Against the Odds (A Crossmare Fanfiction)

Water

 
It was two hours later that Cross stopped to rest. He'd forced himself to walk away from the centre of the arena for as long as he could. Meeting any of the other tributes was the last thing on his bucket list at the moment.

He wanted to stay far far away from them and basically hide for the whole thing. If he could spend at least a whole day away from any bloodthirsty tributes that want to slit his throat.

Maybe if he was lucky he'd bump into Nightmare by chance on the way. He could really use some reassurance right now. Well, he knew Nightmare probably wouldn't team up with him, that wasn't his style. But he did say he'd at least protect him if he was in trouble if Cross did the same. Not that he could do much anyway...

The small skeleton sighed and shook his head, letting his pack slip off of his shoulders and drop to the floor with a thud. All that walking had made him tired. And hungry. And thirsty. God he was so desperate for water it was a craving. His throat felt scratchy and dry, every swallow gave the sensation of sand rubbing him raw.

Dying of thirst would probably be the most pathetic way to die in this arena. The least he could get was dying in battle, the two of them panting and bloodied before they sent the finishing blow at his skull. Or maybe saving someone else? Flinging himself in front of Nightmare in a moment of danger and sacrificing himself so that he could go on and win. Either of those two would at least be more memorable than dying from being too stupid to find water.

Plus dying of water sounded slow and painful. At least a quick blow to the skull or stab to the neck would kill him quicker. Or if it was a sacrifice then he wouldn't die alone. He could have someone to comfort him as he dusted into nothing. God that would make his mum and Chara sob to no end.

Actually now that he thought about it, maybe just not dying at all would be his preferred option. Yes, that seemed a nice idea. How about he lived though all of this? He'd stay in the woods and hide and let Nightmare kill off all the opponents. And when it was just the two of them left? Well...

Cross shook his head softly, biting his bottom 'lip'. That was the most unlikely scenario of Hunger Games history. But he still held onto it pathetically, pretending like it wasn't only one person that goes home at the end of this.

He ended up sitting there for around fifteen minutes, lost in his thoughts before he was snapped out of them by the snap of a twig. In a flash he'd lurched to his feet, panic striking through his soul and he whipped around to try and see where the source of the noise had come from.

At first glance nothing was visible to him and he grit his teeth, his eyes sweeping across the shrubbery and trees.

And then from behind a tree, the one responsible for the noise came into sight.

It was a peacock.

It was instantly recognisable as a female, seeing as it's body was more of a dusty brown colour instead of the expected glorious blue. She didn't have the extravagant tail feathers that peacocks were so famous for. But she did have a blue tinted neck and lovely aquamarine feathers sticking out from the top of her head. She blinked, letting out a soft trill as she saw him.

Cross immediately relaxed, his body becoming less tense as he slumped down back to his knees. "Heya."

The peahen tilted its head to the side before deciding he was incredibly boring and starting to peck at the ground for bits of shrubs and food.

Cross watched with interest, half of him just enjoying watching the beautiful bird while the other half of him was itching at the back of his skull, saying that that bird would give him a lot of meat. Probably enough to last him two days if he rationed.