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PART III "THE VICTOR"

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I clap my hands over oes black and I hear a chorus of frogs begin to sing Stupid! I tellto do! I wait, frozen, for the woods to come alive with assailants Then I remember there&039;s almost no one left

Peeta, who&039;s been wounded, is now my ally Whatever doubts I&039;ve had about him dissipate because if either of us took the other&039;s life noe&039;d be pariahs e returned to District 12 In fact, I know if I atching I&039;d loathe any tribute who didn&039;t immediately ally with their district partner Besides, it just makes sense to protect each other And inone of the star-crossed lovers from District 12 - it&039;s an absolute requirement if I want any more help from sympathetic sponsors

The star-crossed lovers PeetaWhy else would the Gae in the rules? For two tributes to have a shot at winning, our "ro it would jeopardize the success of the Gaed not to kill Peeta But whatever he&039;s done in the arena, he must have the audience convinced it was to keepto the Cornucopia Fighting Cato to letup with the Careers must have been a er to ht makes ht so the cameras can be sure to catch it

So, who is there left to be afraid of? Foxface? The boy tribute froht And her strategy has been to evade, not attack I don&039;t really think that, even if she heardbut hope someone else would kill ht, he&039;s a distinct threat But I haven&039;t seen hian I think about how Foxface grew alarmed when she heard a sound at the site of the explosion But she didn&039;t turn to the Woods, she turned to whatever lies across from it To that area of the arena that drops off into I don&039;t knohat I feel almost certain that the person she ran from was Thresh and that is his domain He&039;d never have heard h for someone his size to reach

So that leaves Cato and the girl fro the new rule They&039;re the only ones left who benefit from it besides Peeta and myself Do I run from them now, on the chance they heard me call Peeta&039;s naht-vision glasses and their heavy, branch-breaking bodies

Right into the range of my arrows But I know they won&039;t If they didn&039;t coht to my fire, they won&039;t risk what could be another trap at night When they come, it will be on their own terms, not because I&039;ve let theet soh I wish I could start tracking Peeta now Tomorrow, you&039;ll find hi I&039;ht hesitate to attackan ambush for me I make sure to fully preparebreakfast, securingmy weapons - before I descend But all seeround

Today I&039;ll have to be scrupulously careful The Careers will know I&039; to locate Peeta They may ant to wait until I do before they move in If he&039;s as badly wounded as Cato thinks, I&039;d be in the position of having to defend us both without any assistance But if he&039;s that incapacitated, how has he ed to stay alive? And how on earth will I find hi Peeta ever said thatout, but nothing rings a bell So I go back to the lastat me to run Then Cato appeared, his sword drawn And after I was gone, he wounded Peeta But how did Peeta get away? Maybe he&039;d held out better against the tracker jacker poison than Cato

Maybe that was the variable that allowed hi, too So how far could he have gotten, stabbed and filled with venom? And how has he stayed alive all these days since? If the wound and the stingers haven&039;t killed him, surely thirst would have taken hiet my first clue to his whereabouts He couldn&039;t have survived without water I know that from my first few days here He must be hidden somewhere near a source There&039;s the lake, but I find that an unlikely option since it&039;s so close to the Careers&039; base ca duck at one of those And the stream The one that leads from the camp Rue and I made all the way down near the lake and beyond If he stuck to the streae his location and always be near water He could walk in the current and erase any tracks He et a fish or two

Well, it&039;s a place to start, anyway

To confuse reen wood Even if they think it&039;s a ruse, I hope they&039;ll decide I&039;m hidden so Peeta

The sun burns off thehaze almost immediately and I can tell the day will be hotter than usual The waters cool and pleasant on my bare feet as I head downstreao but decide against it I will have to find hiood ear or he will have to find ht? He won&039;t have so low of an opinion of nore the new rule and keep to ht be interesting under different circumstances, but at the moment only provides an extra obstacle

It doesn&039;t take long to reach the spot where I peeled off to go the Careers&039; can of Peeta, but this doesn&039;t surprise me I&039;ve been up and down this stretch three times since the tracker jacker incident If he were nearby, surely I&039;d have had soins to curve to the left into a part of the woods that&039;s new to e rocks that increase in size until I begin to feel somewhat trapped It would be no s off Cato or Thresh as I climbed over this rocky terrain In fact, I&039;ve just about decided I&039; track entirely, that a wounded boy would be unable to navigate getting to and fro down the curve of a boulder It&039;s long dried now, but the sest someone - who perhaps was not fully in control of his mental faculties - tried to wipe it away

Hugging the rocks, Ifor him I find a few lued to it, but no sign of life I break down and say his najay lands on a scruffy tree and begins to ive up and cli, He must have moved on Somewhere farther down

My foot has just broken the surface of the water when I hear a voice

"You here to finish me off, sweetheart?"

I whip around It&039;s come from the left, so I can&039;t pick it up very well And the voice was hoarse and weak Still, it must have been Peeta Who else in the arena would call me sweetheart? My eyes peruse the bank, but there&039;s nothing Just mud, the plants, the base of the rocks

"Peeta?" I whisper "Where are you?" There&039;s no answer Could I just have iined it? No, I&039;m certain it was real and very close at hand, too "Peeta?" I creep along the bank

"Well, don&039;t step on ht underThen his eyes open, unasp and ahs

It&039;s the final word in caone into his private session with the Gamemakers and painted himself into a tree Or a boulder Or a ain," I order He does, and his e to be his body is actually under a layer of uised as to be invisible I kneel beside hi cakes paid off"

Peeta s"

"You&039;re not going to die," I tell hied "Says me We&039;re on the same team now, you know," I tell him

His eyes open "So, I heard Nice of you to find what&039;s left of ive hi Up high," he answers

"Let&039;s get you in the streaot," I say

"Lean down a " I lean over and put ood ear to his lips, which tickle as he whispers "Reht to kiss me anytime you feel like it"

I jerk"Thanks, I&039;ll keep it in mind" At least, he&039;s still able to joke around But when I start to help him to the stream, all the levity disappears It&039;s only two feet away, how hard can it be? Very hard when I realize he&039;s unable to move an inch on his own He&039;s so weak that the best he can do is not to resist I try to drag hi all he can to keep quiet, sharp cries of pain escape him The mud and plants seeantic tug to break him from their clutches He&039;s still two feet fro trails in the dirt on his face

"Look, Peeta, I&039; to roll you into the stream It&039;s very shallow here, okay?" I say

"Excellent," he says

I crouch down beside him No matter what happens, I tell myself, don&039;t stop until he&039;s in the water "On three," I say "One, two, three!" I can only e one full roll before I have to stop because of the horrible sound he&039;s e of the streae of plans I&039; to put you all the way in," I tell hiet hiet hi?" he asks

"That&039;s all done Let&039;s get you cleaned up Keep an eye on the woods for me, okay?" I say It&039;s hard to knohere to start He so caked with mud and matted leaves, I can&039;t even see his clothes If he&039;s wearing clothes The thought e in Naked bodies are no big deal in the arena, right?

I&039;ve got tater bottles and Rue&039;s water skin I prop the while I pour the third over Peeta&039;s body It takes a while, but I finally get rid of enough ently unzip his jacket, unbutton his shirt and ease them off him His undershirt is so plastered into his wounds I have to cut it aith ain to work it loose He&039;s badly bruised with a long burn across his chest and four tracker jacker stings, if you count the one under his ear But I feel a bit better This much I can fix I decide to take care of his upper body first, to alleviate so

Since treating his wounds see in what&039;s becoainst a boulder He sits there, unco, while I wash away all the traces of dirt froht and he no longer looks strong and stocky I have to dig the stingers out of his tracker jacker lumps, which causes hihs in relief While he dries in the sun, I wash his filthy shirt and jacket and spread them over boulders Then I apply the burn cream to his chest This is when I notice how hot his skin is becouised the fact that he&039;s burning with fever I dig through the first-aid kit I got from the boy from District 1 and find pills that reduce your temperature My mother actually breaks down and buys these on occasion when her home remedies fail

"S these," I tell hiry"

"Not really It&039;s funny, I haven&039;t been hungry for days," says Peeta In fact, when I offer hi, he wrinkles his nose at it and turns away That&039;s when I kno sick he is

"Peeta, we need to get some food in you," I insist

"It&039;ll just coet him to eat a few bits of dried apple "Thanks I&039;m much better, really Can I sleep now, Katniss?" he asks

"Soon," I proentle as I can, I remove his boots, his socks, and then very slowly inch his pants off of him I can see the tear Cato&039;s sword h, but it in no way preparesboth blood and pus The swelling of the leg And worst of all, the s flesh

I want to run away Disappear into the woods like I did that day they brought the burn victim to our house Go and hunt while my mother and Prie to face But there&039;s no one here but me I try to capture the cal particularly bad cases

"Pretty awful, huh?" says Peeta He&039;s watchinglike it&039;s no big deal "You should see sohow I usually clear out of the house whenever she&039;s treating anything worse than a cold Come to think of it, I don&039;t evenis to clean it well"

I&039;ve left on Peeta&039;s undershorts because they&039;re not in bad shape and I don&039;t want to pull theht,nakedabout ives them no cause for embarrassment Ironically, at this point in the Games, my little sister would be of far more use to Peeta than I am I scoot my square of plastic under him so I can wash down the rest of him With each bottle I pour over him, the worse the wound looks The rest of his lower body has fared pretty well, just one tracker jacker sting and a few s what on earth can I do for that?