He'd found me after I'd stumbled through the field of grass, lurching out like a menacing cat, ready to rip out my throat with his bare hands. I'd stumbled back and prepped for a fight. The thick branch I'd fastened into a weapon had been gripped tightly in my clutches while my eyes watched him breathe heavy and my ears seemed to sting as he'd growled lowly. I'd hissed back, broke my stance so I was more balanced, and tried to remember what I'd been taught in training.

Quickly, I'd let my gaze swath over his thick figure, trying to uncover any injuries that I could take advantage of. There was nothing, if very little, though. He was built solidly by bands of muscle that pushed against his glistening, chocolate skin, endowed with big paws for hands that could easily break one of my bones, and fixated with dark eyes that made my nerves seer as I flicked my own gaze up to them. He was the perfect machine for the Games and my determination was almost flamed out at the site of the big beast from District Elven—until I spotted a large, ragged slash starting at the bottom of his collarbone and disappearing somewhere beneath his pale brown shirt. It limited the mobility in his right arm.

The twitching of his stiff fingers had told me that I'd needed to focus wholly on him again. Annoyed that I hadn't been able to spend more time figuring out his weaknesses, I'd hissed at him again and squeezed my branch tighter. He'd just roared mutely as his had head bended downward, and then he'd charged me so fast that I'd not been able to do anything but dash to the left. I'd had no time to raise my weapon or get my fingers inside that gurgling wound; he'd been right behind me and I'd had to keep moving.

I could hear his thundering footsteps as he ate up the ground, but I hadn't glanced over my shoulder to gauge the distance that had rested between us. I knew that he was far too large to be able to catch up with my thin, light frame; I had felt a little safer knowing that I could run for miles and he wouldn't have been able to catch me.

Rounding a large tree, I'd perched myself on one side and waited for him. I'd readied my branch again and listened for his loud footfalls. He hadn't been far off, maybe a minute or so, and I knew he wouldn't guess that I was poised and ready, waiting for him to come rumbling by. I'd grinned wickedly before gluing myself tighter to the trees trunk.

It's not long till he'd come charging through the thicket, and I'd taken my opportunity quickly, in fear that he'd get too far ahead for my little plan to work. I'd raised my thick weapon before swinging it. It connected with his back and he'd let out a yowl of pain before falling face first into the dirt. The branch had vibrated and shook in my clutches, and I'd dropped it for a second before gathering the thing back up and heading over to where Elven was gasping. I'd slammed it down once more, this time aiming for the back of his pronounced legs. Again, he'd let out a howl that I'd never heard before.

Once I'd been sure that this mighty boy wouldn't have been able to do anything but grab desperately at where I'd inflicted pain, I'd hauled him over on his back and immediately located the deep wound I'd spied earlier. Without hesitation, I'd dug my fingertips in it. Skin ripped and blood pulsed while I felt the muscles there contract. He'd screamed again but I'd kept going till he wasn't able to make such loud noises anymore.

"Just kill me," he'd gasped out. "Just… End it. Don't torture me."

I'd hissed in his face and dug my fingers in deeper. "Shut the hell up!"

He'd let out a whimper that slipped into my chest and squeezed my heart till it was aching. I'd frowned at this.

During training, they'd told me how to kill and take advantage of the elements, but they'd never prepared me for the feeling you'd get right before you take a life. I tried to remember how I'd felt on the day I'd been reaped, all the hopelessness and pain at the desperate pleading from my family to really try to make it back home to them, but it was blocked by the savage desire to keep myself safe, and in order to do that, I knew that I had to rid this boy of his life.

[i]I don't want to. I[/i] have [i]to[/i], I'd thought.

Snarling, I made to dig my fingers deeper into his wound and hunt around for my stick.

In a split second, he'd raised his head up and had connected it to mine, one, two, three times, till I'd been staggering backwards. I was clutching my forehead as blood trickled through my grasp while Eleven had begun groaning somewhere in front of me.

Then, I'd known I was done for. I thought the burly boy would rip out my throat. My family that had been watching at home would wail at seeing me die in such a way, their hope of me coming home lost in the flames of this evil game.

I'd fallen into a sitting position while I'd attempted to blink in order to clear my bleary vision, and listened over the slight roar that was penetrating my ears as he fought his own wounds. I'd inflicted some serious damage onto the dangerous Tribute from Eleven, maybe enough so that I could drag myself away and hide somewhere till I was sure he'd gone off to nurse himself.

By the time my eyes had cleared just enough so I was able to make out his hunched over figure to the left of me, I knew too much time had passed. We had been out in the open when I'd attacked him and now we were vulnerable to the Gamemakers distorted sense of entertainment and all the other Tributes still roaming around in the arena. I had to move or finish him, before something came after me.

Growling in order to cover up a long, pained groan as I drug myself to stand, I'd whirled around in search for my stick, always checking to make sure Eleven had still been bent over. I'd stumble too much and fallen onto my knees once or twice, but I'd managed to get my fingertips on the scraped up, wooden thing I'd fastened for myself. I was just about to haul it into my hand when my legs were knocked from under me and something had latched onto my ankle.

I'd bitten back a scream and threw myself onto my back. Eleven was on his stomach, trying to drag me underneath him with one of his big paws while his other had clasped a large rock. My heart had begun to stutter erratically in my chest, a thousand different thoughts plagued my brain until a few precious seconds passed and I'd picked one out.

"You should've just killed me, Eight," he'd snarled.

I ignored his jab and instead focused on getting myself out of his squeezing grip.

Raising my free leg just as he'd hauled himself up on his knees, I'd delivered a swift kick into his gut, then scaled my foot up to knock his jaw with the side of my boot. He'd let out a grunt of pain and his hold had slackened. Wriggling myself out from the clutch of his big claw, I'd drawn myself back over to my stick, digging my fingernails into the dirt and grinding my knees against the hard Earth. I'd gotten ahold of it again just as I heard him scraping his feet towards me.

Whirling onto my back, I'd swung the big branch around and almost had it connected with his left side when a cackle of some kind ripped up from the forest that rested to the right of us. My brows had furrowed while my gaze had attempted to search out the creator of that sound. When I'd stretched my gaze over to Eleven, I noticed he'd done the same.

We'd paused our destroying of each other to look for the monster we could hear hissing and breaking the thick forest. When I'd spied it, a surprised gasp fell from my lips.

The glow of lava had sparkled like an overflowing of some fancy jewel, leaving me momentarily dazed while I stared, open mouthed and wide eyed, at the river of molten fire that was eating things up in order to each me quickly. But then, a spine tingling screech had pierced the thundering quiet, and it had sounded much too human to be some kind of animal. Another Tribute had been killed.

I'd scrambled up then, ignoring Eleven after seeing that he wasn't paying me any mind, and hurriedly had begun to run. But I'd had no idea where to go. This hadn't been my territory; it had just been a place that I'd stumbled into on accident.

Gulping, a wheeze of a breath had pulsed up from my chest while I'd searched around for some high piece of ground to save me. The thundering had been growing louder and louder, until I'd felt like it was right on top of me, then Eleven went booming by and as he passed my body, one of his gigantic hands had shot out to grab mine.

A yelp of some kind had left my lips while I'd struggled to get my footing right. Eleven had glowered at me for a moment as a growl rippled out from his lips, but then he was speeding up after his eyes had found something behind me. When I'd glanced over my shoulder, I could see an ocean of lava searing a path straight towards us; it had been going much too fast and the two of us had seemed to be too slow to outrun this sea of flesh-eating fire.

"Where do we go?" I'd yelled.

"A mountain top just around that corner!"

I'd sped up too, threading my fingers through his as the thought as to why he'd saved me was canceled out with the realization that I needed to concentrate on getting away from the fiery stream that had been following closely behind.

We'd ran side by side, gasping and panting, looking over our shoulders to make sure we were about to be taken over.

The mountain top had been made of up grey rock, much like the one Eleven had tried to kill me with, and rested tall, scaling into the invisible clouds. If we could make it about halfway up, then the lava would just gurgle on past.

A breath of relief had raked out of my chest at that realization. [i]We could make it.[/i].

Eleven began climbing as soon as we came to the rocky structure, not waiting for me or checking to make sure I was behind him. I hadn't cared. He'd saved me and that had been more than enough.

It taken us what I'd thought had been minutes to reach the point where I'd knoen we'd be safe and by then, the river of fire had claimed another victim. I'd heard the scream from somewhere near the Cornucopia and had grimaced into the rocky ledge I'd been perched on.

When I was sitting beside Eleven and my breath had returned to my stinging lungs, I'd stretched my legs out before looking over at him. He'd been looking down at what had supposed to have been our deaths.

"Why'd you do it?"

He'd remained staring down at the lava when he'd spoken. "Because someone who fought as hard as you did doesn't deserve to die like that."

His answers stayed with me till now, when I'm curled up on my side with the hood of my black jacket pulled over my head, facing him and clutching my stick. I hadn't shown any emotion then, but now, I bite down on my lip and let my gaze travel over to where his eyes are glittering in the dark. He's looking at me, too.

I don't want him to see me watching him in such a way, but I find that I'm unable to look away. Someone who'd saved me from dying because they respected me was something I hadn't expected to encounter in this Game and I don't really know how to act. I'm confused and panicking because I needed a plan, but his kindness had robbed me of the ability to create one.

A thought, though, one I almost snarl at, pops into my mind and I think that it's the only thing I have that would secure me a fifty-fifty shot of getting away from him without dying.

"For the time being," I start cautiously, my mind taking some time to catch up with my voice. "allies?"

There's a moment of pause in which I mentally scoff at what I've just done and he readjusts himself on the rock we've made our bed on.

"For the time being," he says, his voice a little warmer than I've ever heard.