¹ THRONE ─ the hunger games

[ 021 ] we are professional ashes of roses

SINCE IKO'S SHOULDER hadn't completely healed overnight, and Opal's ankle had only swollen up in her brace, both girls stayed behind to watch the supplies this time round. Before they'd left to set the traps they'd made last night and go scout the arena, Alex had woken Iko up early to redress her wound and check on the stitches. A couple of them had snapped, but the medicine had worked. The gashes seemed to have knitted itself back together, leaving behind surface wounds that were much shallower, and less bloody. Still, the area was sore and feverish, though the inflammation had mostly gone, and the wounds didn't smell infected anymore. After cleaning it up with some water from the river, Alex reapplied more of the greyish ointment, put on clean bandages, and left. Iko hadn't been too happy about being left out of the hunting party. Neither had Elias, who had been dragged along to replace the two girls.

As Iko was sitting atop one of the crates and chucking knives at the cave wall with her left hand, trying to figure out the range of motion she had with her injured shoulder now that the medicine seemed to have an accelerated healing effect, she realised now that they never really put their plan to split up and hide the supplies into action.

Despite her hurt leg, Opal was pacing the mouth of the cave, just as restless as Iko was. Her uneven footfalls only served to annoy Iko even more, but she didn't want to say anything, since Opal wasn't complaining about Iko's atrocious knife-throwing. Each time her knives hit the wall and bounced off, Iko had to suppress the urge to hock one at Opal both to feel accomplished again and to stop her ridiculous pacing. She could feel her sanity slipping a little more each minute, each failed throw. A lack of activity, she could handle, but a lack of progress, Iko could not. That being said, the fact that there weren't any exciting deaths meant that the Gamemakers would be forcing the tributes together soon with more tricks. Each day, the arena would grow more and more hostile and unpredictable.

Three days, and the only kills she'd gotten in were during the bloodbath. If she started anything now, Iko knew it would end in blood. What did Elias do with all this time? Waiting around doing nothing wasn't something Iko was used to. Each time her knives missed the point on the wall she was aiming for, her frustration only grew. Irritation crawled up her skin as one knife bounced right off and clattered to the ground.

Neither of them spoke the entire time. They even ate in silence, just listening to the waterfall. While Opal went to fill all the empty water bottles, Iko had moved onto sorting through the contents in the crates, taking inventory of what was left of their supplies, only stopping her restless fidgeting to listen out to any cannons and watch the walkie-talkies incase the others tried to contact them. But nothing happened, and Iko was getting antsy. Even Opal, who seemed off in her own world, immersed in her own frustrations, noticed, but thankfully kept to herself.

It was almost evening and the sun was dipping over the horizon when the others returned, empty-handed and equally frustrated.

The moment Alex entered the cave, he'd dropped his rifle on the ground and left with just his bow and a quiver full of arrows. He didn't speak to anyone, not even Iko, who'd been watching his gaze skim over everyone as if they were invisible, his expression carefully blank. Iko felt his silence, like the calm before a hurricane hit. Her instincts told her to go check up on him, but Iko figured he needed some time alone to blow off some steam first.

Even Titus and Sage had managed to keep up their noise and argue about something that was entirely pointless but harmless to the alliance, and though their faces darkened when Opal asked if they'd found anything interesting today—which they evidently had not—they shrugged off today's monotony and drew Opal into their debate about which would be the most painful way to kill someone. Iko wanted to give her input, but thought better of it. It was only Elias, who seemed unfazed by the lack of bloodshed, whose mood remained untainted as he retreated to his corner of the cave, away from the pack.