SNOW ANGEL, the hunger games

(012) first kill

CHAPTER TWELVE
FIRST KILL

two years prior, the arena

Arella lets Malcolm sleep through the evening, the boy somehow able to rest even with the sound of the anthem blaring around them. She had moved away from him, choosing to sit on the windowsill and watch the snow fall outside, fascinated by the weather event she'd never actually seen before. It's beautiful, she wishes she could observe it a little closer but it's much too dangerous for that.

Across the room, Malcolm's eyes flutter open slowly and he searches the room frantically. There is fear within him when he doesn't see Arella sitting where she had been before he fell asleep, that nagging feeling that she may have gone back on her word and abandoned him. It's not until he looks at little further that he spots her, her light shivering visible as the morning light gently grazes her face. She'd let him sleep all night.

"You should've woken me up," Malcolm says quietly, walking over to her with his blanket wrapped around himself tightly. He doesn't even startle her, the girl too enthralled by what is happening outside. "You're going to be tired,"

Arella smiles softly and looks over to him finally. "I'll be okay. You needed the rest more than I did,"

Malcolm joins her on the windowsill, sitting on the other side just like they had back at the tribute building a few days ago. Arella can see the effect the Games have already had on his youthful face, frown lines etched into his forehead and heavy bags underneath his eyes. She can only imagine how bad she looks, worn out most likely.

"Nobody has been here?" Malcolm asks, a slight shake in his voice.

"No, not a person in sight," Arella assures him, leaning her chin against her folded arms. "The snow was probably too heavy for anybody to go anywhere during the night,"

"But it's starting to ease a bit," Malcolm points out, the idea of somebody emerging from the trees playing out in his mind. Its terrifying. "And you're not going to be fully alert,"

"I'll be fine, Mal, I promise. We probably need to start looking for some supplies though, water, food — all of that,"

It's unlikely they'll find much of a water source out and about, the cold weather likely causing it to become ice. However, Arella knows the Capitol wouldn't want them to all die of dehydration, it would ruin their show. So there must be some around them in the Arena, whether it's an open water source or bottled water. There was likely some back at the Cornucopia, going back there would be a death sentence though — the Careers will likely camp nearby, they may have even slept inside of it to shelter from the snow.

"Are you warm enough?" Arella asks the younger boy who is blatantly shivering across from her. This is nothing like the weather back home, meaning that neither of them have acclimatized to it just yet.