The 1st Quarter Quell

Chapter 21 - The Feast

Triton and Mason wrestle each other as they stumble and roll about the rough floor of the arena, strength against strength, brute force against brute force, the burning desire to win against the desire to keep a promise. Saffron knew she had to help Mason, but she couldn't do anything without endangering Althea. With her skin sweating up and her pulse leaping, Saffron couldn't sit back and do nothing. But how much further could Althea go before she would succumb to the poison of the storm?

Seeing the boy from District 11 get gunned down by crossbow fire was enough to spur Saffron into action. She was the best sharp-shooter and fastest girl from District 11 - she was put into this for a reason. Even if a small part of her told her to let Althea die so she could win, Saffron could no longer play allies, not without abandoning her moral judgment. Not without abandoning her friend. 

Sighing heavily and drawing her sword, Saffron picked up Althea as quick as she could without hurting her too badly, and hearing Althea mumble her name told her that Althea was still there, that she was going to live through this. Hearing the anguished cries of the boy from District 11 was all too easy to block out for Saffron with the battle cries from Mason and Triton, two deadly forces battling one another. 

Saffron trudged along as quickly as possible, spinning down stairs and turning around alley corners, all the while, unknowingly being watched.

Manuel followed Saffron very carefully with his eyes as she helped her ally make her way to the Feast table. Manuel knew Saffron wouldn't abandon her ally, but he couldn't understand the exact extent of her illness. He saw the Aldjoy girl wandering the desert aimlessly, but he couldn't reach her in time to see if she was worth killing out of mercy or not. Seeing her now though, he would've chosen that for her any day over the pain she's in. 

His eyes spot the District 1 girl chasing after the wounded District 11 boy along the outskirts of the circle, her crossbow apparently failing her when she needed it most, and the Mason boy and the tank from 4 were locking horns in a bloody battle next the to the Feast Table. It was all smooth sailing until he spotted the District 1 boy, Jasper, targeting Saffron.

Manuel didn't really know Saffron, but she was from home, and the youngest person in the Games at that - he couldn't let her die on his watch, he couldn't betray his District like that. So he made a beeline for the rooftop the pretty-boy was stationed at, jumping across the gaps between buildings, rolling across rooftops as he landed and scaling ladders as quickly as he could. The sound of a canon hastened his plight to save his friend, and he ran at speeds he himself never knew.

"Jasper, look out!" A girl's scream echoed across the Circle, and all to soon Jasper, along with the rest of the Tributes, turned to focus on Manuel as he charged Jasper. 

Jasper let fly an un-aimed but wholly focused arrow, an arrow that seemed to cut through time as it stretched out around everyone. An arrow that lodged itself perfectly in Manuel's neck. But not too soon before Manuel could charge into Jasper and fly the two of them off of the building.

Saffron, having almost made it to the table with Althea, could only stare in horror as the body of the boy from her home fell motionlessly towards the ground, the snap of his bones on concrete and rubble strengthening her resolve to exact revenge on the Career Pack. A canon sounded. Saffron was chilled to the bone. Less than 5 metres the two girls had left before Althea uttered words that weren't entirely meaningless. 

"Le- Let me go..." She breathed raggedly next to her, her eyes no longer white but still drooping, her hand clutched to her chest in pain, her chest heaving in odd patterns. 

"Althea?" Saffron froze to the ground in shock as her friend seemed to come to her senses. But all too soon did she feel a pair of strong hands wrap around her small frame and drag her away from her friend.