The Third Everdeen

Chapter 25

I sat at the edge of the water, keeping my hands and feet in the cool water. Finnick sat in front of me, taking some of the smaller burns off his hands.

"I'm sorry about what happened to Mags. She was a good lady," I told him softly.

Finnick looked heartbroken and hesitated before saying, "She was never gonna make it," then he looked up and saw something that made him freeze. 

I turned to look behind me and saw two of those baboon looking animals watching us. Cautiously I took out a hunting knife and slowly stood up, but I stopped when I saw it wasn't just two. There were dozens of them approaching us, Finnick picked up his trident and held it defensively. Looking around, I tried to find a way out. Looking through the trees I saw the Cornucopia and knew it would be out only safe zone. Peeta was still at the tree with a spile, he hadn't noticed one of the creatures right above him.

"Peeta," I called out to him low and cautious so as not to alarm him.

"Yeah?" He looked at me and saw the animals surrounding us.

"Be silent and slow. Come here," I told him.

Peeta looked in front of him and the monster roared at him. They started coming closer, but they didn't attack. Peeta started coming closer to us. The roaring got louder.

"Go to the beach," I told them, turning to where I saw the Cornucopia, only to freeze because of the creatures in my way.

I raised my knife, ready to strike when suddenly there was a thump beside me, turning around I saw Peeta had killed a beast that had tried to get me. At the death of one, all the others attacked, we tried to keep a close formation. Strike after strike, kill after kill. The once clear water was now tainted with animals' blood. They still kept coming, and we kept killing. I got somewhat distracted trying to find the way to the beach when suddenly one of them jumped on me, sending me underwater. It snapped as it tried to bite me, but I fought it off. Suddenly it stopped struggling against me and fell limp. Peeta pulled me out of the water, bloody sword in hand.

"Let's go!" He urged grabbing my arm and running in the direction of the beach. We came upon a small incline when we both tripped and a baboon tackled me to the ground, I fought it off and killed it, when I recovered I saw Peeta killing a dead baboon and there was a dead Tribute on the ground.

"Who is that?" I asked confused.

"A Morphling! Help me lift her!" Peeta urged.

Without hesitating, I got down and helped him, even though I was hesitating in my mind because she could be a threat, I didn't have time to debate anything. We ran to the beach and stopped when we made it to shallow water, it looked like the baboons couldn't go on the beach, so they kept roaring at us but when they got tired they finally left us alone. 

Finnick was making sure the animals were gone, I turned and saw the girl in Peeta's arms, she was struggling, she was dying.

"Hey, hey. It's okay. Shhhh, shhhh," Peeta tried to calm her down. He looked around trying to find something to calm her, then he found it, "Hey want to see something nice? Look up. Look!" I couldn't help but look up too, the sunset was beautiful, I now knew the kind of orange Peeta liked and it took my breath away, "It's incredible isn't it?" He asked her as her breathing slowed, "Look at all those colors. Don't worry about anything else. I'll be right here with you," He told her. I looked at him and looked at her; I didn't know what I should feel. Suddenly, her breathing stopped and her eyes stopped moving. Peeta eased her body into the water, and the cannon went off. He looked down at her body, and even though he didn't know her, he looked like he was going to cry.

Looking up, the beautiful sunset was interrupted by an aircraft from the Capitol coming to collect her body. I put my hand on Peeta's shoulder trying to tell him we needed to step away from the body, they wouldn't take her if we were too close. Reluctantly, Peeta stood up and we let her body float out as we walked closer to the shore. The craft lowered a claw and picked up her body, reeling it in before it took off.