Terra Cruze (terraza) wrote in colosseum, @ 2014-03-20 19:38:00 |
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The first was purely self-defense. "Your best bet is to run," they told her. "Grab something if it's right there but don't go toward the cornucopia or you won't survive." She didn't really expect to survive anyway but hours later she was still alive and with a hat and a bottle for water. It was when she found herself on her back, another tribute on top of her, she realized she thought her death wouldn't come quite this soon. She had been distracted. Find water, had been her plan and while she'd been scoping out the terrain for anything that might indicate life, the girl had been scoping her out, deciding they were both small enough she might be able to take Terra out. Girl Ten wasn't a very good judge of character, though.. The tribute from District Six who spent months hammering iron in a hot shop was stronger than she looked. Strong enough to get the other girl's weapon away from her. She wasn't sure if she was strong enough to get it back out of the girl's chest because she didn't try. *** The second was opportunity. In replays some of the announcers would say it had been mercy, but if that was any part of Terra's motivations then it was only the smallest part. The wind was knocked out of him when she found him. The cave she'd taken shelter in since the flash flood was close enough she could hear him yell, could hear him yell and the thud as his body hit the ground. There was no cannon yet. There wouldn't be, not if he was left alone. His leg was twisted in an unnatural position she knew had to be a fracture, but he was only passed out. Terra knew how long it would take for whoever he was fighting to get down the cliff, and that he had a good chance to wake up and hobble off before his attacker arrived. Grabbing the metal rod in Boy Twelve's hand, Terra didn't give him a chance. *** The third was her choice. She could have run off. She could have hid; Terra was confident no one would find her cave, and if they did, few of the tributes she knew were left in the arena could fit through its tiny entrance. Instead she stuck around, hidden behind a rock. She recognized the boy from Eight when he appeared. He was smaller than the one she'd just killed, but she knew by now that didn't mean much. He was coming to find the body, perhaps to take his weapon or just to be sure he was dead, despite the cannon. They all remembered the year two fights had happened at the same time, a Career turning her back on a tribute after hearing the wrong cannon only to be stabbed (quite literally) in the back. Boy Eight knew better than to take that chance. It was when he stopped and the confusion crossed his face at the missing weapon and the blood on the ground that Terra attacked. She'd been well on her way to becoming a blacksmith when she was Reaped, and as the iron pushed into his gut, she almost remembered what that was like. |