The Hunger Games ~ Peeta's POV

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

****Recap (since it’s been a while)****

I yank Katniss in the direction of a tree. “Climb. He’ll be here in a second. We’ll stand a better chance fighting from above.”

“No, Peeta,” she says calmly, “she’s your kill, not Cato’s.”

Has she lost it? “What? I haven’t seen her since the first day. How could I have killed her?”

In answer, she holds out the berries.

****End Recap***

Chapter 20

As Katniss explains all that had happened and what Foxface was onto, after being told 3 or 4 times, I finally understand what she’s trying to preach to me. Foxface was putting her trust into the fact that we were about to eat the berries ourselves, therefore, making them harmless in her eyes, and causing her to drop dead.

“I wonder how she found us,” I ponder aloud. Then I bite my lip guiltily as it dawns on me. “My fault, I guess, if I’m as loud as you say.”

She gives me a gentle smile. “And she’s very clever, Peeta. Well, she was. Until you outfoxed her.”

  “Not on purpose.”I give a slight frown. “Doesn’t seem fair somehow. I mean, we would have both been dead, too, if she hadn’t eaten the berries first.” I purse my lips, replaying the moment in my mind. “No, of course we wouldn’t. You recognized them, didn’t you?”

She gives a curt nod. “We call them nightlock.”

“Even the name sounds deadly,” I say with a shiver. I almost killed us both! How stupid am I, to be going into this to save Katniss, and to almost kill her myself! Some savior I am. I’m such a sorry excuse for a protector. “I’m sorry, Katniss. I really thought they were the same ones you’d gathered.”

“Don’t apologize. It just means we’re one step closer to home, right?” She grins, but it doesn’t reach her eyes.

“I’ll get rid of the rest.” I feel like a puppy with its tail between its legs; ashamed. I scoop up the berries in the plastic wrap and leave to chuck it somewhere in the woods, out of sight, out of mind.

“Wait!” Katniss exclaims, digging through her bag and pulling out a little burgundy pouch. She takes the berries from me and pours them out of the plastic and into the pouch. “If they fooled Foxface, then maybe they can fool Cato as well. If he’s chasing us or something, we can act like we suddenly drop the pouch and if he eats them ---“

“Then hello District Twelve,” I say.

“That’s it,” she says, tying the pouch to her belt loop.

“He’ll know where we are now,” I say. “If he was anywhere nearby and saw that hovercraft, he’ll know we killed her and come after us.”

Even the thought of Cato kind of scares me. Not so much physically, since he’s only a little bigger than me, but the look in his eyes… it’s just indescribable. The one thing I think of when I picture his face is that look of… of bloodlust. I can’t stand the thought of having Katniss susceptible to that, even though we’re going to have to face him sooner or later, and knowing Katniss, it’s probably sooner.  I just hate being so exposed.

“Let’s make a fire. Right now,” she says, scooping up small bushes and stray branches here and there.

“Are you ready to face him?” I say, with an unnoticed tremor.

“I’m ready to eat. Better to cook our food while we have the chance. If he knows we’re here, he knows. But he also knows there’s two of us and assumes we were hunting Foxface. That means you’re recovered. And the fire means we’re not hiding, we’re inviting him here. Would you show up?”