Lovers In The Arena \\ Gale Hawthorne

Chapter 13: The Feast

Y/n's POV

I wake up naturally and Gale is still gently stroking my hair, I'm not 100% sure but it feels like I've been asleep for hours. I open my eyes and see that it's morning again.

"Gale?" I say quietly, still half asleep.

"Yeah?" He says, I sit up.

"You were supposed to wake me up after an hour, how long have I been asleep?"

"About 5 hours. There was no reason to wake you, you looked so peaceful asleep, and I'm not too tired anyway. How'd you sleep?"

"Pretty good, it was the best sleep I've had since we got to the arena actually." I take a sip of water. "You sleep now, okay?"

"Okay" He lays down next to where I'm sitting and reaches for my hand, he holds it while he falls asleep. I can't help but stare at him while he's asleep. He looks so perfect, even with the new cuts and scratches on his face, he's still the most perfect boy I've ever seen in my life. I smile knowing that we could go home, and be happy together.

A little bit later Gale wakes up and the storm starts to let up, it's not raining anymore which is good, and the wind, thunder, and lightning are also gone, now all we hear is the rain dropping from tree branches. 

Gale's leg is getting worse. He needs help right away, but we don't have the right stuff to fix it. He needs something that will disinfect the inside of the wound, not just the outside. I keep a clean bandage on it and hope that everyone else dies soon so that Gale can go back to the capital to get the help that he desperately needs.

Time seems to be going by faster, every day it's the same, it's already night again, and we hear another announcement from Claudius Templesmith.

"Attention all remaining tributes, there will be a feast taking place at the cornucopia. But this is no ordinary feast. Each of you needs something desperately. Each of you will find that something in a backpack marked with your district number, at the Cornucopia, at dawn. Good luck"

"Gale, it's gonna be what you need for your leg. I'm going right now" I say

"No, you can't go, Y/n. It's a trap. The other tributes will kill you." Gale says

"You need help, I'll get the medicine, come back, give it to you, and you'll be better, okay?"

"No, I won't let you go. It's too risky"

"It's a risk I'm willing to take if it means that you'll get the help you need"

"Please, just stay, there aren't many tributes left anyway, they'll be gone soon enough and we can go home." I'm going no matter what, but I'll have to lie to Gale about it.

"*sigh* Okay, I'll stay,"  I think about how I'll be able to go without Gale stropping me. I need him to be asleep but he probably won't sleep. I see a parachute outside of the cave, usually, they send them straight into the cave, maybe whoever sent it doesn't want Gale to see what it is.

"I'm gonna go refill our water bottles while it's still light out, I'll be right back"

"Okay, be careful"

"Always," I say and walk out of the cave. I see the parachute and open it, it's a vial. Of what though? I see a note from Haymitch:
-Put him to sleep with this-

It's sleep syrup, but Gale won't eat it, he'll know what I'm doing. I find some berries and mint leaves and mix them with the syrup. I get back to the cave with full water bottles and a bowl of berries. 

"Hey, sorry it took so long, I found some berries," I say

"Oh, cool"  I sit next to him and give the berries to him. I drink some water while looking away from him while he eats the berries. I feel bad for tricking him, but it's what I had to do.