{song of purple summer} kiara day 2.

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now when i got back here and climbed up my tree
nobody saw me, i watched them so carefully
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Kiara had camped out in the sand the previous night. It was a stupid decision, she knew, but after leaving the dead bodies of the two other tribute girls behind for the hovercrafts to take care of she'd walked towards one of the towers and observed it carefully. Its walls were crafted of thick, unbreakable glass that slightly distorted the image of what was inside, but after she walked a little ways, Kiara located the archway that allowed tributes to venture inside. Trees. Trees were in there; dead, rotted trees, by the looks of it, but trees all the same. The small teenager was fully prepared to dive right into the tower and reap the spoils of these wondrous, life-giving plants, but just before she did she noticed something peculiar.

The bloodred sand was very slowly, very slightly rising along the archway, seeming never to actually enter the rotted forest inside the tower, but obscuring the entryway all the same. Sensing what was going on, Kiara turned her head to peer to the right; it was late in the day, judging by the position of the sun through what she presumed was the side of the giant hourglass. Late in the day, sand slowly rising, obscuring the entrance to the tower...they want to trap us inside. Who knew how long it would be before the sand covered the doorway completely? If she went in that tower and stayed even a moment too long, she'd be trapped inside for good and die without a doubt. No, she couldn't go in. However much she wanted to, it was too unsafe this late in the day; surely the entrance would be blocked come nightfall. Camping in the sand seemed safer - besides the fact that another tribute could come across her easily and hack her limbs off while she slept, blissfully unaware.

Morning dawned, and Kiara didn't waste a second before beginning to move. She jogged through the thick crimson sand, grateful for the ease of movement her jumpsuit and cleats provided her with, but not for the heat; it had to be close to eighty degrees in this godforsaken hourglass. Kiara had never done well with heat; Eleven was uncomfortably warm all year round, but in the most unbearable months Kiara would escape to the shade of the orchards or the woods. Where could she escape to in here? Nowhere, besides one of the towers. As long as she got in and out before the sand rose.

Before long she made it to another tower; this one, however, seemed to contain an endless field of purple flowering plants - heather, her memory told her - and little else. The entryway hadn't been blocked by sand at all yet, though, so she deemed it safe to enter; and who knew? Perhaps she'd find something useful inside. So the District Eleven tribute cautiously entered the glass-walled tower, her eyes searching for possible places to take cover if she spotted another tribute nearby. There weren't many at all; a few low shrubs dotted the ground, but the place was mostly all heather, as far as the eye could see.

Well, she couldn't stay here long; she wasn't going to stay anywhere that didn't offer adequate protection, because even the sand was easier to hide in than this gruesome purple paradise. The rolling dunes offered some coverage, at least; here was too wide open. But she couldn't bear to leave with nothing - perhaps she should break off some of the sticks and twigs from the shrubs, and save it to make a fire later. Deciding that this was an acceptable plan of action, Kiara hacked at a bush with her hatchet until she had a decent handful of kindling. Once this process was completed, she shoved it all in her backpack, bade the heather field farewell, and returned to the sand that was becoming all too familiar by that point in time.