CHARADE | Glimmer (THG)

Chapter Twenty-One

Trigger warnings: Death

Tomorrow brings not Thresh, but Katniss.

The sunrise that greets us as we step out of our tents is a bloody red sky, like an angry scar wound. And there, like a harbinger of doom, is Katniss, sitting half-submerged in the lake. She always did like a dramatic entrance.

Cato laughs and raises his sword. As we race towards her, she scrambles out of the lake. She grabs the branches with a practised ease and throws her backpack on, racing out of the woods.

"I'm coming for you Fire Girl," Cato snarls.

Marvel beams excited at me, and he, Clove and Marina press forward following Cato as he gives chase. Peeta hangs back gripping his spear. His eyes shift away as I glance at him. I let him go ahead of me. Just in case he plans to murder us all in a last-ditch effort to save Katniss.

We race through the woods, with me almost stumbling over tree roots. Suddenly, Cato stops and we look up to see Katniss swiftly scaling a tree. Finch was right- she thrives in woods.

Katniss glances down at us, a smirk playing at her lips, "How's everything with you?"

Okay, she's witty as well as attractive. Why didn't I choose her for an ally?

Cato glances at us, bewildered, before calling up, "Well enough, yourself?"

"It's been a bit warm for my taste," She grins. Beside me, Peeta splutters and I pat his back, "The air's better up here. Why don't you come up?"

"Think I will," Cato murmurs in that dangerously soft voice of his. Clove shoots him a warning look but he ignores her.

Cato moves forward to grab hold of the tree, and I unsling my bow and offer it to him, "Here, take this Cato."

"No," He gives me a look of revulsion, and pushes them away. As I thought, Katniss' eyes hungrily follow the movement, "I'll do better with my sword."

"Come on Cato," I yell as he begins to climb, "You can do it!"

"Bring her down!" Clove shouts.

Cato heaves himself up the tree, but of course he the branch cracks underneath him and he falls. There's an intake of breath from us all, as he lands heavily on the ground. For a moment, I think he won't get up, but then he does.

He grabs me by the arm, and pushes me towards the tree, "You go Glimmer," He snarls, "You're the lightest."

No, I'm not- it's Clove, and he knows it. And she's by far the best climber out of all of us. But he doesn't know what Katniss has got up there, and he doesn't want to risk Clove.

Fine.

The wood scrapes against me as I climb, and I heave myself onto the first branch. And then reach for the next, and then the next. I begin to think I'm pretty well when the branches start making cracking sounds. I freeze and glance up at Katniss. Somehow, she's scaled even higher. There's no way I can reach her now.

Carefully, my legs hugging the branch that I'm sitting on, I pull out an arrow and nock it onto the bow. She's stopped moving but from here, I know she'll be near impossible to hit. Especially with my aim.

I need a miracle.

I don't get one. The arrow whizzes past her, just over her head. She clambers up and grabs it, smiling as she waves it tauntingly at me.

I sigh and carefully scale down the tree to join the others.

"What do we do now?" Clove hisses, as we move into a group huddle.