Author Games: Return To Seasons

Task Three: Rudolf The Red Nosed Rebel - ⚛ Spring Entries ⚛

District 1 Male - HEATH HAWTHORN [5]

The same claw that picked me up from the arena dropped me into a field of flowers. Almost immediately, I missed it, its embrace was much warmer and gentler than it had been in the arena. Although the flowers were soft to the touch, they were altogether cool. Flowers were never particularly warm, and the dewdrops on them made them even cooler. My clothes, the same clothes I had been wearing in the arena, repelled the dew drops. They pooled up in the wrinkles of my clothes, until they eventually piled up too much, and fell off. One stream of dewdrops ran down the top of my hand, suddenly chilling it.

I went to lift my hand to shake the remainder of the dewdrops off my hand, but suddenly lacked the strength. I could ignore the cold, I decided as I snuggled deeper into my bed of flowers. They smelled sweet, sweeter than any flowers in District One smelled. If I forgot about Erica, I could stay here forever. And it wasn't like One needed two tributes named after the same flower. The heath flower, I couldn't help but notice, was totally missing from the menagerie of flowers I was laying in. There were reds, yellows, oranges, purples, blues, but no pinks. My hair added a new tinge of color to the landscape, and the heath flower in my pocket promised to grow more like it. There weren't any green flowers either, I noted, Emerald Blossom would love it here.

I tried sitting up, so I could run and find Emerald Blossom, and tell her about this wonderful meadow of flowers, but, once again, I suddenly lacked the strength. Something slid over my wrist, and I panicked. It had the long, lithe body of a snake, but the texture was all wrong. It slid over my other wrist and I panicked, trying to pull up against the thing. I had the strength to do it now, but the roots were too strong. They hardened like rocks over my wrists, and began drifting over my legs. Kicking, I screamed violently for someone, anyone, to come and help me. But the meadow was deserted, the only people for miles around was the hovercraft disappearing into the sky. 

The roots finally started to harden, incasing my angles in what felt like concrete. Such a harsh substance was never used in District One, we used wood and adobe instead. Oppidium relished in concrete's permanency though, it was used in almost every building I saw there. The roots no longer writhed like a living creature, but mechanically moved forward, as though it already knew the shortest distance it needed to cover to trap me. My stomach was squeezed tight by the roots, and they compressed my chest to the point that it was nearly impossible to breathe. 

I still screamed though, even though I knew that nobody would help me. Tears raced down my face, seeking the fastest route just like the roots themselves. As they dripped from my face, they nourished the soil I was laying on top of, and made the roots grow even more quickly. One raced over my neck, restricting my air flow even more, and preventing me from even craning my neck up to scan the horizon. I looked up at the sky, at the hovercraft that had become scarcely more than a blip. The hovercraft disappearing from view was the last thing I saw before the root grew over my eyes, blocking out my vision forever. 

In my mind's eye, though, I could still see the meadow. The flowers of every color of the rainbow, though, no longer seemed beautiful at all. Each unique color of flowers grouped together, forming dozens, if not hundreds, of screaming faces in the once-peaceful meadow. A face made of pink flowers now sat in its center. 

*

I woke with a start, immediately sitting myself up in my bed, grateful I was able to do so. My surroundings couldn't be more different than the meadow that I had dreamed of. Cold metal, like neither the wood of the Districts nor the concrete of Oppidium, made up the majority of the room. Besides that, it was evident that we were moving very quickly through the air. Vaguely, through the haze of near-death, I remembered entering this place a few hours ago.