22nd Hunger Games

Ediro

Ediro    

        The song of birds wakes me from my sleep. There’s a soft breathing somewhere. I get on my feet and head toward the noise, and I soon find myself crouching on the ground beside a sleeping twelve-year-old girl. I don’t recognize which district she comes from. She has sandy-colored long hair tied in a braid.

I’m about just to kill her when I notice the silver arrows beside her. They bring a flashback. A silver arrow piercing Aolus’ throat… a silver arrow! She was the one who saved me from the Careers!

I decide to spy on her, and hide behind a bush. She wakes up after a few minutes, and digs a hole in the earth, revealing a small backpack. She empties the contents, and a pack of dried fruit, a knife, matches, a needle, a large spool of thread, and a small bottle of water fall out.

As I move closer, the sunlight catches my sleeve. The sunlight must’ve reflected onto something, because she whips her head around and she spots me.

As she shoots an arrow toward me, my instincts tell me to drop to the ground. I do, and the arrow whizzes over my head. She’s reloading when I raise my hands up.

“I’m not trying to hurt you!” I yell.

She lowers her bow, and raises her eyebrow. “Why? I don’t want to die,” she murmurs indignantly.

It’s no use cooperating with her, so I launch a knife at her. She ducks and the knife nearly shaves her hair off.

“You’re a good fighter,” she compliments.

I think she’s trying trick me, so my hands are on another knife when she replies, “No, I’m serious. You are a good fighter. Do you want to-?”

I know what she’s asking. It’s the question I wanted to ask her from the beginning.

“Yeah, I’ll be your ally. I wanted to ask you that too,” I cut in.

She smiles, and asks, “Do you want some food? I found a bush full of berries.”

“Well, maybe later. First I’ll check my pack contents.”

We sit down, and a small pouch, a water bottle, matches, bread, a needle, beef jerky, some matches, a small spool of thread, apples, a small bottle of oil, some cloth, and parts for a tent.

She gets up, takes the pouch and starts walking away.

“Hey! Where are you going?” I ask her.

“I’m collecting the berries from the bush, dummy,” she yells back.

“We already have food!”

“I’m collecting more so we don’t starve to death when we use up our supplies!”

I open my mouth to say something, but I can’t. So I let her keep walking.

She comes back a few minutes later with the pouch filled up, and she sits down on the ground by me. She eyes my backpack, which looks like it’s going to burst any second.

“You know, I can reorganize your bag,” she says.

“You can?” I ask, surprised. “How can you do that?”

“It’s my district. You know, District Eight? I work the machines.”

I just sit there, open-mouthed and looking like an idiot for the cameras, while she sits there and sews the whole thing. When she’s done, I’m amazed. My backpack can stuff like 5 more items in it.

“Wow, thanks,” I say, astonished.

We just sit there for a while doing nothing. The District 8 girl gets the pouch full of berries.

She breaks the silence. “Hey, I’ve noticed I haven’t introduced myself,” she tells me.

“Yeah, I haven’t too,” I reply. “My name’s Ediro.”

“Oh, I’m Stella,” she says.

“I think you saved me from Aolus.”

“Who’s that?”

“He’s the District 2 boy that looks like a dog.”

Stella laughs, and says, “Yeah, that was me. Want some berries?”

“Nah, I’m not hungry,” I drone.

“Oh well, suit yourself.”

The next moments flash by. She gets a berry out of the bag. I recognize it. The color and the shape all give clues.

“Wait, did you take the-”

My words are cut off, because the berry is already in her mouth and down her throat. Her body jerks, twitches, and then falls. The cannon fires and I know she’s never getting up again.

My prediction was correct. I start weeping.

“Stella,” I cry, “Stella, those were poisonous night lock berries.”