I'm a (Bad) Friend [vraven v bards]

“COR-DEEL-YA.” My name echoes through the mountains, and I turn to see a grinning Cachi. Initially it took me back to see him look at me as though he was excited to see me. Who would have thought that farmer boy from 10 would ever look at me the way he was. I would have never guessed. And yet, here we was, rushing towards me, grinning from ear to ear and I felt my shoulder slump with relief, my lips pulling back to match his grin.

He had survived, I had no idea how, but he had, and I was glad, genuinely glad to have him by my side once again, his lips flapping in the breeze. We had come so far, Cachi and I. From the start I had been so hard on him, against our alliance from the moment Alpha had pitched it... Yet, now, I couldn't imagine getting through this without him. I relied on him more than I cared to think. And deep down I knew that it was a mistake to allow myself to bond with him, because in the end he would have to die for me to make it home... And just the thought made my heart ache.

As we walk, I glance over at him, smiling at he chatted, barely taking a moment to breathe. Yesterday, when faced with Mr silent, I had found myself missing Cachi endless talk, his stupid commentary on every silly thing that we did. "Then, then – he comes at us both crossways, cuts me deep across the shoulder, and I – get this, get this! When I cut forward I turned, and he took a step and the sword, I don’t know, I just sort of – uuurg – right into the fucker’s neck til it came out clear the other side. You wouldn’t even imagine how much blood…”

Wait, what?

Did Cachi just say that he killed someone? Stabbing them through the neck in a way that was conveniently the same way that Alpha had died. I look at him with doubt, raising my brows, "so, your saying, that today you managed to slit someones throat with ease... And yet yesterday, you could barely hit a target? Cachi- come on, be honest with me. You don't need to lie." I give him a long look, before flicking my hair over my shoulder, looking at him with half a grin, "I can't even imagine you killing someone... You're as useless with thats sword as Alpha was dodging that spear." Harsh, but true.

“You know, I just wanted to say, you don’t have anything to worry about. With me. I mean, even if I’m the one putting up numbers for the alliance at this point…” He continues, and I almost laugh- I might have, but the last words to slip from his lips have my stomach tying itself into tight knots. I had not mentioned what had happened today, the fight that had taken place, and the life I had taken. Partially because he had barely given me a chance to speak... But mostly because I was scared how he would react to the truth.

So I stayed silent, forcing myself to smile and giving his hair a quick ruffle, "wow, thanks, I feel so much safer already."

And then the anthem is blaring, faces appearing in the sky. Charlies is the last to appear, his name and district beneath his photo confirming my suspicions. From the corner of my gaze I notice Cachi's reaction. I notice the way his face falls, momentarily forgetting the mask he wore so closely. Fuck, I couldn't tell him, I wouldn't. When the anthem ends he says goodnight, and I am left staring at the sky, at the space that had been Charlies face, the face of the boy I had murdered.

---

Cachi watches the sky, pouting at the birds that circled us from above. “Cor. I uh. I don’t think they’re just looking for seed," he says suddenly and I roll over from my position underneath a tree, watching as the shadows turn into mutts. Another fucking pack. Instantly Cachi is on his feet, running at the mutts with his sword raised above his head. Of course Mr Killer misses.

"Killer moves, tribute slayer."

Instinctively I reach for my own sword, but at the last moment opt for the spike mace I had taken from Charlie, it was time to smash the shit outta some poultry.

*

Taunting the mutts was pretty up there with ‘things that in hindsight probably hadn’t helped the situation.’

Then again, I found my footing most often in the places where I wasn’t supposed to step, and having not failed me yet, I’d be damned if I weren’t going that same direction.

“Oh damn, that ain’t good.”

My sword managed to miss not one, but both birds, and I’d left my undercarriage wide open for their assault. I’d stumbled back when the razor’s of one and the beak of another found my stomach and laid through my flesh. Reminded me of the buzzards that stalked farms during the drought. Birds that got one whiff of carrion and made it their life’s ambition to pick the bones clean.

“No bones about it,” I held a hand to my stomach and stared with one open eye as they circled Cordelia, “Looks like we’re plucked. Heh.”

You had to hand it to Cordelia though. She was a lot of things – arrogant, a narcissist, unpleasant, fat headed, she snored too loud, probably had a host of trauma she was holding onto, an unmitigated disaster of a human being when it came to real emotions – but she was not, in fact, one to miss when it counted.

“Hell yeah bitch!” I shouted over the caws of the oversized feather fucks.

We still had each other’s backs, didn’t we? I mean, she didn’t have to at this point. There were only ten of us left, which meant it couldn’t be a more than a few more sunrises before one of us managed to haul ourselves out of this hellhole. She could’ve left me for dead, or even helped finish what the birds couldn’t, but here we were, a career and chucklehead side by side.

Don’t get it twisted, though. I bet she still found it a numbers game, or the backup of another set of hands to take on the mutts rather than some well-worn loyalty to one another.

“Okay, why don’t we try this again.” I rolled my neck and gripped my sword with both hands.

What sort of flow had I gotten into yesterday that got that boy killed? Where was that fever, the anger that pulsed through my whole body, ready to boil my blood and throw out any last sense of sorrow?

“Stupid fucking birds. I hate you birds!” I snapped shifting one foot over the other as I watched them circle. “I hate you! You hear me? You got that, tweedled dee and dumb?”

I thought about my sisters watching me at home, Xavier, and all the boys that thought wrote my sorry ass off as soon as I’d gotten on the train. Of how I wasn’t ready to join my mom or dad just yet. I had business to finish.

And I thought of Charlie, how he had the fucking nerve to leave without even saying goodbye.

Wasn’t that just like a man to get a taste and turn into a literal ghost.

“I hate you!” It felt good repeating, and I did my best fuck-you-up snarl. I hopped forward, reaching into the pit of my chest, “HRRRRRNG!”

[cachimorro oltenzero d10a attacks the vravens with his sword, with feeling]

My body was breaking.

Fresh stitches ripped open as the mutts claws become buried into my back. I scream in pain, my eyes brimming with tears, and I could have sworn I heard the mutts snicker at my distress. It was infuriating, and rage flashes through me, blinding and hot and I rip my myself from the mutts claws as it tries to take off with me in its grasps. Growling I fling my bat at it, watching with satisfaction as it tears through one of its wings, drops of blood raining down as it desperately tried to escape my reach. "Thats right, fucking run you brainless coward!"

It did not like that.

Not one bit.

"Shit," I mutter, my body too slow, unable to avoid the beast as it strikes at my upper leg, once again ripping open the stitches that I had carefully placed only a day ago. "Mother fucker!" I howl, one hand trembling as it instinctively moves to protect the reopened gash. Each day my body was forced to carry a new scar, gruesome and twisted, they littered my body as a constant reminder of the things that I have done, will continue to do in my fight to survive.

“You really like to get rocked by mutts, don’t you Cor. What is that, some kind of weird fetish?” Cachi words push through the pain, and when I turn to him I am reminded that his face is free from scars. It seemed to be me who took the brunt of the attacks, my blood staining my white shirt crimson. My face was too pretty to be scared like a fucking delinquent. And yet it was, he had barely a graze. It was so bloody annoying.

"Get your head in the game, Tribute slayer. Or do you like it when I carry the team?" I say as I dodge an incoming attack, my heart in my throat as its beak misses my neck by the width of a hair. That was close.

Panting, I watch as Cachi advances once again, a cry on his lips as he throws all his weight behinds attack.

Though its not enough.

His blade barely provoking a thin like of blood and a few ruffled feathers.

"Dude, are you sure you killed someone yesterday? Cause I am have a really hard time believing it."