Winter prey [MCF+Roomates+polaris]

A bitter chill runs up her spine causing her entire body to tremble. It's hard to find any sort of comfort here. The ground is cold, and even resting cuddled up to Masau doesn't offer much in terms of protection. Every muscle aches, and cramps, and walking around doesn't take away the pain, yet Sorrel doesn't want to complain since it won't do any good anyway.

Earlier a piece of warmth made everything go away. During winter Sorrel and her family sat in front of a fireplace keeping it going round the clock, and when it started fading away, another piece of firewood was thrown inside to keep the warm flame going. Here they couldn't do that. The smoke would signal their location. It's a death sentence, but it was enough to warm her aching bones for even a little.

But now it's dark, and she's afraid to fall asleep. Hypothermia threatens anyone drifting away, and right now all she wants is to stay alive for as long as she can. Seeing Carbon sleeping, she wants to draw closer to him. She wants to use their warmth together to keep them both alive. To give them another chance to wake up in the morning when darkness goes away. Winter is harsh, but in a place like this it's the worst imaginable.

Sometime through the night, she must've drift away because the next thing she knows Carbon is shaking her awake telling her they need to move. "Yeah, I got firewood." She says stretching her arms above her head trying to shake off the cobwebs to get moving. Staying in one place too long is dangerous, and with the temperatures well below freezing, moving around can go a long way. It keeps the blood flowing. It keeps everything warm for a little, but she knows that sometimes warmth is deceiving.

Masau is on his feet moving forward, and Sorrel quickly follows behind knowing at any sign of danger he'd turn and warn them. He's a wonderful companion, and she only wants what's best for him. He's a friend in a very unlikely place where she only trusts him completely. Carbon is human, and he could turn on her at any given second if it meant getting out of here alive.

And then they stop.

Carbon starts talking, and in a moment, Sorrel finds herself readying her own weapon. Part of her wants to run away and hide because it's better than striking, but before she has a chance, Carbon is lashing out. And out of nowhere a knife comes whizzing by, and Sorrel takes a step back trying to figure out what to do. She doesn't want to fight. She doesn't want to hurt anyone because nobody here deserves it. Everyone deserves a chance.

But she knows that if she wants to live, she has no other option, and the desire to return home outweighs the desire to lay down and die. She takes a deep breath fighting against the emotions racing through her mind, and does the only thing that everyone watching wants her to do despite her heart crumbling again.

---

A daunting sound raised the hairs on the back of my neck.

A scream - a signal that someone needed help and over the years, my feet would go running in anticipation to assist whoever was in dire need. My heart broke. It began to shatter at this very moment even more as I realize what was really truly starting to happen. The games did this to even the most gentle of souls and even though I was not a saint, this felt more wrong then the time I stole my brothers shoes and threw them in the well. That might not even sound that wrong to someone from say district one or two, but for district twelve, shoes are practically gold and priceless.

I felt bad, but there was no getting them back.

Just like the cracking bones in the district one males hand that my weapon just clashed up against.

Hesitation and a watchful eye as the other three around me ganged up on the two. The two that I vaguely remembering being careers. The two that were supposed to be considered the most dangerous of us all but somehow fate decided to help us out and my gentle duo gathered the faithful help of two unlikely strangers.

Sorrel would surely live to see another day after this. "You will." I mumble under my breath watching the girl fall into a hole and the dirt cave onto her right after she released something that glinted in the air. I turned to get out of the way but agility was never my strong suit nor was my reflexes. Instead, I felt a blinding pain against my frozen limb.

A harsh stumble brought my giant stature crumbling against the sensation and my knees dented the snow below me causing even more pain as the knife embedded itself deeper into my calf. Growls of pain escaped and I ached to have morphling at this moment. I lurched forward while digging my fingers into the snow to get the sensation gone that was causing my body to speed my own heartrate.

"Sor!" I beckon her to help me.

It took everything I had to look at my leg, seeing the weapon sticking out of it. I watched my own blood pour out from yet another wound. I begged to know when this would stop. The sight alone caused my stomach to roll and my eyes to swell up. The irony is too real when I've seen worse, touched and fixed worse, but this was too much for me to see. My own wound...

Yet I listen as the male calls out to his district partner. Lora I made a point to remember her name. To honor her memory should this go south too soon and I wondered about the boy's name. Would it be easier to continue to fight him if I didn't know their history; their needs and dreams and aspirations for what would have been their future. What they planned to do should they leave this arena crowned with a title?

Don't - It'll only make it worse. I shake my head, and despite the agonizing and searing pain, I stand and turn to meet the nameless one. I limp heavily forward and my gaze shifts to Sorrel and then back to him. "I don't want to do this. I'm sorry."

[Carbon attacks Alistair with the spiked blunt out of remorse]
86eJQsN|Srspiked blunt
[14093 -- BLOCK -- 0.0 damage]

I falter in my step, as my weapon plunges forward. I'm not sure why I hesitate but my instincts just won't let me play that off. I hold onto my weapon tighter, both hands as I regain my footing and counter the mission I've been sent here to do.

spiked blunt
[14199 -- DEEP GASH ON CHEEK -- 8.5 damage]

A heavy breath catches in the back of her throat, and all Sorrel wants is to run, but she's ran from everything her entire life. Conflict scared her away. The difference now is this is life or death, and not fighting will send her to the depths of a new world when her eyes close forever. Yet it's hard to keep going, to find a reason to attack someone unprovoked despite the desire to stay alive.

And now she feels as though she doesn't have an option. Running away only makes her look like a coward, and truthfully, she doesn't mind it, but her family doesn't need to see it. They don't need to see the fear constantly lingering within. They don't need to see that. They've saw her crying when she killed the mutt, they saw her running away crying as Carbon begged her to go, and now she has a chance to fix it.

Losing herself to this game isn't something she wants, but pieces of her keep falling away. Is it even possible to hold the rest of her together?

She takes a breath trying to focus on the task at hand, yet each breath is hard. It's difficult to come by. The cold burns all the way down into her lungs, and while others are speaking, she can't even cough up a word. Her eyes dart towards Carbon, and she needs to help him. To get him out of here, and in this moment, her gaze locks on the tribute attacking him. She doesn't need any words. They don't mean anything here. Everyone wants the same thing, and she can't let anything happen.

Biting her lip, Sorrel takes a step back trying not to slide in the snow. Right now all she can do is keep that hope alive. Her family needs her, and the thought of them drives her forward as she fights the fear holding her back. It doesn't matter. All she can do is try.

---

What would the doc think of me right now? After helping so many people only to watch me maim another human?

The thought crossed my mind in more ways then one. I killed an innocent creature the other day, obliterated it's soul into pieces only to suddenly turn tables and practice my newfound skills against a living breathing human like myself. The remorse I began to feel started to take over the beating of my heart and with every breath, it beat faster the longer I stared onto this pitiful tribute. Even though they wanted me dead, it still didn't make up the fact that I had attacked first. It wasn't with bloodshed but a broken promise to myself that I only just now started to realize.

A man should no sooner take a life that isn't his to take. Stammering, I felt my blood run colder than it had been in the last four days as I watched the male beside me assist me in taking down this otherwise defenseless person. If it wasn't for my own actions, maybe we could have not had to do this.

Not today at least, not when there was still twenty three of us still alive and on the fourth day. I've watched enough of the games, researched them too, to realize that after today, the brutality of the gamemakers would suddenly turn as cold as this arena or colder.

This was, without a doubt, a chilling site to observe. I watched Lora tend to her partner and I watched them with a sense of remorse. "I'm sorry." The whispers was barely above my lips when they lashed out again. Instead of Lora aiming at me, he did it and even though his face leaked blood, he saw the shot perfectly clear to aim at my bad leg, the one with the knife still protruding through the skin.

My head started to swim. I started going over medical triage as I steadied my weapon and then the gaping wound on my leg from his knife slicing it open as if it were a hot something against everything. I hiss out. It's just a laceration. That's it. Deep - will need stitches - I don't think it touched bone. Weakness. Lightheaded -

At home, this would almost call for some major damage and months of rehab but for someone like me, I'd be lucky if I got to bandage it tonight. My gaze turned to Sorrel and I felt bad that she's been tending to my wounds as they appear but I'm just glad it's not her in this position. My heart yearns to be closer to her, to make sure that she's safe and out of harm's way but I'm afraid our time is almost running out. My time is running out and I terminate my fondness for her.

This arena is harsh and cruel.

Was I becoming just that?

"I need to live to save her." The words carry over my lips before I know it.

Carbon attacks Alistair
hGQ81xbapZspiked blunt
[14099 -- GASH/BRUISED LEFT COLLAR BONE -- 3.0 damage]