Hi! Sorry for the wait! And I noticed that some of my chapters got mixed up :( I'm getting them all sorted out, I promise! I have a few more chapters to post and update. Please enjoy!

Take care and stay safe! ~CANGEL

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Scarlet Wolfe

     Scarlet pushed herself to her feet, stumbling to her knees once, before finally making it. Her legs shook, her muscles spasming, barely holding her up as a small girl stepped out of the woods. Scarlet bared her teeth at the girl, gripping the blade in her hand, ready to kill the bitch that hurt Scarlet's Wave when she noticed the girls' empty hands.

     As she drew closer, Scarlet noticed tear tracks running down her face as she raised her hands in the air, looking behind her. Scarlet's eyes followed in the direction that the girls did, but she didn't see anything. She looked back at the girl, her red, wind-torn face panicky. "They're coming!"

     Who?

     Doesn't matter. Get out!

     Scarlet had only taken a few stumbled steps when she saw the tribute step out from the shelter of the woods. Twenty feet from her, a spear in his hand. Her feet faltered and she gripped Scarlet's Wave's scruff as she recognized the District 6 tribute in front of her. Derrick.

     They're coming.

     The girls' words flickered in her brain again as she kept her eyes on the biggest threat.

     They.

      More than one. And the worry of a possible alliance between District's 5,6, and 8 seemed to be more and more likely with each passing second.

     The girl—Lilian—from District 12, ran across the open area, making her way closer to Scarlet. Even the wolf at her side who was baring her teeth didn't cause the approaching girl to slow.

      Scarlet's Wave bumped her leg and her eyes flit down, seeing her wolf looking behind them, her ears flat, shoulders hunched.

     Scarlet twisted around, her back toward the river as she looked toward the new threat while trying to keep the tribute with the spear in sight. The glint of metal caught her eye first. Following the sleek, wicked looking piece of metal, she found large roughly calloused hands holding the grip with familiarity. She swallowed thickly as her eyes rose to the familiar face. District 8. Flax.

     She took a step back, her leg nearly giving way on the uneven ground. Flax laughed, shaking his head in a condescending manner as he took a threatening step closer.

     Scarlet's Wave lunged forward, her jaw snapping viciously, only held back by Scarlet's firm hold on her scruff.

     She looked over at the girl who stood frozen ten feet away, her eyes locked on Flax in terror. "Is it only the two of them?" Scarlet asked, her eyes flickered between the threats and the girl at her side.

     Scarlet didn't mind being deaf most of the time. But sometimes, being deaf was a complete disadvantage and she had never felt that more than she had now staring down two threats while having to continuously glance over at the scared little girl, waiting to see her answer.

     And she needed to know the answer. Did Scarlet only need to worry about the two threats she saw—or was there a third somewhere that she hadn't spotted? Could she even handle the two she saw?

     With every breath she choked on the cold air as it pricked her lungs. Her side screamed at her and the steady trickle of wetness running down her side told her she was running out of time. Her entire face was frozen, her fingers were froze solid. She gripped the blade in her hand, but wondered if she could throw with any accuracy or if an attempt would only make her lose the only means of protection she had.

     As far as she knew Keenen was still alive—at least as of the night before. She had no way of knowing if he had died sometime during the day or if he'd found his way to the pair that she could see.

     "Lilian!" Scarlet hissed; frustration coursed through her when the girl seemed unable to give her such critical information.

     The girl blinked in surprise, her face jerking toward Scarlet.

     "Is it just the two of them?" She repeated, trying her best to keep her irritation tamped down and her mind focused.

     "Three. They've been chasing me..."

     A flicker of movement had her whipping around toward Flax, who'd taken a step closer. She raised her blade in warning. His lips curled as he twirled the blade loosely in his hand. Scarlet couldn't recall seeing him using the blade at all in the Training Center, and he hadn't scored that high in the tribute assessments...was he actually skilled with the weapon? Or was he just trying to intimidate her.

     When she was sure he wasn't going to launch an attack, she took another step back, turning slightly to alter her angle of sight. Where was the third then?

     Where was Keenen?

     Scarlet glanced behind her quickly, gritting her teeth at the pinch in her side as she took in the boy by the river. She turned back to face the closest threat. She hadn't seen a weapon on him, but it didn't mean he didn't have a smaller weapon hidden somewhere.

     She pulled the second blade from her holster. Only one more until she was completely without weapons, the rest of her stash sitting safely by the fire.

      Stupid! She had let her guard down and now she was in for the fight of her life.

     "Beg and we'll make it quick, little girl." Flax sneered at her while laughing. He cocked his head to the side, his laughter stopped as he shook his head. "Oh shit, you might be able to understand me, being deaf and all." He held out his hand, waving an apology? She thought. Or trying to entice the Capitol crowd watching? She didn't know exactly what he was doing, but she got the main point.

     She was deaf, so she must also be dumb.

     It was something that everyone assumed when they found out she couldn't hear, even those who had known her for weeks, months, or years.

     Flax takes a sudden stop closer to her, towering over her threateningly, "I said beg!" She took a step back.

     Scarlet bit her tongue to keep her remarks to herself as she tightened her grip on the blades in her hands. Her side screamed at her, her body shaking from the cold and probably from blood loss.

     It would be better if he thought she was just a dumb, weak, little girl. And the fact that he really believed that she wasn't a threat proved just how dumb he really was and might just be the advantage that let her survive this encounter.

     She glanced over that the boy still standing at the edge of the woods where Lilian had been chased from, then glances over her other shoulder at Keenen, who was quickly approaching from behind, still no weapon in hand, all the while keeping her awareness of Flax, who was still out of reach for him to use his weapon, but the closest one to her.

     Every second that she waited, the cold soaked deeper into her bones and the blood pooled from her wound, her situation grew more and more dire.

      She could not wait any longer.

     With two blades in her hands, a wolf at the ready and a knife in her gut, Scarlet launched her attack.

     Scarlet spun on her heel and released the blade from her hand, first toward Derrick who held the spear, and then toward Keenen ignoring the burning at her side as she turned back, her head growing dizzy with the quick movement and she stumbled, pressing a hand to her side.

     "Kill. Kill. Kill." She said, sending her wolf behind her. If her blades hadn't killed the two male tributes, then Scarlet's Wave would.

     As Scarlet fought for her balance, she watched as Flax's face distorted in a mixture of shock and rage. Her blades had at least hit their intended target then. He wouldn't be this enraged if she had missed. His knuckles turned white around the base of his sword.

     Scarlet pulled the remaining blade from her holster, struggling to keep her grip on the only weapon she had left. She forced a smirk to her face, trying to keep her pain masked as she pressed a hand to her wound, trying to stabilize the blade in her gut to keep it from slicing her insides.

     The odds were overwhelming and not in the way that she preferred, but hell if she was going to let the odds stop her from fighting.

     Flax was overconfident and a fool. He was strong but not strategic. He was reactive and if she could make him angry, she could take advantage of that and if that failed...well, she always had Scarlet's Wave.

     "Beg and I'll make it quick, little boy." Scarlet taunted him back, blowing him a bloody kiss with her free hand.

     Flax's eyes flashed and she threw her blade just as he lunged forward toward her. Unbelievably, he slid in the snow, shifting to avoid falling and that small movement was enough to send her blade into the tree behind him. Leaving her weaponless.

     He glanced behind at the blade before facing forward, his face contorting in rage as he charged at her. "You stupid bitch!"

     Scarlet waited until the last moment, knowing that if she moved too early, she was dead. Sword swinging downward and him two feet from her, she dived to the side. The landing on the ground ripped the air from her lungs as ripples of agony streaked through her body; the knife still inside her body tore further against her already mutilated flesh.

     She choked on the cold air, red splattered on the snowy ground in front of her but she forced herself to keep moving, rolling to her back, just as his sword landed in the exact spot her head had just occupied. She kicked out, hitting his knee and watched with little satisfaction as it bent backwards, his face contorting in pain. She wished it had snapped in half.

     As he bent down, his hand pressed against the knee that gave way, she slammed her foot against his face, he reared back, stumbling away from her as blood streamed down his face. Scarlet scrambled to her knees, one hand on her burning side, the other supporting her as she tried to get to her feet, but her legs refused to support her, her feet slipping in the snow as she made her way to the tree that her blade was stuck in.

     She needed to get her hands on a weapon.

     Finally, she made it to her feet, but she was too far from way from the tree that held her weapon. Scarlet crashed into a nearby tree, gasping for breath, but it felt like her lungs just refused to accept the oxygen. She turned around, looking to see where Flax was. Her legs buckled and she fell, the flash of silver shines in the remaining light, and the sword lodges into the tree at her back, just inches from her skull.

     She kicked out at him again, hitting Flax between the legs. He cursed at her, his hands moving to crotch. Sucked to be a boy sometimes.

     She scrambled away; her body's movement halted by a hard grip in her hair. As she was pulled upwards by her hair, she could see her former stylist's face as she advised Scarlet to have her hair braided for the Arena.

     Scarlet clawed at his hand for a moment before he pushed her head forward, slamming her face into the bark of a tree. She felt her nose crack and blood instantly poured down her face like water coming out of Capitol faucet as the bark tore at her face.

     He pulled her away from the tree and she managed to shift, turning just enough that as he slammed her back again, it was her back that hit the tree and not her face again. She gasped as the breath left her, the wounds on her back scraping against the tree. The sizes between their bodies would be comical if she weren't the person fighting for her life. Flax was so much bigger than her.

     Stupid.

     But strong.

     And she had let him get ahold of her, possibly making her the bigger idiot of the two.

     He grabbed her around the throat, his hand nearly spanning the entirety of her neck as he squeezed tight, cutting off her air supply. She choked on the air trapped in her lungs even as she struggled to suck in more. She tried to call out to Scarlet's Wave, but she wasn't sure if anything came out. It didn't feel like it. She clawed at his hands and his face, trying anything to get him to let go.

     He pulled her away from the tree and picked her up, so they were eye-to-eye before slamming her back into the tree, her feet dangling in the air. She scrapped them against the tree trunk, trying to find purchase. Black splotches crossed her vision.

     Flax laughed in her face. His disgusting breath heated her frozen skin. She hated being powerless. She couldn't die like this! Not weak and bleeding, not by this pig of a tribute.

     The wound in her side burned, lancing up her nerve endings as every muscle in her body tensed, straining for the oxygen it desperately needed. And Scarlet remembered that she did have a weapon still.

     Anger and desperation flood her body, giving her one last burst of strength. She reached down, her shaky fingers gripping the hilt of the blade still stuck in her stomach wincing at the agonizing pain. Without allowing herself time to consider what she was about to do; she pulled the blade free with one hard yank.

     Flax laughed as she gave a soundless scream.

     And he was still laughing as the blade entered his right eye. His fingers still wrapped around her throat so tightly she couldn't get any air into her lungs, as if his brain hadn't even registered the protruding object sticking out from his skull.

     She managed to get a knee up between his chest and hers and she kicked him back. Finally, his hand fell away from her throat as they fell to the ground together, Flax on his knees and her pressed against the tree behind her, choking on the air as she desperately pulled it into her lungs, feeding her body the oxygen it had been deprived of.

     Movement drew her attention, and she stared in horror as Flax began to get back up, his arms reaching out toward her. The blade was protruding from his eye, lodged deep in his skull.

     How was he still alive?

     Scarlet forced herself up on shaky legs and took a threatening step toward him. He didn't react at all. His brain was functioning at a minimal level. He might be alive for now, but he wouldn't be alive for much longer.

     Her heartbeat slowed as her initial panic subsided. She grabbed his hair. He barely resisted her hold as she pulled Flax's head closer to the tree, pressing it hard against the bladed sword still stuck in the tree. She dragged his throat down the sharpened edge. Blood spurted out, slicking the gleaming metal and dripping off it onto the snow below. As she shoved him down to the ground, she pulled her blade free from his skull.

     Turning around on legs that barely supported her, she slapped a blood coated glove over her wound as she stumbled further into the opening. Scarlet's Wave had a hold of the now dead Derrick, shaking his corpse as if she expected him to stand at any moment to attack them again.

     She stumbled toward where the girl—Lilian—still stood frozen in fear. Her lip curled in disgust at the realization that she hadn't moved to help at all. She had—unknowingly—brought this nightmare onto Scarlet and she hadn't had the guts to try to help, even when Scarlet had been seconds away from death.

     "Coward." She muttered to the girl as she passed by, shooting her an ice-cold glare. Lilian couldn't hold her gaze, lowering her eyes to the ground.

     As Scarlet approached Scarlet's Wave, she let out a soft whistle, sounding her presence. Tears slipped from her eyes as her legs gave out and she fell to her knees, her entire body jolting at the pain.

     "Release him. Quit." She murmured as softly as she could. Scarlet dropped her blade to the ground, stretching her hand out toward the threatened creature knowing that there was a chance that Scarlet's Wave could see her as as much of a threat as she had the male she was holding clamped in her jaw.

     She let out a breath when Scarlet's Wave released the dead male's throat, starting to close the distance between them, her tail tucked, but her ears relaxed.

     A short distance away, Scarlet's Wave stopped, her mouth opened slightly in what could have been a whine. A cry? Breathing in the cold air? Her head turned toward the river and Scarlet followed her golden-eyed stare.

     A shuttered breath left Scarlet at the golden wolf stuck on the other side of the fifty-foot-wide icy river.

     "Cadmium's Crest."

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Thank you to everyone who has been so patient as they wait for me to edit and finish this story! I promise I am working very hard at it. 

Kindly, remember to vote and feel free to message me on my board any time if there are continuity issues in my story. I'm occasionally adding new chapters in and occasionally they get set in the wrong place. Hopefully, I have fixed it so far.

Take Care and Stay Safe! ~CANGEL