Spell: The First Games

Chapter 17: Survive, Day 1

I run towards a cornucopia shaped igloo. Weapons and survival gear await me. Other tributes get there before me. They grab some things and leave as quickly as they came.

The burly girl from District 2 blocks the cornucopia, and grabs a war-hammer. She pummels the District 5 girl in the stomach. She pounds another boy in the head and whacks a boy in the face. To finish it off, she throws the hammer and it smacks the District 12 boy's neck.

Frieda (one of the twins) tosses a net over the burly girl and Fred stabs her with a fishing spear.

I make it to the cornucopia and lunge for a knife. Vivian beats me and stabs my hand. I pull back my hand and just grab a backpack, hoping something useful will be inside.

I sprint away from the cornucopia and see Dakota in the distance. He is holding hands with Violet (the girl he likes). I run after them.

I catch up once they come to a stop. Violet whirls around to attack me.

 I scream and jump back. "Wait! I'm a friend!"

We all gasp for breath. "Sorry. I didn't know. It's just so scary here," she told me.

"Let's find a safe place to talk and discuss plans," Dakota suggested.

We walk around, memorising locations and landmarks while looking for a good base. Violet spots a group of trees that block a cave. I saw a camera zoom. I melted the camera into nothing before I entered. We slip between the trees and crawl in.

But the cave already has inhabitants: wolves.

"Does anyone have weapons?" I ask. No reply. The wolves growl.

Dakota looks at me. "Your magic!"

"Her what?" Violet asks.

I think hard. Just a few flames to scare them off. My hands glow. Fire burns the muzzle of one of them. It squeals in pain. The two other ones get up and back away.

I get ready to hit the others. "Don't hurt them anymore! They aren't going to hurt us!" Violet cries.

We move to the side to let the wolves out of the cave, but they don't budge. One actually whines.

"We'll just share the cave with them!" Violet decides.

I looked them over. You could count their ribs, they were all starving. If anything, they had come to die.

The one I burned came over to me. It nudged my bag.

When I opened it, the smell of raw meat filled the air. The wolves practically cheered. I split up the meat and gave it all to the wolves. It seemed wrong to give away the food, but it would seem wrong to just eat in front of the starving animals.

"Now what do we eat?" I wondered aloud.

Violet took my bag and turned it upside down. Bread and water bottles tumbled out. We shared one loaf and waterfalled from a bottle.

Dakota opened his bag. It had two thick blankets. We laid out one for the wolves and one for us.

Dakota took one of the wolves left front paw. It growled weakly. "It's paw is cut." Dried blood coated its foot. "Here, this will only take a moment." An aura of white shroaded his and and its paw. It tried to wiggle away, but its attempts failed. It quit struggling. The other wolves barked. Then Dakota released its paw. The wolf stood and looked in amazement. Its cut had healed and all that was left was a small scar.

"You never told me you had magic," I complained.

"There was no need to tell you," he replied.

"So are there limits? Can you heal yourself?"

"I can heal myself," Dakota answered.

"Why didn't you?"

"I was too weak, obviously."

Violet frowned. "You two have an unfair advantage. You can burn whatever you want. And you can heal whatever you want."

"Hey, the Capitol people gave us these powers. We're just using what they gave us," I defended.

"What do you mean?"

"We're test subjects originally from the Capitol. They were trying to make super-humans. They thought they failed, but really, they completely won." I said.

Dakota looked at my hand. "What happened?"

"Vivian happened." He took my hand and and closed his eyes. My hand stopped hurting. "Thanks." It had healed until you wouldn't have known it had been stabbed in the first place.

Violet shivered. "I'm cold, let's build a fire for the night."

"But I could just-"

"Don't waste your energy. Come on Dakota. Holly, you stay and watch the wolves."

I followed her orders and wrapped myself in the blanket. I'll save my aura for something important.

The wolf I burned snuggled next to me. I backed away. This wolf needed a good bath before I wanted to touch it.

I heard a cannon go off in the distance. 1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 shots were fired. Silence filled the air.

I fell into an uneasy sleep, not completely trusting the wolves, and fearing the other tributes.