The Boy With The Bread

Chapter 17

The cave is so narrow and claustrophobically small I can barely do anything to escape the evil yellow eyes that glare at me hauntingly through the dark. I barely register a deep, low growl, forming in the creature's throat. I am too afraid to shine my light upon it. I am silent, hoping maybe the creature won't bother me if I don't bother him. Unfortunately, Clove wonders if I am okay unreasonably loudly.

It's like her words trigger something in the creature's mind, and it takes a step back, as if to pounce on me. I get the courage to shine my light on it. The creature is a thin, frail animal that doesn't look harmful in any way. It has gold fur and a fluffy mane, much like a lion. But this lion looks like a skinny baby one. I know it is too good to be true because the lion roars. It is so deafening, and I barely have a chance to scramble away on all fours. The lion is chasing me, snapping at my legs while I desperately crawl my way to the entrance of the cave. When I am near, I can see Clove's eyes widen. She screams and I take a second to whip my head back. The sickly little animal is growing quickly into a ginormous blue creature that I name beast.

Clove grabs both backpacks and runs out. I follow her and order her to climb the trees. The beast still has the piercing yellow eyes and the mane, but besides those, it has changed entirely. It stands on its hind legs that pretty much resembel hairy trees, and his arms are beyond any muscular I have ever witnessed before. It stands about thirty feet tall, and I urge Clove to climb higher. Then it hits me. I left my bow at the cave.

"Clove!!" The beast roars again, and each roar is louder than the first. "I forgot my bow!" I scream. "I have to go back and get it!" Clove nods no ferociously, and I know she is right, I can't risk my life for the bow. But my impulsiveness takes over me and I slide down the tree. Clove screams at me but I ignore her and try to pass unsuspectingly by the beast. I run the ten feet to my bow, grab it and fire away at the beast. An arrow sticks in his arm, another lodges in his throat. However, my arrows do nothing. And Clove's knives barely make a scratch on this guy's tough hide. At least my arrow stopped him from roaring so loudly.

I run to the tree inconspicuously and scale it, but the beast's yellow eyes flicker towards me. His eyes narrow to slits and he stomps toward the tree Clove and I are in. Clove is hurling all her knives into the beast's face and I am shooting his eyes continuously. The beast staggers around blindly for a while, and when Clove and I are regaining hope and consciousness, he places his huge hands on the tree trunk, grips it tightly, and pulls it out of the ground. Clove and I both screech for help as we are soaring into the air, barely hanging on to the swaying tree.

I can see everything from here. It is funny that I am enjoying the view even though I am about to be thrown to my death. The sun is near the horizon, making the sky a pretty lavender color. Suddenly I am being pulled down again and I grab Clove's hand. The beast smashes the tree on the ground effortlessly, and Clove and I are just holding on to the last bits of our lives. When the beast crashes us onto the ground again, I drag Clove off the tree and we make a run for it. The beast is still smashing the tree down over and over again when I turn my head.

It is a miracle Clove and I got out of that alive, because it seems like Clove has a few broken bones and my legs are gushing blood from the beast's teeth. My bow is scratched and I have only eight arrows left. We are darting through trees and hopping over rocks, still in terror.

"Is he following us? " Clove gasps for air. I shake my head, for the beast is nowhere to be seen but we keep hustling through the woods anyway. I hear a cannon blast in the distance. Hopefully no one was hurt by the beast. I hear a voice yelling for me, and then Clove. It sounds like, like... Gale!

"Gale!" I yelp. "Gale! We are right here!" I see a figure jumping over a bush and stumbling towards us.

"Are you okay?!" Gale pants. He has cuts all over his arms and legs, and his clothes are shredded. Clove and I nodyes, although we are both in terrible shape. The bandage from my arm has disappeared, leaving my arm soaked in blood. Clove's bandage on her leg is gone too, and she is limping from a twisted ankle.

"Gale," Clove starts. Gale has a sad look in his eye. Where is Cato? It couldn't have been him? The cannon? "Gale, where, where is Cato?" Clove asks, tears pooling in her blue eyes. Gale shakes his head.

"Clove, he told me to tell you, that, uh, you are his dying wish. He fought the monster to protect you Clove. We were searching for you when you guys got lost, and we found you. But then you guys started running away from the monster and the beast's new victims were Cato and I. I, I am truly sorry." Gale says shakily, intent on staring at the ground. I take Clove and Gale's hands and squeeze them.

"Guys, I think I just need to be alone a minute." Clove tells us. She limps away, and I tell Gale the whole story as he bandages me up. His story is this: Cato and he was growing worried, because Clove and I had been gone so long. They went out to search for us and freaked out when they heard two cannons. It had been a day, and in the morning they left camp to look for us again. They heard a commotion and banging, which was the beast smashing the tree Clove and I perched in. Cato and he had to fight the monster and Cato died killinghim. Although I am deeply saddened, because Cato was the closest thing I had to a friend besided Gale and MAdge, I am impressed that he killed the beast. I had dozens of arrows and Clove knives but we barely made a dent in him. Cato was almost like a brother to me, even though we only were together for a few weeks.

Once I am all fixed up, Gale and I call out for Clove. I saw her walk to the stream nearby, so we head over. I count in my head how many people have passed. Sixteen dead. Eight people left! Only eight! Then I hear a cannon blast. Seven people left. I pray that it is not Clove, it cannot be Clove... Gale and I see the hovercraft lift the newly dead body into the air. I hadn't realized I had been holding my breath until now, when I see that it is a boy's body being lifted. We hurry to where the boy was lifted.

"Clove!" I shout in joy. Even Gale seems happy, probably because there is so little good left in our lives.

"Katniss!" Clove replies back. We hurry over.

"Do you know anything about that boy?" Gale asks her.

"Oh, no. I just saw the hovercraft." She sighs, her blue eyes glazed over. "I misss Cato already. Is that strange?"

I think of how my father died, so many years ago, and I still cry sometimes at the thought of him. "No, it is a good sign. It shows jusst how much you love him." I tell her.

"Okay. Well, the good news is, I found a berry bush. I remember them from the plant station in the Training Center. Boysenberries I think they were called?" Clove tells me. She pops a handful in her mouth and chews. Before she can swallow, and I am horrified by this, she collapses and the cannon booms. Six left. I make a choking cry that sounds really odd in my throat. I hurry over to Clove's lifeless body. Her blue eyes stare into mine and I grasp her hands, begging her to stay with me. Alas, it is no use at all. She is already dead. I scoop the boysenberries from her hands, my tears mixing with the dark purplish juice.

I remember the berries from the plant station too. I shoot a look at Gale, who buries his head in his bloody and scraped hands.Clove was almost right. They weren't boysenberries. They were poisonberries. A word comes to my frenzied mind that my father once taught me. The poisonberries, he nicknamed them nightlock. And nightlock killed Clove.