Pearls and Perils ・❥・Finnick Odair x Reader

Chapter 16

My body won't stop trembling. The birds stopped about 20 minutes ago but I can't stop shaking. I can still hear their voices ringing loudly in my ears. Examining my shaking hand, I clutch onto it, trying to force it to stop. But it won't. Micah yelling my name. Cora's cries for help. Finnick. Finnick's haunting scream. They're all still echoing in my mind like they would in a canyon. My anxiety only heightens when I realize that if anyone were to attack me right now I'd be barely able to fight them. It wasn't real. They're all fine. It wasn't real.

"Y/n." A voice whispers softly. I throw myself to my feet and swing my trident in the direction I heard the voice come from.

"No!" I exclaim. My knees are wobbling and it's hard to keep my grip on my trident given how shakey my hands are. I feel tears forming in my eyes again. More birds? No, someone's going to kill me. This is it, I'm going to die.

"It's ok it's Micah." And sure as day, Micah's head pops out from behind the tree I was pointing my trident towards.

"You're alive." I utter. My legs spring me forward and I embrace him into a hug. "You're alive."

"No, you're alive." He replies. This makes me let out a short breathed laugh.

"Yes, I have a lot of explaining to do." I say, shakily releasing him from the hug. You must be starving though, I tell you everything while we eat."

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As the arena eases into the late afternoon, I start my re-telling back from the beginning. How on my walk there I heard a cannon and was worried sick it was him. He tells me that one was for the girl from 3. Then I tell him about my close encounter with the careers on the beach, and most importantly what they were saying about Ronan. Due to the flood, they lost their hoard at the cornucopia. The careers were only keeping him around to try and find me, and now they were only keeping him around to find them food. The careers only focus on weapons training, they overlook the other survival skills because they have everything they needed in the cornucopia. I explain that if we take out Ronan, we can take out the other remaining careers. Next I told him how I walked further down the coastline and caught the fish we were eating right now. Everything was fine and normal until that stupid slimy creature bit my foot. I even described how I then sat on the beach awaiting my imminent death, but then didn't die, and started walking back.  I explained that whatever venom that thing had didn't hit me until a while into my walk and I passed out. Micah guessed that I must have been passed out for about two days based on my timing of leaving and coming back. He also said the girl from district 6 died while I was out, presumably from the careers. 6 out of 24 still alive.  I told him how after I passed out I knew which way to keep walking because of the imprint I made in the mud when I fell. I was quite proud of myself for that one. Then I got to the birds. My tone and demeanor shifted. I explained how they lured me in with his voice, which was why I freaked out when I heard him calling my name for real. I just summed up the experience and the bird's mimicking as absolutely horrible. Micah told me I didn't have to elaborate. He heard it all and that was how he eventually found me.

I asked him what his past few days were like. He told me he mostly stayed in the trees. The same day I left the boy from district 10 passed by but didn't notice him. He thought I died. He thought the same cannon that I worried was for him was for me. He also worried that the second cannon could have been me too, especially when I didn't return that night. But when they projected the faces, and it was obvious I wasn't dead, Micah confessed that he thought I had abandoned him.

"I would never do that." I assured him.

"I know but you can't blame me." He started, "you weren't dead but you also didn't come back for days."

"Ok fair." I reply.

"Plus I know your escort, mentees, and stylist must be kicking themselves right now. Pairing up with the 13 year old from district 11." He gives me a sad smile.

"You are so much more than that." I say. "And I think you know that." This time he returns a genuine smile.

"Also my ankle's feeling better. I can bear weight on it if I wrap it up tight enough." He adds

"That's good." I nod. I dig into my backpack to grab the water bottle. "Drink up." He takes a minuscule sip, until I glare at him and motion to have more.

"District 4 people and their water." Micah jokes.

"Yeah we take it pretty seriously." I agreed.

"Speaking of district 4 people, what are we going to do about Ronan?" He inquires. I want to give him a straight answer, I want to have some sort of brilliant plan, but I don't.

"I really don't know." I replied. "I mean, it's getting down to the last few, surely they'll try to get us all in the same place to force some kind of confrontation for the finale. How are we supposed to single out Ronan without facing the girl and boy from district 1?" A mischievous grin merges on Micah's face.

"I have an idea." He answered.

AUTHORS NOTE: another update during finals bc a bitch is still procrastinating studying! I should be able to update even more over winter break so yay. Love y'all <3