twelve - serendipity

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conclusion: sleeping in trees is not comfortable.

i wake up early the next morning with a sore everything. my neck and back kill from resting against the trunk, and my butt aches from sitting on the branch for so long. my legs are sore from running and my arms hurt from all the hacking at leaves.

basically, i am miserable.

i look down at asher to see his branch empty and the pack nowhere to be seen. my heartbeat quickens and that wakes me up instantly. did he leave me without anything but my weapons, rope, and a blanket?

anger crackles within me like a thunderstorm. stupid, thalia. that's what you get for trusting the first person who offers to help you once the games start. with my luck, he had staged that entire ordeal with the careers, only pretending to be my ally so he could know my strengths and weaknesses. he must have taken the rest of our supplies right back to that camp. 

i hurriedly untie the rope from around my knees and try to carefully climb down, but my legs are asleep. i let out a tiny squeal as i lose my balance and slip off the branch, falling helplessly toward the ground. then, just as i am about to hit the ground, i land in someone's arms.

i have my eyes squeezed shut and open them to find asher looking down at me. i am so relieved at the sight of him that i release a magnificent breath through my mouth. he sets me down.

"you alright, twelve?" he asks as i brush myself off. the rope and blanket land on the ground next to me.

"yeah, fine," i say. i start stretching and cracking all my joints.

asher winces. "ah, that is disgusting."

i smirk. "don't like the sound of cracking joints?"

he shakes his head. "i think it's gross."

because i'm that bad of a person, i go right up to his ear and start cracking all my fingers. he immediately recoils and shoves me away while i laugh.

"you're evil," he declares, though without any venom. "you're not getting breakfast." he motions to a huge leaf piled with berries and a little piece of the cheese. "while your lazy butt was sleeping, i actually did something and got some berries." he scratches the back of his neck and looks back at them. "the thing is, i don't know which ones are poisonous and which ones aren't."

i stare at him as he looks at me sheepishly. "are you serious." i don't say it like a question.

"i didn't learn this stuff in training, okay!" he defends.

i raise my eyebrows. "did you seriously spend two days just throwing knives?"

"maybe..." asher trails off, then meets my amused gaze. he throws his hands out in exasperation. "fine, okay, i did! you're the genius and i'm not! happy now?"

i sigh. for a career, asher is pretty inexperienced at anything besides knife throwing.

i walk to the leaf and start individually separating the berries one by one. the poison ones go to the left and the ones that are fine are at my right. i do this as quickly as possible then stuff the bad ones in my pocket. when asher looks at me incredulously, i shrug. "they might come in handy."

asher and i split up the berries and cheese as evenly as we can, then pack up. "we should get a move on," asher suggests, "get farther away from the careers."

i nod and we continue on our way, running despite our stiff joints. we are going slower than usual, but that's okay.

suddenly i crash into someone. raising my knife, i almost stab them on instinct when the person yells at me.

"thalia!"

i stop, my arm suspended in the air. i really look at them and realize with shock that it's the person i've been looking for this entire time. "matthias?"

matthias then spots asher, who also has a dagger raised. he suddenly pushes me behind him and holds out his sword in defense. it takes me a second to realize that matthias must think asher is chasing me.

"matthias, wait!" i shout right as he moves to attack asher. he freezes in place instead, the taller boy still crouched in a fighting stance in case things move south. "he's my ally."

matthias slowly lowers his sword, then points at asher skeptically, blue eyes narrowed. "you're allies with him?"

"yes," asher confirms sharply. "and we've been doing fine, quite the opposite of you."

i take in matthias's appearance for the first time. his hair is a mess, sticking up in every direction and loose dirt sprinkled in the strands. his face is caked with mud and blood. he must not have had anything to drink, because his lips are dry and cracked, seeming like they're just short of bleeding. i don't blame him. the humidity in this jungle is dense enough to make us thirsty faster.

"asher, get the water bottle," i order, and he looks at me, confused.

"i thought you had the pack."

i pinch my eyebrows together. "i thought you had the pack!"

we share alarmed glances for a second before taking off in the direction we had previously been going in, leaving matthias no choice but to follow us. we push past branches and hope that our backpack hasn't been stolen.

we arrive at our old sleeping quarters and see carly standing there, holding it. she swings it in a circle on her finger, smirking.

"looking for this?" she asks maliciously.

"give it back," asher commands.

carly narrows her eyes. "no."

and asher doesn't even waste a second. he takes out two knives and charges, but carly is also prepared. she is armed with a bow and arrow before i can blink. she shoots at him, barely missing his ear. asher tackles her and the knife embeds itself on the ground where carly's head previously was, but she had moved out of the way just in time.

kicking asher in the gut, she rolls out from under him, gets up on one knee, and fires another arrow. this one grazes him in the arm, but his reflexes cause him to move before it can do any serious damage.

suddenly, just as carly is about to shoot again, she changes direction at the last second and releases the arrow at matthias and i. we both duck, but the arrow has hit its home– the throat of cael.

i watch in surprise as he falls backward, dead. his brown eyes are wide open and glassy, blood oozing out from where the arrow landed in his adam's apple. i crouch down and check him for supplies or weapons, discovering four knives and three daggers, along with poisonous berries. i hand two knives and one dagger to asher, hiding the rest in my belt.

carly gets up. "i just saved your lives. might as well be allies." she picks up the pack and tosses it to asher, who looks skeptical. she laughs. "you seriously thought i was going to steal that from you guys? wow."

"you see, we're kinda in this place called the hunger games," matthias retorts, tone laced with the amount of vicious sarcasm he usually only reserves for asher. "i don't know if you've heard of it? it makes it kinda hard to trust people."

carly shoots him a look as sharp as the sword in his hand.

asher squints his eyes at her, ignoring matthias' comment. "explain."

"gladly." carly gives a pointed glare at asher. "i saw thalia steal the food from the careers last night and was going to confront her, but she ran away and i lost her before i could. so i camped for the night and wandered until i found that backpack." she points to it. "as soon as i opened it i knew it was hers, so i stuck around, figuring she'd realize her mistake and come back for it. it was my plan all along to make allies with her; she's a tough cookie. i, however," her eyes scan matthias and asher, "was not expecting this."

"if we all team up, that'll leave a bigger chance of us having to kill one another if we're all that's left," asher points out.

"it also leaves an even bigger chance of survival," carly says icily, "which, right now, is all i care about. we aren't here to make friends and worry about who has to kill each other. i could've killed thalia on sight, but i didn't. why? because i knew she'd be a good ally."

i speak up for the first time. "i'm in. one more ally means one less person trying to kill us."

matthias raises his hand. "i'm with thalia."

asher sighs heavily, pondering it. finally he looks grudgingly at carly. "fine. but no one give her the pack. it stays with me, thalia, or matthias at all times."

"still don't trust me, asher?" carly asks mockingly.

"i have a pretty good reason not to," asher replies.

carly looks around at the three of us. her eyes land on matthias and her button nose crinkles. "here." she walks right up to asher who has the backpack, reaches her hand into it, and throws the water bottle at him. "wash your face. it's filthy."

"you're seriously going to worry about hygiene now?" asher asks with an eye roll.

"hygiene is everything," carly responds. "there are diseases and poison everywhere."

the first thing matthias does with the water is drink. then he pours some of it into his hands and hands the bottle to me. "can you hold this?"

i take it from him and he rubs the water all over his face, which doesn't do much but turn the dried dirt into mud that smears around on his cheeks. 

i notice the plant with the giant leaves that asher used for the berries and rip one leaf off. i hand it to matthias, who uses it as a washcloth. it works like a charm.

i toss the water bottle to asher, who puts it back in the pack and slings it over both his shoulders.

"carly," matthias says, tossing the leaf aside, "did you find a water source?"

"as a matter of fact, i did," she replies. "it's just past the career camp and to the left. small little lake, but you can't miss it."

"great," i say. "let's go."

this time we walk instead of run to our destination. with carly in the lead, i follow closely behind with matthias in tow and asher in the very back. the district four tribute doesn't trust our newest addition and wants to make sure she stays within eyesight at all times. his icy stare prickles even on my back as we trek across the uneven jungle floor. 

it's a ten-minute walk to the career camp, but when we get there, we realize it's still inhabited. we had not expected this. being careful to walk on the very tips of our toes, we quietly make our way past it before any of them could sense our presence.

"it's not too far," carly promises as she takes a turn to the left. we silently continue to follow until matthias speaks up.

"you know, i wouldn't even consider us allies."

we all stop.

"what?" asher demands, raising his knife. "does that mean i get to kill you?"

matthias pales slightly and quickly defends himself. "no! i mean...we're like a really small gang."

everyone is silent, staring at him with looks of disappointment.

"please don't talk," carly finally says, turning back around and continuing to lead our group.

it's kind of odd how asher and i managed to stumble into both carly and matthias within a span of a few minutes, and both became our allies. it seems kind of...off. my wishes are coming true and i didn't even have to ask anyone to be my ally, they all asked me. my 'dream team' is clustered all around me.

"bingo," matthias mutters, and i snap out of my thoughts, realizing we've reached water. carly was right in saying it's small, but hard to miss. rocks pile all around it, some higher than others. without a second thought, asher runs forward and lands on his knees in front of the pond. he hurriedly takes the bottle, dumps the old water, and actually begins cleaning the plastic.

"what are you doing?" carly asks.

asher turns his head and winks. "hygiene is everything. don't want any career germs on his thing."

"then you use hot water, idiot." carly walks toward the pond and dips her hand in, realizing it's slightly warm from the sun. "oh."

i make my way to the water and slowly climb in. it doesn't go farther than my thighs, but it's refreshing all the same. matthias follows suit and gets in, and soon it's one big pool party and we're all wading in the pond.

i hold my breath and dunk myself under, circling my arms to keep me there before coming back up. i wipe the water out of my eyes and try to get as clean as possible without taking my clothes off. rolling up my sleeves, i wipe my arms and then my legs. i take out my ponytail, which is hard because my hair is soaked. i secure the band around my wrist and then go under the water again. when i come back up, my head hits something hard and pain shoots through my skull.

i open my eyes to see matthias holding his forehead in pain. asher is laughing at us from a few feet away.

"shh!" carly hisses. i notice she's keeping her distance from all of us. "we aren't that far from the camp. anyone could hear us."

"right," asher rolls his eyes, "like they haven't already heard us splashing in here like little kids learning how to swim back in four. live a little, carly."

carly glares at him. "i don't know if you've noticed, asher, but we're in the hunger games. we won't get to live much longer."

after that, everyone's mood is pretty much ruined, so we all climb out of the pond and sit on the rocks to dry. asher busies himself by pretending to sort and organize the contents of our bag. first by color, then weight, alphabetically, and finally importance. it doesn't take long for the rest of us to realize he's just trying to avoid conversation with any of us.

after about half an hour of doing nothing, i hear a rustle from nearby. matthias jumps up– he heard it too. he grabs his sword and faces the direction it came from. i copy his actions and we both stand side-by-side, ready to face anything that comes our way.

"what is it?" carly asks. asher doesn't even question it. he trusts us enough to know that we heard something. within seconds the backpack is sealed shut and he's already holding his knives.

"we heard a rustling," matthias responds quietly. carly stands and arms herself, getting an arrow ready.

the rustling is heard again. matthias tightens his grip on his sword and shifts his weight. more rustling. my heart pounds, trickling adrenaline into my limbs and making them heavy.

and then a squirrel jumps out at us.

before any of us can blink or react, matthias stabs it mid-air and grabs it with his other hand. he holds the dead squirrel and we all take a second to calm down.

"here," he hands it to asher, and i am reminded of the time when he slew the rabbit back in twelve and gave it to me. "take it."

asher grabs the squirrel from him and matthias bends down to wash his hands of the animal blood.

"we're lucky it was just a squirrel," carly says. "it could've been something much worse."

i don't need to hear her tell me that to know it's true. our luck had struck us again, but who knows when that luck will run out?

gif is just a random one of matthias bc hes adorable

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the ending is horrible but hey a quick update whaddyaknow

thoughts in carly? i was gonna have her come a lot later but then this happened

i havent replied to many comments on the last one bc they arent loading for some reason. i contacted wattpad so hopefully they'll be fixed and i can reply!

dedicated to lolstilinski bc i can only see her comments and they were perf lmao

ok i have to get to my grandparent's house so byeeeeee

xoxo,

kristyn