𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐋 | Hunger Games

xʟɪɪɪ

   THE WAR CAMP WAS NOT
what Aella expected it to be.

She and Peeta had been told to prepare themselves—to ready up—a half hour before they landed. They'd flown through the night but neither of them had gotten much sleep. Aella was more than thankful to hear they would be landing soon and when she opened up those boxes of beautifully crafted knives she took her time strapping them all in. She savoured the feel of the holster at her waist, of the one around her thigh and the one at her back.

When she sheathed her machete behind her back she felt powerful. It was a strange type of power but one she was no stranger to. She welcomed it—embraced it—did everything to hold on to it in order to ignore the way her fingers were trembling. She reminded herself over and over again who she was and what she had overcome. She told herself that she was a survivor and that she was a fighter and she took one final look in the mirror, at the tight braid she'd fixed her hair into, at the loose curls framing her face, at the icy fire that danced in her eyes.

She was Aella Barnes. She was the Victor of the Hunger Games and she was a survivor. She would not be afraid.

She expected her and Peeta to be escorted from the aircraft straight on to a truck and driven to wherever their squad was within the Capitol. She didn't expect to be following a commander—Peeta right beside her—through the camp that was more like a city. They walked by soldiers of varying Districts, of medics and commanders and volunteers. All manner of people who had come together to fight for a cause watched she and Peeta walk through their base.

Aella knew they were watching and so she lifted her chin higher. She wondered if it was some kind of morale boost. If Coin had orchestrated this to boost the troops in a time of need. She supposed she would never find out, not as she recognised the woman they were being led to.

Commander Paylor looked at Aella and Peeta as the man guiding them cleared his throat. The woman looked better than when Aella had seen her last despite the advancements in the war and yet she couldn't help but smile at her. Paylor returned that smile as she looked at Aella briefly, at the blades strapped to her and the machete behind her back, "Aella Barnes," She nodded in mild astonishment, "it's great to see you again... and I do believe congratulations are in order. I offered them to your fiancée when I met him before his squadron left for the city."

"Thank you Commander Paylor." Aella said bashfully, overly aware of her engagement ring sitting on her finger. She didn't want to take it off but the bare necklace around her throat was there incase she wanted to put it on that for safer keeping, "Commander Paylor this is Peeta Mellark. Peeta this is Commander Paylor of District Eight."

Peeta's eyes widened mildly as he looked at the woman, "District Eight?" He parroted and Paylor only nodded. Peeta's throat bobbed before he said, "I'm sorry for your losses."

Commander Paylor gave him a pressed smile and replied, "Same goes." But then she fixed her gaze on Aella once more and said, "Shouldn't you both be resting?"

Aella barely managed to suppress the words she really wanted to speak—the quip that they should've been resting but their President was a bitch who didn't care for them. Overthrowing Coin would take careful plotting. She couldn't walk into the middle of a war camp in the height of battle and start badmouthing the woman who was leading this whole operation. She didn't want a war within a war but...

Her lips curved into a small smirk. Peeta sensed her move out the corner of his eye—looked to see her lifting her chin while wicked amusement danced in her eyes. Gone was that genuine happiness on her face meeting Paylor again. Gone was the Aella he'd gotten to know. He stared at the Aella everyone had warned him about—the lethal woman who fought with a Goddess at her side.... He stared at the Huntress and he'd be lying if he said he wasn't the least bit nervous to hear what she was going to say.