shenevermisses | 10th Throw

10th Throw - [ voice ]

[Backdated to 4:30 AM, October 25th:

A little over twelve hours have given her time to think.

With everything she knows about this place, the body might be gone by now. But it might not. It's too close to her camp to deny knowledge and be believed.

The lie she told Cato will have to do for everyone.

So, at four-thirty in the morning, after dressing for the draft she was called for, she opens her journal.]

Katniss Everdeen died yesterday.

[The announcement. Now, the lie.]

We were hunting and ran into a pack of wild dogs. We separated. I found her after, but I was too late.

[It only buys her a week. Six days, now, until District Twelve comes back and tells everyone.

But a week's a long time in the Arena. A week will help.]

I'm leaving with the others for the draft soon, but I wanted to tell everyone first.

[Back to battle and bloodshed.

Where everything will make sense.]

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[ The name doesn't mean much to Lightning - she doesn't connect it with the young woman who scoffed at the idea of keeping pets who weren't inherently useful. However, in a slight stroke of irony... ]

Wild dogs...?

[ Her voice has a slight hint of question to it, but only just. ]

In the forest.

[She's seen every kind of prey animal at least once, and a place doesn't have prey without having predators to hunt them. Maybe she hasn't run into some kind of wild dog, but the odds are extremely good that there's something out there.]

You're sure they were dogs?

[ She doesn't necessarily think that Clove is lying, but-- she also knows there aren't any wild dogs in Luceti's woods, too. So then, what killed this girl's friend...? ]

Something tore her up. It sounded like dogs, but...

I don't know. I didn't what it was.

Just know it was something. We both ran different ways, and I found her later. Bloody, flesh ripped.

...Whatever did it was brutal.

I see...

[ That's troubling then, to say the least. Caused by a resident of some sort? Or... who knows; it's bad news any way you try to turn it.

After a beat- ]

Have you ever run into Moro?

[To Clove, it makes full sense that there are wild dogs or big cats or something in those woods.

The prey population is controlled, they do not overrun the woods, and she and Twelve are not that prolific of hunters. To control that, there must be predators.]

I've heard of it, yes. Never encountered it.

I think that she would be interested in this, if she doesn't already know of it.

[ There's a distracted lilt to her voice, as if she's more than a little more in touch with her thoughts than the conversation at hand.

Of course, her own encounters with the being weren't very ... positive, but the idea of speaking to her seems more interesting now than it had before she went home briefly and became rather divine herself.... ]

I don't know if she does.

[And Clove, really, doesn't care.

The truth will come out when Katniss returns. She doesn't know what will happen to her then, but, for now, this lie will keep her safe.]

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