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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

𝐋𝐎𝐑𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐏𝐔𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐇𝐈𝐒 guts out for the second time. Everything he had consumed in the last twenty-four hours was now melting into the white snow in a very disgusting, vile way that forced Sage to turn her head so she doesn't replicate his actions.

    When she was positive he was finished, Sage turned back and made her way over to him, her head pounding from not only the blow she had received from being slammed into the tree by the mutt, but of everything that went down within a span of an hour. She couldn't stop watching Lorcan like a hawk, terrified to take her eyes off him now. She almost lost him. She almost failed the only goal she made when coming into these games. Just because she wasn't at her full strength, because she was recovering from her previous injuries.

    Her eyes ranked over his face. He was paler than normal besides the redness of his cheeks and nose from the cold atmosphere, and his eyes were bloodshot from crying. He hasn't stopped crying. Sage didn't really know what to do. She is not good at this. At comforting someone who clearly needed it. She's never really had to do it before... unless she counts comforting Adrian and Hyacinth those moments before she left on the train.

    Sage may have almost failed at her goal to keep Lorcan alive and make sure he wins these games... but she most definitely failed at another goal she didn't really know she had made until it had happened.

    She failed to protect him from the trauma of taking a life.

     Sage looked down at his hands, and could see the blood still there on his fingertips. Lorcan seemed to notice it too and held his hands out, his breathing labored and his face stained with tears seeing as he was reluctant to wipe them away and risk getting that blood on his face. Sage grabbed both of their canteens and moved towards him, gently placing a hand on his arm which caused him to jump in panic, but physically relaxed when he saw the redhead. Not mentally, though. That might not ever go away, the self-loathing behind the depths of his wonderful blue eyes.

    "Here, let me clean your hands." Sage spoke in a soft, but rough voice.

    "T-That's our d-drinking wa-water." Lorcan manages to say in a breaking stutter, sniffling. He was shaking horribly and Sage was unsure if it was because of the cold or from the shock of what he had just done.

    "We can melt more," Sage informed softly, taking his left hand in hers. "This is going to be cold, but I got a fire going and you will be wearing the gloves for a while so your fingers don't get frostbite."

     Lorcan didn't say anything, which Sage interpreted as he wasn't going to protest and guided him over to the ongoing flames of the fire she just made. The two had been running because they wanted to put enough distance between them and that cave. It sucks, it was a pretty nice place to hide out, shame it was taken from them so soon.

    Sage got to work on his fingers. There wasn't a lot of blood, but enough to know that Lorcan would not handle it on his skin for much longer. He didn't react when she poured the water on the cloth and began scrubbing his fingers. The blue cloth she refuses to tell Lorcan she pulled from the pack she stole from the now dead tribute they left behind was currently becoming stained as she cleaned. Sage scrubbed and did her best to get it all off so he wouldn't be haunted when he looked at his own flesh.

    Lorcan barely moved, just stared into the flames with a distant expression. Sage's heart felt like a piece was being pierced seeing him so fragile, so broken and just simply devastated. It was her fault. She failed to keep him safe. She was left weak and vulnerable and Lorcan didn't know how to track and was in a rush so he must have neglected to cover their tracks when he carried her to the cave. It was her fault for not teaching him how important that was and just doing it herself.

    She is not good at this. She is not good at taking care of someone else, of leading and educating. Sage Rowan can contain all the knowledge in the world with one simple glance and have it implanted into memory forever... but that doesn't make her a genius when it comes to social standards.

    Because of her neglectful mistake, they were found pretty easily by someone who Sage had no idea she had made an enemy of, but who was more than thrilled to finally find her with her guard down.

    "Well, well. Aren't you two cozy?"

    It was instinct. One minute, Sage had her guard down, the next she was on her feet, searching her satchel for a throwing knife, but cursed when she realized Lorcan must have taken it off of her. Probably his way of trying to make her comfortable as she rested. She cursed him and his considerate mind set.

    But the lack of weapons at her disposal wasn't her only disadvantage. Her mind was pulsing from how quickly she jumped to her feet and she did her best to catch herself, but obviously staggered backwards so much to the point Lorcan had to steady her. It took a minute for her mind to stop spinning and for her eyes to focus on who the intruder was. Blinking once, then twice, she saw the light blonde hair and familiar face of one of their fellow tributes.

    Tavis. District Seven. Lumber. Pretended to be a right hand dominant during training when in truth he was a southpaw. He favored the ax section during training, which he clearly brought into the games as he was currently gripping a silver metal axe in his left hand with frozen, dried blood on the corner. He is also the one who nearly killed Lorcan during the bloodbath at the cornucopia and Sage had been knocked down with one good swing.

    Even in the dimmed light, she could make out the bruise that formed in the corner of his eye. Dark blue and red. If this wasn't such a serious and life threatening moment, she'd admire her work proudly, instead of feeling useless and defenseless. Her whole life she had trained so she would never feel this way... and now because she let her guard down for one moment, it was coming back to bite her in the ass.

     Though Lorcan had steady her and got in a defensive position, ready to fight, Sage immediately grabbed him and pulled him back, trying to step between him and this boy. It was clear she was going to have to fight like hell without any weapons. Her head pulsed at the idea, but she ignored it. Concussion or no concussion, she wasn't going to go down without a fight.

    Tavis, though, seemed to be a bit blood thirsty as he glanced between the two of them, a disturbing smirk on his pale, chapped lips. She also noticed how blue his fingers were, especially the ones currently wrapped around the handle of the axe. Definitely the early stages of frostbite.

    "Sage Rowan..." Tavis said in bemusement. He wiped his runny nose and pointed his ax at her. "I was hoping to run into you again. I see you've taken a page out of your mother's book. Surprised there's only one man here. Thought you would try to break her record and go for three."

    "Wow, that's very clever, Tavis. Did you come up with that all on your own?" Lorcan snapped, and Sage bit her tongue to keep from telling her partner to shut up

    "It's Lorcan, isn't it?" Tavis questioned, though it was obvious he already knew his name. "Look dude, you clearly are just naive, but do you know who your little ally is? Do you know what her mother did?"

    "I'm not naive, but you are clearly a dumbass. In case you're as blind as you are stupid, Sage's not her mother." Lorcan defended with an angry snarl.

    Tavis rolled his eyes. "I wouldn't expect you to know you are being manipulated, Lorcan. Your District partner made it her mission to paint a target on your back, spilling all your dirty little secrets. It was a good tactic on her end, to make you seem like the easier kill. Gotta say, though, not knowing how to read was a bit hard to believe, but I was a little surprised to learn she was right about you being an idiot. Trusting Sage Rowan? Come on, Lorcan, you really must be as dumb as Azebel claims."

     Sage could feel Lorcan stiffen beside him, as he clearly did not know Azebel was going around telling everyone he was illiterate. It wasn't something he exactly advertised, which is why she never mentioned it when Azebel tried to use it to turn her back on him and ally with her. Now she can't wait until she sees this bitch's picture in the sky and hopes Tavis is right up there with her.

     Tavis began to walk around the fire, eyeing their packs and supplies where Lorcan had left them. "Well, you two did good for yourselves. It will be nice to have more than a stupid blanket that barely does anything and three damn matches. Thankfully, this ax has gotten me pretty far. Though, I think it will look good painted in your blood, Rowan. In fact-"

    "For fuck's sake, do you ever shut up?" Sage snaps, cutting the idiot off from his never ending monologue evil villains do when they've been discovered by the heroine and have to suffer through a long speech before they get on with their wicked plans. "We get it, you have the advantage. How about doing something about it until you lose it."

    Tavis snarled, shaking from blinding rage as he let out a disgruntled yell before swinging his ax. Sage immediately shoved Lorcan back as hard as she could, not paying attention as the boy fell to the ground with a hard thud as she jumped back, barely catching herself as she stumbled off her feet. She continued to blink and almost missed Tavis swinging his weapon again, but this time Sage gripped the neck of it with one hand and the middle section with her handle. The two wrestled for the weapon as Tavis pushed Sage back until her back slammed against the rocky stone. The redhead let out a strangled gasp, but never once loosened her grip.

    This is it. She needed the advantage. She needed to kill him.

    "Lorcan, run!" Sage screamed as she kicked Tavis in the gut with all her might so hard, he stumbled over the small fire until he landed on his back. She didn't look to see if Lorcan had listened, her eyes never leaving her opponent as his arm had landed too close to the fire. The sleeve of his jacket went up in flames and he dropped his ax in a panic, patting his arm to get the flames out. Sage acted quickly at the momentary distraction and made a dash for the weapon, grabbing it in both her hands and did her best to keep her balance as she felt herself swaying. Her vision was blurry and it was hard to focus, but she did her best to blink herself out of her discombobulated state before Tavis had time to recover. 

    When the flame was out, Tavis glared at the redhead with so much hatred. "You'll pay for that one, bitch."

    "Maybe I will. But I have the advantage now." Sage comments, motioning to the ax in her grapes with a smirk, "Come on, pretty boy. Let me show you exactly why I am not my mother."

    Tavis let out a deep throated noise, almost a growl, and was about to take an advance with the butcher knife he pulled from behind him when suddenly, he was impaled from behind by a machete through his stomach. Sage stumbled back, eyes widening in disbelief as she watched the boy drop to his knees, her wild eyes looking up to see a frozen Lorcan standing there, his hand out like a statue. Tavis fell down, his heavy breathing started to slow, his eyes looking up to meet Sage's in a look of terror in them that Sage will never be able to get out of her head before he went limp and he took his last breath.

    Both Sage and Lorcan stood there, stunned for several seconds, until a cannon sounded loudly it snapped the redhead out of her daze. She looked up at Lorcan, who still remained at the same spot where he ran his machete through Tavis, his blue eyes glossing over with tears as they fell down his cheeks in a heavy stream.

     Sage dropped the ax, immediately walking around the fire and stood in front of her partner, her heart racing as quickly as possible. She took the weapon from his grasp and chucked it to the side. Lorcan seemed to snap out of it slightly, looking up at Sage and his lip quivered.

    "W-What did I-I do?"

    Sage immediately cupped his cheek. "Look at me." She demanded in a whisper, lifted his face and forced him to look at her. "Lorcan! Hey, look at me."

    Lorcan tore his eyes away from the body and looked down at the redhead before him. She brushed his hair out of his eyes and never dropped her hands from his face. "It was him or us. You saved my life. Thank you, Lorcan. Thank you."

    It took a lot of convincing to get Lorcan out of that cave, to shake off the shock. She knew they needed to go. The Gamemakers needed to come and get the body. How, exactly, they were planning on getting the body out of the cave, Sage didn't know but she did know that she and Lorcan needed to be as far away as possible.

    Lorcan never stopped staring at the dancing flames, lost in his own mind that was probably torturing him to death over this. Lorcan told her during training that he doesn't believe he would be able to take a life. Sage honestly believes he might have let himself die before he became a murderer. He blames himself for his father's death, which was in no way his fault. But she knew his reasoning. He caused the Peacekeeper to lash out. He threw that rock and his father paid the price trying to protect him.

    Sage hates that she couldn't protect him from this. Her initial goal is to save him, to get him out of this arena and back home to his mother and brother who need him. But she wanted him to have as little trauma as possible. She did not want him to have blood on his hands like he does now. She failed him.

    She failed him.

    A failure, just like I suspected you'd be. So sad. The taunting voice of her mother came into her head and Sage closed her eyes, dropping Lorcan's hand and turning away. Deirdre Rowan always knows when to break her when she is down.

    Lorcan, having been in such a daze, finally tore his eyes away from the fire and towards his partner, noticing her sudden shift in emotion. Swallowing a lump in his throat, he finally spoke, slightly snapping out of his disoriented moment. "Are you h-hurt?"

    Confused, Sage frowned. "What?"

    "T-Tavis... he's slammed you p-pretty hard- it looked like i-it hurt."

    "Oh," Sage sputtered, not really noticing. It's true after they ran from the cave, Sage felt like she was going to fall over but fought with every strength she had not to. Thankfully, she hadn't hit her head when Tavis slammed her against the stone walls in the cave, but her back was killing her from being slammed backwards twice in such a short amount of time. "I'm fine. If anything, I'm just recovering from the mutt's attack."

    Lorcan nodded in understanding. "You should p-probably get some more rest. I-I can take the first watch."

    "I don't think either one of us should attempt to sleep tonight. We ran farther than we should have and we could be closer to the cornucopia than I would like. Plus with the fire... I don't trust the smoke not to give us away."

    Lorcan's eyes widened in panic, realizing she was right. In a frantic state, Lorcan scrambled away from the redhead and pushed snow over the fire, immediately snuffing it out. Sage's eyes widened in shock, not expecting such a reaction. When he was sure the fire was out, Lorcan climbed to his feet and immediately started surveying the area.

    "We should keep moving. Find somewhere else, in case someone does show up."

    "Lorcan-"

    "Maybe we can camp up in one of the trees tonight? We can tie ourselves in, so we don't fall off."

    "Lorcan-" Sage tried to gain his attention again but the boy was beyond reasoning. He was already grabbing their belongings that they had basically dragged out of the cave, a wide and terrified look in his once soft eyes. Sage got up and moved over towards the boy, grabbing his arms and pulling him to a stop.

    Lorcan stared down at her in confusion. "What are you doing? We need to go! They could be coming any minute."

    "Lorcan, stop!" Sage ordered, causing the boy to pause, but his breathing still labored. "We'll move. Okay. We will go, but you need to calm down. You are still in shock and you are scared and you are panicking. You need to breathe so we can start thinking logically. We can't make it if you are panicking, that's how mistakes are made. Just please... breathe."

    Lorcan seemed to take her words into consideration and knew she was right. He listened to her words and started breathing deeply, following her lead as they breathed together in sync, his shoulders rising and falling in the same rhythm as hers. After a minute or so, Sage knew that her previous words had freaked him out and realized her mistake, knowing he was not going to feel safe unless they moved to a different location. So once she knew he was calmed enough, she told him they would move as far as they can and then make camp, though they are going to have to start a fire, they won't survive this cold without one.

    Lorcan agreed only when Sage agreed to allow him to take the first watch, knowing he wasn't going to sleep at all no matter how much she wished he would.

    And as they walked in the opposite direction of the cornucopia and the cave, Sage made the same, silent vow to herself. More determined than ever before.  I'll get you home, Lorcan. I promise.

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So sorry for the hiatus, been very busy and distracted lately.

Also, sorry about the short chapter, but the next three chapters are about to be very eventful so strap on tight and prepare!

Thank you all for your endless support for this story! Enjoy!