Wave ~ Hunger Games [1]

thirty-five

+ red gills +

I stood knee deep in the warm water, everyone still sitting on the beach as they cooked a few fish that I had already caught, the heat from the fire not helping the heat the arena was still under. The sun was gong down over the horizon, the pink and red hues mingling with the blue of the day, the sun slowly falling as the cool night time teased us, even though we knew it would only be a little bit cooler than it was during the day.

I let out a small sigh, looking back down at the water as a small fish swam through my legs, not even noticing that I was standing there as I pulled my trident back in my hand. I launched it forward quickly, catching another fish as I took it off the trident, holding it in my hands as I looked down at it. It moved in my hands, not comfortable with being out the water as I held it tightly so that it wouldn't wriggle it's way back into the water.

It didn't look any different to the other ones I had been catching for the last hour, Sturgeons that had different small patterns running from their gills to their tails. I looked closer at the one in my hand, the bottom of its gills being a deep red colour, unlike the rest of its body that was a gray. I furrowed my eyebrows as I held it tightly in one hand, using the other to try and look under the gills, the bottom side of them also a deep red colour.

If there was one thing I knew it was that they were not supposed to be like that, making me look up as I held the fish in my hand, the creature no longer moving. I had no idea what this fish could actually do to you if you ate it, but a small feeling in the pit of my stomach was telling me that it was exactly what I thought it would be, and I could hear the thoughts in my head telling me what I had to do with it.

The Capitol were bored, and I could practically hear their yawns and complaining from their lavish couches, wanting a kill to happen so badly to keep them excited. There was no doubt in my mind that the fish that was in my hand was a mutt, probably poisonous, the red gills intending that whatever it did to someone or something who ate it wasn't going to be pretty.

I turned around, walking back to the shore lazily, still craving water as I took the fish up the to the rest of the group, who were at the tree line, having already built a fire and cooking 3 fish I had already caught. "They've all swam further out" I said as I dropped my trident down on the ground, handing the fish to Velvet who speared it onto a stick, putting it over when fire.

"Good thing you can fish" Nolan said to me as she handed me part of the fish she had in her hand, causing my to pop it into my mouth as I nodded my head at her. "Good thing there's water, I haven't seen anything else that people can be eating" I said to her a she nodded her head, passing me the fish head that she had snapped off, which I happily accepted, no one else wanting to eat the meat from inside the head, but I didn't care enough.

I pulled the knife out of my belt, using the top of it as I pierced the cheek, popping it into my mouth quickly. "I can take first watch tonight if you want" I said as they all looked up at me, stopping chewing as Valour nodded his head slowly, taking a bite from the fish he was holding in his hands. "Okay" he replied to me quietly as I nodded my head, swallowing the lump in my throat as I let out a small breath, crossing my legs in the sand. I knew that I wasn't going to be able to sleep a wink with these 4 surrounding me, plus after I was about to feed this fish to them, I don't think I could stay with them any longer.

It was only a matter of time before we killed the rest of the people in the arena, and when that happened it wasn't difficult to determine who they would turn on first, and their training was always going to outweigh whatever talent I had with my trident. I knew I had to leave, but I had no idea when or how, if I ran in the middle of the day they wouldn't sleep until they hunted me down.

But whoever was going to eat this fish probably would be dead by morning, or even in a couple of hours, so I knew I had to leave tonight, because they may not be smart but it wont be hard for them to determine what killed her. "Do you have any water?" Velvet asked me as I pulled the small flask out of the holster, shaking it to hear a bit of water left, passing it over to her as she opened it, finishing it off before she handed it back to me with a small thankful smile on her face.

"How come you don't gut them before you cook them?" Ashlor asked me, nodding towards the one fish that was left on the fire, the red gills being engulfed by the flames as it slowly cooked. "It cooks fine over the fire" I said with a small shrug, pulling a piece of the skin off as I popped it into my mouth. I picked at the fish head, no one saying anything as we all sat in silence, picking away at the three fish that I had caught earlier, my eyes drifting to the fish on the fire as I stared at it for a moment.

"Is that ready?" Nolan asked me as she looked over at me, holding the backbone of a fish in her hand, loads of meet still on it as she pointed at the fish on the fire. "Yeah" I said to her as I held my hand out to her, causing her to pass me the bones in her hand, reaching out and taking the fish from the fire, pulling it off of the stick slowly.

I quickly pulled a piece of meat off of the bones, eating it to make sure that she wouldn't try and offer me any of the fish that she was about to eat, laying the bones on my knee as I pulled the meat off of it slowly, shoving it into my mouth. Nolan pulled a chunk of it off, popping it into her mouth, the meat hot as she kept her mouth open, inhaling to try and cool it down.

I sat intently as I watched her eat away at the fish, scraping the skin off with a knife as she ate the white flesh, not slowing down as she ate a fair amount of it. I completely zoned out the conversation that they were talking about, watching as her hand shovelled the meat into her mouth, not offering anyone else the fish as she ate the whole thing for herself.

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A/N: hello, ive been planning on this chapter for so long now, as I needed Waverely to kill one of them off, so i've gone with a poison fish to keep it on brand for her
there's a few more chapters coming your way so just keep scrolling and don't forget to vote and comment