ASHES AND BONES

this wasn't exactly what i had planned.

[onyxfeldspar]

jade-ametrine​:

With every part of the climb, Jade could feel the strain of her small injury causing her to feel the exertion of her climb, she watched as Onyx passed her easily and then made her own way to the edge of the island. Her muscles were screaming at the last moments of the exercise and she caught her breath while sitting a few feet away from the ledge. 

“That really took it out of me.” Jade admitted as she lay on her back, allowing the wind to whip around her. “Give me a second.” As she lay there, Jade took in her surroundings on the island, there wasn’t anything that was of note except what looked like dark rocks on the surface. Jade rolled onto her front and brought herself to standing, her eyes transfixed on the landscape. “Is that…” she began to ask. “Are those supplies?” 

Her feet took her to running before her brain knew what was happening, the thought of anything that could help her with The Arena made her heart skip a little with excitement. She crashed to her knees next to a pack that was a little bigger than the one they already had, even if it wasn’t full there was enough in there to be happy about. A set of 6 throwing knives with their own holder, another canteen of water and enough rations to see them both through at least one day. 

“Jackpot!” She shouted to Onyx, giving him an excited smile at what she’d gotten, Jade was already strapping the set of knives around her thigh, when her mind snapped back to Onyx. “Is there anything else around?” She wanted to search herself but exhaustion from the climb hit again and she decided to sit on the edge of the island and look out over the arena below. If it wasn’t so deadly and possibly the place where she and Onyx would take their last breath it would certainly be something beautiful to behold. She pushed the thoughts away through and decided to take a moment to sip her water and look through the food she’d found. 

“I’ve got more food too.” Jade called. “And look, Knives!!” 

Onyx turned to face Jade, worry spreading across his face as he saw her lay down, her eyes fixed on something a little way ahead of them.

“Supplies?” Onyx said, following the path of her stare and noticing the small collection of goods that rested on the centre of the island. He followed after Jade, letting her take the pack as his hand closed around the spear.

This was more like it.

He moved it from hand to hand, testing it’s weight. Being alone with Jade meant that for a second he felt as though he was back in the training centre in One when the games were so far away that he didn’t even have to think about what they really meant. Spears had always been his weapon of choice - he always preferred never to get too close to his target.

“I don’t think there is.” He responded to her question, checking the ground beneath them for anything they might’ve missed. “Do you think we just got lucky, or do you think all the floating islands are like this?”

He watched as Jade sat down and rooted through her pack, joining her in her excitement with the new goods they had acquired. This put them in much better standing for any fights ahead, especially if nobody else had managed to get their hands on any ranged weapons.

“You okay?” He asked her, sitting on the ground beside her and looking out over to the other floating islands. 

Maybe it was just an excuse to try and avoid what the point of the games really was, but he enjoyed the challenge of moving from one island to the next to see what other goods there might be scattered throughout the arena. But this climb had winded Jade, and it was only looking at her now that he realised how much of a strain it must have been to pull herself up with her injured arm. It might be better for them to stay on the ground, at least until Jade’s wound healed.

[onyxfeldspar]

jade-ametrine​:

The pool was fresh and clean and the mere sight of it made Jade grin from ear to ear, if there was one thing that she hated it was feeling dirty but there was enough water here to fill their tankards over and over. With that in mind she emptied the rest of the water in her canteen onto her face, allowing the water to wash away some of the grime of the night. 

“Hey can you get my zipper?” Jade asked, turning her back to Onyx for him to unzip the uniform. As she stood almost naked in the middle of the arena, she’d forgotten that The Capitol was watching, but it wasn’t long before she’d filled her canteen over and over to use it as a makeshift shower in the middle of the humidity. Eventually Jade dressed again and filled her canteen with water one more time. 

Jade agreed, the floating islands probably would hold something of note although she didn’t really fancy her chances of climbing too much with her arm injured. 

“Want me to come up with you?” Jade asked, ready to do whatever Onyx wanted to. The floating islands might hold some more danger or some treasure from The Capitol, she didn’t know but she was definitely willing to find out. Jade gripped the end of one of the vines, feeling it’s sturdiness as something caught her attention over on another island, a flash of purple and then two cannons. 

“They’re doing something to the islands.” Jade explained, “Like some kind of invisible wall just took out two tributes over there.” She nodded this time, to the islands that seemed to be made up of smaller islands. “Could be dangerous to stay in one place, let’s get up and down as quickly as we can and then, let’s get away from the edge of the arena.” 

“Uh, sure.” Onyx said, slowly sliding the zipper down and trying to figure out where he was supposed to look. In the end, he settled on looking upwards towards the floating islands, wondering which one would be best to climb up to. If they wanted a good vantage point, the higher the better, but they would waste time clambering up there that they wouldn’t be able to get back.

After some thought, he decided on an island close to the edge of the plains for no particular reason other than he had to decide on something and that was the first one that caught his eye. 

“Yeah, best not to split up.” He said in response to her question, starting to make his way over to the island. He had forgotten just how hot the arena was during the day, and already he could feel himself beginning to sweat.

At the sound of Jade’s voice, he turned his head to see where she was looking, watching as what he could only assume was the forcefield began to shift, moulding itself over the island until the island was completely out of its boundaries.

“We should hurry.” Onyx agreed, grabbing on to one of the vines and starting to haul himself up. It felt good to be able to use his muscles again, enjoying the burn in his arms as he hauled himself upwards.

It was far, but once he got into the swing of things he felt like he could have carried on climbing forever, so by the time he got to the top he was almost surprised. He hauled himself on to the island, hooking his foot on to an outcropping of rock to give himself some leverage when he pulled himself up. He could feel the wind biting at him. It was colder up here, cold enough that he gave an involuntary shudder.

He took a few steps forward and then stopped as he took in the arena in all it’s glory.

“Holy shit.” He said, transfixed by the view of each island.

[onyxfeldspar]

jade-ametrine​:

Jade had already packed their belongings before Onyx had finished speaking, knowing that leaving anything here would mean that they could be tracked by someone that had that ability. 

“Not yet, but it’s something to look out for.” She explained, picking up her weapons. “I like the idea of moving to check out another island, I was thinking that maybe all of the tributes would’ve moved from that island under The Cornucopia by now but might have missed something.” 

As she spoke, Jade made her way from the cave and after the heat of a new day hit her, the smell of blood permeated her senses. The bat that they had killed the night before still lay where it had been slain but in the sun it had become more of a corpse than earlier. 

“Gross.” She whispered, “Do you think it would put other tributes off if we came back here and that was outside.” She pointed at the beast. “Either way, let’s get some water and watch the other islands for a while.”

Jade threw a small wink at Onyx and waited for him to make the first move. 

“Lead the way handsome.” 

“Hm,” he said, inspecting the creature. He was almost impressed they had managed to take the creature down without much difficulty - it looked huge spread out on the ground as it was. “I would avoid anywhere that had a corpse like this outside of it. I think you might be on to something.”

He stepped over the creature and continued led Jade towards the pool of water he had found, looking around for any sight of the other tributes. There were only eight people down, which meant that there was a very good chance there could be other tributes on this island with them. Usually this wouldn’t concern him, but the Underdog title he had been blessed with before the arena meant that many people would view him as an easy target. Maybe he was an easy target.

He knelt as he got to the edge of the pool, filling up his water bottle and being glad of the Capitol’s generosity when it came to the size of it. This would last them all day as long as they were careful, and knowing that there was a source of water so close to them was a relief. He never wanted to feel the dryness of his throat the way he had yesterday evening again.

“I like the sound of going back to the first island, too.” He said, as he pulled his pack back on to his shoulders. “But maybe we should scale one of those things first.” He nodded towards one of the floating islands above them. “We might get a better idea of what’s on each island on top of one of those. Then we can skip the unnecessary ones.”

[onyxfeldspar]

jade-ametrine​:

Jade had all but forgotten about the cut on her arm, it appeared that the medication that they’d applied the night before had induced a slight numbness to the wound. 

“This is going to suck.” She commented as she unwound the bandage from her arm, in her mind she hoped that it wouldn’t start the bleeding again and luckily she didn’t seem to have anything to worry about as the bandage came away with minimal excess blood. Taking her flask, Jade ran some of the clean water over the cut and used the cleaner end of her bandage to wipe away at the injury. She wasn’t sure if it would do anything more for the wound that they’d already done but after a re-application of more of the medication she wrapped it and was ready to get on with Day 2 of The Arena. 

“It’s a good idea, let’s eat.” Jade accentuated her words by pressing some meat and cheese onto a slice of bread that she cut with the axe, so as not to use the blade that she’d used to kill the bat. “I think we should explore this island a little more, we know there’s water and we kinda know what happens at night too.” She explained, thinking fully like a Career Tribute. “And like you say, we can see everything that’s going on around us, I doubt people will openly attack unless they think that they can get the jump on us.” 

Jade knew that was unlikely unless someone else was on the same island and had found some kind of vantage point, they wouldn’t be able to fight their way through the threat of the bats. The Bats. Jade thought to herself, not expressing her sudden realisation yet. 

“Do you think that it’s safe to stay in one place?” She asked, knowing that Onyx would be forming his own plans in his mind too. “Especially if The Capitol want to be entertained, they’ll start forcing us together soon.” 

He watched as Jade cleaned her wound, wincing slightly as the water washed away the blood to reveal the cut. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but Jade being injured was unsettling to him.

“This island seems like one of the best places to be.” Onyx agreed, taking a mouthful of food. “I think we’ll be safe here for now - over half of the tributes are still alive so I don’t think they’ll push us closer together yet.”

He took a couple more bites of food, thinking carefully. This island seemed like one of the safer ones - as long as you avoided the bats - but he couldn’t escape the feeling that they might miss out on something important if they didn’t at least scope out the other islands.

“Actually, it might be worth checking out the other islands before we settle here. See if there’s anything worth our time. We can always come back here before night fall if we don’t find anything interesting.”

[onyxfeldspar]

jade-ametrine​:

Jade wasn’t a morning person and the unfamiliar surroundings of the cave that she’d slept in didn’t help. The first thing that she noticed after realising that her throat was burning was the fact that Onyx wasn’t here. A sudden sharpness came over her, had he been taken while she’d slept? She would never forgive herself if he had. 

Just as she was about to start the hunt to look for him he appeared and her heart unwound in her chest. 

“Hi.” She replied, realising how gross she felt and knowing that she wouldn’t be able to clean her teeth or wash her face. The water was a beautiful rest bite from her thirst and she tried her best not to gulp it all down at once. “Thank You. That was probably the best thing I’ve ever drank in all of my life.” 

Jade smirked and reached into Onyx’s pack to retrieve what food was left from the night before, now that they had water they might as well make the most of it.

“Let’s finish this off.” She suggested. “And then maybe drink our fill of water too if there’s more out there?” 

“Hey, you.” Onyx grinned at the sight of her, handing Jade one of the flasks and refrained from opening his own. Instead, his eyes found Jade’s bandaged arm, the material covered in blood that - thankfully - looked dry.

“We should clean your cut first.” He said. “There’s a pool of water just over there. We can refill your water bottle, clean your cut, and then eat all the leftovers. They won’t last much longer in this heat anyway.”

He looked out over the flat grassland, wondering if it would be best to stay on this island for the foreseeable future. The bats they could deal with, and the lack of jungle meant that they could see anyone coming from a mile off - and now they knew that there was water here too, it might be best for them to wait here and see what comes.

“We can see all the other islands from here.” He said thoughtfully. “We’ll be able to see people moving between them.”

Not for the first time, Onyx was glad of their career status. It meant that even if people saw them, they would hesitate before approaching - especially with Jade’s twelve in training. 

[onyxfeldspar]

Once he was awake, Onyx felt too jittery to sleep again. His throat was sore from lack of water and his body already felt weakened, but as the run began to rise and the clouds started to descend once again on the arena, he felt a surge of energy that had something to do with Jade sleeping peacefully not too far from him.

He would let her rest while he found water. The trip would only be short, and at the first rays of sunlight, the bats seemed to leave the island. He waited for a little while long, watching as the clouds covered the sun, and then when he was sure the coast was clear he ducked out of the cave and moved carefully forwards, taking the two empty flasks with him.

He made sure the entrance to the cave Jade slept in never left his sight as he began to scope out the island they were on. In the distance he could see horses grazing, but he kept his distance, well aware that they could be Capitol Mutts.

It took a little under three minutes for him to locate a pool of water. He sniffed at it gingerly, fearing the worst, but when it smelled of nothing at all he dipped a finger in tentatively and touched it to his tongue. 

Even that small droplet of water had him screaming for more, but he tried to control himself, waiting a few minutes to see if there were any adverse affects. When he appeared to be just fine, he filled up the two flasks, sealing one of them tightly and taking a few long gulps of water from the other before filling it up again and heading back to the cave.

When he got there, he could see that Jade was already awake.

“Hey,” he said casually, “I found us some water.” He held up the now full flasks with a smile.

[onyxfeldspar]

jade-ametrine​:

Jade felt comfortable around Onyx in those moments and after she’d eaten all that she could without a drink she wrapped it carefully back in her pack and held it out for Onyx to put into his pack. 

“Get some rest.” She instructed, crawling across the cave to offer a kiss on his lips that lingered a little longer than even she’d anticipated. “I’ll give you a nudge when I need to sleep too.” 

With that Jade took her position at the mouth of the cave, close enough that she could see out into the moonlit arena but far enough away that the hovering horrors that were now patrolling the plains wouldn’t be able to see her and suddenly attack. 

Throughout the night, every so often she would check on Onyx to make sure he was okay, letting him sleep if he was sleeping and watching from afar if he was awake. Jade hadn’t realised that she’d even fell asleep at her post until a cannon woke her. Another tribute dead.

“Do you mind if we swap now?” Jade asked softly, knowing that the cannon would’ve woken him too. “I could do with at least a couple of hours of rest.”

Onyx mumbled incoherently for a few moments as he heard Jade’s voice, his arm reaching out for her before he remembered that she had been left keeping watch.

He sat up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, wondering if he had imagined the sound of the canon or not. It would be good if there was another tribute dead. He stopped himself short at that thought, wondering when he’d become so heartless. Another tribute dead meant another life lost, and that was hardly something to celebrate even if it meant they were one step closer to getting out of here alive.

“Sure.” He managed to mumbled, stretching and moving towards the cave entrance, pressing his lips briefly to Jade’s forehead as she passed. Really, he should have let her rest first. She needed it more with her arm being the way it was, but he promised himself that the second he saw the sun starting to rise he would go out and find water for the two of them so she didn’t have to worry about it when she woke up. Jade was right, if Godiva hadn’t sent them water it had to mean there was some close by.

He looked out over the grassland, watching the bats as they swooped down looking for their pray, marvelling at the bright light that radiated off each leaf on the willow tree. If he weren’t fearing for his life right now, he might almost think of this place as beautiful. Almost.

[onyxfeldspar]

jade-ametrine​:

“District One’s finest.” Jade echoed, feeling the sting of the medication in her arm, she hoped it would be enough to not cause any complications down the line. 

“I’ll take the first watch if you want to sleep?” Jade was tired but her drive to keep Onyx alive was more important to her, she could live on a few hours sleep tomorrow but she wanted to make sure that Onyx was well rested enough so that if she didn’t make it through the second day he had a fighting chance. “Let’s eat what we can and then get some rest.” 

Jade knew that eating while they were so dehydrated would be like swallowing sawdust, but it was better than not eating at all. There had to be water near them or Godiva would’ve sent water too but with the bats outside Jade knew it wasn’t worth the risk. She took another small bite of the cheese and offered some to her partner. 

“Hey Onyx.” She added with a smile. “Thank You for everything.” Jade couldn’t quite put into words everything that Onyx had done for her physically, mentally and emotionally and when the ground had started to rumble when she’d considered that he could be in danger a realisation dawned on her that she appreciated him more than she had ever allowed herself to before. The Thanks was out of character even for someone what was as close to Jade as Onyx was. She just hoped that he understood her meaning from the small thanks that she offered to him.

“Sure.” Onyx said, too tired to disagree. He let out a large yawn and took the cheese Jade had offered to him. It wasn’t until he took the first bite that he realised just how hungry he was. They hadn’t eaten since that morning, and back then he was too nervous to keep more than a few bites down.

That morning felt like it was a lifetime ago. They hadn’t even been in the games for a day yet, but already it felt like their new normal - something they would have to live with for the foreseeable future. He found himself wishing he had taken training more seriously. He had barely learnt how to hunt for food and had never spent as much as one night away from the comfort of a bed, and now his life depended on it.

The only thing that gave him pause for stuffing his face was Jade’s offer of thanks. He was unprepared for it, and didn’t fully understand what it was for. She had pulled the most weight since getting into the arena. If it wasn’t for her, there was no chance he would have been able to survive this, but with her by his side, he actually had hope.

“You’re welcome.” He said, looking at her with mild curiosity. He wasn’t sure why, but ever since the almost kiss followed by the actual kiss, he had felt sheepish around Jade. He suspected it was because he didn’t want to ruin it, and he had never been in a position like this before. He gave her a shy smile and returned to the food, pretending not to notice the reddening of his own cheeks.

[onyxfeldspar]

jade-ametrine​:

She saw his worry and buckled herself in for him fussing, knowing that it would probably hurt him more than her that she’d been hurt. 

“I’m fine.” She lied as she slid down to the floor again, pulling her pack from her shoulders and opening it to reveal the same as what Onyx had in his. Without water she could easily get some kind of infection or worse, Jade thought about what she knew about the games and everything that had happened before. “Godiva is sending us a message.” She explained, breaking a small cheese off the block between her thumb and forefinger, raising it to her lips and savouring the saltiness of something to eat. “There has to be water near, but it’s too dangerous to go out there now. First thing we have to find something to drink and something for this.” 

To accentuate her words Jade removed her hand from the wound, happy to see that at the very least she’d stopped bleeding.

“Let’s wrap it up for now and then we’ll look for water in the morning.” She smiled at Onyx, they’d made it through the first day and he was still here, she was one step towards sending him home. They just had to get through the first night. 

“First thing.” Onyx agreed, meeting her smile with his own. He was parched beyond belief and more tired than he had ever been, but they were still alive. Still living and breathing and all but unscathed. As long as they looked after Jade’s cut and made sure it didn’t get any worse, the two of them would be just fine.

He took out the medicinal spray that was in the pack and took Jade’s arm.

“Sorry if it stings.” He said as he began spraying, trying to cover as much of the wound as possible. The blood made it difficult to see just how bad the wound was, or how deep she had been cut, but they could worry about that in the morning. 

He took the bandages, being careful to touch them as little as possible and wrapped them around Jade’s arm, unsure of exactly how tight they should be or how much pressure he should be applying.

When it was done, he moved back over to the gift from their sponsors and pulled out all the packages of food, laying it all out in front of them before settling beside Jade, a tentative hand reaching to tuck a piece of short hair behind her ear.

“We survived the first day.” He said, a soft smile playing at his lips. “District One’s finest.”

[onyxfeldspar]

jade-ametrine​:

The screech had caught Jade off guard as it pierced the night air as she watched the bat careen into the rocks at the mouth of the cave, unable to fly but soon gaining its footing and turning their attention to them. Jade jabbed her blade forward as the creature snapped at her. Metal found flesh as she cut through the mutt and it gargled on another scream. She had a sudden feeling that they were being watched and she spun to observe the rest of the land, waiting for another threat. When it didn’t come she allowed herself a small grimace of pain. 

“Fucking mutts.” She seethed, realising that this was probably the most that she’d ever sworn infront of Onyx. She returned to her partner and wanted to give him the fast once over to see if he was alright but her fingers suddenly felt cold as she realised that the scratch was deeper than she’d first anticipated. She quickly pressed her hand over it and hoped that the packs had something inside them that would help. 

“Are you okay?” Jade asked, trying to smile as she walked back to their cave. 

He watched as the beast went down, not lowering his sword until it had stopped moving completely. Seeing its corpse on the ground gave Onyx more of a sense of just how large the creature truly was. It had to be at least six feet long, and it’s wings must double that in size. He poke it with his foot to make sure it was dead and then turned to Jade.

“I’m okay.” He said, starting to smile but then stopping dead as he saw the blood dripping down her arm. 

He followed her back into the cave and gently took hold of her arm to inspect it, trying to keep his face as devoid of emotion as possible. 

But what could they do about it?

“Sit down.” He told her, opening up his pack and rifling through it. Bed rolls, an empty flash and - yes - bandages. How the hell does this work? He could have sworn they covered this at some point when they were training, but it had been one of their more boring modules. He reached into his mind, trying to locate the information and-- Yes! Clean it!

He moved over to the package they had received from their sponsor, rifling through all the delectable food they had been sent, trying to find water but finding... nothing? He let out a sigh, moving back to Jade.

“There’s no water.” He said, inspecting her wound. There was a lot of blood, to the point where he couldn’t make out just how bad the cut was. “Do you have anything in your pack?”

[onyxfeldspar]

jade-ametrine​:

It felt like forever that Jade allowed herself to settle into Onyx’s embrace, even though her body was calm and comforted in his arms her brain was telling her that the games were still on and that she had to keep playing. It was only when the cave they were in began to violently shake that she suddenly snapped into action, straddling over the boy and holding one of their packs over his head to make sure he wasn’t injured by any falling debris. 

This is it. Jade thought to herself as the Arena shook, she hadn’t considered that they would take Onyx out with her and it forced her to protect him, in the seconds that the quake continued Jade realised that it was now her job to retain Onyx’s innocence for as long as possible and she would do so as much as she could. Eventually the earthquake stopped and Jade refused to move until she was certain that The Capitol had done what they needed to do. It wasn’t until the Anthem blared through the arena that she actually moved and made her way to the edge of the cave that they inhabited. 

Seven. Jade counted, watching the faces light up the sky. When it was over a noise that she recognised took it’s place, their sponsor obviously using the display of the fallen to send a gift that cut easily through the air and towards Onyx. As his hands wrapped around the parcel Jade screamed his name and ran towards him, pushing him backwards into the cave as the flying horror careened into her and sent her rolling along the floor. She found her feet as the bat flew away, arching up in the air and dropping back to come in for another attack. 

Jade drew her blade and took a defensive position in front of the mouth of the cave, feeling the blood dripping from her arm where the creature had caught her and holding her sword in the other hand, her both shaking from the sudden spike in adrenaline. 

“Inside the cave.” She growled at Onyx before turning her attention to the creature that was looming down towards her.

“Bring it on motherfucker.” 

Onyx was more bewildered by Jade throwing herself on top of him than he was about the violent shaking of the ground beneath them. He stared at her, completely perplexed as she held one of their packs over his head, not even moving when the shaking subsided and the world returned to normal.

“You know,” he started, chewing on the inside of his cheek, “You don’t have to--”

Whatever he was about to say was interrupted by the sound of the Capitol Anthem, and the two of them scrambled up immediately to see the faces in the sky. He counted each one of them, glad - in a way - to not have known any of them. He couldn’t imagine how he would feel seeing the face of someone he had really gotten to know up there. 

He was so distracted by that thought that it took him a few moments to notice the parachute floating down towards him. He reached up and grabbed it with both hands, surprised by the wight of the gift they had received. He was just about to open it to see what lay inside when all of a sudden he felt Jade throwing him back in the cave, causing him to stumble and hit his head against the cave wall.

“Fuck.” He muttered, throwing the gift to the ground and pulling out his sword. Was there another tribute here? 

He hesitated at Jade’s instruction. A part of him wanted to hide and let Jade deal with everything the Capitol threw at them, but a stronger part of him knew that if Jade were to die while he was cowering in some corner - he would never forgive himself.

So he stepped out of the cave and joined Jade, his eyes growing wide as he saw what the threat was. A huge skeletal bat, careening down towards them from the starry night sky, it’s dark body silhouetted against the moon.

After the initial shock, his eyes became narrow and focused. What’s one bat against two trained careers? As the bat swooped low to reach Jade, he swung, his sword slicing into the wing off the creature as it let out an unholy screech of pain.

[onyxfeldspar]

jade-ametrine​:

Jade refused to look at Onyx as he took the girls body outside but her voice betrayed her as she answered his question. 

“Can we stay here please?” She replied. There was something about seeing the girl in such a vulnerable position, begging for death, begging for release. It was all unexpected. Jade had anticipated fire and fury through every tributes last moment. She knew that they needed water and food but her energy had suddenly left her and all she wanted was to sleep and to avoid what was happening outside for a while. “Can we ask our sponsors for water and food? Is that allowed?” 

Jade suddenly couldn’t think straight and started to move towards the wall of the cave, her hand resting on the stone before she spun her back to the wall and slid to crouching. She hated the idea of being seen like this as vulnerability was something she’d always hidden. 

"Of course.” Onyx said, his voice soft. They hadn’t even been in the arena for a day and already he felt as though all the drive had been sucked out of him. He found himself longing for the trepidation he had felt in the run up to the games - anything other feeling that didn’t involve being here and having to live through this.

But this was what he had wanted his whole life. He just hadn’t realised just how real it really was.

He knelt down next to Jade, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her close, peering his head around at the sound of the hovercraft as it swooped down to collect the fallen tribute. He couldn’t even remember her name.

“Hopefully the Capitol heard you.” He said, not feeling up to trying to find a food source at this late hour.

[onyxfeldspar]

jade-ametrine​:

Jade assessed the situation again, the girl from 3 didn’t seem to be posing any kind of threat and it appeared that the only thing in her possession was a backpack that matched the two that they already had. She gave Onyx a not and stood to show herself to the girl from District 3, who didn’t even flinch at the sight of another tribute bearing down on her. 

“Sure.” Jade offered, taking tentative steps to join the girl in the pit that she’d fallen into and hoping that Onyx would follow. Jade placed the back of her hand on the girls forehead feeling that she was burning up and seeing just how much blood she’d lost from the dark marks that soaked her uniform. Jade sighed softly, knowing that this was more than bloodloss. 

“Hey,” She said, loud enough to get the girls attention. “What happened?” 

The smaller girl barely opened her eyes to look at Jade, her soft breathing was getting slower by the second. 

“A tribute got me.” She sighed, tears beginning their descent down their face. “And then I fell from the vines and saw all the blood.” Her breath caught in her throat and she coughed loudly, if another tribute was near then they’d know something was happening in this hole and Jade hoped that Onyx was being alert enough to know that. “Then when I hid, I found a plant that looked like one from home, and pressed it into the wound. I thought…” She cut off again, her eyes rolling into her skull. Jade was losing patience, she had to find out what had happened before she died. “Please…” 

A memory stirred in Jade’s mind of her Mother’s sudden sickness, a poison was burning the girl up and there was nothing that Jade or Onyx or anyone could do about it now, if she’d not bled as much as she had or she hadn’t gotten the poison from the plants straight into her bloodstream then maybe she would survive. 

“Please.” The girl pleaded again. “I just don’t want to hurt anymore.” 

With the words, Jade watched the girl slipping in and out of consciousness and knew that it wasn’t worth keeping her alive to interrogate her for more information. Jade stood, retrieving the sword that she’d placed next to the girl and aiming the point over her heart. She wasn’t sure if it would end her suffering but it was the fastest death that Jade could think of. As she pushed the weapon forward and into the girls body, she finally felt the pressure of the games weigh on her shoulder and her eyes filled with tears at what she’d had to do. Another life lost for The Capitol.

Onyx followed Jade into the cave, having trouble looking at the girl from three. He didn’t even know her name, and now they were in here and they were planning to kill her.

He let Jade do the talking, glancing outside of the cave entrance every few seconds to make sure they was no one else coming. He had no idea where the rest of the tributes went, where their biggest threats could be now. They would have to be on guard at all times, especially as more and more people died.

Onyx looked over at the girl. Her eyes were barely open, her breathing haggard. He could hear the sound of each inhale. She was barely clinging on to life as it was, so when Jade held her sword up Onyx didn’t feel any guilt for what was about to happen. He closed his eyes, turning away and refusing to open them again until the sound of the canon echoed through the arena.

He looked from Jade to the body with a grimace. 

“We should take her outside.” He said, swallowing hard. “So the Capitol can take her.”

With that, he appraoched the body, his face twisted in a mixture of hurt and incredulity for what he was doing as he lifted the girls body and carefully moved past Jade and out into the open. 

He laid her down around ten feet away from the cave entrance, pausing for a second and closing his eyes once again.

He wasn’t made for this. 

He took a deep breath and moved back towards Jade.

“Shall we stay on this island for the night?” He asked, looking at the orange sunset.

[onyxfeldspar]

jade-ametrine​:

Jade could sense her partners hesitance, and if she allowed it to change her course now away from the girl that had escaped them it could cause more problems down the line, it appeared as though night was beginning to fall already so they had to move quickly to find water and shelter. 

“I think she’s run inland.” Jade offered, thinking that if the girl had continued along the beach that they’d have seen her as they approached the island. “She may have even found a place to hide.” 

Jade was a little perturbed by Onyx suddenly bailing on the idea of playing the games, he knew what he was getting himself in for and it was barely the first couple of hours into the arena and she knew that second guessing could get them both killed. With this in mind she took the lead, deciding that the tree was as good a landmark as any to use as a way of tracking more information about the island. She took her first steps and realised that something was off, that the ground was spotted here and there with what looked like rain. Instinctively she crouched to examine the dots that laced the floor. 

Blood.

She understood, the girl who was running, something had caught her and she was running for her life, whether it was a tribute or a horror of the Arena it didn’t matter, She’d been injured badly enough to run in fear and ignore the present danger of Jade and Onyx. 

“She’s hurt.” Jade observed out loud so that Onyx was up to speed. “And she’s in that hole.” She nodded to accentuate her point, realising that the girl was probably listening to their conversation, too injured or exhausted to run.

Onyx looked from the cave, to the blood on the ground, and to Jade several times over. This girl was injured - too injured to run when she heard them coming - and Jade wanted to-- what? Kill her? It was the name of the game, he supposed.

He cleared his throat and tried to look unbothered. 

“Yeah,” he said, nodding his head vigorously and lowering his voice so the tribute wouldn’t hear them. “Yeah - I mean - should we... should we speak to her first? Find out what she was running from?”

He looked back towards the cave entrance. Part of him felt sorry for her. He had seen this kind of scenario play out too many times, sometimes envisioning himself as the one doing the killing, but now that he was here it felt... permanent. 

But he had to face up to the task. It was the only way the two of them were making it out alive, so he steeled himself and found the hilt of his sword, waiting for Jade to give the go ahead and trying to pretend none of this was real.

[onyxfeldspar]

jade-ametrine​:

Jade followed her partner, only a couple of steps behind as they pursued the other tribute, eventually they hit the outcrop of land and then the waters edge again where Jade didn’t hesitate to continue running into the blue where she started to struggle with the waves, deciding to wade through them rather than actually make an attempt to swim. 

The other girl had disappeared already and Jade couldn’t help but wonder whether they were walking into a trap or if the girl had gained some kind of upper hand that they didn’t know but this didn’t stop her from moving forwards and onto the shore of the second island. 

“We need to find that tribute.” Jade instructed. If she was going to be labelled a villain by The Capitol then a villain she would be, she would be the one to push Onyx into following but she wouldn’t let him fight unless he had to. She could take the burden of that title while keeping Onyx as innocent as possible. “We don’t know what she’s up to so the sooner the better.” 

Onyx faltered at the edge of the island, watching in awe as Jade overtook him and plunged straight into the water - which turned out to be more shallow than he could have hoped for. He followed her rather gingerly and began wading through the water, bracing himself for the moment the floor would give out and he’d be left floating. But it was a moment that never came. Instead, the two of them broke free of the water and hauled themselves up on to the next island.

“She can’t have gone too far.” Onyx said, looking around. The fact that she had been running from something and no tribute followed seemed like a bad sign. There could be all manner of creatures out her, waiting for them if they weren’t careful.

“Do you want to go further in and explore the island or shall we patrol around it?” 

[onyxfeldspar]

jade-ametrine​:

“Ok.” Jade replied, “Let’s just be careful that no more tributes are going to come out of the jungle and get the jump on us.” 

In her heart of hearts, Jade didn’t like the idea of sticking to the island directly below the Bloodbath and hoped that they’d find a way over to the other island sooner rather than later. Even the slowest tributes would find their way to the ground eventually and any tribute could quite easily be a threat. Onyx’s compliment threw her off guard as they started to traverse the beach. 

“Thanks.” She smiled shyly, bringing her hand up to her hair and ruffling it, feeling just how much she’d cut away and realising she had shorter hair than she ever had in her whole life. “I’m glad it’s not put you off. You wanna keep going on the shore or…” 

As Jade was finishing the question a tribute that she didn’t know burst through the greenery and ran straight for her. Jade braced herself for the girl to attack but found that she was fleeing, It was almost as if Jade and Onyx were invisible to her and some other threat had scared her into running.

“We need to move.” Jade instructed quickly as the unknown tribute broke into a swim in the water that surrounded them. “I think something is coming.”

Onyx smiled back at her, seemingly entranced as reached a hand up to feel it. There was no one else he’d rather be here with, even after everything the Capitol had done to try and tear them apart. He knew Jade better than the Capitol ever could, so their words in the last recap had flown over his head. 

They mad made some headway towards the far island, and Onyx was beginning to feel quite confident in them making it through the first night, so as Jade started talking he turned to her with another grin, freezing into place as he saw someone erupt from the tree line.

It took a moment for his brain to compute that it was another tribute, and that Jade was in danger, but the second that clicked into place he readied his sword, stepping in front of Jade and watching as the tribute pelted straight past them and dove into the ocean.

And then the first canon rang through the air, followed by five more blasts. He whirled his head around, looking for whatever the girl was running from before turning to face Jade.

“You’re right.” He said, nodding in an effort to fill himself with that same confidence he had felt only moments ago. “Bloodbath’s over. We should get out of here.”

He looked around, trying to ignore the remarkable speed in which the girl who had passed them was now swimming to a nearby island. He pointed to a slight outcropping about sixty feet ahead of them that would give them a little bit of a head start on the swimming front.

“We’ll go from there.” He said, starting to run.

[onyxfeldspar]

jade-ametrine​:

Jade watched as Onyx pressed his finger to his lips, almost stopping him before he could and realising that the body of water was too big to be completely poisonous. Part of her was glad that she could smell the salt water infront of her rather than the cloying scent of the jungle. 

“I think we should avoid other tributes for now.” Jade commented. “Let’s see what that island has.” She pointed again to the flatter island that appeared to have less jungle and more flat ground. As Jade focused more on the terrain of the other island she could see that there was actually a singular gargantuan tree that stooped over the whole island. 

“That one.” Jade instructed, taking a couple of tentative steps into the water towards the island. “If there’s a tree growing there it’s gotta be taking water from somewhere.” She analysed. “I’d say that’s a good place to start.”

Onyx nodded, steeling himself for having to face the water. Out of every possible arena, they had to deal with water? He would have preferred an arena that was nothing more than a lava pit.

“We should walk around the coast.” He said as he peered over at the large tree Jade was speaking about. “Get as close as possible before we start swimming.”

It looked like a long way to reach the island, and the last thing he wanted was to exert himself to the point of exhaustion so soon in the games, especially without any water or fuel to sustain him.

“When I said it was pretty, I meant your hair by the way,” he added as he set off, looking around at her a little sheepishly. “Not the arena.”