THE REST OF THE DAY AND THAT NIGHT WERE UNEVENTFUL. At least concerning Sage's alliance— it probably had everyone watching begging the gamemakers to do something to stir things up. Between Sage, Marena, and Deedee— they made multiple trips to the stream. All of them were well hydrated by the time night came. And once again, Sage didn't get a wink of sleep. Instead he stayed propped up against the tree beside Boyde and watched and listened for anything that could mean trouble.

He could hear crickets, and some sort of irritating bird that hid in the trees— there was even a distant sound of frogs. The next day, after they set up some type of shelter— he'd try to find something to eat. He needed to make plans like that, otherwise he would go crazy in the arena. Back home, he would make plans. He'd plan to go hunting with Katniss and Ella either in the morning or that evening. Or he'd plan on watching Prim for the afternoon when his father was at work and his mother was going to go to the Hob. The only difference was his plans involved just surviving. Usually that wasn't a concern of his.

"You should try to sleep." Marena said, her voice startled him a bit. "You didn't get any last night either, did you?"

"I'm fine," he assured her, although he knew it was a complete lie. The sun had barely begun to rise, well, the fake sun. The gamemakers could make the sun rise whenever they wanted to. For all they knew, it was actually just starting to get dark out. Time could be whatever they wanted it to be.

"Tell me about home," Marena started, moving to sit beside Sage so they wouldn't wake Deedee or Boyde. "I can't sleep either."

"Well, maybe if I bore you enough you will." Sage chuckled a bit, "I'm sure Four is much more interesting than Twelve."

Marena shrugged, "Debatable." she said, "What about your lovely lady?" she questioned, her tone was a bit amused by mentioning the girl that he spoke about in his interview.

"She probably hates me enough for bringing her up to Caesar." Sage pointed out, "How about you? Anyone in Four?"

"You first," Marena stated, "besides, I'm sure everyone listening would like to know more about the loveliest lady in Twelve."

Sage turned his head towards her, only to find a bit of a amused look on her face. "You sound like my sister," Sage muttered, "nosey."

Marena shrugged a bit, "It's a talent I have, being nosey."

Sage rolled his eyes, "Well, if you must know— I wasn't lying. She really is the loveliest."

Marena smirked, "I'm sure she is," she paused, "she must be thrilled that her very own boyfriend has been dubbed the nations Prince Charming," she said, a smirk growing on her face while the feeling of wanting to puke grew in his stomach. He hated using Ella as a way to get people to like him.

"You know, I think I'm going to go get a drink. You can keep watch on your own, right?" Sage announced, sticking one end of his bow into the ground and using it to pull himself to his feet.

Marena sighed heavily and leaned back against the tree, "I suppose I can."

Sage stood up from his seat and began on his way away from the camp, and for a fleeting moment, he wanted to just keep going. He knew what alliances eventually had to do, they either had to separate and hope they didn't run into one another, or they killed one another. He wondered if he'd have a decent shot alone. Sage made his way through the tree's the sounds around him were foreign to him. They were nothing like the ones he was used to in Twelve. They were almost dramatic sounding, over the top as if they were trying extra hard to make it all sound natural...

When he got to the stream, he quickly scooped up water and splashed his face. It was cool enough to wake him up a bit more to make him a bit more aware of his surroundings and not so groggy. Today was going to be a long day, he could feel it already. He'd have to get sleep after today, otherwise he would be virtually useless...there was only so much a splash of water could do.

Sage had been right when he thought of how long the day was going to be. From the moment Sage got back to where they had made their base camp, there was constantly something to do. When he first got back, Marena had begun fixing a shelter for at least Boyde to sit under, out of the sun and near the fire to keep his chills at bay. Deedee had put herself in charge of keeping a small fire going, which was proving to be much more difficult than they originally thought because of how moist the wood they had found turned out being. And with the humidity that only seemed to be getting worse, Sage and Marena took turns going to and from the stream for water for Boyde, as well as Deedee and themselves. Boyde was getting worse as the day went on, his chills included violent shivering and constant sweating not from the humidity. Then, by the time the sun began to set he suddenly had a burst of energy and made it a few yards away from them; only to become violently ill. Whatever food he had in his system wasn't there anymore, making him even weaker. If Sage was being honest, he didn't expect Boyde to make it much longer after he got sick. He expected there to be at least one cannon that night.

But there wasn't.

Boyde had made it till dark, and by the time the cooler air began to settle around them, he seemed to look a bit better. It was a relief that he seemed to be feeling a bit better, and it must have been bothering him more than he had thought. Because as soon as the anthem ended, Sage fell asleep. Not comfortably or peacefully, but he was asleep nonetheless. However he woke up abruptly to Marena kicking his foot hard enough to jolt up away.

"I heard something." she hissed as Sage's eyes began to adjust to the dim morning light, as they did he saw Marena standing before him, with her weapon in hand. I took a moment for him to really register her words, but as soon as her words sunk in he felt his breath hitch in his throat as he grabbed his bow to help pull himself up.

"From?" he questioned, his voice was still groggy as he began moving.

Marena motioned towards the stream.

"Animal?"

"I haven't seen anything bigger than a rabbit or squirrel," Marena replied, "it wasn't a animal."

"Alright well," Sage paused, "You watch them?" he questioned, "We should let them sleep, it might be nothing. And I don't think either of them would be much help right now." he said honestly. Boyde might be able to help a little if it came down to it, but he had no idea if Deedee would any help at all.

      Marena was hesitant, but nodded in agreement. So Sage pulled a arrow from the pouch that was still across his shoulders. And began to make his way towards the stream. Sage felt almost a bit relieved as he got further from his group. In a odd way, he felt like he was back in the woods surrounding District Twelve. Of course it was already much hotter there in the arena then it would be back home, but it was nice being able to picture himself there.

       As Sage walked, the rustling that they had heard had stopped. And Sage didn't see any sign that anyone had been there, but he could feel his heart beating in his chest. He could hear it even, echoing in his ears. Not only did he know that if there was really someone around there, it could be the day he died or they died— both of them wouldn't live. That wasn't how the games worked.

Sage stood there, the silence of the arena was nothing like the woods around twelve— where he tried to picture himself. And as soon as he began to feel like the sounds he had heard were never there at all, a stick cracked beneath someone's foot. Sage turned swiftly on his heel, pulling up his bow and waited just long enough to see that it was a girl— a spear was firmly in her hand. But before she could even raise it, Sage released an arrow and it landed in the dead center of her chest.

Everything seemed to slow down.

The girl stumbled backwards a bit as her shirt began to turn red, and the spear fell from her hand. But she stayed on her feet, her eyes were wide and it was like she tried to say something but no words would come out. Then finally, she collapsed to the ground. However as soon she did, before a cannon could fill the arena, an older boy jumped down from one of the trees— anger in his eyes and Sage felt completely frozen. Not in fear, but shock. His body felt cold, numb almost. Was that what he was supposed to feel like? After killing someone?

Sage was snapped back to reality when the other boy came face to face with Sage. And was far too close for Sage to raise his bow. And as the boy drew his hand back with a knife in hand he swiftly fell limp, the knife in his hand falling to the ground before he himself fell forward against Sage. A horrendous gargling sound escaped from his lips, and when Sage glanced downward, he saw a thick metal dart stuck in the back of his neck.

"Mind getting that for me?"

         Sage still felt frozen on his feet, he felt like his chest was filled with rocks or something. But the sound of two cannons filling the arena was enough to snap him back into reality, not only had to boy fallen against him, Sage had caught him too, holding him up from the ground his weight suddenly felt like it was two or three times as much as it really was. Sage quickly stepped back, letting the boy fall all the way to the ground before bending down and pulling out the dart for the other boy.

"Thanks," he replied as he stood beside the girl that Sage had killed before bending down and pulling the arrow from her chest. "here."

Sage stood up as he examined the dart, it was as thin as a needle on the end that was covered with blood and it was a good length too. "Thanks to you too..." Sage replied, a bit repulsed by the bloodied arrow that the other held out to him.

"I'm Watt."

"Sage."

          Sage took the arrow from Watt before turning swiftly to swish the arrow around in the stream. Wanting to get every drop of blood off of it before they had to clear the area for the ships to retrieve the bodies.

"You're on your own?" Watt questioned as her rolled the hem of his shirt around the dart to wipe off as much as he could.

Sage didn't say anything at first, he wasn't exactly thrilled at the thought of bringing someone else into the alliance.

"Right now, it seems like it." Sage replied as he stood up straight, noticing that he had been slouching since the boy died against him. He's a bit shorter, he thought to himself. And Watt looked a bit smaller than he was all together, and his weapon of choice was blow darts, Sage was confident he could take him if he had to. Darts weren't much good if you were close to someone and they could see what you were doing. "Thanks though for the help." Sage said tucking his arrow back in his pouch.

"There's twelve other people left," Watt replied as Sage began to walk away. "another person in your alliance couldn't hurt."

"What makes you think I have an alliance?"

"I find it hard to imagine you wouldn't at least be teamed up with Marsh from Four and the little kid from Twelve."

"Deedee." Sage corrected, "Her names' Deedee."

"So you do have an alliance with them." he replied, "You didn't make it sound like I was wrong."

       Sage sighed heavily, stopped in his tracks as the whizzing of the Capitol ship began to approach. He glanced back at Watt, he had helped Sage. And it didn't look like he had been exceptionally close with anyone while in training. And he was right— there was still enough tributes left that one more person wouldn't hurt in their alliance. At least for a few days.

AUTHORS NOTE;
Wow. Sorry for such a long wait for a new chapter! But now that Sage is in the arena— things will be moving quite quickly!

Stay classy! And don't forget to let me know what you think!

*edited*