The Hiro Games

CHAPTER THREE

        The midnight nook where I left Sayuri's body was silent in the morning fog. The sun peered just barely through the pallid veil of mist from across the copse and through the trees, giving everything an unnaturally white glow. Her body seemed to be at the center of it all, somehow highlighted in my mind. It could have been guilt, but it was likely all of the blood. It marked her in a stark contrast to the blankness of the haze, which seemed to accentuate the dark, sanguine hues. Excellent composition. I thought.
        Nothing stirred, not even me, as I sat staring at the limp mass. It wasn't how I expected it -- killing her. Killing at all, really. I hoped for more drama, action, suspense. But instead, it was simple, easy, and clean. No fun at all. I did it exactly the way my teacher told me to on that last day at the Tribute Center: I shaved her head and proceeded to spit on her. Of course, this was before I finished her. I left her eyes open.
        I can't say I was proud to have just ditched Sayuri's corpse when I left the nook without as much as a solemn nod, but I wasn't exactly sorry. Getting attached to someone would only make them a liability. This was my teacher's advice for all relationships, in and out of the Hiro Games. So I left the silent cove and walked slowly deeper into the brush.

      Morning set on the arena. The fog however, never seemed to fade. I found it odd, but figured that it was the Gamemakers manipulating things, like they do. At home, I probably would have jumped in my seat upon realizing that today's broadcast would be a foggy one. The foggy scenes were always my favorite.
     There was a particular sense of danger I got from walking nearly blind through the shroud. The sunlight was faint, barely illuminating my way through the dense. It peered in fractals through the crisscrossing beech brances high above me, while thick roots that seemed to connect to one another grabbed at my ankles. All I could hear was the grim cawing of a bird somewhere overhead in the leaves. Its calls reverberated in my ears and soon became a sharp, unfathomable ringing. I paused for a moment to see if it would stop, but the haze began to close in on me. The ringing grew louder, while the sunlight seemed to intensify, and the white fog became slowly more exposed. The bird's calls soon became screeches as I fell to my knees, covering my ears. I forced my eyes shut to keep out the burning light, but it somehow managed to pierce through. Everything seemed to swirl around me, and the terrible shrieks sounded like they came from every angle. It was as though an entire flock was preying upon me, and arguing over who would take the first bite. I yelled in retaliation, uttering nothing in particular, only yelling. This continued for what felt like hours, until somehow, over the deafening noise, I heard the sound of footsteps on crumpling leaves.
    Everything stopped. The crippling din became muted and the fog returned to its pale, comfortable state. It was all silent, all still. There was no movement, and for a moment I wondered if I had imagined the footsteps; then I wondered if I had imagined the entire ordeal. My thoughts about imagining the footsteps were subsequently proved wrong when I heard the crumpling sound once more. Cautiously, I arose from my fetal position on the ground and stood, crouching. My breathing slowed, and my heart seemed to stop. I couldn't help thinking that my shouts had given my position away, and that at any moment a ferocious firebender would burst through the woods in a flash of flames.
      But nothing happened.
    I stayed standing there, not daring to move, as though my stillness kept me invisible. In some ways, it did; I had almost forgotten that the thick fog hung over the arena. Still, I waited for something to happen. A few minutes went by with the wind blowing quietly through the forest, and me standing in the middle of it like a statue. Finally, with my heart pounding in anticipation from behind my own ears, I took a step. It was soft, and gentle, making no noise. With that movement I inched my body closer to a nearby tree, hoping to get some cover from a potential enemy. Each proceeding step from then on was tread with a growing confidence. As I moved closer, I felt safer, and allowed myself to relax. Soon, I stood with my back against the trunk, and my hands to the bark. I contorted my body to the contours of the tree, as it was quite thin but very tall. At least it covered my flank.
     After a few moments, I saw that a small fire ferret had come out from the foliage, crumpling leaves beneath its feet in the same way I heard it earlier. Relieved, I let out a sigh, which also denoted how stupid I felt for being so jumpy. I hadn't taken more than two steps away from my tree before what looked like a small stone darted right past my nose. It skid just barely along the skin, but ignited a sharp pain. It smacked violently against a low-hanging branch before it fell to the ground in a thud. I turned to the direction it came from in a panic, squinting my eyes to see through the haze which seemed just as calm as before.
     As I scrutinized the void, I heard the high-pitched whistle of another incoming stone. My eyes widened and, instinctively, I thrust my body backward. I fell to the ground, slipping on the loose dirt, and it was from there that I watched as the single stone lodged itself brutally into the bark of the tree I had clung to. It slammed into the wood with a ferocity that terrified me. I scrambled to get back up and as I did, another stone followed the last, and then a third. The two rocks shot so awfully into the bark that it shattered; the trunk had burst with a thundering blast, sending splinters all around. The sound of cracking timber shook the forest as the tree fell and I flung my body out from beneath its breadth. I managed to get up, slightly disoriented as my ears began to ring with the echoing slam of the tall birch against packed earth.
       I ran endlessly. My steps seemed to glide over the thick roots that had previously worked to trip me, and I managed to dodge every branch that emerged from the fog as I picked up my speed. The sound of crackling earth and falling timber trailed behind me, but I only pressed on. As I ran I could see tiny, pointed stones in my periphery, like an unceasing barrage of bullets; each stone, coming one after the other.
       As I sprinted, I came to what I thought was a clearing. In the fog I didn't realize that this clearing was really a steep and sudden drop, causing me to fall and roll haphazardly over bushes and twigs to the base of a hardwood tree. My back ached with a stinging pain as I tried to set myself upright against it, pressing a hand to my right side. Over the hill I saw the dark form of my attacker emerge, carrying his arms up from his sides, with supine palms, as though he were trying to lift something large. I soon saw that he was bending a multitude of small rocks, which hovered around his silhouette. He brought his arms forward, and lifted one outwardly as if he were about to slice the air. I knew what was about to happen, and in alarm I readied my own weapon. I took aim with my left arm while my right hand clutched its base, near the elbow, steadying it as I prepared to fire my spring-loaded knives at the assailant. Just as I released the blades and sent seven of them barreling toward him with a metallic shriek through the air, he put his arms down, dropping the many stones, and took on a new bending form.
      What he did next was so fast that I hardly processed it as it happened. He spun his arms in a circular motion, and as he did so, what looked like a massive globule detached from his body. It floated strangely in front of him, like a mass of water. Just as my blades approached, the globule took on the shape of a perfect circle and acted as a shield. The knives slammed into the mass, screeching like twisted metal as they landed. From behind the mass, the earthbender reversed the same motion, and sent my own blades right back to me. I simply sat back against the hardwood, resigning myself to what I believed would be my death, before another form appeared beside me and protected me with a wall of earth.