Twisted Minds (Rick)

[Rick Freedom]

----RICK FREEDOM----

He blinks. Someone's dead? Already? Mr Scientist really wasn't playing around-- people are going to die in here. And there's nothing Rick can do about it. These people have the memories of those trained all their lives to wind up here in this arena, to fight to the death, like Roman Gladiators.

Rick adjusts his grip on the wheel, fighting to keep his expression even. People die-- it's a fact of life. But people-- kids, really-- shouldn't have to murder other kids just to stay alive. It's wrong.

"Lin! Kanna!" he yells, twisting halfway around to look toward the hatch leading down below.

-----KANNA-----

Without really thinking, she reaches out and grabs a scrap of paper. She runs her fingers over the smooth surface, then snags a quill and a pot of ink from the desk.

After dipping the quill in the ink (blue), she writes, all caps, in her scrawling hand--

District One Boy
District One Girl
District Two Boy
District Two Girl
District Three Boy
District Three Girl
District Four Boy
District Four Girl
District Five Boy
District Five Girl
District Six Boy
District Six Girl
District Seven Boy
District Seven Girl
District Eight Boy
District Eight Girl
District Nine Boy
District Nine Girl
District Ten Boy
District Ten Girl
District Eleven Boy
District Eleven Girl
District Twelve Boy
District Twelve Girl

When she reaches the boy from Five, she draws a shaky line through his name-- dead.

Kanna is a list-maker-- it's what she does. It was her job, actually. At the factory, she was in Inventory. Just one of the lackeys, but she made lists of everything in the factory. They were incredibly thorough. Nothing was left unaccounted for.

She looks up as Lin holds the map in front of her, and is unable to stop a grin from spreading across her face. Perfect.

"Karma indeed…"

Lin! Kanna!

[Lin Heiwa]

BRIAR.
catch
me
if
you
can~
-smilie face-

Finally. They were going to do something. Sure, less than half-a-minute ago—she’d have been fine to simply sit there and make conversation—pretend like nothing was going to happen—but someone had died, that changed the matters entirely. She could never think of this as normal again—it was a time for action.

But until then—it was time to move around or drum her fingers or do… do something. So, like the person she was, Briar slipped backwards a step and onto a hanging rope that was tethered to keep the mast in place. It wasn’t going anywhere—so neither would she. So as Lin and Kanna walked, ran, whatever over (she wasn’t really looking), Brize made room in the rather small steering… area, (what was it called) by slipping up the rope two feet and sitting on a knot.

Lin Heiwa.
at times i wondered
if i had not come
a long way
to find what i sought
was something that i
left behind.

Lin! Kanna! Lin sighed slightly. Just as things were getting interesting—there could be all sorts of things down here that she hasn’t discovered. At least, (she thinks) they’ve found water. In a rather large storage room, there were piles of food and stuff as she had walked past to the end of the hall—so she was again assuming that those large barrels were filled with water. Hopefully not rum.

Lin snapped the scroll shut, slipping the ends into her rather large pocket (the one without the knife) and it fit rather easily—the tip of the copper scroll barely peeking out. Giving a meaningful glance to Kanna, Lin slipped through the doors and up the ladder—skittering her way across the wooden planks and over to the spot where Rick was standing and Briar was hanging.

“Yes?”

OCC:

[Rick Freedom]

----RICK FREEDOM----

Rick lets go of the wheel and rests his elbow on top of it as the two girls appear from the belly of the ship.

"We need a plan." he says. "I've already started on one while Briar here was oh-so-kindly filling me in on the rules of this fight, but there's not much to it."

Oh course he has a plan! He always has a plan. Usually. Sometimes. Okay, rarely. But this time he knows what to do! Since Lin's not the one that's going to keep him from killing himself, he has to look out for all four of them. He doesn't know how well Briar and Kanna can defend themselves, and he's not too keen to just throw them into a fight and let them fend for themselves.

"We should try to stay out of the way for most of the battle, on our own island if we can. Let the fight come to us. What did you find down below?"

-----KANNA-----

The blonde folds her scrap of paper into quarters and slides it into her pouch, letting it rest safely among the few gold coins she'd managed to collect.

Without a word, she turns and follows Lin up the steps. When she's barely out into the open, the boy starts to talk. He says they need a plan, and Kanna silently nods her assent. And then his plan. She looks at Lin, for some reason trusting her more than the boy.

[Lin Heiwa]

BRIAR.
catch
me
if
you
can~
-smilie face-

So Rick had been starting a plan while she was explaining the rules. How nice of him. Briar rolled her eyes faintly, but didn’t really care none-the-less. She was used to people ignoring her. The girl’s own job back in District Six involved being an assistant to a famous capitol Stylist. Why was he there? Well, District Six was located on the largest mountain range in the entire country of Panem—and also conveniently possessed the greatest views and range of stars in Panem (and in Briar’s opinion, the entire world). He was ’inspired’ by the stars, and all his famous clothing designs possessed some sort of astronomical reference. So, Briar’s job was to lug around all his equipment, nod and smile when he said something—and climb up the sheer mountain cliff at any moment of the day that the stylist felt a ‘muse’ coming on.

So, while Briar might now be able to point out any constellation and climb a mountain with her eyes closed—she was pretty much used to being ignored. The Hunger Games weren’t the most interesting topic once you got past the horror, anyways.

“Shouldn’t we try to stop the others instead of just standing back?” Briar blurted out suddenly, not even realizing she had been the one to say it. Then, by the odd looks she was receiving from Lin and Kanna (and possibly Rick, she wasn’t looking) the girl figured it out. Where the heck did that come from? This was the Hunger Games for god’s sake. Stop them from doing what, exactly? Briar ducked her head, shadows from the eerily large sun blocking the flush that instantly appeared. Well, that was stupid. What did that even mean?

In reality, it was probably something the girl would’ve said if she still had her memories. Try to save the others. This was probably going to be a common mistake on M.C’s part. You can add new memories, and suppress the old ones—but the old one’s are still there, just hidden.

So when a tribute isn’t thinking, and working on instinct—something might slip through, a memory, a thought, something that the person might say. It could happen at any time, in a dream; in a moment of adrenaline—in fever; a moment without thought (like right now)—in déjà vu, and in death (that won’t make sense until later, though.) And there was nothing M.C. could do to stop it. He wasn’t invincible.

Theoretically, the way M.C. thought about it—when he created new memories and suppressed the old ones—he built a mental dam. There’s always stuff that will get through, like drops of water from the top of the dam. Habits, instincts, personality, and stuff like that. If someone started pounding on that wall in it’s weakest moments, such as a fever when the mind slips between reality and fantasy, or a dream—it will come down. But the problem is, is that the dams that M.C builds are very, very strong. It’d take an incredibly strong person, or moment, to bring that dam down.

And the author was rambling—but she felt that now might be a good time to explain and get that stuff out of the way, as well as add

If enough of these moments happened in a row, just like a crumbling dam the memories will return like a sudden wall of water and envelope the person standing

“Er, finding an island sounds good.”

Lin Heiwa.
at times i wondered
if i had not come
a long way
to find what i sought
was something that i
left behind.

Lin exchanges a glance with Kanna. She was hesitant about giving up the map they had found. It was an awesome prize—and one, if this kid wasn’t as friendly as he made himself out to be, would not be good to share with the other tributes of the arena. But despite her better judgment, Lin decides to trust him and reaches into her pocket to retrieve the map and holds it up in the air. “Well, to find an island—a map might be useful.”

Then Briar says something—and Lin had it on the tip of her tongue to agree—before she realized how ridiculous that was. Judging by Briar’s expression, the girl had figured it out too. Stop the tributes from what, exactly? Lin couldn’t stop the confusion that flickered through her eyes, before giving Briar an odd look. Instead of asking her what she meant, (subconsciously knowing that Briar wouldn’t know either), Lin shook her head and snapped open the map, laying it down on the closest barrel.

“Finding an island would be good—” Lin began, talking as she smoothed the paper down flat. “We should probably find an isolated island, one not near to the other ones—or one that scream trap. We should probably find an island with the least amount of people on it too—and one with fresh water. This one,” Lin pointed to the largest map on the island, “is titled mainland, and shows a small town. It screams careers, so we should probably get away from there.”

She went along to point out a few more. One with a particularly large mountain, an eerie perfect circle island, a bunch of smaller islands—the 2nd largest island with a lagoon in the middle. “This one here,” she said, pointing to the latter—“will have few other tributes on it—but has the best source of water, and is likely to hold one of the three cornucopias. Tribute’s will avoid it, because of the more ideal islands over here—smaller, and less likely to be explored. The big island is our best shot.”

[Rick Freedom]

----RICK FREEDOM----

He looks over at Briar, as her sudden (seemingly uncharacteristic) outburst pours from her mouth. The girl didn't strike him as one who would be willing to go out and be a peace-maker-- she was raised to kill, after all-- but at the same time, that raised-to-kill-Briar isn't really Briar. Maybe the girl before the Games would have been one to go out and discover the hidden memories.

If they weren't all trapped in this mind game, he would have loved to recruit the younger girls to the Freedom Fighters. They seem smart, though (with a glance over at Kanna, who looks a bit ill) he's not sure how they'll react under pressure.

"Briar, while I agree that trying to stop the madness of Mr Sci--… erm, the Hunger Games would be the best thing to do, my main priority is keeping us alive. From what I've heard, most of the 'careers' will want to kill as many people as possible. I'm not saying we let 'em kill whoever they want, but we don't have much of a choice if we want to live."

Rick looks over at Lin as she reveals her map-- at'a girl! That's the Lin he knows. He grins.

"Good! Very good." The boy walks over to the map, looks at the island that Lin referred to. There doesn't seem to be much of a way up-- it's mostly cliffs-- but there is a small inlet on the opposite side of the mountain. Maybe…

"Kanna-- can you get the boat up onto the island?"

-----KANNA-----

Her eyes had been closed for most of the talking-- she prefers silence and action, most of the time. This planning stuff isn't her forte, which is why she'd rather just go along with whatever the others come up with.

That's not to say she was just standing idly by! No, she was doing exactly what Lin had suggested before she had heard the boy die-- finding the other tributes. And she had spied on them a bit, too.

Kanna pulls the quill, ink, and tribute list from her bag, and makes a few notes on it. When she's finished, it looks like this--

*District One Boy
~District One Girl
~District Two Boy
~District Two Girl
||District Three Boy
*District Three Girl
~District Four Boy
~District Four Girl
District Five Boy
||District Five Girl
/\District Six Boy
*District Six Girl
#District Seven Boy
||District Seven Girl
||District Eight Boy
#District Eight Girl
/\District Nine Boy
*District Nine Girl
/\District Ten Boy
#District Ten Girl
~District Eleven Boy
#District Eleven Girl
/\District Twelve Boy
||District Twelve Girl

Alliances. The asterisks are them, and the squiggles are the careers.

She looks up suddenly as the boy asks her a question. Can she move the boat? Onto the island? It wouldn't be easy-- four people, a whole boat, who knows how many supplies… But it's not like she hadn't moved equipment around the factory…

"I, uh, I th-think so…"

[Lin Heiwa]

BRIAR.
catch
me
if
you
can~
-smilie face-

Can she do that? Briar looked over in a somewhat shocked manner at the other younger girl as she nodded assent. There were limits to everyone’s power; Briar knew that full and well. Superhuman Agility doesn’t make you super strong, or superfast—a lesson the girl had learned the hard way. Now Kanna had a different power entirely—mind reading and telekinesis. What were the limits of that? Someone in District Six had a similar power, but they could barely lift a book across the room.

Then again, no two powers were the same. They all had their different limitations and quirks. Could Kanna lift the entire boat and four people onto a sheer cliff? If the girl Briar had known in District Six had been asked—the Sixie would have died laughing no. But the simple fact that Kanna had said yes—that suggested…

“Do you want us to get out while you lift the boat?” Briar asked uncomfortably, reluctantly drawn out of her silence. Every bit might help, you never know. The cliff-face didn’t look too challenging—and compared to lifting a boat, an individual person would probably be much easier.

Lin Heiwa.
at times i wondered
if i had not come
a long way
to find what i sought
was something that i
left behind.

“Lift the entire boat up there?”

Lin had certainly thought about the pros and cons of keeping in the boat. Docking the boat by the island would certainly scream to the careers, ‘free tributes!’, but staying inside the boat had it’s pros and cons too. Abandoning it would give them more cover, but they’d have to give up beds, food—and who knows what else on the boat.

This may be the best option. If you lifted the boat onto the water up there, it’d attract less attention then simply docking around the islands. Plus, you’d get to keep the food and supplies.

“I can help for a while,” Lin offered, thinking about the best ways to lift the boat up on the water. Maybe for a few yards up, on a particularly big wave—would give some momentum too. All of a sudden, realized that while the other tributes might know her name from the interview—they probably shouldn’t, or couldn’t, possibly know what her own ability was. “…I, um, do water-manipulation.”

[Rick Freedom]

----RICK FREEDOM----

He's never been one to let people use their powers in little ways-- go big or go home! Push yourself to the limit. What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, ya know.

Rick turns back to the wheel and gives it a slight twist, turning the boat so that the starboard side is right next to the island, then drops the sail by unwrapping a rope from the mast.

The boat had been moving quite quickly-- while they were talking, it had come almost level with the island, and now the wooden hull is only a couple of yards away from the rocky cliffs of the island.

And after Kanna speaks, he nods and leaps onto the cliff, quickly scaling it until he's about twenty feet above the water.

---KANNA WILLIAMS---

"I know you do." she says softly. "And all the help would be good, Lin. If you guys wouldn't mind getting out, just for a moment, it would be much appreciated."

She waits a moment to give the others time to get off the boat, then closes her eyes and splays her fingers out on the side of the boat. (For some reason, being in physical contact with the thing she's trying to move helps.)

Taking a deep breath, she begins.

Pull. Don't yank-- just a slow, steady pull. Up and out. Small nudges from the bottom.

The boat starts to rise. Slowly, ever so slowly.

Imagine a string from the top of the object, going up into space. And at the top of that string, is you.

Her jaw clenches tight. The boat is heavy, heavier than anything she's ever moved. And now there's the added pressure of dropping the boat and watching all the supplies go under the water.

Breathe. In, out, in out. Deep breaths. Focus on your heartbeat

The bottom of the hull clears the top of the water. Now there's nothing holding the great hunk of wood suspended but Kanna's willpower.

Relax. Pull the string. Don't rush.

Halfway up the side of the cliff now. Beads of sweat pop up on her forehead. Her whole body is tensed to the point of snapping.

Easy. You can do this. You're halfway there.

Her fingers curl, short, bitten-off nails digging into the wood.

You can do this, Kanna Williams. I'm trying.

[/i]

The boat lurches, almost falling from the girl's frail grasp.

Pull the string. Nice and easy. Imagine the place of peace and tranquility. Please. Be quiet. I need the quiet, Mr Markswell.[/i]

Mr Markswell? Who's Mr Markswell? Her teacher? No. She doesn't have a teacher…

You're almost at the top. Just a few more yards.

The boat floats over the top of the cliff. She leans it up against a boulder and opens her eyes. The girl, shaking, vaults over the side of the boat and shuffles over to the side of the cliff. She looks down at the other three and holds up two thumbs.[/blockquote][/blockquote][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Lin Heiwa]

BRIAR.
catch
me
if
you
can~
-smilie face-

After Rick and Lin jump off, Briar follows without thinking. Halfway into the air—Oh, crap. You see, there weren’t many places to swim in District Six—so, no one had really learned how to swim. It was an extra—not a necessity for the science district.

Surprisingly, as soon as her feet hit the water—Briar felt strangely at home. She relaxed and swam slightly away from the boat’s edge and over to the rock wall—kicking in a way that should’ve felt weird, but was actually pretty efficient. Interesting. Did swimming lore come with her powers? That made no sense—and Briar began to freak out, only slightly—sinking a bit. Luckily, she was close to the wall and Briar managed to grab on before her overthinking brain totally closed over an instinct that you never really forget how to do.

Hmm. Let’s never do that again.

Briar scaled the wall, finally, something she was actually comfortable with. By the time she was halfway up the wall, Briar let go of the wall with one arm and swung around. The free arm cascaded her face from the harsh sunlight—and Briar had to squint before she could make out the slowly rising ship. The hull creaked and groaned—water pouring off the sides to reveal age-old-algae—but it was holding and Kanna was lifting the boat a hundred feet into the air.

That was pretty dang cool in Briar’s opinion.

Lin Heiwa.
at times i wondered
if i had not come
a long way
to find what i sought
was something that i
left behind.

Lin jumped out of the boat following Rick. She knew how to swim. Not well, but she knew how. District Nine is the district of the hunters. The peacekeepers that collected their poundage of meat every day didn’t care what type of meat was brought in—as long as it was edible.

So spear fishing? Lin had done it once or twice. But doing so also required you to get wet every once in a while. Plus, there was something about being a water-manipulator that helps with the whole swimming factor.

Once Lin reached the rock wall, and climbed up a little of it—Lin turned to help as much as she could. She attempted to get the waves moving a little more. Trying to get them to gain height under the boat’s bow and lift it up slightly. It didn’t work too well, she wasn’t in the best position to move both her arms—but the wave’s height definitely increased. After Kanna had raised the boat out of the water by a significant height—Lin put all her concentration onto (in a sense) drying the boat. Water was heavy; Kanna didn’t need to lift wet wood.

So water poured off the boat’s surface until nothing more could be done—and Lin climbed up the rest of the wall’s surface to see the large boat a hundred feet in the air with a beaming girl standing beside it.

Lin grinned back.

[Rick Freedom]

----RICK FREEDOM----

He watches the boat rise, but focuses more on the small, fragile-looking girl doing the raising. Her face is twisted in concentration, and she looks like she's using every available bit of her strength, but she's lifting a boat! She's really lifting a boat!

Rick pulls himself up the wall at the same speed as the boat, keeping his eyes (when he's not looking for hand- and foot-holds) trained on Kanna. She's determined-- he'll give her that. At one point, it looks like the boat's going to fall, but it just keeps going up.

When the boat clears the top of the cliff, he pulls himself over the lip and walks over to the girl, who hops out of the ship looking like she's going to fall over right then and there. He grins at her.

---KANNA WILLIAMS---

I did it.

I knew you could.

[/b]

She can't help but laugh-- both from sheer relief, and the thought that pops into her head.

"There's a man inside my head." she says, feeling like she's going to pass out from exhaustion, but also like she could run a marathon. "There's a man inside my head and he's talking to me and I don't know who he is but he's named Mr Markswell." she says, still beaming like an idiot.

Kanna leans back against the hull of the ship, running her fingers back through her hair, and lets her head drop back onto the wood with a smack that sounds like it should hurt, but doesn't, really. Not much.[/blockquote][/blockquote][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Lin Heiwa]

BRIAR.
catch
me
if
you
can~
-smilie face-

It was hard not to beam back. It was an awesome sight—to see something float, fly—something that normally would never leave the ground. And the fact that it all came from a girl that stared level eyed back at her—that was even more amazing.

And then the girl says something about a voice in her head called Mr. Markswell—and Briar laughs at the statement, looking almost sternly (but not really, she was too pumped for) at the other girl, “You should probably sit down before you pass out.” And even still, staring at Kanna and at her beaming face, and at her shaking arms—the Markswell name sounded familiar. Kanna had mentioned it to her before—no, wait—that couldn’t be it, she hadn’t even known Kanna before last week.

"Now what?" Briar asks, still somewhat giddy from the sheer exhilaration of watching Kanna lift the boat.

Lin Heiwa.
at times i wondered
if i had not come
a long way
to find what i sought
was something that i
left behind.

Markswell.

Lin's smile flickered off her face-- and before she knew what she was doing, the girl had shot a quick glance over at Rick--he would know, he would react--and studied his face carefully. Kanna said something was wrong with his thoughts-- that he had memories that didn't match the world they lived in. Was that why he was acting like he had known her?

If Kanna was hearing a man's voice in her head-- then somehow Lin knew that Rick was somehow attached to it. Or maybe Kanna really was about to pass out. Lin shot another glance in the other girl's direction, slightly worried and confused.

[Rick Freedom]

---KANNA WILLIAMS---

Kanna slides down the side of the boat, her knees pulled up to her chest. She turns her head to look over at Rick, pouting slightly.

"But I'm not crazy, 'cuz you know him too, Rick Thorton-Freedom." she says, hyphenating his birth last name and the name he chose for himself. "He's like your dad, but then he's not, because you left him, and because your real mom and dad left you, because you can do the red light."

Kanna really needs to sleep. Doing that much telekinesis really puts a strain on her. Which, coincidentally, is exactly what she needs to be Kanna Williams again, and not the District Three girl tribute. A moment of weakness. A moment when her mind is so vulnerable that the memory dam would break.

"Mr Markswell still loves you, Rick." she says softly, eyelids feeling very heavy. She closes her eyes. "He talks about you all the time. Not just in my head, either. He talks about you in the school all the time. He still has your picture on his desk. He's always looking out for you…" Her words are slurred, but still recognizable.

Her eyes fly open. She's suddenly very awake. "Oh my god! The school! Mr Markswell! BRIAR!"

The dam is broken. Kanna knows. She pushes quickly to her feet, ignoring the familiar starts swimming in her vision as she does so. "Ohmygodohmygodohmygod. This isn't real. None of this is real. It's all a dream. It's got to be some weird dream. I'm going to wake up any second now. Come on, alarm clock. It's your time to shine."

Pause.

"Why am I not waking up?!" Her eyes fill with tears against her will. "Why am I still here?"

----RICK FREEDOM----

He watches Kanna carefully, though he meets Lin's eyes for a moment. Will the name spark a chain reaction, unlocking the memories of the three girls?

She talks about Markswell, and he feels slightly guilty for a second. Markswell still cares about him, and he just left… But he had to, right? There wasn't any other choice.

He takes the few steps over to the girl as her outburst breaks through her mumblings. He places a hand on her shoulder.

"Sorry, sweetheart. This is all too real. The game maker, he was part of an organization called the MCA. They're back in the real world, and they thought they killed him. But he's back, and he's making all this happen. That boy? He's really dead. None of the people here are actually from the districts. Panem doesn't exist."

[Lin Heiwa]

BRIAR.
catch
me
if
you
can~
-smilie face-

Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, Briar gave Kanna a super long and strange look. This was exactly what Rick was saying before—or at least what he was implying. She was half considering running off into the woods screaming and going solo—but that wasn’t the type of person Briar was. She needed human companionship in tough situations. So, instead of running off into the unknown and hoping to not get killed or infected with whatever crazy disease was getting to Rick and Kanna-- Briar uncomfortably took several steps back and crossed her arms, curls flapping in the breeze.

The sun was setting, casting an eerie red glow over the four people on the cliff. The white mast of the boat was a pale red—and Briar uncomfortably stared at Kanna as her pale skin turned like red blood in the light. The Hunger Games. Was Rick who he said he was? Did anything make sense? Were people already going crazy?

Lin Heiwa.
at times i wondered
if i had not come
a long way
to find what i sought
was something that i
left behind.

Lin was more concerned with the fact that Kanna was about to fall over, than a half-crazed story about none of this being real. Sure, it bothered her immensely—the way that Rick stared at her, and how Kanna seemed so convinced that everything was fake.

The older girl stepped forward quickly, placing an arm on Kanna’s shoulder. Crazy, or telling the truth—she needed to sit down and stop swaying like that before she passed out, (whether it was from the sudden memory restoration, the lighting, or just the previous task in general—the younger girl did not look well). Pretty much ignoring Rick in her own concern, Lin quickly and quietly said, “Hey, relax. You can tell us everything—”

Wha—crap.

[Rick Freedom]

----RICK FREEDOM----

He watches, silently, moving back a few paces. In retrospect, he probably should have waited until the young girl was a bit more rested to go and spill everything about Panem and the real world to her.

In fact, he's about to say 'psyche!'. And then a knife imbeds itself into the hull of the ship, three feet from his head.

Immediately, he twirls around, hands glowing red. No one seems to be around to have thrown the knife. "Lin, Briar, Kanna. Run." he hisses.

---KANNA WILLIAMS---

Briar takes a step back. She can't help but feel a bit betrayed, even though she knows she sounds like a crazy person.

A few tears leak from her eyes, which she quickly wipes away. No one sees her cry-- no one. Ever. Her own mother hadn't even seen her as much as sniffle in years. And now weakness, in front of these strangers? Even Briar, one of her best friends, isn't really Briar right now.

And then the knife. She whirls around, only to be told to run. But her feet won't move. It feels like they're encased in concrete. She whimpers.

[Lin Heiwa]

BRIAR.
catch
me
if
you
can~
-smilie face-

The knife wavers back and forth in the wood, making a full wanging sound that she’d never heard before. In fact, it’s almost so absurd how dramatized and exaggerated everything in this arena is that Briar almost laughs aloud. The sky, too red with a dramatic sunset—the ship, too fairy-tale—this was so typical.

But then life caught up with her, and the adrenaline started pounding through her head. She didn’t know how to fight—Briar hadn’t even shoved someone before (besides friends and siblings in playfulness, but that didn’t count. AT. ALL.) and was pretty much ready to bolt. Flight, not fight was her motto—and in this case, someone was asking her to get the heck out of the way.

But where to run?

Lin wasn’t going anywhere- instead drawing out the knife in a much more intimidating way then before in the elevator and giving Rick an exasperated look as if insulted by the order—and neither was Kanna (but the reason seemed to be totally different).

So, almost rolling her eyes from the sheer annoyance of having to make this incredibly hard decision on her own (yeah, she was strange like that)—Briar darted forward grabbed Kanna by the shoulders and half dragged, half ran—both of them into the trees where she prayed to god was not where the assailants were hiding. Let the people with the fighting powers handle this—and stay out of the way.

Plus, Briar was pretty sure she could snap someone’s neck if she jumped ontop of them just right from a tree.

Lin Heiwa.
at times i wondered
if i had not come
a long way
to find what i sought
was something that i
left behind.

Like Briar had oh-so-kindly-explained—Lin wasn’t goin anywhere. Uh-uh, no-way, zip-nada—it wasn’t the person she was to abandon. If a fight as coming, she’d rather face it head on then leave someone else to fend for themselves. Even if that person was a huge threat and likely insane—but whatever, details, details.

Lin drew her gold knife, it feeling much more comfortable in her hand then before (now that she was running on instinct and adrenaline)—and was confident enough to hold it in one hand and give Rick a roll of her eyes in her spare time. Really, did he think that she was just going to ditch him in the middle of a battle—?

A knife whizzed by Lin’s head and she instantly retaliated with her own—the flash of gold buzzing in the general direction of where the original knife had come from. An inhuman scream of pain soon followed. It’s shriek was so high and loud and obviously not normal that Lin’s brain snapped and she dropped the knifes she had collected from the wooden side of the boat and covered her ears with furiously closed eyes.

Okay, so they were either dealing with a mutt, or a tribute with a mad knife-throwing skills and a scream that could render you numb. No cannon sounded, (not that Lin could hear it through the ringing, but she certainly would’ve felt it) so it was either injured or a mutt. THIS WASNT AN IDEAL SITUATION.

Half-blindly, eyes still closed from the sheer pain of the scream—Lin reared back and drew all the remaining water out of the wood from the ship. With alight eyes Lin threw the water with all the force she could muster—the water evaporating into needles of ice.

[Rick Freedom]

---KANNA WILLIAMS---

Still numb, she allows herself to be almost dragged across the clearing. Oh course, she tries to help, but she never really was exactly athletic, and Briar has superhuman… Stuff!

Mr Markswell? Are you still here? She calls out mentally, realizing that the man inside her head really was her teacher-- her teacher of mind-stuff. But he's silent, in a time when she really could use some answers from the man who always knows what to do. Mr Markswell? Please… I don't know what to do.

They enter a small wood. Without really thinking about it, she latches onto a low branch and swings herself up into the tree. Though she's not the most agile or nimble (she almost falls numerous times), she makes it to a pretty good distance above the ground without falling. And then she makes the mistake of looking down.

Oh. That's a long way to the ground. (In reality, it's only about twenty-five feet, but Kanna's not the bravest person ever.) She wraps her arms around the trunk and her feet around a branch, holding on with a death grip.

----RICK FREEDOM----

He makes a sort of growly, annoyed noise in the back of his throat. Will she ever listen to him? Not that the real Lin would have run off either, but that's beside the point.

At least Briar (dragging Kanna) had followed his instructions, and luckily had run away from where the knife had come from.

He bounces on his toes, quickly canceling the sound waves around his head as the unearthly scream echoes through the air. Even with only a few seconds of hearing the noise, his ears are ringing and his head pounds. Who knows what Lin must be feeling!

The red light around his hands intensifies, but he doesn't fire anything yet-- he doesn't know where to shoot! Without a target, he might as well be saying 'I'm here! Come and kill me!'

[Lin Heiwa]

BRIAR.
catch
me
if
you
can~
-smilie face-

Briar follows Kanna up the tree in seconds flat, quietly urging the girl in front of her to go faster. Kanna wasn’t exactly going slow, but everyone was slow in Briar’s opinion in a tree. Trees were her specialty. Being superhuman was a huge help on that matter also.

The first scream then comes and Briar almost falls from the tree in an attempt to cover her ears. It was incredibly painful—who, or what, could make that kind of sound? The girl restrained herself from scratching at her ears in a frenzy, this wasn’t sooooo uncool. Unfair, really. Her ears started to bleed slightly, sensitive to the sound due to her powers. With a slight groan, Briar ran forward along the branch—wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

Then she jumps to the next tree, head still ringing, branches quivering under her lightweight—eyes flashing with annoyance and pain. She was utterly determined to get as far away from the sound as possible—and Briar gave a pained glance over her shoulder to coax her ally across the branches and into the next tree. They had to keep moving.

“C’mon—it’s not that far of a jump—”

And then the second scream causes violent spots to shoot across Briar’s vision.

The girl lost her hold on the branches, knees going weak and slipping off the wood. Briar’s eyes widen, and her hands flail as to grab branches on the way down. Nothing works, and Briar hits hard on the pine-nettle littered floor—all the breath knocked out of her. Not hurt, other than her pride and her ears—but this was really going to be a major ego problem later on.

Luckily, she wasn’t going to have to think about that.

Lin Heiwa.
at times i wondered
if i had not come
a long way
to find what i sought
was something that i
left behind.

Another scream.

Lin ducked her head and bent over, hands clutching her head. God, this was really going to be a problem. Head ringing, Lin half expected their enemy to burst out of the brush and finish them off. But instead, nothing happened.

There was a full minute of silence. The only sound seemed to be the breathing of the two humans standing side by side in the middle of the open clearing while their enemy didn’t make a single rustle in their bushes. Lin, utterly annoyed that her attacks did nothing but seemingly hurt herself—

WHOOSH.

An arrow shot out of nowhere. Lin expected the end.

Instead, she found her shirt’s shoulder cloth pinned to the boat’s wood.

[Rick Freedom]

KANNA WILLIAMS
and she said what became
of my promised fame
all I got was shame
and she said we're all to blame

She clamps her hands over her ears. Owwww. That hurt. When the noise stops, she lets go of her pounding head and wraps her arms back around the rough trunk. The stars are back in her vision, and she can feel the blood pumping through her veins. She shakes her head to clear her sight, but it only makes it worse.

And then another scream. This one's worse than the first. She clamps her hands firmly over her ears once more, feeling sick to her stomach.

She glances over at Briar in her tree, only to find rustling leaves. Kanna looks down.

"Briar!" she squeaks, watching the slightly older girl tumble through the air. And then, without really paying attention to what she's doing, she finds herself swinging down through the branches, almost monkey-like. When she gets to the bottom, she drops heavily and skids on her knees toward her friend.

She'd always been a bit motherly-- not in the 'do your homework!' way (mostly), but in the same way a mother cat cares for her kittens. Of course, it helped that she's fascinated with all things herbal remedy (and poison… hehe). But even so, she's not a doctor. If Briar's really hurt, she doesn't know what she can do.

"Are you alright?"

RICK FREEDOM
i used to be old
but now i feel young
'cuz i was a boy
when i learned
how to run

He quickly tugs the arrow from Lin's shoulder, not caring if she needed the help or not. He wants to know what he's up against!

He touches the tip of the arrow with the pad of his finger, then licks his finger. Ug. Poison.

The weapon itself is quite beautifully crafted-- bright blue feather for the fletchings, and the shaft has intricate carvings winding around it. The head is stone. He can only image what's throwing the arrows-- and knives.

[Lin Heiwa]

BRIAR.
catch
me
if
you
can~
-smilie face-

“I’m… fine…” Briar huffed, still on the forest floor. She half flopped like a fish, trying to sit up—but gave up. You know when you fall hard on your back? Like someone’s just sucker-punched you in the stomach a few times, then pushed you over for good measure? That sour pain in the back of your throat, and lungs completely empty?

Yeah, that was a neutral feeling at the moment. Briar probably would’ve been worse off if she hadn’t been flailing like that while falling—or her bones weren’t so bendy—but she was made for jumping from great heights. Well, falling was technically jumping—just with a pretty bad landing, and a bunch of flailing and panic.

One deep breath.

Briar sat up, rubbing the back of her head with an extremely annoyed look in her eye. Her curly blond hair was covered in pine-nettles, and Briar smoothed her hair down without even realizing that they were there (or just not caring). She was more concerned at the moment with getting out of the range of whatever was making those sounds before she died from sheer insanity on the matter.

No more tree climbing until said task was accomplished.

Briar stood up, marching forward. Giving a glance over her shoulder at Kanna. The more they stayed still, the more embarrassment Briar felt about falling in the first place (but ya’ know? The author needed it to add it so this next event could be, so TOO BAD, BRIAR).

“Let’s go. The further we are,” The girl said, blue eyes flashing with half-annoyance at herself, and half-exasperation. She turns her head right side up, turning oh-so-causally to face the front, to move forward—

But instead of empty-space, and trees to light the way—Briar found herself staring down a stone-pointed arrow an inch away from piecing her forehead.

Lin Heiwa.
at times i wondered
if i had not come
a long way
to find what i sought
was something that i
left behind.

Lin was already reaching for the arrow, but by the time Rick had grabbed it and yanked it out of the wood. Annoyed, the girl shot him a slight glare—but was more concentrating on the fact that someone was shooting at them, and unless they had really bad aim—they weren’t shooting to kill.

Then Rick did the most stupid thing Lin had seen yet. Before she could even think about stopping him, Rick had extended a hand and rubbed a the slightly shiny surface of the rock arrow. And then he licked it. And by the look of disgust on his face—Lin’s eyes widened until she thought they were going to explode. Was he insane?!

Likewise, she repeated her thoughts, “Are you insane?!” She hissed in extreme fear for his own well-being. The girl lashed out an arm and snatched the arrow from his grasp snapping it in half with both hands. It was sturdy, and she almost couldn’t do it—but the sheer idioticy of Rick’s move gave her a raged strength. Did he not know that everything in this arena was designed to kill him? That even the smallest amount of poison could kill him? That it could send him loopy, or unconscious within seconds?

‘This old Rick was going to need a little help, wasn’t he?’

Lin pushed him off to the side, half out of sheer anger at this incredibly stupid move, and half out of fear of getting shot at. She backed him into a wall, and very, very, carefully studied his face. Basically, by his reaction in the next thirty seconds, Lin was ready and willing to make him force the liquids back up by the way that all water-manipulators can do.

[Rick Freedom]

KANNA WILLIAMS

and she said what became
of my promised fame
all I got was shame
and she said we're all to blame

[/right]

She holds a hand tentatively out, wanting to help Briar up, but also not quite sure how she would react. So, instead of doing anything helpful, or meaningful, she just kinda holds her hand there, suspended in midair.

And then, to her great relief, Briar sits up. She still looks bit shaky, but, hey. The girl's tough-- she can make it.

At least they're out of the trees. without having (in her mind, at least) to come down and play nurse, then she probably would have remained latched around that tree for the rest of the Games.

Kanna pushes to her feet and dusts off her pants, wrinkling her nose at the feel of the polyester under her hands. She has a sort of thing for such fake fabrics-- if she could get through life in just jeans and cotton t-shirts for the rest of her life, she would. Besides-- the thin fabric offers virtually no protection.

She turns to follow Briar, noticing the arrow, but her reaction's not good enough to say anything.

RICK FREEDOM
i used to be old
but now i feel young
'cuz i was a boy
when i learned
how to run

He grins, letting himself be presses up against the boat.

"Relax, sweetheart. You're too uptight." He reaches out and playfully ruffles her hair. He didn't swallow the poison, and it's not like he licked the arrowhead or anything-- it was a perfectly harmless (kinda) move.

At least it let him know what the opposition had to work with. Modern poisons. Cyanide, to be specific. It tastes like almonds. Very bitter almonds, but almonds nonetheless. It's extremely acidic, and most of the taste is from the smell.[/blockquote][/blockquote][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Lin Heiwa]

BRIAR.
catch
me
if
you
can~
-smilie face-

Briar fell over backwards, arms reeling—in an instinctive reaction to try and put distance between herself and the arrow. Not that it would make a difference—the speed would hardly changed, and having ‘bendy bones’ wouldn’t stop the arrow from skewering her brain in.

A jolt of pain shoots up her spine in a ragged line, already bruised from the fall earlier. It wasn’t a big deal though, the narrator just felt like adding some filler, and Briar was more concentrating on the incredible mutt standing in front of her.

It was… an elf. An elf straight out of a fairy-tale. This one seemed to be a man, (but it was hard to tell because they all had long hair)—and it glared at her with glittering opaque eyes that gave the girl shivers. It was dressed in oriental clothing, hardly covering the less than… PG-rated stuff.

Briar froze. No need to provoke a mutt who could just as easily make her brain a Sheesh-Kabob as easy as she could blink. Her brain was just starting to wrap around a plan, something along the lines of ‘not-dying’—before about ten more of these mutts stepped out of the bushes. All carrying bows and lowered at the two tributes.

And out when Briar’s plan through the window.

The mutt made a grutal sound in his throat, jerking the bow up. It didn’t take much for Briar to guess what he meant, and shakily (seeing her life flash before her eyes) stood up, hands raised in the air for some weird reason. This wasn’t a cop show.
The elf motioned for her to start walking forward.

Briar sighed, making the elves tense, and began walking. Sure, maybe she could run away fast enough—climb a tree or jump off the cliff. But it was just as likely that she would end up brain-dead, or just dead—and there was no way to convey her plan to Kanna. Plus, it was just as likely that both of them would end up dead instead of just listening to the human-shaped mutts.

So Briar walked.

And wondered why she just couldn’t abandon Kanna?—the girl was going to have to die anyway if Briar wanted to win. But it was out of the question, in Briar’s mind—but the real question, was why it was out of the question? And what was with all these questions?!

Lin Heiwa.
at times i wondered
if i had not come
a long way
to find what i sought
was something that i
left behind.

Lin glares up at him as he ruffled her hair. Not. Amused. "Don't call me that," she said, but more relieved that he wasn’t puking his guts out, or foaming at the mouth (like she’d seen kids do after committing a similar act)—but still watched him for another ten seconds just to be sure.

Everything is dramatized in the Hunger Games. Or did the narrator go over this already? So, why wouldn’t a drop of poison carry twice as much punch? Lin was paranoid—sure, but someone had to be. Bunny rabbits? Lin remembers watching horrorstruck as they devoured a screaming tribute alive. Nothing is safe.

…wait, then—if they were perfectly vulnerable, why weren’t they being shot at? Lin turned for a split second to stare deep into th bushes.

Not even a rustle.

[Rick Freedom]

KANNA WILLIAMS
and she said what became
of my promised fame
all I got was shame
and she said we're all to blame

One of the mutts pokes her in the small of the back with his (she thinks it's a him, at least) spear. Twisting her fingers together in front of her waist, she walks forward after Briar.

She closes one eye. It gives her a strange look, but it's easier to use her powers when her eyes at closed, and she's most certainly not going to be blind while these things cart her off to who knows where. So she's settled on this perpetual wink expression.

'Briar. It's Kanna.' she thinks to her friend, after quickly breaking through the girl's mental barriers. (They're not very strong, unlike Kanna's own carefully crafted defenses.) 'I'm calling for help. Just stay quiet and do as they say.'

Call who for help, you might ask? Why, Rick and Lin, of course! It's not the most ideal situation (Kanna absolutely hates hates hates asking for help) but it's better than dying at the hands of these strange elven creatures.

She decides to call to Lin first because, as the narrator has already said, she trusts her more than the boy.

(As far as she knows, the voice in the other person's head sounds just like Kanna's own, and she hears their thoughts in their voices.)

'Lin? It's Kanna. There's mutts. Elf mutts. Lots of them. They're making us walk. I don't know where. We need help.'

[/b]

RICK FREEDOM
i used to be old
but now i feel young
'cuz i was a boy
when i learned
how to run

He looks steadily back at Lin, eyes twinkling with suppressed laughter. (What? He's a natural jokester!)

Rick slides out from between her and the boat, then looks around. The red light is back around his hands, just from the natural habit of always having to be ready to fight, at the drop of a hat. (What does that mean, anyway?)

It's quiet… Too quiet…

This would be the time when they bad guy would jump out of the shadows and shout 'AH HA!' but this isn't a spy movie. It's real life. Kinda.[/blockquote][/blockquote][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Lin Heiwa]

BRIAR.
catch
me
if
you
can~
-smilie face-

Okay, if Briar could read minds—she would have been very insulted by her mind being called weak in a defensive way. But she can’t—only the narrator can, and the narrator is very protective of her narratee. So this is the narrator saying, ‘BACK OFF, BUB,’ also while drinking hot chocolate and hoping that her role-play bud could take a joke.

Eh, it was pretty much true—anyways.

Briar almost flipped, hearing a voice in her head. She didn’t show so physically—it was more of a casual roll of the eyes and a solemn thought of, Okay, it’s finally happened. I’ve lost it.

But then she remembered that Kanna was a telepath, and the girl’s brow furrowed and eyes gleamed in a serious manner. What? She could be serious when she wanted to!

Yet she couldn’t resist thinking (loudly) and hoping Kanna heard it, Quiet? I’m always quiet. Who do you think you’re talking to, a mime? Of course, that made no sense at all—and Kanna could just as well have tuned out at this point—but it made Briar feel a little better.


They walked for a while, and for a while Briar kept track of when they made turns. Left, right, right, left, left, left, left, or was it right? No, I’m pretty sure it was left, no, wait—don’t turn— Yeah, you can see how that went. So, they walked. And walked. And walked. And Briar was just starting to wonder if they were every going to get rescued by Kanna’s help—when the elves led them through a thorn tunnel guarded by yet another three or four elves.

Into a clearing, where small huts and elven children ran around. There were hunters, and arrows littering the clearing—another group of elves dragging a large stag through the dust into another hut.

Briar couldn’t help it. Her eyes lit up, and a smile broke her face. This was soooo cool—she could spend hours here, just talking and exploring this camp; it was something right out of a fairy-tale.

And then, of course—they were brought before the leader.

Lin Heiwa.
at times i wondered
if i had not come
a long way
to find what i sought
was something that i
left behind.

This new Lin had more of a temper than the old. Seriously. She was slightly enraged by the fact that he was laughing. At. Her. It annoyed and ticked her off to no end. In fact, if Rick hadn’t moved out and around her right then, Lin probably would’ve started yelling at him for being so stupid, as well as immature. This Lin got picked on all the time by older brothers (well, brothers that weren’t even her real brothers, merely mind-wiped and replaced to be a family that she had never even really had) so being laughed at was one of the things that set her off. Seriously.

But now, the opposing narrator was right. It was quiet. Too quiet. The quiet before the storm.

'Lin? It's Kanna. There's mutts. Elf mutts. Lots of them. They're making us walk. I don't know where. We need help.'

Lin jerked, and her hands flew to her head. Okaaaaaaaaaay, random voice in her head that sounded a lot like Kanna. Who was saying that elves had captured herself and Briar, and that they needed help.

Wait. Elves? Weren’t Elves supposed to be totally silent?

And at that moment, about twenty arrows at impossible speed burst from the trees.

[Rick Freedom]

KANNA WILLIAMS
and she said what became
of my promised fame
all I got was shame
and she said we're all to blame

After her oddly calm call for help, she retreats from both the minds of Briar and Lin, and starts to focus on her surroundings. It's a frantic effort to keep herself calm, and it isn't working very well. (As I said, she's not the bravest person ever.)

And then, when Kanna's sure she's going to pass out from sheer exhaustion, they enter a clearing. Her breath catches in her throat. It looks like somewhere straight out of a fairy tale. Ivy everywhere, small shack-like buildings (presumably homes), and the ELVES. It's not just one or two of them-- no, it's a whole village. Elf mothers and fathers and aunts and uncles and children… She begins to wonder if she fell asleep reading again.

Their captors stop them in front of a male elf who's obviously the leader. She looks up, tilting her head back to take in the elf's full height, somewhere around seven feet. Kanna feels incredibly short at her five-feet-three-inches.

The leader says something to their kidnappers, and they bow their heads and walk off. Of, course, he said it in a different language (something like a cross between French and Swahili, with a bit of German thrown in for good measure) and, despite all her best efforts, Kanna can't decipher it. And then the leader turns to the girls and says, in perfect English--

"What are you doing here?"

Kanna squeaks.

RICK FREEDOM
i used to be old
but now i feel young
'cuz i was a boy
when i learned
how to run

He whirls around, only to come face-to-face with an arrow. It looks exactly like the one Lin had snapped, except it's flying toward him, and it's inches from his nose.

Without thinking, he drops to the ground, feeling the whoosh of air the arrow makes as it zips over his head. Knowing nothing about the elves, he naturally assumes that skilled marksmen and flinging the arrows from bows, trying to kill them. It's not too far off, but he envisioned the marksmen as humans, wearing, like, chain-mail or something. It just seems like a medieval kind of place, so maybe knights in shining armor are coming next to challenge them to a duel?

[Lin Heiwa]

BRIAR.
catch
me
if
you
can~
-smilie face-

Kanna squeaked; now, a seriously calmed down narrator continues the story.

Briar jumped. She wasn’t the bravest person either, but ya’ know what they say: curiosity killed the cat. Except, that wasn’t a good metaphor ‘cause this was the Hunger Games and killed isn’t the best thing to be at the moment. But Briar was generally curious, and after suppressing the urge to flee—(where would she go, anyways?) the girl peered curiously up at the incredibly tall being.

It was interesting. In movies and books, elves had been described in many different ways by many different authors. In Briar’s mind, elves had always been these tall, slender, almost ancient looking beings with white-blond hair and lived to be about 1,023 years old. Why 1,023 years? ‘Cause it’s a convenient number.

Instead, this ‘leader’ seemed to be about ten-feet tall with dark skin. Like, almost black skin. Instead of long, blond, straight hair—he posses rather short hair for an elf, dark brown and rather unkempt. He was young looking too—only twenty… four? Twenty six? And by looking around at the other elves—there were people of all ages, so it was unlikely that he was actually four-hundred years old and still going strong.

Plus, the gamemakers couldn’t have created these guys more than a year ago.

“I asked you what you were doing here,” The elf said with a growing intensity—eyes narrowing into black slits. “The only reason you are still alive is because you are juveniles, so answer me with respect and urgency.”

“Who are you?” Briar blurted out, still overwhelmed by storybook curiosity. Okay, that wasn’t exactly an answer, and it wasn’t exactly respectful—but Briar really couldn’t concentrate on anything else at the moment.

The elven leader blinked—looking surprised. It seemed to him like they should be cowering in fear at his feet, like he hoped their enemies would realize enough to do so by now. Instead, they were standing (looking wary and scared, but also curious (which varied from person to person))—and asking him questions.

“I am Raelon,” he responded evenly—as naturally as if he really was that person. He believed he was Raelon the eleven leader, just as Briar believed that she was Briar the district six tribute. Brainwashed, like the rest, “I am Raelon, leader of the Earth Clan—and you should be very, very afraid of me.”

“Er, why?” The girl asked, bewildered—beyond the point of being scared at the moment.

“Because your people killed many of ours while trying to change the land!”

Briar look a step back at the ferocity of the elven leader’s response. She could see it was a well hardened fury—and it was likely that the reason this ‘Clan’ had such a young leader, was because their own was killed in the changing of the land?

So, the girl put two and two together. Your people—the gamemakers. It seemed as if these elves had been living here much longer than the gamemakers had been altering this place for the arena specifications. Maybe they were mutts from a lab that escaped a long time ago? Maybe they were actual people. People who lived back before the disasters that left Panem the only surviving country.

Briar threw a glance at Kanna, wondering what her whole opinion was on this. Slowly, the girl turned her head back towards Raelon—staring back up at him.

“I am Briar of District Six, and this is my friend Kanna of District Three—and we are not here by choice.”

Lin Heiwa.
at times i wondered
if i had not come
a long way
to find what i sought
was something that i
left behind.

Lin found herself staring at what seemed like a bunch of arrows aimed at her forehead. Or, not aimed at her forehead. They were all really low, except for one stray on that seemed to be beading for Rick’s nose. He dropped to the ground—which might have been a good idea at the moment—but those low flying arrows were going to be shaving it too close to the ground for comfort.

Too close to the ground for Lin to make herself drop.

So, while this Lin may not be as good a water manipulator as she was back in the real world (hence not going to a school that taught you how to hone your powers)—she had a few tricks that the real Lin wouldn’t ever have needed to use up her sleeve.

Lin raised a hand—I’ll skip the sciency stuff—but by the ocean—you know how you can always smell the salt, and feel the spray of the water? Well, that means the air is very, very, very heavy.

Lin jerked both of her hands forward—and each time she did so yet another one of the arrows dive-bombed as the very tip froze into a block of ice. Of course, she couldn’t get all of them, and of course, those ones that hit the ground would still be sliding pretty fast.

But it was better than trying to hit the ground in ½ a second.

The other arrows were soooo close though. She couldn’t stop them all, they were scraping her shirt and pants—and in her mind those elves were still trying to take them down, but not out. One actually got as close as to rip the flowy and loose fabric of her shirt open. Geez. They were really starting to cut it close there.

Lin shot a frantic glance over at Rick to see if anything had gotten him yet.

[Rick Freedom]

KANNA WILLIAMS
and she said what became
of my promised fame
all I got was shame
and she said we're all to blame

After overcoming her initial shock (and terror), the girl wraps her arms around her stomach, a pretty normal move for her. Why? Who knows.

Briar. Oh, Briar. Abrupt and not scared as always-- on the outside, at least, she supposes. But she did kinda introduce them wrong.

"Correction." she says, surprised by the lack of tremor in her voice. "The districts don't exist. We've been brainwashed by the, uh, um, I'm not really sure what to call him, and he's making us fight each other in here. I'm Kanna Williams." She extends her right hand, and then her brain catches up with her. A handshake? Really?

Raelon looks at her hand for a moment, an expression of either contempt or confusion on his angular face. Kanna's cheeks flush bright red as she drops her hand to her side.

"The Scientist guy--" It's works, she guesses. Rick called him Mr Scientist, so it's the most she's got to work with. "-- isn't our leader or anything. He's just some creep who wants to watch kids kill each other."

"I'm really sorry he killed so many of you. I truly am. Is there anything Briar and I can do to at least start making it up to you?"

She's fully aware of the fact that she just volunteered both her friend and herself for something that could very well be death, but she doesn't care. She just feels to guilty, like it was her fault… It wasn't though. Not directly, at least.

And then she has a thought. A weird thought. What if Rick and Lin had tried to follow them and got into some wort of trouble with the elves?

'Rick-- it's Kanna. Don't fight them. Whatever you do. The Gamemaker killed a lot of them to build the Arena here, but there are still so many. You'll never be able to win. So don't fight.

[/b]

RICK FREEDOM
i used to be old
but now i feel young
'cuz i was a boy
when i learned
how to run

[/right]
He looks over at Lin at the exact moment that Kanna's voice pops into his head. Not fight? NOT FIGHT?! This is Rick Freedom we're talking about here, people. He's a fighter. It's in his blood. So for some little girl to tell him not to do what he's best at doing…

Wait. Back up. Take a step away from things and think about it for a minute. She can read minds. So maybe that's the best thing to do.

But maybe they're holding her hostage, forcing her to think that to him so that the Elf Mutts can take them all back to home base and execute them for some sort of ancient ritual involving the blood of an innocent. (He's obviously not read too many fairy tales.)

But she can read minds…

But she could be being manipulated…

Spit-second decision-- he gets slowly to his feet, hands held up like football goalposts on either side of his head. This is so unnatural, this whole giving-up-without-a-fight thing. It's so different from what he's used to doing. The whole situation's so weird, so maybe it's for the best though.[/blockquote][/blockquote][/blockquote][/blockquote]