She made broken look beautiful and strong look invincible. She walked with the universe on her shoulders and made it look like a pair of wings.
| the hunger games |
| catching fire |
| finnick odair // oc |
| completed |
| book two |
Started: 10/2...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
───── · ° ➶ ✧ ➶ ° · ─────
Beetee wants to inspect the tree before he has to rig it. Judging by the sun, it's about nine in the morning. We have to leave our beach soon, anyway. So we break camp, walk over to the beach that borders the lightning section, and head into the jungle. Beetee's still too weak to hike up the slope on his own, so Finnick and Peeta take turns carrying him. I let Johanna lead because it's a pretty straight shot up to the tree, and I figure she can't get us too lost. Katniss and I bring up the rear.
The dense, muggy air weighs on me. There's been no break from it since the Games began. I've sweated out buckets in the last two days, and even though I've had the fish, I'm craving salt. A piece of ice would be another good idea. Or a cold drink of water. I'm grateful for the fluid from the trees, but it's the same temperature as the seawater and the air and the other tributes and me.
As we near the tree, Finnick suggests Katniss take the lead. "Katniss can hear the force field," he explains to Beetee and Johanna.
"Hear it?" asks Beetee.
"Only with the ear the Capitol reconstructed," I say. I know she's not fooling Beetee with that story. Because surely he remembers that he showed me and her how to spot a force field, and probably it's impossible to hear force fields, anyway. But, for whatever reason, he doesn't question her claim.
"Then, by all means, let Katniss go first," he says, pausing a moment to wipe the steam off his glasses. "Force fields are nothing to play around with."
The lightning tree's unmistakable as it towers so high above the others. Katniss finds a bunch of nuts and makes everybody wait while she moves slowly up the slope, tossing the nuts ahead of her. My eyes are sweeping the greenery before me, catch sight of the rippled square in front of me and Katniss throws a nut directly in front of her and I hear it sizzle in confirmation.
"Just stay below the lightning tree," she tells the others.
We divide up duties. Finnick guards Beetee while he examines the tree, Johanna taps for water, Peeta and I gather nuts, and Katniss hunts nearby. There are a lot of nuts hanging from the trees and many more on the ground that has fallen. Peeta and I gather as much as we can carry. The sound of the ten o'clock wave reminds me we should get back, and we return to the others with pockets full of nuts. Katniss returns and cleans her kill, then she draws a line in the dirt a few feet from the force field as a reminder to keep back. The three of us settle down to roast nuts and sear cubes of rat.
Beetee is still messing around the tree, doing I don't know what, taking measurements and such. At one point he snaps off a sliver of bark, joins us, and throws it against the force field. It bounces back and lands on the ground, glowing. In a few moments, it returns to its original color. "Well, that explains a lot," says Beetee. I look over at Finnick, confused because it explains absolutely nothing to anyone but Beetee.
