The Tribute and the Victor

Chapter 27

"I thought you were dead." Calix whispered in my ear as he wrapped his arms around me. "I thought I was too for a second." I whispered back. "Woah...she got you real bad." Calix said in shock as he wiped the blood that was seeping through my stomach. "Yeah, and now there's no more bandages." I mumbled. "Don't worry, I'm sure Caleb's doing everything he can to get you another sponsor." He said softly. The thought of Caleb came rushing through my mind again. My throat started to tighten when I thought about him. Was he really doing everything in his power to bring me home? "In the meantime, we'll just have to use what's left of that cream to heal it up a bit." Calix said as he scooped the last of the cream from the metal capsule. I winced as he gently smoothed it out across my stomach, but after a couple of seconds the pain started to ease and I felt an extremely cool sensation on my wound. We walked for all of about five minutes before I couldn't walk anymore due to the pain. Calix turned round and headed towards me with his arms wide open. "What are you doing?" I asked him as I felt his arms wrap around my back and legs. "Well I'm not just going to leave you here am I? I'll have to carry you."

I had to admit, Calix must have been pretty strong to be able to carry two bags and a girl in his arms at the same time for an hour without a break. And to my surprise, he never complained once. "Okay Calix that's enough now, you need to rest...it's still the middle of the night remember?" I informed him. He hesitated before looking up at the stars then placing me down gently. We must have both fallen asleep very quickly as I remembered nothing else about that night. We woke up to a faint beeping sound. Calix said it before I could even think it. "Your sponsor!" He exclaimed as he darted towards the shining capsule floating down from the sky. He leaped for it and brought it over to me like a dog. Before I could even get a look at it, he had already opened it and was preparing my bandages. He then handed me a small note that was once lodged inside of the capsule, not even bothering to look at it. I hesitated before opening it to find message from Caleb. And that's when my heart stopped. There written on the tiny piece of card was probably the most unexpected two words ever. Two words...that's all it was. Two words, seven letters...I read it over and over again trying to figure out if I was seeing things. But I wasn't. The two words on that tiny piece of cards were this:

Marry Me