rising from the ashes || a hunger games story

chapter seventeen

willow's pov

i jump awake to the sound of a cannonball. i look over to finn who looks at me half asleep. the fox we met yesterday is scratching his ear with his paw. "i wonder who that was for." finn says, groggily.

i shrug my shoulders. "it doesn't matter. whoever is left is who we'll have to fight. someone dying just gives us an advantage." finn looks at me weirdly. i give him a "what" face when i realize i've never talked like that. i've never said that the cannonball gives us an advantage.

of course, it does give us an advantage but saying that was just disrespectful to whoever just died. it's disrespectful to everyone who has died in these games. i let out a sigh, "i'm sorry. that was rude. these games are just starting to get to me and i'm getting tired of being in here."

finn lets out a sigh, "so we should get ready to fight." i nod, "we'll head for the cornucopia tomorrow. let's gather everything we'll need today." finn nods back at me.

i open up the cave and drop the rock next to me. i debated wrapping the rope around the fox's neck as a leash but i let him be. i don't know if he has a family and he wants to go back or not. the only thing out of the backpacks were the light contraption and the sleeping bags, the one we sleep in and the one that's cut up.

i take down the light contraption and turn the flashlight off. i fold the sleeping bag that finn and i sleep in and stuff it into my bag. i fold the remaining of the cut up sleeping bag and stuff it into finn's backpack.

my backpack is strapped on my belt, my quiver is strapped on my back and im holding my arrow in my right hand. i walk out of the cave and take a look at my surroundings. i hear a quiet crunch of the snow to my right. i look down to see the fox.

he looks around and starts playing in a pile of snow. finn soon walks out behind me. "let's go" i say, looking back at him. it's like the fox recognizes those words because his ears perk up and he looks at me.

i start walking straight ahead and hear light crunching to my right and louder crunching to my left. i start walking the path towards the lake. we've been drinking water slowly so we haven't run out. i just hope that the ice is still thin enough to break so we can refill the canteens.

once we get to the lake, finn is able to break the ice after about 5 minutes. as soon as it's broken, i refill all of our canteens and drop iodine into them. i close them back up and put them back into the backpacks.

as soon as i finish with the canteens, i walk back into the trees so we aren't in the open. i walk deep into the trees, away from the lake, and soon sit down under a tree. i sit down with my legs crossed and the fox lays down next to me, laying his head on my right knee.

i find a few squirrels in the trees around me that i can shoot at without standing up. finn, who is standing to my left goes to each one and grabs them.

he starts cooking them once he sits down and starts the fire. "doesn't he have a family?" finn asks me as he's cooking the squirrels.

i shrug my shoulders. "i'm not sure. he might but because they're being controlled, they no longer act like his parents." i see finn nod. we haven't been talking as much as we did in the beginning of the games.

probably because we don't want to be here anymore and we're just tired of it. that's how i feel at least. i soon hear a beeping right next to me. i look over and see a parachute fall a few feet away from me.

i grab it and open it up. there's another paper with a few items under it. i read the paper as i look over at the items occasionally.

you two have so many sponsors but you don't need anything so i'm giving you this collar and leash for the fox. your mother is going to be so upset. when you bring him back to 12, make sure he doesn't eat my geese. you got this, sweetheart.

-h

i laugh at the comment about his geese. he started taking care of geese so he could keep his mind off wanting to drink alcohol. i don't mind them. they can get really annoying with their honks but they're alright.

my mom on the other hand, hates them. she's caught them trying to eat the primroses, rue flowers, and the flowers my sister is named after, the dahlias, a few times. when she catches them eating the primroses, it affects her the most.

she's almost killed them a few times but either haymitch, my dad, rye, effie, or i have always caught her before she could. we try to keep dahlia away from mom when she acts like that. we all think it'll scare her because she never sees mom like that.

dahlia was born when my mom and dad's amount of nightmares started decreasing. plus, her room is the farthest from their's so she can't hear my mother screaming whenever she has a nightmare.

i pick up the blue collar that sits in the container that was connected to the parachute. the fox looks at me and walks up to the collar. he starts nudging the collar with his nose. i untie the collar and wrap it around his neck. i put the leash into my backpack, i don't want to keep him contained.

under everything was a plastic bag. i grab the cooked squirrels and put them into the bag. finn sits back next to me against the tree after he put the fire out. he looks over at me and sighs.

"you want me to win but what am i going to do without you?" he says, pressing his forehead against mine and a tear falls down his cheek. i wipe the tear away and place my hand on his cheek and rub his cheek with my thumb.

that's when i feel him lean in and his lips on mine. "i love you so much, willow. i can't lose you."