Grain & Blood | A Hunger Games collection

Iris

When I finally come to, I'm sopping wet and my head is ice cold.
"Iris Iris Iris Iris... wake up!" Robin is sitting at my head.
"Huh?" I'm confused. Where am I? Why am I wet?
"Iris! You're awake!"
"Yes I'm awake, but why am I soaking wet?"
"I tipped a flask of water over your head. I thought it woke people up."
"It doesn't. It gets people wet."
"Right. Sorry."
"And why is my head freezing?"
"We got another sponsor gift. It was a single use ice pack, so I activated it and I've been holding it against your head for 20 minutes."
"20 minutes?! I've been out that long?"
"Yes. I thought you were dead."
"If I was you would have heard a cannon."
"I know. But I wasn't thinking properly."
The two if us sit in silence for a couple of minutes.
"Well, I guess I should get up then," I say, and carefully walk over to one of the trees and lean on it. If someone wanted to attack us now, they'll probably succeed in killing is both. I'm in no state to kill them, and, no offence Robin, he isn't the best at fighting.
Thankfully, no one does, and I'm back on my feet and fighting fit a few minutes later.
"You good?" Robin asks.
"Yeah. I just need some sleep. I didn't get any last night, and hardly any the night before that."
"Okay, I'll keep watch."
"Wake me up in a few hours. Until then, do what you like, as long as it isn't anything stupid, and stay close by."
I retreat into our shelter, a good protection from the midday sun. It's too hot for me to wrap myself in the blanket, and to be honest, it's too hot for my thin waterproof coat too.
I ditch it next to me and fall asleep.
When I wake up, the sky is varying shades of orange and red. Why wasn't Robin woken me up yet? Is he okay?
I shout his name, and almost immediately he answers.
"Iris!"
"Why didn't you wake me up?"
"You looked so peaceful, and you needed it."
"How long was I asleep for?"
"6 hours?"
"You should have woken me. What if we had been attacked? What would you have done then?"
"Woken you,"
I roll my eyes and crawl out of our shelter, into the clearing. A small fire is burning in the hole, and some kind of bird is roasting on a spit.
"How did you catch that?"
"Catch what?"
"That bird,"
"I set some traps around here, a bit after you went to sleep. I didn't think they would get anything, but when I went to check them about 20 minutes ago, the bird was hanging by its leg."
"Cool."
We eat half the bird, and boil some hot water in the flask, shred the bird meat and add that too. Robin produces some roots from his pocket, which I presume he collected earlier, and drops them in too.
We let the mixture stew on the fire for a bit, then stamp the fire out and screw on the lid of the flask.
And then voices. Voices of the people I want to meet the least in these games.
Voices of the careers.

I need to write more. I really need to, but for some reason I just can't think of anything to write about, but dw, soon there will be a big change and the chapters will be pretty long and more frequent. Random fact: In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all the world's nuclear weapons combined.

-Katherine