Day 1 - 24 Tributes Remain

Claudius' Point of View:

As soon as the gong sounded, I made the attempt to run into the Cornucopia. I had to get something. Anything.

I stopped when I found several other tributes staring at me, ignoring everyone and everything else. I smiled weakly, obviously knowing how much the careers despise me. Sunny found me, and was glaring evilly at me. My heart stopped when I saw her, and three others running directly at me. I instantly turn around and run away as quickly as I can, forced to make quick decisions as I dashed and dodged my way through the forest.

"Get back here you son of a-" I heard one of them yell, which faded as I sped up. Trying to lose them, I quickly climbed what seemed to be the tallest tree I could find. Thank Arceus I'm a Raboot, because I was able to jump up to the parts where it would be impossible to climb to. I perched myself up on a branch, and looked down to the bottom, seeing four careers under me.

Sunny, a Croagunk, a Frogadier, and a Growlithe. It's like I had a huge bounty on me. Better me than Ivory atleast. The Frogadier tried climbing the tree to get me, but Sunny stopped him.

"Don't waste your time. Let him come to us." Sunny says with the darkest of grins. "He has to come down eventually." she looked up at me, and I gave her the middle finger.

I'm extremely angry, don't get me wrong. Following one single tribute is entirely absurd, and I personally don't think I did as much to them as they make it out to be. Sure, it could be my eleven I got, but I want to think otherwise.

Fear runs through me more than anything. Terrified that I was chased away at the start, forced up a tree, and now I have no where to go. Not only am I scared for me, but scared about Ivory. I can only imagine what is going on with her right now. The thought of her being killed in cold blood tears at my heart. I know she's strong enough to last, but I hate being in situations like this where I can't protect her.

"Guys, stay here and watch lover boy. I need to look for Blue." Sunny says, pointing to them with her knife, before running away in search of her little brother. All I have to do is get rid of the idiots beneath me and I can dominate the rest of the game.

A cannon fires in the distance. Someone has died. That same cannon will fire whenever a tribute dies. A sharp pain hits my heart after questioning Ivory's safety. Was that her that died? Did she kill someone?

"If we're gonna be here forever, we're gonna need something to eat. I'm gonna go hunt." the Croagunk says.

"Tently, you don't even have any weapons to use. How are you supposed to hunt?" the Frogadier asks. Tently, the Croagunk, runs away before answering. Two remain. The Frogadier and Growlithe turn to look at each other, then look at me, then back. "Do you think having him die is going to be worth it?" he asks. The cannon is fired again in the distance.

"Definitely." the Growlithe replies. "He's our biggest threat. If we eliminate him, it'll be smooth sailing from there."

An idea popped over my head. "Hey numskulls, I couldn't help but overhear you guys talking about little ol' me. How about you guys teaming up with Mr. Eleven?" I ask convincingly. They turn to each other and whisper back and forth, discussing things with each other like it mattered. I'm really just going to kill both of them as soon as I make them feel like we're allies. The Growlithe finally turned back at me, glaring harshly.

"No way we're teaming with the likes of you! We know better! You're just gonna stab us in the back!" the Growlithe tells me. I smirk.

"You're a lot smarter than you look." I say, before turning away and putting myself in a comfortable position. Looks like I'm gonna be sitting here for a while.

I looked in the sky through the small fractures in the canopy of the forest, and noticed a flying, orange dragon. Karma.

Karma can just fly around the whole game and not do anything! How are we supposed to take him down?

When I was looking up, I saw something else flying. Though, it didn't have wings, and it looked like it was coming right towards me. It was a little grey box, gliding at me with a small parachute. I've gotten a sponsor.

But this early in the game? Someone must really like me for them to give me something on the first day. The earlier the game is, the more a sponsor costs. I've heard that a day one sponsor can cost around $10,000 to $50,000, which is outrageous for the Hunger Games. I got up and grabbed the sponsor. A note was written on the top.

'I always told you it was for good cause. - Mom'

I grinned widely. My mom was spending all that time working and getting money in case this was to ever happen. She wanted to support me.

Guilt flushes over me, as I now realize how terrible of a son I've been to her. There's really only one way to make it up to her, and that's to do the best I can in these games.

I opened the case of the sponsor, eyes widening when I saw what was inside.

Dynamite.

Probably the most useful thing I could have possibly gotten. I guess me and mother are thinking the same thing right now. Conveniently, the dynamite came with a match to light it. I took a deep breath, before I lit the match against the side of the tree. I put the fire on it against the black wick, and before I knew it, the wick began to disappear, getting shorter and shorter. I tossed the dynamite down by the careers. When it hit the ground, they perked up, and looked around for what made the noise.

"Look out, fellas." I yell to them, before covering my ears.

"What the f-" the Frogadier starts, before being cut off by the loud, bright explosion that filled the area. I had my eyes closed tightly, and I covered my ears as well as I could. The dynamite shook the ground and the tree I was on, impact shoving me off the branch. I couldn't even hear the cannons fire from their deaths over the explosion.

I fell off the tree and landed awkwardly, causing a streak of pain to coarse through my left leg. I don't think I broke it, but it sure feels like I did. I lay on the ground, holding my leg and banging my fist against the ground, absolutely miserable. I tried to get up, only to hurt it even more. I hobbled myself up onto one leg, leaning against the tree. The bodies of the careers were gone. Probably blasted away by impact. Not a big deal. The games just started, it's not like they had a lot of stuff.

"Thanks mom." I say out loud, hoping the cameras were on me. I'm certain my mother is watching the games right now, because who wouldn't? It's the most important time of year for Twillis.

After gasping for air a few times, I smile. Thank goodness I got out of that mess.

Suddenly, I hear bushes rustling around me, followed by approaching footsteps. I turned to see Tently the Croagunk glaring at me, eyes wide with shock.

"How in the- oh, you're so dead now, bud!" Tently exclaims, running towards me.

"Ah shit." I murmur, before turning the other direction, and limping away as fast I can on one leg. I felt pain rush through my injured leg after every step I took. As I was being chased, there was only one thought rushing through my head.

Please be safe Ivory.

Ivory's Point of View:

I've never been the best at running. But, I'm assuming that I am going to have to do a lot of it in the Hunger Games. For example, me and Kat ran for a few minutes, stopping when we heard a loud explosion in the distance, followed by two cannon shots, just like the ones we heard while running away from the Cornucopia. We were busy catching our breath, gasping for air.

"How did someone get explosives this early into the game?" I ask, rhetorically.

"Luck. Or early sponsor." Kat says. "I'm afraid we're not the only favorites to win it." Kat lowers his head in shame. "I just wish I could live up to the support I've received." I put a paw on his shoulder, comforting him as we sit on a log placed on the ground.

"You don't think that was..." I start.

"Claudius? Doubtful. He's probably being chased around right now. Who knows, maybe he's the one massacring everything already." Kat says, making it sound like a joke. I bite my fingernails, worried about him.

I know Claudy more than anyone else. He's more than capable of fending for himself. But even now, in the Hunger Games, I don't think his rebel mind can stand alone for long.

"We have to find him." I say. Kat nods in agreement. We stand up, ready for our search, before hearing quick footsteps approaching us. I hide behind Kat as he stands his ground. I can see his whole body shaking in fear. We brace ourselves for anything.

A little Bulbasaur reveals it's self in front of us. He looks young, no older than thirteen. Kat continues to keep himself intact, not hesitating for a second.

"Erm, hi." I say to the Bulbasaur. It looks at me with a glare.

"Aren't you that Raboot's girlfriend?" the Bulbasaur asks me. My face warms up at the assumption. Kat starts to speak for me.

"No, she is not." Kat says.

"You're lucky I don't have any weapons with me. Otherwise, I would destroy you two!" the Bulbasaur says. Suddenly, behind him, an Ivysaur decided to show up.

"Oh, there you are Blue! Come on, we have to-... oh. It's you." the Ivysaur says, looking at me and Kat with a mean stare. I recognized the Ivysaur to be the same one that made fun of me and Claudius, the one that he punched. Sunny, I think her name was.

"H-hey..." I say weakly. Kat stands in front of me, just as terrified as I am. Sunny smirks at me.

"Looks like you two will be my next victims. Right after your stupid 'best friend.'" Sunny says. I gasp. Next victims? Did she already kill Claudius!?

"Where is Claudius!?" I yell, sense of obvious fear in my voice.

"Probably already dead." she says, knowing how much it'll affect me. I gasp again. "Wow, you really have the hots for him, I can tell. Too bad you won't be able to tell him." Sunny begins walking towards us, twirling a knife in her hand.

Kat whispers to me. "Run."

I turn to run, seeing Kat take off. I was stopped after my arm was grabbed by Sunny. I looked up and saw her evil grin, looking down at me.

"Kat, help me!" I shout. I see Kat running back, coming to my rescue. Blue tackles him to the ground, stopping him.

"End of the line, princess." Sunny tells me. My mind made it sound like her voice was almost demonic. Suddenly, I hear Kat shouting, shoving Blue to the side, and running at me and Sunny. His voice becoming louder and louder. When he gets right next to us, he breaths fire out of his mouth, hitting Sunny's face. She lets go of me and falls to the ground, screaming in pain.

"Ah! Oh my go-OW! My eyes! It burns!" Sunny rolls around in the grass. I caught a glimpse of her bloodshot eyes, and her reddened face. I smiled in amusement. "Blue, let's go!" Sunny yells, running away, Blue quickly following behind her. The two siblings disappeared into the forest. Kat helps me up off the ground.

"Thanks for saving me." I say.

"Don't mention it. We're friends, after all." Kat says with a grin. I hug him tightly, glad to be friends with the Houndour who breaths fire.

"How did you do that?" I ask him.

"I've no idea. Honestly." Kat replies, rubbing the back of his head.

"Can you try to do it again?"

"Hmm. Let me try." Kat says. He takes a deep breath, before screeching out loud. No fire coming from him. I giggled a bit at how goofy he seemed. "Nope. Guess it was an adrenaline-reaction sort of deal."

I smile at Kat, letting him know everything's alright.

"That was a tough situation there. If we're gonna defend ourselves, we will need some weaponry." Kat tells me. I hate to have to hear things like that, but I know we're gonna have to do it.

"So... we head back to the Cornucopia?" I ask.

"I'm afraid so."

Claudius' Point of View:

After running for my life for such a long time on one good leg, eventually, Tently caught up to me, and elbowed me in the back of my head, knocking me forward. I tripped and fell, my body gliding across the dirt, causing my leg to hurt even more than it already did. I tried to get up, but Tently shoved me into the side of a tree, chipping off some of the bark on the log. He then jabbed me right in the side of my torso, sending a stinging feeling through my chest.

I looked at where he hit me, and saw my fur turn a darker shade, slight tint of purple in sight. Tently poisoned me!

"I'm honored to have the privilege of ending your life. Now hold still while I beat you to death." Tently said, raising his hand into a fist. My entire body hurt too much to even be able to defend myself. He punched me in the side of the jaw, then my cranium, my nose, under the lip, all over my face. "Why won't you die!?" he yelled. I could only sit in place, letting him hit me multiple times. Any movement would hurt my body, as the toxic feeling of the poison stings all over my torso. It was only a matter of time before it would spread all over my body, slowly killing me.

Tently got up, and paced himself a few steps away. He looked at me with a smug grin, like he knew I was done for. I'm pretty certain I am done for at this point. I closed my eyes, tears flowing down my face, whispering my last goodbyes to the world.

"You're confident demeanor is missing. Where'd it go?" Tently asked me. As if I would respond. "No matter. I'll put you out of your misery." I braced for impact. "I'll make sure everyone remembers the name, of Tently Relitemen-" Tently stopped, making me open my eyes. I saw Tently on the ground, knife stuck in his neck, with an Alcremie standing over his lifeless body.

 The cannon fired in the distance.

"Monologuing is a villain's greatest weakness." the Alcremie said. I didn't move my eyes, like I was playing dead. It's not like I could really do anything without making my entire body feel nothing but pain. The Alcremie looked at me after taking the knife out of Tently's neck. She shook her head, turning away. "Sure sucks to be him right now." she says. She tossed the knife near my feet, like she was handing it to me, before running off, out of sight. I sit in silence, in my own sorrow. My tears dried up on my cheeks, my breathing slow and feint, my heart beating moderately quickly, every beat making me feel weaker and weaker.

Did the Alcremie know I'm alive? And if so, why didn't she just kill me, right then and there? My thoughts filled my mind, as I hadn't noticed the sky turned dark, night taking over the arena. I've made it through the first day, but I'm not sure how much longer I have left.

As I lay, still as a stone, the Hunger Games anthem plays, like it always does when it turns night in the games. Once the anthem plays, photographs of fallen tributes from the day are shown, recapping their number, and their home district. I watched the graphs worryingly, hoping, begging, that I don't see Ivory's picture in the sky. The recap begins.

A male Butterfree from District Four.

A female Mimikyu from District Seven.

And there they were, the male Frogadier I killed, from District Two, and the male Growlithe from District Five.

Also, a female Yamper from District Eight.

Then, Tently, the male Croagunk from District Three.

And that was it. Six deaths on the first day. That's extremely low compared to previous games. Guess everyone is either just too scared to fight, or too smart to get engaged.

Or the careers aren't cleaning house since they've been too focused on me. I've just about caused a good fraction of them to fall, which I take pride in. Yes, that mysterious Alcremie that killed Tently might have saved my life, which I am really grateful for, but I'm not gonna let that slip.

From the looks of things, that Alcremie is a serious contender. I'm not sure how Ivory and Kat will take her down.

As I lay back against the tree, I stare up into the sky. The stars are bright and vibrant tonight. Wonderful. I see a brighter star, that looks a lot closer than the others, that was gliding across the sky, bouncing almost. When I gave it a closer look, I realized it wasn't a star, but a small flame. Karma, flying through the air. He's probably looking for me... or worse... Ivory.

There's not many ways of defeating him, I find. Then again, my mind isn't right after how much this poison has taken a toll on me. Seems the only option I have right now is to make it through the night and see what happens in the morning. On that note, I close my eyes, and fell asleep, with no thought in my mind about death. I know that's coming.

The only thought I have is Ivory. Worry, regret, guilt, fear, and something else that I just can't describe. Being away from her is difficult. I've spent most of my life with her, week after week, day after day. Overnight sleepovers, days at the park, in class at school, or just hanging out around the block. Memories we've made that can't be forgotten. It only gives me more pain knowing that now, we can't make any new ones. I cried all night in my sleep.

I want to be with her, protect her, and simply see her smile back at me. She's always been good at smiling. It was one of my favorite things about her, behind her eyes, her optimism, and just how much she cares about me. We've always been teased of liking each other, and it's never bothered me as much as one might think. Sure, we're not dating, and probably never will, but I've always thought about what it would be like to be in love with someone like her.

I've never been 'madly in love' as it's put, and I still don't know what it's like. Ivory tells me about it on the occasion, and now that I know she likes someone, it's only making me more curious. Another tribute...

It would be ridiculous to consider her liking Kat, but that's my only guess. He's the only one who has actually talked to her throughout her time here. Then again, she said something about how she's liked someone for a long time. Has she known another tribute for a long time, and I've never known about them? And if so, why would she tell me now? What other tribute has she known for so long?

My thoughts were helping me get over the hurt I've gone through. The poison was still there, along with my messed up leg, but it didn't feel as bad anymore. The thing is, the physical pain was replaced with... emotional pain.

I don't know what it is, but every single time I think of Ivory I get this strange feeling in my stomach. A feeling that I cannot describe. It's not painful, but it doesn't exactly feel good. Ivory used to tell me how I somehow made her heart tingle in excitement. Was this what she meant by that? What about her makes me excited? What is it that makes me feel this way? 

She describes this about me, like I'm just as important to her as she is to me. And the way she describes her feelings towards the tribute who she believes holds the key to the lock of her heart. She describes them the same way she describes her thoughts of me-

Putting puzzle pieces together, two and two, my conclusion coming to me. Ivory likes me. It only makes sense. But how have I not been able to figure it out? I must be the most oblivious pokemon in all of Twillis.

But if my thoughts towards her are similar to the ones she feels for me... and if she likes me... does that mean.

I like Ivory?

The idea bounced around my head, sending me into a world of situations. I've always told myself that liking her would be wrong, but why now, now, do I feel like it's... right? The sheer thought of her being gone sent me into a crazed state, knowing just now how much more she means to me.

I weakly smiled as I knew my answer. Indeed. I like Ivory. I have my whole life, and I'm just now realizing it.

This is love. And I've been experimenting with it for too long. I just need confidence, which I know I've had forever.

But now... I don't seem to have any. Whatever. Tomorrow morning, I suck up all my courage, fight through all my pain, and go on the journey of my life, to look for Ivory. I have to. I need to.

It's all that matters now.