It was midday when Ivy woke up. She groaned as she sat up. Leaves covered her arm and she shook them off confused. She looked around and saw she had been laying in a fallen tree with her sleeping bag covering her. She found her backpack sitting at her feet and looked through it to find everything was there. She looked out and saw the familiar curls of the little girl who helped her learn to make a fire.

Ivy got up and put her backpack on carefully walking forward to not startle the girl. "Rue? It's okay. I just wanna thank you for helping me."

The little girl stepped from the tree and looked up at the teenage girl. "You've been out for a while. I've just been guarding and hiding us."

"You're very brave Rue. Thank you." She paused. "How.. long have I been out?"

"2 days." She answered. "I've switched out your leaves 2 times. I had half your granola though. I'm not very good at hunting."

Ivy smiled at the girl. "It's fine. I can hunt.. okay enough. You hungry?"

Rue nodded and Ivy went to work getting a rat. It took an hour before she was able to hit a rat and Rue got to work making a fire while Ivy skinned the rat. She cleaned herself with the river water she hadn't purified yet and cooked the rat over the small fire.

"Oh," Rue said, surprised at the meal she was given. "I've never had a whole leg to myself before."

"You can have the other too," Ivy told her.

"Really?" she asked.

"Take whatever. I can always get more." She assured her.

Once she had a hold of it, her appetite won out and she took a huge mouthful. Ivy laughed and took a bite of her own meat.

"I forgot I have collected some berries and nuts." Ruse grabbed her bag and pulled out her pouch of berries and nuts. The two ate for a bit, using the rest of Ivy's clean water.

"What happened while I was out?" She asked the little girl.

"The girl from 1 and the boy from 10 died but that's it."

Ivy realized that meant another district was wiped. But she was more curious about one person in particular.

"Do you know about Peeta?" Ivy asked. She had just remembered he had stayed behind and let her run off. She worried about what happened to him. Did he get hurt by the wasps? Did he run into the careers? Or did he make sure she was gone and then ran away as well?

Rue smiled as she ate the rat. "He's okay. He got wounded by Cato but I think he's down by the river. I saw a parachute land down there so I think he got a gift to help him."

Ivy nodded grateful Rue she'd kept an eye out for him. "I should probably find him soon."

"I'd be careful the careers set camp close to the river." Rue let her know. She ate another piece before curiosity got the best of her. "Is all of that true?" She suddenly asked, a smile appearing on the little girl's face.

"What?" Ivy asked confused.

"You and him." Rue teased.

Ivy smiled, a light blush staining her cheeks. "He used to be my one of friends you know. My brother had died in the games and I had trouble making friends after but he and some others invited me in. I pushed him away though when one of our friends Olivia died. I pushed everyone away. I regret it all now. None of them deserved it. Especially Peeta."

"Seems he never stopped loving you though." Rue pointed out.

Ivy smiled and looked down. She looked back up at Rue and asked, "So the careers you said they were by the lake?"

"Yeah, they got all their supplies piled up in this great big pyramid."

"Well doesn't that sound tempting?" Ivy asked. Rue smiled and they agreed tomorrow they'd talk about it more.

Ivy took them back to the fallen tree and undid her sleeping bag. She let Rue sleep next to her and threw the sleeping bag over them to keep them warm in the cold night.

Ivy stared into the sky waiting for the dead tributes but realized that no one died that day. The game maker would surely push for something to happen soon especially since it's been slow since she passed out.

With that thought she fell asleep curled up with Rue.

••

Ivy and Rue had decided to set up three huge fires in the arena to draw the careers to it while Ivy worked on stealing from their pile and destroying it.

Rue had remembered from watching past games that the only time the careers didn't really win was when they didn't have control of the supplies. They had strength but most of the time they lacked survival skills and relied on the fear of other tributes and the cornucopia supplies to keep them alive.

"This green stuff will light fast and thick so when you light it make sure you get out of there fast." She set the tree branch of green leaves down for their last pile.

"We need a signal just in case one of us gets held up." Rue pointed out.

"Okay. Yeah. But what?"

"Listen to this," Rue said as she looked at the trees and sang a soft melody. The birds repeated and Ivy realized she was talking about the mocking jays. The mutts the Capitol made from jabber jays and mockingbirds but when they failed they forgot about them and let them live in the wild.

"Well, that's useful," Ivy said smiling at the sound of the songbirds.

"We use them back home all the time." Rue looked at Ivy. "You try."

Ivy looked up and sang the 4-tune whistle and listened as the birds copied and carried it on to other birds.

"Okay so, if we hear that means we're okay and we'll be back real soon."

"We're gonna be okay," Ivy assured her. She couldn't promise her but she didn't want the girl to think negatively. She brought the girl into a hug and noticed Rue squeezed her a little tighter. "Hey. I'll see you for supper. We'll get some nice rats and finish up my granola bar with a side of apple.

"Okay," Rue mumbled before running off and Ivy headed toward the careers pile.

Ivy looked at the pile of goods and then caught sight of the ground surrounding it. There were many dug-up holes and Ivy surmised it was traps set around.

"Guys, guys look!" Marcel pointed out at the smoke rising above the trees. "Come here. Come on, come on look!"

The careers all stood up and looked at the smoke, Cato being the first one to say something.

"Let's go. You stay guard over, till we get back." He instructed the District 4 boy they had added to their group.

Ivy watched from the trees and moved to get a better position out of the boy's line of sight. She tried to figure out how to destroy the pile as she knew she wouldn't be able to avoid all the traps when all of a sudden foxface shot out the tree line and hopped around the field as she got closer to the pile.

The red-headed girl quickly grabbed a pack and ran off swiftly. She was so fast by the time the boy looked behind him she was already back in the forest. He went looking after the girl hoping to impress the careers with a kill.

Ivy found a bag of apples tied at the top and at that moment she really wished she had learned to arch. She rolled her back and grabbed a throwing knife. It was small and flat and Ivy hoped she didn't have to get too close to the pile to blow it up.

The girl stepped out of the tree line and aimed at the apples and ripped the bottom ever so slightly as it stuck in a bag. She stepped closer and grabbed another one loading back and throwing it hard. It ripped the bag more and Ivy hurriedly backed up as fast she could before it exploded.

With a loud boom, the mines went off in succession shoving Ivy slightly. She looked back and saw the careers rush back. Cato yelled at the boy and didn't even let him speak as he grabbed his face and snapped his neck, allowing the boy to crumple to the ground.

Ivy took off after that and once she got a good distance out she whistled the tune. She waited to hear Rue's response but the new tune never came. She whistled again and started walking to the last pile of leaves to see if she could find Rue herself. She'd hoped the girl was lost or at least at the last pile. Her fears became stronger when the pile was untouched.

She let out a breath when she heard Rue yell her name in panic. "Ivy! Ivy, help!"

Ivy ran as fast as she could jumping over any logs or rocks in her way as she navigated the sound of Rue's voice.

"Ivy!.. Ivy! Help!"

Ivy ran into a meadow and saw the girl trying to kick off a net and getting tangled. She grabbed her thicker hunting knife and started to saw at the rope holding the net trap.

"Ivy." The girl sobbed seeing the older girl.

"It's okay," Ivy said throwing the net and hugging the girl as soon as she stood. "You're okay." She breathed heavily. "You're alright." She pulled back and looked the girl over. "You're fine.. see?"

"I was so scared." Rue cried.

"I know sweetie." She cupped the girl's face and smiled.

Ivy heard a twig snap and turned around and swung the knife in her hand throwing it into the attacker's stomach as he threw his spear. She ran at him and grabbed her knife and stabbed him in the heart to finish him off. It was Marvel. She heard the canon boom and she turned to Rue to see her pull the spear out of her torso.

Ivy's face fell and she ran to the girl and laid her down gently. She glanced over the wound and started breathing heavily. "No, no, no." She sucked in a breath hoping no boogers would come out. "It's okay. Don't be afraid." She told Rue but it seemed like she was trying to reassure herself more than the girl.

"Did you blow up the food?" Rue asked quietly.

"Every last bit of it." She nodded, tears streaming down her face even though she kept wiping them away.

"Good." Rue stared at her tears gathering in her eyes. "You have to win." She whispered.

She nodded her head. "I'll try Rue. I promise."

"Can you sing a song?" Rue asked. Her whole life had been filled with melodies and Ivy knew that that would be a calming way for the girl to go out.

"I'm not very good but I can try." She sniffled. She patted her head down and gave her a small smile. "My brother used to sing this to me. It's the only one I really know..." she took a deep breath. "Deep in the meadow. Under the willow. A bed of grass." She cried more as she saw the little girl's eyes unfocus slowly. "A soft, green pillow. Lay down your head. And close your eyes." She shushed the girl and closed her eyes when she felt her last breath.

The familiar boom went off and Ivy cried into her chest as the overwhelming sadness consumed her. She didn't even care if a career came to look for Marvel.

Before setting her down she told the girl, "Goodnight little one." She zipped the jacket up to hide the hole and laid her down. She kissed her forehead and decided to grab some nearby flowers and lay them in the girl's hands.

She couldn't stick around for long so with one last look she grabbed Marvel's bag and her knife from his chest. She stood up and held her hand up to the sky in a three-finger salute for a moment before leaving to find food.

••

There had been enough gore for the day and so Ivy went deep into the woods to find a place to settle for the night. Perhaps she'd just go to sleep with no food, her stomach was far too upset to even really eat much let alone go through the work of catching and skinning the animals.

Ivy was about to haul herself up in a tree to make camp when a silver parachute floated down and landed in front of her.

A gift from a sponsor. She didn't need much supplies so it was odd to receive. She opened the parachute and found a small loaf of bread, it was not the fine white Capitol stuff but instead, it was made of dark ration grain and shaped in a crescent and srinkled with seeds.

Livia flashed back to Peeta's lesson on the various district breads in the Training Center. She realized the bread came from District 11.

Ivy picked the still-warm loaf up and looked it over. She wondered how much money it must have cost the people of District 11 who could barely even feed themselves.

She doesn't know if it was originally for Rue or if it was a thank you from the little girl's district.

For whatever reason, it was a first she knew that much. A district gift to a tribute who was not your own was not heard of, especially from the poorer districts.

Livia lifted her face and tried to find a camera. "My thanks to the people of District Eleven." She wanted them to know she knew where it came from and that she appreciated their costly gift to help her along.

She climbed up the tree and made herself comfortable. She took out pieces of bread and ate some along with some of her apple.

••

Ivy had been asleep for a while missing the announcement of the dead tributes. She was emotionally exhausted from the day. She woke early in the morning when a voice spoke up from the sky.

"Attention Tributes. Attention. The regulations acquiring a single victor has been suspended. From now on, two victors may be crowned if both originate from the same district. This will be the only announcement."

Her only thought was that she had to find him.

Find Peeta.