Calm Before The Storm {Finnick Odair}

The Peach Tree

Hebe awoke alone, again. Her skin was numb and her head stinging. She sat up and rubbed her temples, sighing and brushing off the leaves and twigs from her body.

It had been two days since she was sponsored, and she had lost track of how long it had been since the games had started. A week maybe. It felt like she had been here so long, it was a lifetime ago that she had sat around that fire with Luca and Niamh. Even longer since she was on the balcony, a cool breeze blowing on her face and in her hair. She worried that eventually she'd forget the face of her mother, of Annie. She worried that she'd forget Luca.

She gingerly unzipped the legs of her suit, peeling back the tight fabric to look at her wounded legs. She expected to see the large sores she had been greeted with yesterday, but to her amazement, her skin was practically normal. There were a few scars and marks where the worst bites had been, but other than that it was smooth and silky, just like it had been after they had waxed her at the tribute centre.

Her soft skin was interrupted by the familiar stubble of returning leg hair, raising bumps on her skin like a porcupine's hide.

Only a day ago her entire body had looked dead, her hair even seemed to get greasier while she was injured. Yet now she felt the healthiest she had ever been, it felt like she had been turned inside out and scrubbed. The Capitol medicines really did work miracles.

Hebe zipped her suit back up, watching the silver material glide across her body, stretching so it fit snugly around her frame. Then she stood, dragging herself reluctantly from the bush she had used as a bed for the previous two nights.

During the two(?) days since she had emerged from the tunnel, she hadn't seen a single tribute, either in person or projected into the sky. There had been no sound of cannon for some time, the gamemakers must be getting restless, the people of the Capitol desperately thirsting for blood.

She had explored most of the places near her camp, going out in several different directions. Yet she had found nothing interesting whatsoever, no signs of freshwater. There hadn't even been another hatch, just the uncovered one she slept beside, bugs undoubtedly coating it.

Granted, she hadn't travelled far, after all, she was 'injured' but it was still uncomfortable knowing that no progress had been made since she killed Lilac. Her sponsorship rations had also nearly run out, although the half a jar of salve still sat at the bottom of Hebe's bag, along with the note from her mentors.

Today she would be leaving her camp, moving to somewhere different, hopeful to find another source of food and water. Maybe even a bird, although she didn't want to eat one of those strange pheasants.

Hebe tightened her ponytail, tugging on it to make sure it didn't come out accidentally. She held the pendants in her hand, rubbing her thumb over the arrowhead, twisting the ring around its chain.

She sighed loudly, tucking them back under her clothing and zipping up her suit, still fearful of being bitten again. Then she set off, slinging the small backpack over her shoulder and grabbing her axe. She swung it out in front of her as she walked, slashing through the low-hanging foliage and dead tree branches that attempted to block her path.

Hebe was moving along what she had established as the outer edges of the arena, where most of the tunnel entrances probably were. The two she had seen so far were both set in the middle of what seemed to be large rock alcoves, sheltering the hatches from prying eyes. She estimated that there must be at least six entrances spread across the edge of the arena, all equidistant from each other.

The tunnels were another mystery. While she had walked down that first long passage it hadn't seemed to have curved at all, so she must have been walking in a straight line, right? But if the tunnels cut directly under the arena, then wouldn't she have reached a fork at some point, a connection between the other tunnels? Unless they were all situated at different depths under the arena so they didn't meet each other. But what would be the point of that, it sounded pretty boring to Hebe.