Lost at Sea || Finnick Odair x OC (DISCONTINUED)

Ten: I explain equilibrium to a child

DAPHNE

°•. ✿ .•°

I manage to control my fear as a girl with blonde hair whispers in my ear, "Don't move" as though I was planning on it. With a simple finger, I point towards the snake slithering throughout the meadow. She nods, and barely nudges me, moving me more towards the ruined city.

"I can keep us both alive." I whisper. She raises an eyebrow. "Give me a pebble."

She looks skeptical, but she hands me a rock. It's no larger than my palm, but definitely larger than a pebble. I point up, and she manages to pull me to a higher elevation. Slowly, she removes the jagged rock from my throat as I look at the tributes stranded on the other side of the arena. I rear my arm back, and throw the pebble as far as I can manage.

It doesn't do a lot, but it does enough. It lands a few yards away from the tributes, but now, the snake is circling back. It roars, making the girl from District 1 tremble a bit, and she clamps a hand over her mouth as the snake starts circling them. It must know they're nearby, because it doesn't make any effort to leave.

The girl tugs my arm, and I know I can't fight her off (not without making noise), so I go. Silently, with feet lighter than the clouds, she navigates the rubble of the ruined city. She slows down a bit when she realizes this is not my forte, and she pulls me into a building. She closes the wooden door that looks like it will crumble to dust any minute, and as soon as she turns around, she's got her knife to my throat.

"You're District 4."

"Yep." She's quite short, to be honest. I consider stepping closer to make her intimidated, but she has the upper ground (in a metaphorical sense, of course), so I don't move.

"You've been in the mangrove." She hisses.

"Yep."

"You have sponsors." It sounds more like a question than a statement. I think about the very obvious knife at the end of my stick, which is now cast aside outside the piney woods due to her presence, but I know that she saw it.

"I have some." I reply. Finnick has not sent me anything else so far, nor has Mags. I wonder if Neptune has received any.

"I want food." The girl says. "You give me food, I give you life."

"Are you proposing we become allies?"

She pauses. "Yes, I- yes."

I nod. "Let me reach into my pack." Slowly, with calculated movements, I slip my pack off my shoulders. Outside, I hear the monster roar again, but it's clearly far away enough for us to speak openly. I kneel, and open the pack. The girl wastes no time in snatching my crackers and clementine, and she huddles into a corner as she eats.

I stand straight. "Have you not eaten since the start?"

She shakes her head. That was over two days ago, and I imagine she's been on the move, so I'm a little surprised she's still alive. "I'm Kore. With a K."

"I don't care how your name is spelled." I say honestly. The girl glares at me, and I smile a little bit. Two days with nothing but a snake to keep me company made me realize how much I actually appreciate human interaction.