delicacy worthy of death ( day 2; Artemis v blight worm )

Notes of a song Artemis doesn’t recognize float down to her as the faces of the dead paint the lavender sunrise. 13 faces, some she doesn’t recognize, other are a surprise to her. Portia, and Ruby for example. One is the girl Artemis recognizes as the one who got the highest training score as well. How do strong girls get wiped out in Day One? How did the Gamemakers manage to kill so many people in Day One? Was this forced in order to retaliate for the lack of deaths in the bloodbath? She wishes that the Arena was in sync with her internal clock, but half of the tributes are already did. If the Gamemakers keep up this pace, these Games wouldn’t last long. Artemis finds some shelter in the shade of a black sand dune, sleeping in a bed of sand that is sticking to her damp and sweaty skin.

By the time she wakes up, it’s already dusk. The black sand sticking to her skin looks like an extension of the her uniform. She can’t imaging what she looks like to the rest of Panem. Does she even want to know? What have her brothers and sisters been think for the past week? Are they worried for Artemis? She’s sure that they must be relieved that she’s already made it to the halfway mark, but she hasn’t proven herself as a career yet. She’s only shown that she can block or dodge. Artemis wasn’t sure if she had the killing spirit in her, but she also doesn’t have a choice, waking up to the setting sun in a sea of black sand confirmed that. She grabs her bag, ensuring that everything is still there before moving on, not sure where she’s going, but knows that she’s still too close to the neon lights for comfort.

Those lights are now lost to Artemis as she makes her way further into the sea of black. She knows that she’s still central though, as the white and yellow sands are still visible. She keeps pushing forward until she starts to feel a rumbling at her feet. She can tell that is local to her, as the sand on dunes farther away doesn’t shift in the same way. Something is beneath her, and she doesn’t think that she can outrun it. She grabs her glaive in a defense stance, digging her boots into the sand for traction, when a giant worm erupts from the sand coming straight for her. She manages to block its giant mouth, but she doesn’t have time to panic. She can figure out what it is after its dead. She manages to get her feet out of the sand before side stepping the creature, hoping to strike it deep where it hurts.


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13155 -- Stabbed in Back -- 9.0 damage