arm off in one swoop, and then stabs the dummy in the stomach before flinging the sword and sticking it in the plaster. 

"If I had a bow over here I'd show you more, but the careers took them all,"

"You don't have to worry about it, I believe you. That was fantastic,"

"Thanks. Allies maybe?"she asks.

"Allies maybe," I reply, very, very happy with my choice.