The Beasts of Us [A Hunger Games Fanfic]

ARENA XXI. Nineve.

Hunting. Theoretically, Nineve had been hunting before. There weren't many places to go on the shell-shaped island that housed the Training Centre, but the instructors managed it; they packed them onto rickety boats and sailed them out to other islands, or onto the mainland. They'd get a lecture about the importance of fending for yourself in the arena, before being given a knife and a net and sent out to wreak whatever havoc they chose on the location. Inevitably the louder trainees set out boldly from the start, and when the boat came again a day or a week later they were quieter and hungrier. Next time they just did it again. Nineve had her own techniques. Find a place and wait, still as she could. Echo wasn't big and didn't smell of anything, so there were no worries about her scaring away prey. Boredom didn't concern her either. Her mind was its own entertainment. Her thoughts occupied her until a gull or a crab came along and ignored her, at which point she would strike. A killing blow wasn't always possible. But once her prey was injured the hunt was as good as over and only the final formalities remained. The chase. The trap. The catch. Like as not she'd eat, and say nothing to the others when they met up again.

She'd been good. But that was against sea birds and fish, both cunning in their own right, but none quite so calculating as Stunner Haze.

He was keeping her on her toes. Still nimble despite his injured fingers and the cut to his leg, he swerved into the trees and out again, into the rocky emptiness beyond, right down to the stream, wherever he felt like on the moment. When he stopped it wasn't for long. He hadn't slept. That meant she hadn't been able to either.

Every so often she caught a glimpse of Caspar, flitting along about the same distance to the other side of him. Technically they were working together. They were managing to do it without words, without communication, only with the sense of knowing what was the right thing to do and finding themselves in agreement. It was almost restful, if you forgot the quarry was human.

It was hard to forget when he kept talking. To the cameras, to his daemon, to himself; scarcely ten minutes went by without him saying something. Sometimes she thought he was talking to them. That would be so typical of Stunner. So brash, so confident, so arrogant that nobody else would be able to get away with it.

That he knew they were trailing him, she had no doubt. So far he hadn't looked directly at either of them but that didn't mean he hadn't noticed. If anything, it probably meant he had and his pride - or his desire to stay alive - was stopping him from interacting with them. Two against one when one was injured would be no contest, even when the one was Stunner. He could put up a good fight, she'd seen that with Lin, but he'd sustained a wound during that struggle and Nineve and Caspar had already been running. With two opponents he wouldn't stand a chance. So. Best to pretend they weren't there. Make them move first, expose themselves. Ever-cautious, she had no intention of doing that. Caspar, though...

The boy would be getting bored by now. He was a child of action, a fighter with flair - it was no surprise that whatever procedure Two used to select tributes had produced him, sixteen or not. His patience would be running out.

That was his business. She'd move when it was time to move, and not before.

That time would be when Stunner's guard was down. That would be a while yet. Right now he seemed as alert as ever; skipping over tree roots and dancing out into the rocks with his arms extended towards an invisible audience. His daemon waddled along after him. She couldn't see his face. She would have assumed he was grinning, but as soon as Echo started to share that thought with her he stumbled and propped himself up on a boulder as big as himself. His shoulders shook. He threw his head back.

"Just...stop...raining!" he bawled at the sky.

"I agree," Echo whispered. Small and fragile, she didn't mind the sea but hated the rain. The drops weighed heavy on her. She was hiding in the hollow of Nineve's ear again.