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Getting the broth into Peeta takes an hour of coaxing, begging, threatening, and yes, kissing, but finally, sip by sip, he empties the pot I let hi down a supper of groosling and roots while I watch the daily report in the sky No new casualties Still, Peeta and I have given the audience a fairly interesting day Hopefully, the Gaht

I autoood tree to nest in before I realize that&039;s over At least for a while I can&039;t very well leave Peeta unguarded on the ground I left the scene of his last hiding place on the bank of the stream untouched - how could I conceal it? - and we&039;re a scant fifty yards downstrealasses, place my weapons in readiness, and settle down to keep watch

The temperature drops rapidly and soon I&039;ive in and slide into the sleeping bag with Peeta It&039;s toasty warratefully until I realize it&039;sis reflecting back his fever I check his forehead and find it burning and dry I don&039;t knohat to do Leave hi and hope the excessive heat breaks the fever? Take hiht air cools hi it on his forehead It see too drastic

I spend the night half-sitting, half-lying next to Peeta, refreshing the bandage, and trying not to dwell on the fact that by tea up with him, I&039;ve made myself far round, on guard, with a very sick person to take care of But I kneas injured And still I ca to have to trust that whatever instinct sent ood one

When the sky turns rosy, I notice the sheen of sweat on Peeta&039;s lip and discover the fever has broken He&039;s not back to norht, when I was gathering vines, I came upon a bush of Rue&039;s berries I strip off the fruit and mash it up in the broth pot with cold water

Peeta&039;s struggling to get up when I reach the cave "I woke up and you were gone," he says "I orried about you"

I have to laugh as I ease him back down "You orried about me? Have you taken a look at yourself lately?"

"I thought Cato and Clove ht," he says, still serious

"Clove? Which one is that?" I ask

"The girl froht?" he says

"Yes, there&039;s just them and us and Thresh and Foxface," I say "That&039;s what I nicknairl from Five How do you feel?"

"Better than yesterday This is an enormous improvement over theand you"

Oh, right, the whole ro I reach out to touch his cheek and he catches ainst his lips I re to my mother and I wonder where Peeta picked it up Surely not from his father and the witch

"No more kisses for you until you&039;ve eaten," I say

We get hiainst the wall and he obediently ss the spoonfuls of the berry h

"You didn&039;t sleep," Peeta says

"I&039;ht," I say But the truth is, I&039;m exhausted

"Sleep now I&039;ll keep watch I&039;ll wake you if anything happens," he says I hesitate "Katniss, you can&039;t stay up forever"

He&039;s got a point there I&039;ll have to sleep eventually And probably better to do it nohen he seeht," I say "But just for a few hours Then you wakenow I smooth it out on the cave floor and lie down, one hand on my loaded bow in case I have to shoot at a ainst the wall, his bad leg stretched out before him, his eyes trained on the world outside "Go to sleep," he says softly His hand brushes the loose strands of ed kisses and caresses so far, this gesture see I don&039;t want hiI sleep too long I know from the moment I open ht besidesomehow defensive but better rested than I&039;ve been in days

"Peeta, you were supposed to wake me after a couple of hours," I say

"For what? Nothing&039;s going on here," he says "Besides I like watching you sleep You don&039;t scowl Is on a scowl that rin That&039;s when I notice how dry his lips are I test his cheek Hot as a coal stove He clai, but the containers still feel full to ive him more fever pills and stand over him while he drinks first one, then a second quart of water Then I tend to hisi

My heart drops into my stomach It&039;s worse, much worse There&039;s nohas increased and the tight shiny skin is infla Blood poisoning Unchecked, it will kill him for sure My chewed-up leaves and oint anti-infection drugs froine the cost of such potent medicine If Haymitch pooled every donation froo up in price the longer the Games continue What buys a full meal on day one buys a cracker on day twelve And the kind of inning

"Well, there&039;s one," I say in an unsteady voice

"I knohat blood poisoning is, Katniss," says Peeta "Even if my oing to have to outlast the others, Peeta They&039;ll cure it back at the Capitol in," I say

"Yes, that&039;s a good plan," he says But I feel this is mostly for th up I&039;ht a fire," he says "It&039;s not worth it"

"We&039;ll see," I say As I take the pot down to the stream, I&039;m struck by how brutally hot it is I swear the Ga up the teht The heat of the sun-baked stones by the streaht a fire

I settle down on a big flat rock halfway between the strea half a pot of water, I place it in direct sunlight and add several egg-size hot stones to the water I&039;m the first to admit I&039; everything in a pot and waiting, it&039;s one ofuntil it&039;s practically mush and mash some of Rue&039;s roots Fortunately, they&039;ve both been roasted already so they ht and the rocks, the water&039;s waro find so, I discover a tuft of chives growing at the base of some rocks Perfect I chop theain, put on the lid, and let the whole thing stew

I&039;ve seen very few signs of ga Peeta alone while I hunt, so I rig half a dozen snares and hope I get lucky I wonder about the other tributes, how they&039;renow that their main source of food has been blown up At least three of the on it Probably not Thresh though I&039;ve got a feeling he e on how to feed yourself fro for us? Maybe one of theht moment to attack The idea sends me back to the cave

Peeta&039;s stretched out on top of the sleeping bag in the shade of the rocks Although he brightens a bit when I come in, it&039;s clear he feels miserable I put cool cloths on his head, but they warm up almost as soon as they touch his skin

"Do you want anything?" I ask

"No," he says "Thank you Wait, yes Tell me a story"

"A story? What about?" I say I&039; But once in a while, Pri happy Tell me about the happiest day you can reh and a huff of exasperation leaves my mouth A happy story? This will require a lot oodand somehow I don&039;t think these will play ith either Peeta or the audience That leaves Priot Prioat?" I ask Peeta shakes his head, and looks at in But carefully Becauseout all over Paneether that I hunt illegally, I don&039;t want to hurt Gale or Greasy Sae or the butcher or even the Peacekeepers back ho they&039;d breaking the law, too

Here&039;s the real story of how I got the , the day before Prim&039;s tenth birthday in late May As soon as school ended, Gale and I hit the woods, because I wanted to get enough to trade for a present for Prim Maybe some new cloth for a dress or a hairbrush Our snares had done well enough and the woods were flush with greens, but this was really no ht haul I was disappointed as we headed back, even though Gale said we&039;d be sure to do better to abuck, probably a yearling by his size His antlers were just growing in, still small and coated in velvet Poised to run but unsure of us, unfamiliar with humans Beautiful

Less beautiful perhaps when the two arrows caught him, one in the neck, the other in the chest Gale and I had shot at the same time The buck tried to run but stumbled, and Gale&039;s knife slit his throat before he knehat had happened Mo so fresh and innocent And then ht of all that fresh and innocent ht down three in all The first one, a doe that had injured her leg somehow, almost didn&039;t count But we knew fro the carcass into the Hob It had caused chaos with people bidding on parts and actually trying to hack off pieces themselves Greasy Sae had intervened and sent us with our deer to the butcher, but not before it&039;d been badly daed, hunks of h everybody paid up fairly, it had lowered the value of the kill

This time, aited until dark fell and slipped under a hole in the fence close to the butcher Even though ere known hunters, it wouldn&039;t have been good to go carrying a 150-pound deer through the streets of District 12 in daylight like ere rubbing it in the officials&039; faces

The butcher, a short, chunky woman named Rooba, cale with Rooba She gives you one price, which you can take or leave, but it&039;s a fair price We took her offer on the deer and she threw in a couple of venison steaks we could pick up after the butchering Even with the money divided in two, neither Gale nor I had held so much at one time in our lives We decided to keep it a secret and surprise our families with the meat and money at the end of the next day

This is where I really got the oat, but I tell Peeta I sold an old silver locket of my mother&039;s That can&039;t hurt anyone Then I pick up the story in the late afternoon of Prim&039;s birthday

Gale and I went to the market on the square so that I could buy dress th of thick blue cotton cloth, soht oats on the other side of the Seam I don&039;t know his real name, everyone just calls him the Goat Man His joints are swollen and twisted in painful angles, and he&039;s got a hacking cough that proves he spent years in thethe way he saved up enough for these goats and now has soe besides slowly starve to death He&039;s filthy and ioats are clean and their oats, a white one with black patches, was lying down in a cart It was easy to see why So, had mauled her shoulder and infection had set in It was bad, the Goat Man had to hold her up to ht I knew someone who could fix it

"Gale," I whispered "I want that goat for Prie your life in District 12 The ani, the Meadow&039;s a perfect feeding place, and they can give four quarts of milk a day To drink, to ainst the law

"She&039;s hurt pretty bad," said Gale "We better take a closer look"

We went over and bought a cup of oat as if idly curious

"Let her be," said the ," said Gale

"Well, look fast She goes to the butcher soon Hardly anyone will buy her milk, and then they only pay half price," said thefor her?" I asked