━━･❪ 🌸 ❫ ･━━

The coming morning, the world began to shake.

Daphne was out fiddling with a water hose in Rye's backyard when it started. She'd been wondering if it connected to anything, whether or not she could get water out of it and not have to walk all the way down to the canal for a refill. Spoiler alert, it was pointless. The hose was as useful as a dead slug.

Then the ground gave a heave beneath her feet.

Daphne yelped in surprise, nearly losing her balance. The earth did not stop. It rumbled and jostled as vibrations pulsed down below, tossing Daphne this way and that. She yelled for Rye and Azalea to hurry outside, for the frail wooden houses were creaking and shifting all around.

Daphne eventually fell to her knees onto the grass, the entire arena bouncing as if some god had decided to use the world as a football. There were terrible crashing noises everywhere, and she barely heard Rye and Azalea stumble out of the house beside her.

Daphne used her hands to cover the back of her head and neck as she curled in on herself. Something hard slammed against her spine, but her exclamation of pain was drowned out by an earsplitting groan. The world was then filled with a deafening crash.

And the shaking stopped.

Daphne held still for several long seconds. Her heart was racing like a jackrabbit, her entire body still feeling as if it were jostling back and forth. Slowly, she eased her head up from beneath her hands. Her eyes widened with horror at what she saw.

The top floor of the house was in ruins. Where a functional roof once stood was now replaced by a mess of rubble, dust and splintered wood. The ground floor was relatively intact, though Daphne was afraid it would buckle under the weight of the collapsed roof at any moment.

Daphne hastily pushed to her feet, her core still rattling with phantom vibrations. All around her, the surrounding houses were in similar conditions. None were completely wrecked, but most suffered from likewise roof damage or leaning precariously to the side. Most of the fences had been knocked over, blurring the lines between house yards.

Rye gave a groan from beside Daphne, and Daphne snapped back to attention and helped tug him to his feet. Together, they lifted Azalea, who was visibly trembling.

"Are you two alright?" Daphne asked.

"Yep, we're all intact." Rye replied, then paled as he took in the sight of their ruined shelter. "That's more than we can say for our poor house, though."

Daphne noticed that Rye was carrying Azalea's backpack full of their supplies, as well as his crossbow. She silently thanked whoever was listening that he had thought to bring them before they could be destroyed alongside their room.

The base of Daphne's spine throbbed where she'd been struck by a piece of debris. It took countless more heartbeats to pass before one of them recovered enough to speak again.

"I guess the Gamemakers thought the arena was getting a bit boring." Rye muttered bitterly.

Azalea's brows furrowed, but she said nothing. Four cannon shots echoed across the arena, each one sending a fresh wave of panic through Daphne's system. Four casualties in the earthquake. Daphne found herself mumbling prayers.

Oh please, please don't let one of them be Caelum. Please let Caelum be alright.

Please.

Daphne dragged a palm down her face, pausing halfway as a flicker of movement caught her eye from down the path.

She stiffened, alerting Rye and Azalea. The three of them stared as figures, several figures, melted into view under the morning sun, picking their way through the scattered debris from the wrecked houses.

Daphne's palms began to sweat as she counted four, five, six tributes forming the pack. Most of them seemed unarmed, but a group like that pitted against Daphne with a still-healing arm, a mostly untrained Rye and a poison-weakened Azalea sent a pang of icy cold fear down Daphne's spine.

There was nowhere to hide. Daphne, Rye and Azalea stood out like sitting ducks without the fences to hide them. Daphne drew her knives, one in each trembling hand. Rye loaded his crossbow. Azalea dug her rope out of the backpack.

The sextet of tributes drew closer. They were clearly headed towards where the three of them stood. They were close enough now that Daphne could pick out individual features, her heart hammering in her throat. At the head was a girl of about eighteen, her complexion bronze and athletic. She stood quite tall, perhaps rivaling Caelum in height, though her shoulders were even thinner than his.

As she and the other five tributes came closer, Daphne shifted her knives so they glinted in the sun. She was about to call out a warning when she realized that it wasn't aggression in these tributes' demeanors. They did not charge. They did not even pick up their pace.

In fact, the tall girl's face was even plastered across with a smile.

Daphne remained frozen as the group came near enough that they could attack without batting an eye. Daphne stood, bewildered, as the girl lifted an arm and waved a greeting. Suddenly, Rye gave a cry of surprise.

"Makani!"

Rye barreled forward, dropping his crossbow, and before Daphne knew it he was embracing the girl, both of them laughing and exclaiming. Daphne exchanged a confused glance with Azalea, who stood holding a sharp piece of wood now alongside her rope.

Rye broke from the embrace first, turning back to Daphne and Azalea with an incredulous look on his face, as if he couldn't quite believe what was going on. Still, he had a wild grin on his face as he waved them over.

"They're safe, I promise!" Rye said at Daphne's reluctant expression.

The tall girl, Makani, gave a chuckle. "We're safe, or they're safe?"

"That depends," Daphne cut in, approaching cautiously. "State your business, or this may not end up being so family friendly."

Makani simply barked a laugh. Rye's shoulders sagged, though an amused glint still shimmered in his umber eyes.

"Daphne, relax." He said. "This is Makani Aukai. She's the one I picked to come into the Games with me during Reaping."

"You bet your donkeys," Makani quipped as a way of agreement. She was quite taller than Rye, which she demonstrated by resting an elbow on Rye's head and leaning casually against him. "Or- whatever else you folks in District Ten own."

"Sheep." Daphne muttered. "I own sheep, thank you very much."

"I have goats," Azalea added in a small voice.

Rye cleared his throat, then glanced awkwardly over Makani's shoulder at the five other tributes standing and staring at the reunion. "That's quite an army you've got there, Makani."

Daphne narrowed her eyes. There were two District Three girls, two boys from District Seven and one boy from District Twelve. One of the District Three tributes had a string of knives around her waist similar to Daphne's, but otherwise the tributes were all seemingly unarmed.

Makani spun around on her heels so that she faced the five tributes, pointing at them in succession and introducing their names. Rye did the same for Daphne and Azalea. The District Three tributes, Sylla and Lua, were eying Daphne especially, whispering to each other conspiratorially. Daphne met their gazes unwaveringly. They eventually glanced away.

"You have no idea how elated I am to have found you three," Makani was saying. "You see, I had a plan. A master plan. And I couldn't pull it off by myself. So I set out to gather as many tributes as I could, and together, we're going to make it happen."

"She always has great plans," Rye supplied, nodding.

"Thank you, Rye." Makani chuckled, ruffling Rye's hair. "Anyways, as I was saying, we need as many tributes as we can for this. It won't be easy, but as long as we work together and form a viable strategy of attack, we can-"

"What's the plan?" Daphne interrupted impatiently. "You keep going on about it, but what is it?"

Makani blinked, but her zealous smile didn't falter. "Why, we're going to kill the Careers, of course. You in?"

Rye began to nod excitedly, then froze as Makani's words seemed to sink in. "What?? Are you insane??"

"Not insane, just ambitious." Makani grinned. "Now that we have nine of us, we can officially outnumber the seven Careers that are left. If you three are in, we should begin to head back to the cornucopia for the attack right away-"

"Wait," Daphne started forward as Makani began to turn. "Wait... you haven't run into the other District Ten tributes, have you?"

Azalea opened her mouth to say something, but Daphne kept talking. "Caelum. He's- He's a good shooter. If we can find him, he'd be a major asset. He's a decent fighter too."

The District Twelve tribute, whom Makani had introduced as Pavel, snapped his head up. "Caelum Caflisch?"

Daphne stared at him. "Yes, that's him. How did you-"

"I've got a photographic memory." Pavel said with a shrug. "I remember him from watching the Reaping. I saw him during Training too, and I attest. He is a decent fighter."

Makani's thin shoulders seem to sink the slightest bit. She flicked her dark eyes back to Daphne, her smile seeming strained. "How long do you expect it will take to find him?"

Daphne frowned. "I have no idea."

One of the District Three tributes, Sylla, groaned. "Well, I don't suppose we should go running around the arena yelling his name. He could be anywhere. Is it really worth it, Makani, to spend possibly days longer finding one guy who may or may not want to join us?"

Daphne's grip tightened on her knives. She'd always hated District Three, ever since one of them had killed Aedon during his Games. She briefly fantasized what would happen if she gouged Sylla and Lua right where they stood, screaming Aedon's name and forcing the district to pay for their actions once and for all.

Instead, Daphne simply met and held Sylla's amber-eyed stare. The other girl didn't back down this time. Daphne was about to snap a reply when Rye's firm hand rested on her shoulder. Daphne's hackles lowered.

Makani's grin turned apologetic. "Look, I'll strike a deal with you, Daphne. We're going to start heading back to the cornucopia, which could take a day or two of traveling. We'll keep an eye out for this Caelum of yours on the way."

Daphne's jaw clenched. A reluctant part of her understood Makani's haste. The sooner they strike the Careers, the better. Especially after the earthquake, when they may be injured or have some of their supplies freshly destroyed.

Beside Daphne, Azalea gave a shrug. She then marched over and positioned herself by Makani.

"Feel free to leave on your own to find Caelum, Daphne." Azalea said simply. "Rye and I will be with them, taking down the Careers. So be my guest, go off by yourself."

Damn it, Daphne was so tempted. Just to spite all of them, she wanted to turn on her heels and walk away. Would it really be that bad, to conquer the arena utterly alone? Including her, there were nine tributes standing here at this moment. There were seven Careers left, if Makani had been correct. Daphne knew there were twenty tributes total still alive in the arena, meaning just four unaccounted for. Two of those four were Caelum and Theron.

Perhaps she wouldn't be in much danger if she set off by herself to find Caelum, and Theron if she were lucky.

Daphne set her jaw, then lifted her chin in defiance. "Fine. Farewell, and good luck on facing the Careers."

With that, Daphne whirled around and marched off.

━━･❪ 🌸 ❫ ･━━