Searching

Elise had left early that morning to go hunting and still hadn’t returned. Midas was beginning to panic that he may have missed the canon fire signaling the death of his only ally. He hoped desperately she was all right as he wandered silently through the frozen jungle. He rubbed his arms quickly, trying to generate heat from the friction against his turtleneck. The cold had sunk in last night from the loss of his coat and he was still unable to warm himself up. He needed Elise to return so they could ambush a tribute for their coat.

He leaned against the tree and listened to the freezing winds breeze through the foreign plant life around him. His stomach grumbled; he was starving. They needed to get flint for fire so they could prepare meals, and he hoped Serge would rack up enough sponsors to send him some soon. His mind quickly trailed from Serge to his son Julian, the reason Midas had to get home. He wondered what Julian thought of his poor performance in the bloodbath yesterday. The usual Julian would have scoffed and given Midas the cold shoulder for a failure like that, but after the events on Reaping day, Midas doubted that was the case.

He took out the locket from around his neck and caressed his thumb over the picture of Julian’s face, hoping a camera would pick it up so Julian could see just what was on his mind. He put it away though and gave a strong, determined look for the viewers at home to show that nothing would stop him from returning home. Not even that alliance of those four ruthless boys.

Midas began walking around again, careful not to make a noise to disturb any potential mutations or lurking tributes. He hoped he would find Elise soon, but the signs of her return were looking dimmer and dimmer as the sunlight was fading through the trees. Darkness was falling fast and still no sign of his ally. He wondered if her face would shine before him in the sky tonight. Midas began climbing one of the jungle trees to get a good view for the nightly recap. Nine faces flashed before him and Elise the night prior, one of them being his new found friend from District 2, Alliance. He had said a silent farewell to her as her face was shown. He hadn’t known her well, but they had come to an understanding and a friendship from their trip to the Capitol together. He hoped to make it home to pay his respects to her family. It infuriated him that none of the careers had stepped up for this poor girl; she wasn’t meant for the arena, but then again who was? Even his years of training had failed him so far, and who knew what was to come. Midas swore to himself if he made it out of here, he would do everything in his power to stop Julian’s entrance for the next to years. He wouldn’t lose him to this fate… if he made it home.