Ibong Adarna Games Of The Faction Rings

Chapter Four

Tyrene welcomes me as we reach their camp. She tells me she'll see me later and leaves with Austin and Xyrene. I just stay near Lake Itong. Brie and Jairo come out when the berry rain stops. "Azi!" Brie cheers as she sees me. "Jairo! It's Azi!" I run to the two and embrace them. "Have you seen Artrice?" Brie asks as she starts picking the nightlock."Nope... but I've seen Jasper and Fina..." I tell her, staring at the bucket that was almost as big as me. "Jasper? Fina? Where?" Jairo asks. I sigh."Dead." They gasp. Brie starts tearing up. "What?! How?!" She says. "I don't know. I just saw them..." I tell her. Jairo and I comfort Brie. She and Fina were like Sevi and I. And Jasper? Love of her life. After minutes of mourning, she stops. I get a jug from their tent, fill it up with water and put it in the biggest pocket of my jacket. After I change, Jairo picks up my jacket and Brie asks laughingly, "How many pockets does this thing have?" I pause for a while then answer, "34." Jairo starts making jokes about my jacket. Brie and I couldn't breathe. After long hours of talking and laughter, Brie reminds Jairo about the food they need to cook. "But we have no more wood!" Jairo exclaims. "Then get some!" Brie answers. "I'll mess up again if you don't..." The two then smile and look at me. "What?" I ask. "You're from District 7!" They announced. "Oh..." I say. "Fine I'll cut a tree for you guys..." They cheer, thank and give me an axe as they jump in the lake to get some fish. I roll my eyes and focus and the axe. It's sharper than all the axes I have seen from District 7. I smile and throw the axe at a tree. I am amused as I watch it fall. The happiness doesn't last long as I see eyes from a distance. "Oh no..." I tell myself as I find out it's a wolf. I scream and dash as it runs towards me. Brie and Jairo panic when they hear and see me. I run... and run... faster and faster... No... I am not dying tonight. I am not dying tonight. I am not dying tonight. I'm gonna make it out alive. I throw all of my knives at the wolf. It dies. Just in case, I threw three shurikens at it. I take a deep breath as I redeem all my knives and shurikens. "Gross..." I say. A sound. I shriek and look behind me. Kuno shrugs. "You're here?!" I roll my eyes. I'm not a particularly pleasant person, but Kuno is... unspeakably unpleasant... I despise him, but not as much as I despise Xaia. We walk back to the camp and part ways. I finish chopping the wood while Kuno goes into a tent, frustrated. Brie cooks the fish while Jairo sets up our place. "How many are we?" I ask, stacking up the unused wood beside the biggest tent. "Six." He says. "Ah..." I whisper. Xyrene, Tyrene and Austin arrive. We eat together. Suddenly, two people step in. "Alex?! Nathan?!" Brie, Jairo and I exclaim, as we stand up and squeeze them. "The hair! The hair!" Alex squeals as we let go. We apologize and ask them to join us. Xyrene, Tyrene and Austin become friendly when they find out they're Careers.

. . .

Kuno tells us that he needs to go somewhere. Alex and Nathan sleep in one tent. Jairo sleeps in another. Austin and the twins in the bigger one. Brie is fast asleep in her tent. I stay... awake... Well I think it's already 10 pm, because before Tyrene slept, she told me the games started at 12 and there's a surprise every 5 hours. There was already one surprise... what's next? Suddenly I hear a familiar cry. I bring out a knife and look around. The cry repeats. "Jairo! Jairo!" It's Jairo's sister during the reaping. Minutes later, I hear Sevi's brothers, then Artrice's sister, Jasper, Fina and several others. 'Don't hurt me... please... Please don't hurt me...' Isabella? 'AAAHHH!! Oh my...' Oh no. Not Isabella. 'Yellow can--AAAAHHHH!!!! MOMMY!! DADDY!! HELP ME!!' I cover my ears, but it just gets worse. 'MOMMY!! DADDY!! AAAHHH!! OW! OW! STOP! IT HURTS! MOMMY!! DADDY!! HEEELLPP!!' I can't stand it. 'AAAAHHHH!! GET OFF ME! GET OFF ME!!' I tear up. 'AAAHHH!! IT HURTS!!' Can't stand... this torture... 'ATE AZI! ATE AZI!! AAAHHH!!' It finally stops. Next thing I know, my entire face is wet. I stand and grab an axe. With all my might, I throw it. Up, up, higher and higher in the air it goes. I watch as it goes down. The familiar boom. I killed someone.

Day 2 starts. I haven't slept, but I'm not tired. I managed to formulate an energy drink out of herbs when I eventually got bored. I gathered lots of herbs and shoved them in a one of my jacket's pockets. I even gathered nightlock, just in case.

Brie wakes up and tells me she'll gather in a farther area.

A bell rings. It's three in the morning. Trackerjackers fill the air. "AZI!!" "BRIE!!" I shout running towards the trackerjackers. I throw my knives and shurikens. Not much damage. I grab my recorder and play. Miniature weapons start flying towards the wasp-like monsters. The trackerjackers turn their attention to me. I continue to play. The vermins finally die after I get a few stings on my hands.  I retrieve my knives and shurikens as I dash to Brie, who's been stung from head to toe. "Azi..." she whispers weakly. "Thank you..." "No... Brie... please don't..." I say, tearing up. "Don't cry 'cause it's over... smile 'cause it happened." She smiles, but then it fades as she stares at the sky.

Never again will I see Brie. "I will continue to treasure you my dear..." I say, leaving her one of the tribute tokens I smuggled in the games, a traditional Amity anklet that played a special lullaby when the topaz on the center was pressed. I remember Brie telling me she lost hers during the war when she stopped the supposed peacemakers from kidnapping her. Beforehand, she installed a poisonous smoke bomb that went off when the special song played. After that little flashback of mine, I let the song play as I walk away. From a distance, I hear the cannon. The others awaken... well... except for the twins. "I heard the canon. What happened?" Alex asks me. "Brie's dead." I say plainly. "WHAT?!" Jairo and Nathan join the conversation. The three started flooding me with so much questions that I had to shout. "WAIT!!!" They finally shut their mouths. All in one breath I say, "Nate, yes. No. Gathering. No. No. No. Yes. Alex, yes. No. Yes. Yes. Yes. No. Jairo, no. No. No. No. No. No. No. Yes. Yes. Trackerjackers, wasp-like creatures. No. Yes." "Your hands!" Jairo shouts. "Eww what happened?!" Alex exclaims. "I was stung by the... the... the tra--"

. . .

"She's awake!" "Told you it would work..." "Azi!" "Zie!" I rub my head. "What just happened?" "You fainted." Austin told me. "Oh okay... By the way... it just crossed my mind... where's Kuno? I haven't seen him since last night." "Yeah... I'll go check out the berry bushes. He might've eaten nightlock or something." Minutes later, Austin came back, seemingly petrified. "His head's as good as a log chopped in half. Someone's axe hit Kuno hard." Expectedly, we were all shocked. Absolutely shocked. I, was in a pool of guilt, because I knew I was responsible. I threw the axe. The axe fell on his head. Dead. Canon. "The killer must've really hated Kuno..." Austin said. I didn't like him, but I wouldn't do that to him! "Yeah... really sad..." Jairo added. "I know right! I wonder who killed him?!" Alex exclaimed. "I think you did it!" Nate said, pointing to Austin, jokingly. "Oh dear me!" I shouted, playing along. "Hey guys, stop. This is serious." Jairo told us. "Let's investigate this. Okay?" We all nodded in unison. Of course I, reluctantly did. "So an axe was used. Could be someone from 7. They use axes a lot." Alex stated. I hope they don't remember that I'm not a Career. "But we're all Careers!" I exclaimed. "So it can't be any of us!" "Unless..." Jairo started. "One of us is good with the axe..." My heart beats faster. "Ugh! Axes are so not my type!" Alex rolled her eyes as she talks. "Axes aren't my thing either. Spears are!" Nate adds. "I'm more of the shuriken-knife-throwing type." It's true! Even if I'm from a

place full of axes, I stick to what I find most amusing... although I am quite good with the axe. "I'm slingshot boy!" Jairo shouts. We laugh. Austin shrugs, "I have a quarterstaff." "Wow. The twins aren't awake yet." I switch the topic successfully. "Yes... yes they aren't... I'll go check on them." Austin then walked to the twins' tent. He doesn't look so good... We run to him. "Where are they?" I asked. "Probably ran off to their boyfriends..." Jairo blurt out. "What?!" I exclaimed. "Didn't they tell you?!" Alex snapped, making me sound like an idiot. "They're 21! What do you expect?" "Not all 21-year olds are in relationships! There are those who don't rush..." I rolled my eyes, remembering Angelica De Gloryel, one of the few 21-year olds in the arena. Nate just laughed. "She's right you know!" Alex punched Nathan hard. "You didn't have to do that!" Nathan shouted. "You didn't have to say that!" Alex squealed.