the lucky one | finnick odair

deathmatch

-now playing "deathmatch" by Nessa Barrett-

Cove Alora stood up straight on her pedestal, artificial sunlight shining in her eyes. Once her vision had adjusted to the bright environment, Cove observed her surroundings. About fifty feet in front of her was a silver cornucopia, reflecting the sunlight that hit it. Cove noticed weapons laying around, spotting a katana directly across from her pedestal. She then looked to see who was beside her, a boy from Seven to her left, and a girl from Six to her right. The blonde then looked for her allies, most she hadn't even talked to before, solely relying on nods she had received from them earlier and trust in Rush.

Cove spotted Rush about ten pedestals to her left, the other Careers scattered around the circle. Once Cove observed the weapons and competitors around her, she finally observed the environment. The entire circle of tributes laid upon cobblestone, with branches veering off to split the arena into 4 equal pieces. To the north laid large snowy mountains, ice spikes poking from the ground with many feet of snow.

To her left was a thick forest, trees the size of skyscrapers reaching heights she couldn't even see. Cove also noticed a rainbow of different flowers covering the ground.

To her right she spotted another forest, but with red and orange leaved trees. The wind was blowing rapidly in that section, the trees becoming bare from the wind before instantly regrowing leaves. Some tributes near that section looked unsteady from the force of wind behind them.

The young girl then looked behind her, finally registering the feeling of immense heat. She saw a large thick jungle, vines dangling from great heights to the floor, she could even hear tropical birds cawing in the distance from behind her. Humidity dripped from the vines.

Cove Alora quickly realized her arena was based on the four seasons, each depicting different environments, not just one like earlier years. In front of her was winter, to the left was spring, behind her was summer, and to the right was fall.

Cove then looked back to Rush, seeing him nod to the Cornucopia, telling her to run to it when the timer went off.

The timer.

Cove forgot about the countdown. She was too spaced into her surroundings to even notice how much time she had. Cove looked above the Cornucopia, seeing she only had fifteen seconds left. She immediately took a deep breath and positioned herself to be ready to break into a run.

All Cove heard was ringing and a faint voice saying, "may the odds be ever in your favor" before a loud alarm ran out, signaling the beginning of her Games.

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.

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Cove Alora sprinted straight to where she saw a katana lay and strapped it over her back, grabbing a nearby backpack and throwing it on. She was surrounded by sounds of screams and cannon blasts. While securing her backpack, Cove heard a whizzing sound fly by her ear, something embedding into the silver cornucopia behind her. Cove shot her head up in the direction it came from to see a girl from Eight running at her with a knife. She was about to get her sword out and ruin her innocent act, but thankfully the girl paused in her tracks with wide eyes. Cove was confused before she saw the girl fall, a knife embedded in her back. Behind her stood Celleste, a loud cannon boom echoing in her ears.

"Keep up, Four," the older girl demanded before ripping her knife out of the other girls back and going towards a tribute from District Nine.

Cove immediately followed, searching for Rush. She saw her tribute partner covered in blood, standing above the boy tribute from Three. Beside him was Lux, Velvet, and Chrome.