Reaper ~ THG AU

Ch. 30: Last Light pt. 2

The Capitol song plays, a bright light filling a portion of the sky. Acacius and I sit up in the large oak tree, both munching on the jerky and nuts. After days of nothing but apples, neither of us feel the urge to even look at the ones we have left.

The first face that they show is Lincoln, the male tribute from 5. I'm not surprised his face showed up first. A little disappointing, but not surprising. Immediately after, they show Dagan's face. Acacius looks down, clearing his throat as the sky darkens. The music stops soon after, leaving us in the dark night like every other night. I clear my throat, looking over towards my brother as my mouth opens.

"That means it's just us, Ivette, and the careers left..."

"Final seven."

——

The rest of my watch went smoothly, I ended up waking Acacius about an hour or two after I should have, but I wasn't tired and I knew he needed the rest. I ended up with a scolding like always, but I didn't care.

He needed the rest.

After I got my own rest, I woke to the bright sky and Acacius gone. A little freak out later, and he returns with a dead rabbit in his grip. I of course wasn't very happy after yesterday morning, but I'm not complaining.

Even now as I form the fire for us to cook the small creature. Acacius sits up in the tree, cleaning his kill. He's not the best, but at least we'll have real food to make up for the lack of. My mouth waters just at the thought.

"I'm keeping the fire small...I don't want to draw any unwanted attention here."

"I was going to say the same. It's day time, but the smoke or smell might still-shit!"

I look up, seeing the rabbit almost falling. Instead, his knife falls and imbeds it's self into the forest floor below. We both look down at it before my eyes move towards him.

"That was good. You been working with knives long?"

A small smirk plays at my lips, my amusement growing as his annoyance grows. He shoots me a look as I move to grab the matches out of one of the bags. The sticks and dead leaves I gathered is enough to form a small fire, one that is less likely to bring unwanted attention.

"Keep talking smack, Azalea. See what will happen."

"Like what?"

"Just wait and see."

"Sure."

I laugh, fixing a stick that looks out of place. The matches lay beside me on the dirt covered ground. I can hear Acacius jump down as I make sure everything else is good enough for a fire to actually start. He steps over by me, watching as I strike a match and toss it into the dead leaves that I put down as fuel.

"We'll have to cook it fast. Here..."

He grabs a stick, holding the bloody rabbit carcass out towards me. I grab it, keeping my eyes on the fire that slowly grows. Blood coats my skin, still warm and sticky with a strong smell of iron wafting off of it. Acacius doesn't seem to mind as he walks over to the pile of branches I collected.

"What're you doing?"

"I'm going to make a spit to roast the rabbit. I need two more sticks that are about the same size to hold it over the flames."

My stomach rumbles at the thought of roasted meat. We've ever only had any three times before coming to the Capitol. Once when Atlas helped a few peacekeepers who in turn let him have their roasted duck.

The other two times were when our dad was still alive. He had a friend who secretly hunted in the northern part of the restricted area of 11. One time he got part of a deer, another it was a turkey. His friend was found out a year or so before both my parents died and was publicly executed because of it.