𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒 ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳ 𝐧𝐜𝐭 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 - 𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐮

⇛ 𝐂𝐇. 𝟏𝟏

𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝟐

the trio had managed to catch a small bird and that was all. the whole day they had been out hunting but there were hardly any animals. they had to resort to eating tree bark for lunch and save the bird for night when they were the hungriest.

when night had arrived, they had found shelter where the ground was uneven around logs on the floor creating an arch. it wasn't the safest place but they were too exhausted, dehydrated, and starving to climb the trees again.

"should we cook this bird now?" mark asked, prodding at the dead animal with a stick.

"i'll start a fire." renjun said, shuffling forwards to collect some sticks. "we have no flint and steel so i'll have to do the hand drill method."

"that's difficult. are you sure you can do it?" jihyun asked, carefully picking the bird up to place it on a thick stick.

"yeah, i practised in training."

the anthem began, signalling that the fallen tributes would appear in the sky. renjun stayed focused on creating the fire while the other two watched the sky. the district eight girl, who ate the nightlock berries, was shown and then the hologram disappeared.

"one dead? that's all? how is that possible?" mark questioned, his eyebrows furrowed as he tried to stop himself from thinking about the girl that had died.

"these games are going to be much longer than expected." renjun mumbled just as a bright orange fire appeared in front of him. "i did it!"

"awesome!"

"hopefully this won't take long." jihyun said, hovering the stick with the bird over the fire.

"we need to be careful with the fire though. the smoke could attract people right to us." renjun said.

"we'll put it out right after cooking this."

"but i like the warmth." mark pouted, warming his hands near the fire.

"and i'm sure you'd like to keep your life too." renjun said and the latter frowned, dropping his hands to his side. "sorry."

"no, you're right. for a moment i forgot the situation we were in."

the bird was slowly cooking and jihyun's arm was beginning to ache. using her free hand, she massaged her elbow, trying to loosen the stiffness. mark noticed and wrapped his fingers around the stick, their hands brushed against each other and she looked up.

"i'll cook it now. i've done this a lot before." he said and she nodded, letting go. he spun the bird around so that it was cooked all around and in the middle.

when it was completely cooked, he removed it from the stick and placed it on the leaves. he broke it into small pieces then handed it out.

"we're eating all of it?" renjun asked, seeing that he had split the meat evenly, leaving nothing behind. 

"i don't think we should ration this because we need the energy. i'm sure we'll find more food tomorrow."

they all agreed with what mark said and began eating. it wasn't much and it didn't have a nice taste, but they had been starving so it satisfied them enough.

jihyun was a bit annoyed. she had made it clear to the cameras watching that they needed food but they hadn't received any sponsor gifts yet. she thought she had made quite the impression on the capitol as well as mark and renjun, but maybe it wasn't enough for them to send gifts. she knew doyoung was probably running around trying to win people over to their side, so her hopes were still up.