SAGE COULDN'T REMEMBER A TIME HE FELT SO SICK. There had been a handful of times where he had gotten the flu as a kid and thought it was the worst he could ever feel. But he would give anything to be on his lumpy mattress at home with his mother constantly coming to wake up him by cooking his forehead with a cool rag. The aches that came from the flu were nothing compared to this.

The worse of the pain was in his shoulder where the snake had bit through his clothes. The wounds were horrendous before he applied the medicine once they were out of the smoke which had taken until the sun had begun to rise thanks to Sage nearly collapsing every few steps. After the medicine was on them, they were still awful but looked like they had even more gray pus seeping out of them. His arm felt like it was on fire and that spread throughout his entire body, his whole body was dripping was sweat and when he wasn't falling asleep he was constantly wiping his forehead to stop any droplets from getting in his eyes.

"How're you feeling?" Marena questioned when Sage began to stir and wake up a bit again. Her voice was hoarse; the smoke had more of an effect on her than Sage. At least from what Sage could tell.

"Alright," he lied through his teeth, and Marena knew it.

Marena pressed her lips into a thin line, "Right..." she replied a bit sarcastically. "So who's Ella?"

Sage furrowed his brows, "What?"

"You called me Ella back at the stream." Marena replied as she pulled the silver canteen out of the backpack she had shoved a majority of the supplies into before they all had to move.

Sage sighed heavily, his stomach churned as she took a drink before handing it over to him. "No thanks..." he replied, shaking his head. "the thought of drinking or eating anything right now makes me want to vomit."

"Noted." Marena replied as she took another drink for herself before closing the canteen. "So, Ella."

"You really are nosey, you know." Sage sighed heavily, crossing his arms over his chest but instantly regretted moving his shoulder at all...

The last thing Sage had to do was practically tell Snow the name of everyone he cared about. The fact that Snow knew about them hunting outside of the fences, the fact that he knew exactly who it was...that he knew that Katniss was hunting...and that if he lost this year, Katniss could end up in next year's arena. Even though his eyes were open, it was like Deedee was right in front of him. Covered with snacks, wounds all over here bleeding and turning grey from the pus already. She was just a kid, technically they all were, but she was younger than all of them. And if Katniss had been one year older, that could have been her.

"Is she your sister or something?"

"Or something," Sage replied simply.

Marena smirked, "The lovely lady I presume."

Sage sighed heavily, "Why are you so okay with still being friendly?" Sage questioned, looking away from the empty air where he had been envisioning Deedee and to Marena. "There's eleven of us left. Eventually-"

"I know what happens eventually." Marena stated, "One of us or both of us is going to die, I figured it would be better if we each had a friend when it happened."

        Sage sighed heavily. He didn't plan on being the one dying. He couldn't let himself think like that, he had to remind himself that Marena was a temporary person he had in the arena. Everyone in that arena was temporary, it was everyone outside of the arena were people he had to think about. His parents, Katniss, Prim...even people like President Snow were people he had to consider. If he didn't win, if Snow had meant what he said, Katniss would be in next years arena.

Sage cleared his throat and shifted his position, slouching down further against the tree, "And if it comes down to the two of us?" he questioned, "There isn't much use a friend can do then."

Marena was silent, "It won't come down to the two of us." she said, her voice was soft and unassureing.

            The two of them sat in silence for what felt like hours, but it could have easily been the fever made Sage feel like his entire body was hot like coal. It made him envious of the people he knew who had to work in the coal mines. He would give anything just to have that be his biggest concern. He wished he just had to moan about getting up before the sunrise to go into the mines and work in close quarters with the other miners for hours, have a bit of oatmeal or bread and maybe peanut butter for lunch before going back down for another few hours. Instead he was there in the arena, literally with blood on his hands.

The sudden realization made Sage uncross his arms and just examine his hands. It was only on his right hand, but dried to his palms was red blood that must have gotten there when he was carrying his arrow after pulling it out of Watt...

         It was different than when he had killed the girl tribute. Watt had been an ally, even if it hadn't been long. And Sage didn't just want to kill him because that was the point of being in the arena. He had wanted to kill him because hated him, in that moment and absolutely hated him. He had left Boyde, he hadn't worked with the alliance, and had only cared about getting himself out of there. In that moment that he killed Watt, Sage didn't feel like himself. He didn't feel like a tribute that hated being there, he felt like a tribute that hated everyone else more than the situation.

And everyone saw that.

Everyone saw that shift in him. How could they miss it? It was like something literally just snapped inside him. Wanting to just survive wasn't his goal, in that moment at least. In that moment his soul ambition was to kill Watt.

          Suddenly, it was like a dream. Or maybe it was a dream, at times with the fever it felt hard to tell when he was actually concious and when he wasn't...but he could have sworn he was back home. But he wasn't he knew that, but he could see his family huddled at the kitchen table. Katniss barely had touched her food, neither had his father, his mother didn't even have any in front of her and Prim sat beside her pushing hers around with her fork. They watched their small screen, and they saw it. They saw something snap in Sage, and he wasn't the same person he had been when he saw them in the Justice Hall. And they all looked horrified, Katniss' face grew horrified, and Prim's was the hardest to see. Because her eyes were wide with tears building up, and fear covered her entire expression...

           Sage jolted up right, and instinctively turned onto his side and vomited. There was nothing more than yellow bile that burned his already irritated throat from throwing up other times and the smoke he had been in.

"At least you got a little sleep..." Marena said, pushing herself up to her feet from what Sage heard over his racing pulse that he could hear in his ears as she took the few steps towards him. "here, you should really try to drink something." she said crouching down, putting one hand on his shoulder and offering him the canteen with the other.

Sage coughed a bit as he glanced at the canteen, but thinking about anything going down his throat made his stomach begin to gargle again and he had to choke back a few gags as he waved his hand towards it and shook his head. "I can't."

"You have to."

"I don't."

"You're dehydrated."

"That's the least of my worries, Marena." Sage replied sharply looking up at he as he moved back to his position against the tree. But she didn't budge, in fact she shoved the canteen closer to him. "Really, I can't."

Marena didn't budge.

        So reluctantly, Sage reached for the canteen and grabbed it from her. For a split second, as he opened it, he considered tossing the whole thing. But that would be less productive than him just telling her he wasn't interested in it. So hesitantly, with her closely watching him, he took a small sip of the water. He didn't want to admit it, but the water instantly cooled down his mouth and relieved him from a good amount of the bitter taste he still had in his mouth and it cooled his entire throat too. But he didn't dare try and drink more of it.

"How long was I asleep?" he questioned, settling back into his position against the tree and noticing that the sky above them had gotten dark.

"Well, you slept through one cannon and the anthem." Marena said simply, "The girl from nine."

Sage nodded a bit as he set down the canteen beside him and crossed his arms. Allowing the silence to engulf them again. But he couldn't leave it alone for long. "What did you think of Kai when you watched the games?" Sage questioned.

"I didn't watch a lot of her games. I would work on my schoolwork or basketweaving while the games were on." she replied nonchalantly, as she went back to her place to sit. "And I didn't think much differently of her after the games either, if that's what you're thinking about."

Sage sighed heavily.

"You're wondering what you sister thinks of all this, huh?"

Sage nodded a bit, "Both of them actually. My youngest sister just started learning about the games in school..." Sage replied, as he unfolded his arms and began to ring his hands together. Each knuckle ached as he did so, so eventually his fingers found the homemade beads on the bracelet from Katniss. Each one felt different, the two green ones were clearly the first two that Katniss made because they were a bit more lumpy than the others. The red and pink ones were both smaller, and the biggest of them was the blue one. "I told her I'd be back, some kid in her close told her that tributes from twelve never win."

Marena sighed heavily, "Well, you've made it to the final ten." Marena replied, "You've got a chance."

         The next day went by with little to no excitement. No cannons went off, and Sage still drifted in and out of sleep and didn't bother to even try to eat anything. Every time he moved he felt like he had just got done spinning in a mindless circle for an hour, and it made him sick to his stomach. He still couldn't keep down much water either. A sip here and there, but not much more than that. When he was awake, Marena went to go try to find anything that they could eat. She ended up finding some berries, which Sage didn't bother to even try because they were sickenly sweet smelling. She didn't push them on him like she had the water, which was probably for the better. If he ate anything and just got sick from it, they would have gone to waste.

         It wasn't until the next morning that Sage started to feel a bit better, his joints weren't constantly throbbing and his body wasn't shivering despite the fever he had as much. He still had a constant chill, but he wasn't freezing. He could actually stretch out his legs without his knees feeling like they were just bone rubbing on bone. And just as the sun had rose high enough in the sky to cause the arena to grow humid, two parachutes descended into the area over them. One for each of them, Marena recieved some jerky and Sage some bread. Both things were gifts that Sage couldn't have imagined eating the days before. But taking Haymitchs' one word of advice to eat, Sage was able to eat a bit of the bread as well as half a piece of jerky before he started to feel nausous again.

"We should probably move," Marena suggested, "if anyone was around they might have seen the parachutes."

Sage groaned at the mere thought of moving, sure he wasn't as miserable but he didn't think getting up to walk would help him feel much better.

        But Marena was right, when it was just the two of them left in the alliance and there could have been bigger alliances left, it was better if they kept moving. So after they had both eaten something, the two began their hike further from the stream. Which Sage didn't exactly think was a good idea, but chances were that if anyone else was in the woods and knew about the stream, they'd be near it too. So Sage didn't argue with Marena, he had enough on his mind.

Staying on his feet and keeping a firm hold on his bow.

Trying not to fall too far behind Marena.

And also wondering what exactly his family was thinking of him after he killed Watt. Or what Ella thought of him.

It wasn't until three cannons went off that both Marena and Sage stopped in their tracks. Nine, eight, seven tributes were left. Six more tributes had to die before there was finally a winner. If that's what you wanted to really consider a victor. When Sage was little, he wondered how the winner felt each year. When he was reaped, he imagined it to be a moment full of excitement. The moment someone knew they were going home. But now, after being in the arena he didn't know how he would feel if he happened to win.

"When do you think we should split up?" Sage questioned suddenly, breaking the silence that had formed around them once the cannon's finished.

Marena rose a brow, "Split up?"

"Theres a better chance it wouldn't come down to the two of us then." Sage replied.

Marena's face fell, and her lips formed a frown. "Oh, right..." she muttered, "If we're still in the final...five?"

Sage sighed heavily, "That's still cutting it a bit, don't you think?"

Silence.

"Then how about right now?"

AUTHORS NOTE;
Just for reference, Sage has currently been in the arena for eight days!