Disclaimer: I don’t own the Hunger Games or Percy Jackson series…
Percy’s POV
It’s been a couple of months since the explosion. The cold, bitter mornings have finally made way to the warm ones. Summer is just around the corner now, almost everyone is up and about. Of course, summer don’t always bring happy news to us.
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Whoosh! Smack!
“ A rabbit? Again?” came Katniss’ voice from my left. “ Can’t you hit something bigger, Jackson?” I growled menacingly at her.
“ It’s the best I can do…” I snapped at her. She merely snickered.
“ You’ve been hunting since January. How can you not take down a buck?” she asked, picking up the rabbit by the ear. “ I taught you already, haven’t I?”
“ I know, I know,” I groaned, pulling my knife from the rabbit’s eye. “ But taking down a buck is harder than targeting a rabbit. A buck is bigger and faster and meaner-“
“ And that defines a Career perfectly.” A thud to my right and next thing I knew, Gale was examining my kill. “ How are you going to survive the Games, Jackson?”
“ Assuming I get picked,” I muttered, snatching the rabbit from Katniss.
“ Right. Assuming you get picked, how are you going to survive it? I mean, if you’re only targeting the weaker tributes, the Careers are definitely going to kill you.”
“ I’ll think about that when I have the perfect weapon and is standing in the arena, facing twenty-three other tributes,” I said icily. “ For now, I’m going to live my life as it is….I’m not going to push my luck seeing as I already pushed it when I was supposed to die in the explosion.”
They both fell silent. I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself.
“ There’s a buck,” Katniss whispered. I didn’t bother aiming for the eye now and just threw the knife. The buck roared in pain and I threw my other knife at its neck. It toppled over, twitched a little and went still. “ That was….impressive.”
Gale strode over to the dead buck and pulled my knives. “ You made some pretty deep cut,” he said as he examined the deathblow I gave the buck. “ Right at the vital veins.” He looked up at me. “ Maybe I underestimated you.”
“ Maybe you’re right,” I said flatly. He grinned.
“ Let’s get this one to the Hob…Greasy Sae is going to flip,” he suggested. “ C’mon, let’s carry this thing.”
It took us nearly an hour just to get the carcass to the fence. And another half an hour to the Hob. And another half an hour haggling a price with Greasy Sae.
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“ Here you go,” Gale said, handing me some meat, money, wax and yarn after we emerged from the Hob, Katniss still inside, chatting a bit with Darius. Actually, being teased by Darius.. “ You earned it. Nice kill.” I stared at him. “ C’mon…I was just messing with you about the Games.”
“ No…you helped me think about the possibilities of me getting into the Games. The odds are not exactly in my favor, too, you know,” I said, pocketing my possessions.
“ How many entries?” I shrugged.
“ Probably about as much as you’ve got,” I said, casually. He gaped at me. “ What?”
