I held the sword over my head, poised to plunge it down into India’s heart. My hands wavered slightly, but my face set and I forced myself to steady my hands. India was crazed now. I had no doubt in my mind that she would bolt as soon as the sun rose. Same with Red. Although she wasn’t crazy… yet… she was still a threat to me. I couldn’t have that.
I raised the sword higher, ready to plunge it into India’s chest, when something peculiar happened. My arms and legs suddenly became weaker. The sword in my hand suddenly felt like a deadweight, dragging me down to the pits of hell. Where I belonged, according to pretty much everyone. My whole body suddenly began to shrink down to a tiny size, the size of a small lizard. I looked at my hands, which were now scaly and green.
Oh great. I was a freaking gecko.
I wanted to scream, but if I did India and Red would wake up, and I would be busted. The sword clattered from my hand, my tiny body no longer able to hold it up, and landed mere millimetres from Red’s face. As I shrunk into the grass, Red’s eyes snapped open at the noise. Seeing the sword right in front of her face, she screamed and darted backwards, pressing her back against the cornucopia wall. Her breathing became heavy and scared and she looked over at India, who had bolted awake at her screams.
“SHUT UP!” India roared.
“A sword was right in front of my face! And where’s Callisto?”
“I DON’T CARE! SHUT UP!”
“India, I-“
“I SAID SHUT UP!” India lunged forward, grabbing Red by the throat and pinning her to the cornucopia wall. Red’s eyes were wide with terror as she pawed at the hand holding her up, choked noises escaping her. India glared at her for a few more seconds, her eye twitching, before she tossed Red to the side. Red cried out as her shoulder cracked against the cornucopia wall, and India stalked from the cornucopia, her fists curled. She retreated across one of the bridges, and dissappeared into the trees. I glanced back at Red, who was lying on the ground, her whole body quaking. She was mutating into an animal, just like I had. Her neck elongated at an alarming rate, and I was half afraid it would burst through the cornucopia wall. Red stumbled to her feet and staggered outside as her skin turned a yellowish color, brown spots appearing on her body. The shape of her face began to change as her whole body expanded, and a few minutes later, Red had been replaced by a giraffe.
Red was a giraffe.
The situation was comical, laughable, if it weren’t for the fact that this was happening to everyone. Unless you witnessed someone mutating, you had absolutely no clue what animal they were. You couldn’t be sure if you were killing another tribute, or just a random animal.
I scuttled from the cornucopia, my small size hiding me in the grass. I scrambled across the bridge nearby, and immediately ran for the closest tree. I ran up the tree trunk and then scrambled out onto a branch, looking out at the island. For a few minutes, nothing happened. I was greeted onto by the sounds of leaves fluttering through the air and my own quiet breathing. But then, I heard crashing footsteps as something smashed through the trees. I peered down to see a… hippo?
The hippo smashed into a tree as I watched it. If gecko’s had eyebrows, I’d be raising them right now. I watched as the hippo came directly under me, and then an idea struck me. I leapt forward, my tiny arms and legs splayed out, and I landed right on the hippo’s back. It grunted and reared upward, trying to get me off of it, but I clung on with my hands and didn’t budge. I jumped off after a few moments and scuttled onto a tree right near the edge of the island. The hippo charged at me, knowing that I was the cause of its anger. Just before getting hit, I leapt off the tree and landed on the grass. The hippo crashed noisily into the tree, making the ground beneath me shake. The tree creaked and tilted away, falling off the edge of the island. The hippo began to fall as well, and a loud shriek escaped from it. Somehow, with its massive feet, it managed to hold onto the edge of the island with one foot. The foot was already slipping away.
I scuttled up to the hippo, looking down at the animal. I could already tell that it was another tribute. A real hippo wouldn’t have the mental capacity – or knowledge – to grab onto the edge of the island. I scuttled right up to the foot holding onto the island, and with a mischivious grin, I scratched the hippo’s foot. It let go with a loud animal-like noise, and fell down, down, down, down.
BOOM!
The anthem began to blare, and I tilted my tiny head up to see the faces of the dead. The only faces were Cherry, Elaine and Devlin. AS my body began to mutate back to a human form, I leaned against a tree trunk with a sigh. Now there were only 4 of us left. India, Red, Noelle and I. Now the games had truly begun.