Forum Thread

"I got stabbed. With a knife." She agreed a bit dully, looking down at the knife sticking out of her side. "My knife now." Pulling the blade out with a grunt, she sat up and glanced over at the dying boy before quickly turning away in favor of looking over T'val and seeing if she had any wounds. It didn't look like it so she got up, swaying slightly before finding her balance. It was a bit hard to hold a knife along side the gauntlets she wore so it would probably be more useful as a secondary back up weapon.

---

Warily approaching the hole, Sorrento snapped his fingers, letting the sound echo softly in case there was something else living within that hole or any dangers that he should know about.

---

Glancing around, T'val frowned. "We should head inland. It'll be safer than the open beach, and there's more of a chance for supplies to be stashed under something." She still hadn't checked what was in the heavy sack that was slung from her shoulders, but that could wait until the two had established a camp.

Much to the group's relief, there was nothing within the cave that deemed harmful aside from some stalactites and stalagmites. Star finally broke the silence. "Did anyone grab anything?" Star set her medium-sized bag on the ground

Alana shook the water off her tail and ears and unintentionally splashing some onto Lucky, much to Lucky's dsmay. "Mean." Lucky tried to brush the fur smelling water off of her but the suit was already absorbing the water droplets.

---

The two paddled strongly and swiftly, soon reaching land. “Good Job!” She tells Zahara, before the trio gets their supplies from the cornucopia. They grabs several supply bags, along with spears, bows and knives. Meanwhile, Lifei spots a special helmet, designed to block out magical or mental interference. She grins, and picks it up. “Ready? Let’s go” She raises her hand, swinging her spear to kill a NPC who had foolishly tried to kill Zahara from behind. “Coward” Lifei laughs, her Long nails dragging across the skin, drawing blood. She pockets the vital parts, before dumping the body into the ocean. “It might attract sharks, and sharks mean more food” she mumbles. “Where do you want to go?” Echo asks, as the trio hide form plain sight.

---

"I have rope." Sorrento shrugged, unraveling the aforementioned material from around his shoulder. "Like i said in my interview I know a lot of different knots so this is basically the best thing I could have grabbed in terms of self defense."

---

"Gimmie a sec," She grunted, kneeling down to pop open one of the crates lying around them. Rummaging around, she let out a soft aha and drew out a medicine kit. "Alright let's go. I don't want to stay here any longer than I need to." Grabbing a bag of her own, she began to head inland, one hand pressed over her stomach where the wound was located

---

Star rummaged around to find a sleeping bag that reflects body heat, a half-gallon empty water bottle, a coil of wire, some dried fruit, and a few knives. "We'll have to hunt, the only food we have is dried fruit."

Ariel was resting against a tree to try to rest some from the slightly rough night. "We can fish if there's any fish in the stream, otherwise we might have to trek it to the ocean and fish."

Salvadore looked up from his cruelly empty bag. "I recognise some of the berries here from home and training."

Faith smiled a little, "I can set up the inside of the cave for night."

---

Allowing Naru to lead her, T'val started towards the edge of the forest, glancing over her shoulder every few seconds. While she doubted that anybody would make it close enough to harm them with the afterimages, she was still nervous. Upon entering the forest and leaving the beach behind, T'val stopped looking over her shoulder. An afterimage split off from the rest, drifting slowly up the mountain and to the side. However, it turned and moved as it pleased. As if it had gained a mind to pilot it. It seemed to drift more towards the cap of the mountain first, but started to change direction every few yards.

So the only weapon they had was wire, rope, and a few knives. Nodding at that, Sorrento glanced over at his wife. "Ariel are you sure that you're okay? You should probably rest. I can go fishing for us." He asked, checking in with her. He tuned out the others as he focused on her.

---

Glancing at the mirage, Narukami decided to leave it be and keep forging on. Soon the pair came to an old tree where the dirt under its roots had been slightly cleared out, leaving enough space for two teenagers to squeeze in and still have a little bit of room. It wasn't going to be a fun camping area but it would suffice. Glancing back at T'val, she gestured towards the potential area that they could hunker down it. "Good enough?" She wondered

---

T'val nodded. "Probably. At least until you can recover a bit. If anything goes wrong, we'll just move further up the mountain." Swinging the heavy bad off of her shoulder, T'val set it down and opened it. She froze, staying silent for a long few minutes. "Change of plans, if at all possible." She reached in and pulled on something, tugging what seemed to be the container for a large tent out. "We've got shelter."

Zahara, Echo and LiFei stumbled upon a cave not too far from Ariel”s group. “This will be a nice place to stay at, for now.” Echo states.
“It looks beautiful indeed. The waterfall is in the cave, it’ll be a useful water source.” LiFei states, bringing her flute and beginning to play a soft tune. Zahara takes the offered lollipop from Echo, before walking around, helping set the cave up, as well as standing guard for any danger. Meanwhile, Echo stores their weapons. She does the main patrolling directly outside the cave, also using the time to check on her supplies. Food, a heating pad, and mostly first aid stuff. Useful, she thought. There were also berries, dried and raw meat, vegetables and seeds. Echo churned the dirt, before planting the seeds.

---

"I'm alright aside from a slightly crampy stomach." Ariel admitted as she felt Sorrento's hand on her face, which felt really nice and so she leaned into it. "Among all things, please don't tax yourself too much."

Star put a hand on Sorrento's shoulder. "I can stay behind with her if you want."

Faith nodded. "Star, Ariel, and I can stay behind and watch camp. Sal, can you go with Sorrento and help him get fish? You might find some berries by the water."

Salvadore nodded but looked visibly nervous about leaving Faith behind. "Are you sure you and Charlie will be okay?"

Faith nodded. "I promise." She kissed his cheek. "Have fun you two."

---

Slowly, the wandering afterimage came to a halt near the large gathering. It seemed to only have appeared when Salvadore and Sorrento left. It floated just behind a tree and off to the side. Clearly, if it had waned to be hidden, it would have. Its feet hung above the ground about six inches, bobbing slowly up and down. A sentence was floating in front of the thing's face. The words flickered occasionally, as if they were old holograms. "I Can't See You."

Star helped Ariel onto the sleeping bag so the redhead could rest, Faith in the meantime was feeding her baby the only way she could. Once Star had helped Ariel get situated she sat out with Faith making small shapes out of water provided from the stream in front of them. Star thought for a moment she saw something bobbing but when she looked again it was gone, so she dismissed herself as seeing things.

Salvadore picked a few small star-shaped berries that came in red, yellow, green, blue, purple, and white. He tentatively bit into one, finding it to have a hard outer layer that once broken by his teeth had a super soft, almost chewy inside with the taste of the sweetest honey. He also found that when the berries were bunched they formed one singular iridescent star-shaped berry, the more that were added the bigger it would get, that also being said the more that were taken the smaller it would get.

---

As the gong rung and the timer ended, Kioku could be seen running into the distance and slinking off into the woods.

Meya swam towards the cornucopia and was able to grab a coat and a backpack full of food. After dodging some swings of a sword she managed to get away from a tribute. Clinging onto the backpack she made a dash for the woods and just barely managed to escape an arrow being shot at her. After what seems like 5 minutes of running she stopped to catch her breath in the woods. She was far in, and would most likely be found soon. She took a breath of relief as the tributes chasing her went the opposite way. The danger wasn’t over yet though, as she heard a branch snap in front of her.

---

The image had started wandering again, now briefly touching the ground, as if testing the water temperature. It rustled bushes sometimes, or stepped on twigs, pausing to attempt to make them crack. Now, it froze. One of the twigs that it had broken had caused a reaction in something nearby. Turning, it moved forward again, passing through a tree like a ghost. In front of it, it saw a Tribute. In front of it, it saw Meya.

There was a long blink and Naru let out a sigh of relief. "We are so lucky." She murmured, setting her own pack down and opening it up. It contained a bed roll as well as extra clothes, a small blanket, matches, and an empty flask. It looked like a bag primarily containing items to keep the owner warm and she thanked her lucky stars that it still had use within this context. "Alright, lets set up the tent and we'll see what we need to do."

---

Sitting down by the banks, Sorrento surveyed the water. It seemed like it could house life an stuck a finger into the water, using the ripples to look for anything. There were a few pings and he grinned. "Bingo. We have meat." He whispered to himself more than anything and got to work, closing his eyes and concentrating hard on sending out ripples of water to chase his prey closer to him so that he could grab them at an opportune moment.

---

The gong went off. The only thing that Shiloh knew was that she had to get off the platform. She had no plan for how she was going to swim to the Cornucopia. She didn't know what was going to happen out there in the water, but as long as she could, Shiloh would try to stay alive. Whether or not that would happen, she didn't know. The water splashed as she made her way into the ocean. Eventually, she had to fight to stay afloat. She could barely keep her head above water, though it did help that she tore off the bandages so that she could breathe easily. Of course, who would care about the ugly disfiguring scars when they were fighting for their lives? Shiloh, in fact, was doing just that. She kicked her legs and arms, trying to keep her head up, but she knew that it was going to take all of her energy. There was no way she was surviving the arena. Eventually, though she kept slipping underwater, she managed to pull herself onto the shore, stumbling to her feet. She saw a clear path to a bag, and rushed towards it, tripping over her own two feet and landing with a thud. She tried to get up, but she felt a foot planted in the small of her back. "I saw your score," a deep voice grunted, "I'm taking you out now while you're on the ground." Shiloh clenched her fists as she heard him draw a knife. "Sorry you didn't get a chance, princess." With a burst of energy that Shiloh didn't even know she had, she summoned an illusion. The same fire as before, but it gathered around the boy, in the shape of a hideous beast. She didn't even realize that it had happened, or that it was drawing closer and closer to him. He stepped away. With that distraction, she scrambled to her feet and took off, grabbing the bag and trying to stay upright, running past the Cornucopia. "You little-GET BACK HERE!" The boy ran after her, making the illusion dissapear.

---

T'val nodded, unpacking the tent and laying it out, grateful that there weren't any separate poles to try and wedge in. Several folded poles were embedded in the fabric, with clips every foot or so to collapse the shelter again. Staking down the corners with a the metal stakes and a rock, she grinned, muttering, "Damn you, Jamie..." Their words came back and rang in T'val's head. "I promise you'll see me again if one of us goes into the Games."

Salvadore continued to pick berries he recognized as Sorrento "fished" for meat. When Salvadore had gathered as many berries as he dared carry with him he carefully pulled out a plastic sheet he had snagged and laid it out, smoothing out the ripples. The berries he put in a decent pile before edging out a bit more to collect more berries, but he never let Sorrento out of his sight in case something went amiss, even though things seemed to be going swimmingly for now.

The food gathering was halted when the cannons started firing. Salvadore looked up and quietly counted 5 cannons total. Not as many as the years before. 5 tributes dead, 19 standing. "I counted five cannons."

---

Hissing in anger as the canons scattered the fish away, Sorrento sighed and stepped out of the water with two fish in hand. "That's a surprise. I thought there was more..." He grumbled mostly to himself. Gripping one of the knives he had taken from star and slit a line at the back of the fishes head, letting the blood drip into the bushes. It was a dangerous choice to make but he didn't want to get anything into the water just in case it chased away the fish and they lost the only source of meat they reliably had.

---

"I'm taking off my shirt." Narukami announced to T'val and shrugged her upper body out of the uncomfortable wet-suit to access her wound better. She didn't know how to set up a tent so left that up to her partner who seemed to know what she was doing. Instead she gingerly prodded at her wound hissing both at the pain and the cold air on her body. Popping open the medicine kit, it looked like there was medical sutures, antiseptics, rolls of gauze, plastic gloves, adhesive bandages, tweezers, and patches of cotton but no iodine. Which was going to suck but at least they still had a means of healing. Biting her lip, Narukami picked up the cotton and cleaned up the wound in preparation for being stitched up.

---