Culling

Part III • Chapter IX

"I don't believe it for a second." Gabriel waved off my statement, not seeming to be concerned in the least. "First of all, North fought a fucking bear, and he's perfectly alright."

I pursed my lips.

How could I inform Gabriel, without hurting his feelings, that the odds of North fighting a bear and remaining unscathed were way different than our chances of encountering one and surviving. "Um..."

I didn't need to worry much though, because Victor also appeared to be on my side. He gave Gabriel an even look and interjected before I had a chance to do so. "Gabe, we aren't going to go looking for a bear. Don't be ridiculous. I'm more concerned about us running into another tribute."

Gabriel frowned as he ignored Victor and continued. "Secondly, now that the three of us have sturdy weapons, we would be unstoppable. No fucking bear could beat us." He gestured towards the two of us at this last statement.

I let go of his hand to feel the quiver on my back in response. The action made me feel slightly guilty, because when I had first decided to learn archery I hadn't known that Victor also had preferred the sport. Now, in the middle of a battlefield, he had given up his chosen weapon for me.

I moved my finger to my lip and nervously glanced at him as he touched his spear. "Victor, if-"

"Shush," He pressed three fingers over my lip and finger, silencing me. His eyes smoldered as they met mine. "Didn't I tell you before that I got this for you?"

I blinked up at him as I nodded, but I still felt bad. It felt stupid. Victor was probably tons better at archery than I was anyway, and what if he ended up getting hurt because he didn't have a weapon that he preferred?

It would be my fault.

"Stop worrying." Victor said reassuringly. "I'll have you know that I am also very well versed in fighting with a spear, it will be fine."

I spoke around his finger. "Have you forgotten that Gabriel wants to hunt bear? Is it even possible to fight a bear with a spear? And what if we run into other tributes?"

Victor grinned slightly before he answered. "I might have said I was worried about other tributes, but we should be alright in this area. That's just me being wary. As for your second question, technically, you can kill a bear with a spear; but it doesn't matter anyway, because despite what Gabriel says, we aren't going to go looking for a bear."

"What about a tiger? Do you think we should try to get one of those? North would never expect it." Gabriel interrupted, and I stared at him in response.

Tigers? Since when were there tigers in this forest?

Could it be that there something that I was missing?

District three, where Victor was from, was mountainous; while district two, Gabriel's home, had many deserts.

Still, from what I had been told, the boys had spent most of their time at the Capital and in each other's homes after becoming a team. The Capital itself was located in district two, near the border of district one.

Therefore, I didn't believe that any of the boys had ventured very far outside of those areas before, nor would they know much about this type of forest.

On the other hand, district six was located on the other side of the continent; and the local flora and fauna was familiar to me. So I had assumed this whole time that we were currently somewhere in district six.

And I didn't believe that there were tigers in this area.

"I doubt there will be tigers here..." I told them, and Gabriel frowned slightly.