[Day Two] Forest of Secrets [open]

My eyes snap open as I feel soft snowflakes brush my face.

I blink a few times, trying to focus my eyesight, too disoriented from my brief sleep to remember where I am. This is not my bed at home, and it's not the soft feathery one in the alien world of the Capitol, either. Then I feel the rough tree bark digging into my back, and spot the thin pine needles over my head. Of course. I am in the arena.

As I had planned just before stepping off my metal plate at the Cornucopia, I had run straight for the trees on the horizon. It had taken quite some time to clear the stretch of snow before I had reached the forest, and I was a little afraid of being vulnerable in such an open space for over an hour. But I had reminded myself that I had escaped the initial killing zone; anyone I might find here was running away as well. I had gotten out of range of the Bloodbath. Now I just had to survive the rest of these Games.

Now I am perched in the forked branches of a tall tree, awakening from a sleep that could not have been more than four hours. But I am unable to think about what I plan on doing for today, because I am too busy shivering.

The temperature must have dropped in the night, because snow was falling and even yesterday I had not been this cold. The extra pair of pants I had found rolled up in the backpack I had salvaged from the Cornucopia only aided my legs; the rest of my body was unused to this sort of cold. I didn't have a sleeping bag for warmth or anything else of the sort. My pickings from the ground around the cornucopia had not been very fruitful; I had a pack of jerky, a thick slab of chocolate, which I was not letting myself eat yet even though I itched to devour it all in a couple of bites, the pants, the backpack, an icepick, and a dagger. I am pleased to have a dagger, though, because even though it is larger than the throwing knives I am used to handling it is still a weapon, and it can even be used for hand to hand combat in the need arose. And for hunting, of course. Which is something I will need to do right away.

I shimmy my way down from my tree, silently giving thanks that I had not fallen out of it in the night. I had made sure my branches were thick and sturdy; if I had a hammock to string between them it would have been quite a nice place to sleep, actually.

I try to work out how I will go about getting food. I have the jerky and the chocolate, but I need something more substantial to go with that. I have never hunted before, but in the training center my coach for knife throwing had briefly touched upon how to target small animals, and besides, I am strong with aiming. My dagger isn't that heavy, and if I can can get close enough to an animal I should be able to hit it with my knife easily.

I venture away from my makeshift camp. The small layer of snow covering the ground muffle my footsteps, and for that I am grateful. If any animal is near, I shall need to be silent in order to kill it by surprise. I know that much about hunting, at least.

It is only with my keen eyesight I spot it; movement in the snow a few meters away from me. The hare is pure white, and if there had been more snow on the ground I probably would not have spotted it, it blended in so well. It is scuffling around the roots of a tree, so intent on its work that it would not have noticed me coming if it tried. It is plump, too, and will provide food for more than one meal. It seems like the perfect kill.

I inch closer and grasp my hand tightly around the hilt of my knife as I was told to do in training. I aim for the rabbit's meaty neck, which, if hit properly, will be a blow to kill within moments, and...

My shot is completely off. The blade hits half a foot away from the animal, burying itself in the trunk of the tree the rabbit was positioned by. It is almost comical, the way the hare's head snaps up to look at the dagger, it looks from side to side as if looking both ways on a street corner, and then takes off lightning fast into the trees. I had lost my first kill.