❤️💜13k What legends you all are💜❤️

Cross looked up at Blue in disbelief, not quite believing he was really there and this wasn't just a hallucination. "...Blue?"

He nodded eagerly, before glancing down at the sleeping figures of the four tributes beneath them. He stared down at them for a minute before looking back up at Cross and pointing to something above him.

Frowning, he looked up to see what he was indicating to. At first he couldn't see anything, other than branches and leaves. But then something caught his eye. Something large and round. A wasps nest. He blinked, catching sight of the small little blobs in the air that flew around outside it before diving in and hiding.

Glancing back at Blue, he saw the smaller making small sawing indications with his hand against the branch he was holding before pointing up at the nest.

He wanted him to drop it onto the Tributes.

Cross stayed still for a moment before he forced himself to grab his rucksack, his eyes scanning over the few knives he had at the bottom. One of them was long and smooth, looking more like a knife your cut butter with over one to cut a branch with. Another was sharp but small, only good for stabbing. And then the third one was practically a bread knife, having sharp serrated edges on the blade like a saw. That would be perfect.

He pulled it out of the bag and quickly stabbed it into the side of the tree, letting it rest there as he untied himself and wriggled himself out of the sleeping bag. He shoved the two liabilities into the bag before slinging it over his shoulders, ensuring that it was tightly fastened. Then he pulled the knife out, gripping it in his teeth and reaching up for the closest branch above him.

The metal blade felt odd in his mouth, sending uncomfortable tingles down his tongue until it felt numb. He could have sworn he felt blood dribbling from it, but he kept his teeth clamped down, scared it would slice his jaw if he loosened his grip even the slightest.

He slowly climbed the tree at a snails pace, his mind being drawn to the fact that his leg and hand didn't hurt any more. Sparing a glance at his hand, he noticed that the angry burn marks were now gone, replaced with a soft pink blushed mark. It would probably fade within the day. He sent a soft thank you to Horror and the sponsors that had sent that pot of salve before pulling himself up to the same branch where the wasp's nest was hanging from.

Straddling the branch and loosening his grip on the knife, he took it from his teeth and curled his fingers around the hilt. He shifted forwards on the branch a bit and leaned over, letting the serrated blade rest on a thinner part of the branch.

He started making sawing motions, keeping a wary eye on the four unsuspecting tributes sleeping far down below.

Geno was shifting a bit, a small frown on his face as he rolled onto his other side. He could see his mouth moving in small mutters, probably sleep talk.

Chewing his 'lip' nervously he continued, sawing as fast as he could at the branch supporting the buzzing nest. With each saw the branch shook, making the nest shudder and the wasps to fly out and investigate. One of them landed on his sleeve, feeling about with its little antennas.

Upon looking at it closer, the smol froze up. These weren't normal wasps like he'd first assumed. No, not at all. These were trackerjackers. A type of wasp which's sting could give powerful hallucinations, and sometimes death. He could remember there being the few odd nest deep in the woods on the boarder line of District Twelve. The memory came to mind of when him and Epic had first stumbled across one of those nests, the older of the two having thought it would be a good idea to poke it with a stick. God they nearly died from the angry swarm they got in response. They'd been seeing illusions for hours before they finally stumbled back through the District's boarder fence. He remembered how mad their parents had been once they'd come back home covered in large purple marks all over their bodies from the stings. They'd steered clear of them ever since.

Another one flew over as he continued sawing, clearly not happy with the distribution he was causing. It zoomed right towards the hand holding the knife, stinging him right in the thumb.

Instantly Cross' hand felt like it was on fire, a stabbing pain spreading through it. He bit back a cry of pain and forced himself to continue sawing, his hand throbbing.

The knife was about half way through now, the branch shaking even more with every backwards and forwards thrust the blade made.

More trackerjackers started emerging, all curious to what was disturbing their peace. They flew around for a few seconds before realising that Cross was the source of their disturbance.

Sweating nervously, the oreo continued with his sawing motions, speeding up as much as he could. His arm was starting to ache, the pain in his hand not helping either.

Another trackerjacker decided to take action and flew forward, stabbing it's stinger right into his neck.

An actual choked whimper escaped him at that, his teeth clenching and head tipping back. His grip on the knife faltered a bit and it nearly slipped from his fingers, the pain making his skull buzz. Blinking back tears rapidly, he stabbed at the branch aggressively. Another one stung his wrist and he bit his tongue so hard it bled.

But finally, as if a miracle had been granted, the branch snapped. The nest went tumbling down through the air, sailing for about three seconds before it hit the ground and just exploded. The trackerjackers streamed from the destroyed nest like water from a popped balloon, all of them instantly targeting the four sleeping teens to accuse them of their broken home.

They let out shrieks, all jolting up to their feet and swatting the sky desperately. Reaper lurched upright, yelling in pain and confusion as the wasps stabbed at him mercilessly with their stingers. Geno screamed beside him, gripping onto Reaper's arm with one hand and trying to cover his face with his scarf with the other.

"RUN!" Reaper yelled, dragging the smaller with him while snatching his scythe from the ground. The two stumbled away, a cloud of the beasts following right behind.

At the base of the tree, the girl and boy were both screaming, swatting at the trackerjackers helplessly and stumbling over their own feet. They tried to run, the girl succeeding in stumbling off into the distance in the direction of where the muddy pond Cross had been in yesterday. The boy however kept falling over and tripping, his tortured shrieks and cries slowly dying out to nothing. And then a cannon shot.

Cross watched from above, his vision spinning a bit. A couple more wasps had stung him as the nest fell, bringing his tally up to seven throbbing stings. And his mind was already going fuzzy.

He stayed up there for another fifteen minutes before starting his clumsy descent. He was terrified that Geno and Reaper would come back before he climbed down, making the whole nest thing be pointless. The last several metres ended with his fingers slipping and him falling, his body crashing and colliding with the ground. A sharp crack rang out somewhere on his body and he yelped, a whimper of pain escaping him as he forced himself to his knees.

Blue was nowhere in sight, his whole world spinning and saturated to the next level. It looked like someone had taken a picture on photoshop and saturated the colours so much that it hurts your eyes. He tried to get to his feet only for his knees to give in and his body to crash back down to the leafy ground.

His eyes blearily focused on the boy, who's skin had turned purple with boils the size of eggs that mutated his whole body. His eyes had bulged out of his body, leaking blood. It was sickening to see.

He could faintly hear someone shouting his name, and a tall dark figure running towards him. He couldn't tell for the life of him who it was. But it wasn't Blue for sure, they were far too tall.

"What the hell are you doing?!" They hissed, their voice sounding warped and muted. He couldn't protest as they dragged him to his feet, something cold wrapping round his wrist and supporting him as he was dragged away.

All he could remember was the low hum of their voice scolding him and saying how much of an idiot he was before everything went black.

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5 chapters till you get your Crossmare

I think

That's an assumption idk

But Jdhzhsjsjxhsjsj I'd been looking forwards to this chapter. One of my favourite scenes in the books and films uwu

Hope you liked

-Jess-