Glimmer's Story

Chapter 18

  I couldn't tell which one was limping, but it had to be Cato or Clove. I got up and started sprinting as fast as I could over to them. As they grew near, I could see them. Cato was the one limping. He was all beat up and had blood everywhere. Clove didn't have a scratch on her. When they were in reaching distance, I threw my hands around both of them.

   "What happened!? I was so worried! I went looking for you guys!" I shouted. I didn't even realize I had tears forming in my eyes.

   "Hey, calm down," said Cato.

   "We're fine," said Clove. She let go of Cato and hugged me. "Don't worry." She let go of me and looked at me. "You really do care about us, don't you?"

   I nodded and wiped the tears away. "Let's get you cleaned up," I said to Cato as I propped his other arm over my shoulder. Clove and I slowly guided Cato back to camp and set him down. He was a mess. It looked like he had just been in a war or something. His shirt was covered in blood and so was his face.

   "Do you want to clean him up?" I asked Clove.

   "Are you kidding me? The last thing I should ever be is a doctor," laughed Clove.

   "Haha okay. I'll do it," I said. My aunt was a doctor and when I was little, Clara and I would always have to go to her house because our parents worked. She showed me a lot of her skills and a lot of them came in handy here.

   Cato sat still and waited for me to start working. I had no idea where to start. He was coated with blood! I decided to just start with his face. As I wiped away the blood, I couldn't help but realize how crystal blue his eyes were. I tried to ignore them, but he was just staring at me.

   "Um.. so uh Clove. What happened to you guys?" I asked.

   "What happened was Cato wouldn't let me protect myself!" said Clove.

   "I didn't want you to get hurt!" said Cato.

   Clove sadly looked at the ground. "Cato, only one of us can win," said Clove.

   "Please. Let's not talk about this now," I said. "I just want to know how Cato got beat up."

    "Well for one, I saved Marvel's life. When Clove and I were running away from the mutts, I had to fight them off to let Clove get up the tree. We had no weapons, so all I could do was punch and kick and just defend myself. After Clove got up in the tree, I saw Marvel practically getting eaten. I helped him, and then I stayed up in the tree with Clove until the mutts went away. Well, they didn't really just go away. Someone started yelling 'put me down.' When they heard that, they took off after it," said Cato.

   I started laughing. "That was me screaming. Peeta picked me up and... well it's kind of a long story," I said.

   "Well thanks for saving our lives," said Clove.

   "Haha, no problem," I said. After I did my best to fix up Cato, we caught the others up on what happened.

   "Thanks. I feel a lot better," said Cato.

   "Anytime," I said. By late afternoon, everyone was fed and ready to go hunting. We ran through the woods, not caring if nearby tributes heard us. I scanned the forest, looking for tributes. I raised my bow when I saw a figure moving in a tree, but immediately dropped it when I saw who it was. Rue. The little 12 year old.

   "You see something, Glimmer?" asked Clove.

   "Uh, no. Just a stupid bird," I said. In the corner of my eye, I saw Peeta smile. He saw her, too. When I looked back up at the tree, she was gone. She was a clever one.

   After searching for hours, we came across nobody. It was probably around five in the evening, and we couldn't even find one person! Soon, we headed back for camp where Lavena and Aaron were. Aaron wasn't such a bad guy, and I was starting to trust him a lot more. When we got back, we all grabbed a snack and sat down.

   "That was nice of you," said Peeta.

   "Huh?" I said, confused.

   "I know you saw Rue, too," he said.

   "Oh, yeah. Well I can't watch an innocent twelve year old get killed," I said.

   "I think little kids are your weakness," laughed Peeta.

   "They are. I can't stand to see them in pain. It kills me," I said.

   "Well this is The Hunger Games," said Peeta.

   "I know," I said.

   "Uh... Glimmer..." said Peeta.

   "What?" I asked.

   "Turn around," said Peeta. I was so confused, but I turned around anyway to see Marvel's spear about to enter Lavena's body.