AS THE MORNING TURNED TO AFTERNOON, THE ARENA TURNED INTO A HUMID NIGHTMARE. Sage guessed it was just past noon, but he could have been wrong. The gamemakers could be speeding up the day or slowing it down— but by the hot sun that managed to seep through the thick canopy of leaves above them, and by the way the air seemed to boil around them, he guessed it was the hottest part of the day. If it wasn't, and it was only going to get hotter— that alone would probably kill a couple tributes.

     Sage and Boyde had both taken off their jackets as the day had gotten more hot, Sage shoved his into his pack while Boyde kept his accessible around his waist. At first both of them weren't that bothered by the heat, or maybe they were just trying to show the cameras they weren't— or even each other. But at this point, both of them were visibly miserable. Boyde had to stretch out his collar every few minutes just to use it to wipe off his face as sweat dripped down his forehead and into his eyes. Sage wanted nothing more than to do the same, but the mere thought of touching his cheek even a little bit made his face throb.

"Do you think they're even on this side of the cornucopia?" Boyde questioned, there was still a whole other side of the arena that had been behind them when they entered the arena on the pedestals.

"Probably," Sage replied, "if Deedee saw any of us run towards to the Cornucopia, she would have too so she wouldn't be too far from us." he told him, "So why didn't you want to be allies with Opal?" Sage questioned.

Boyde sighed heavily, "It's a long story." he said, but then continuing anyway. "In the academy we never really got along. It's been no different the last few days." he added, his tone stayed level and showed no real emotion when he talked about his district partner. "Do you think it will stay like this tonight?" he questioned, changing the subject as he dried his face.

Sage shook his head, "No. It was cooler this morning, so it'll probably be cooler tonight and warm up again tomorrow." he said, "Before it starts to get dark though, we should find a place to set up for the night."

"I think we should stay in the trees," Boyde replied, "hell, if we can find one sturdy enough, we could probably find one we could climb." he said, looking upwards into the trees. He slowed his pace for a moment and pointed, "The branches look strong enough, we could take turns sleeping with our backs to the trunk."

"Is your rope strong enough to help us climb up to the branches?" Sage asked, from what he could tell, most of the trees around them didn't have branches starting any lower than two or three feet above them.

Boyde nodded, "If not, we could twist it with a few of the vines." he suggested, motioning to some of the low hanging vines from a tree near them.

"Let's plan on that then," Sage said, "if we don't find them soon..." he paused, he hoped they would. This early in the games, they were safer in numbers. "let's focus on finding water and maybe something we can eat."

The two of them walked in silence for a little linger after they agreed on their plans. Sage couldn't help but wonder where the cameras were around them, from what he could remember of watching the games— tributes rarely found them. Besides that, he wanted to know if they were on him— did his family know he was still okay? He had gotten out of the bloodbath in relatively good shape. He had his ideal weapon, a backpack with decent supplies, and so far he knew his entire alliance was alright. Dehydrated already probably, but alive. And that was what mattered...

As the two walked, Boyde a few steps ahead of Sage, Sage began to notice the trees thinning. The roof that the trees created above them began to have openings, allowing even more of the hot sun to reach them.

"What time-" Boyde began to ask, glancing over his shoulder just as the echo of a cannon filled the arena, causing everything to stir around them. Then immediately followed by a second one.

The two stayed silent, waiting for any more.

"Seven," Sage spoke, "sounds about right for the first day." he said with a heavy sigh.

"Seven less for us to worry about." Boyde added, "Do you think..."

Sage shook his head quickly, his mind going to the same place that his had gone. "Deedee is by herself or with Marena. There's nobody else she would be with— there would have only been one cannon if was her. Same goes for Marena." he explained quickly, hoping he was right...

"Shit!" Boyde yelled, jumping backwards and nearly falling as he did.

Sage jumped back too, startled by Boyde. But he soon saw what had made Boyde react that was, a few feet in front of him, the ground seemed to be moving. And Boyde was stomping on something right in front of him— Sage looked and saw a dull yellow snake, with blood covering where Boyde had been stomping on it.

"Did it bite you?" Sage asked quickly as Boyde stepped back, "How many bit you?" he asked again as he notice Boyde's obvious limp.

"Just the one..." he replied quickly leaning against a tree. Sage watched him carefully, and then turned back towards the snakes that seemed to be moving away from them and in a tight formation. He had come across his fair share of snakes when he had gone hunting back at home, their skins were something he could always count on getting a good deal on. But he never tried to get twisted up with a nest of them. "shit," Boyde repeated, a bit more exasperated this time. "forget about your luck...this is probably the worst thing that could have happened on day one."

He wasn't wrong. Sure, Sage had a nasty cut on his face he had to hope wouldn't get infected. But a snake bite, that was ten times worse.

"Let's try to get some distance between that and us," Sage replied, motioning to the nest of snakes that was reforming in its nest that Boyde has stepped in on. "can you walk alright?"

Boyde nodded, "I got it off pretty quick," he replied, straightening himself up. Sage watched him for a moment, he didn't seem off balance, and if there had been a fatal venom— he'd already be getting sick. And the only thing that seemed wrong was his bit of a limp, which was to be expected.

The two of them turned and walked deeper into the arena and stayed near the thinning trees so they could keep an eye on the sun a bit better. However, after about ten minutes of walking, Boyde who had begun to slow down as he limped collapsed completely. He landed on his hands and knees at first before he pushed himself over and into a seated position.

"I...I need to sit..." he said, out of breath even though they had only been walking at a fairly slow pace.

"Okay," Sage replied crouching down in front of him, "you okay? Is it just your leg hurting?" Sage asked.

As soon as Sage got a good look of Boyde's face though, Sage knew that wasn't all that was wrong. Boyde's normally olive skin was much more pale than it had been. It looked almost dusty, and his lips were a shade of blue that looked almost gray. But Boyde leaned back on his hands and nodded anyway.

"Yeah...yeah, I just need to rest a minute." he told him, "I'm fine-"

Sage sighed heavily, "Bullshit," he said, cutting Boyde off. He understood where Boyde was coming from though. Stuff like this never went well, and you never wanted it to happen on the first day. "let me see the bite."

Boyde didn't put up a fight. He reached foreword with one of his hands and pulled up on his pants leg and revealed the bite on the side of his calf. Sage couldn't stop himself from gasping a bit— it was swollen and the size of a fist already and the bite marks weren't like normal snake fang marks. Instead there were dozens of little puncture wounds. Those were no normal snakes, those were mutts. Creations designed specifically for the games by the gamemakers.

"Let's get you out of the sun," Sage said, there was nothing he could do for a mutt bite. The only thing tributes could ever do was wait it out and hopefully see what would happen.

      Sage grabbed Boyde's backpack and tossed it over to the nearest trunk before he tossed his bow and backpack in the same direction. It was a relief not having his pack on, he instantly felt cooler. But he didn't take that long to enjoy it, Sage moved to Boyde's side and took his arm and wrapped it around his shoulders and helped him to his feet— Boyde wasn't much help, he was practically dead weight, and his skin on his arm that Sage had a hold of was cold. Once Sage had him seated comfortably, he put the back of his hand on Boyde's forehead— cold.

"Hell of a first day, huh?" Boyde questioned, chuckling a bit. But he sounded even more weak than he had been just a moment earlier. He was still out of breath too.

"You could say that." Sage replied, adding in a chuckle as well. Sage then took another glance at the bite, this time, it was like the movement had knocked something loose. Because from a handful of the puncture wounds on the swollen part of the bite that looked like some type of boil, was a dark gray liquid oozing out. The venom. "I'm going to try and get some of the venom out," Sage told Boyde, who had his head rested back against the tree. "it's probably going to hurt." he added before he took a deep breath and placed his fingers on either side of the hive that had appeared on his leg using both hands. And sure enough with just a little bit of pressure, even more liquid oozed out of the puncture wounds.

"Son of a bitch!" Boyde exclaimed, having a burst of energy and jerking his leg away from Sage.

"I told you it would probably hurt," Sage reminded him, "and I think it's working. So stop moving." he told him, looking up at his ally who was looking worse by the second.

"Just do it fast..." Boyde said with a long sigh at the end, "please."

       Sage went as fast as he could, but it took a few minutes. Every time he touched it, Boyde would flinch away— and Sage didn't blame him. It looked excruciating, and Boyde looked horrendous. But Sage was sure that it was working, because the hive looked much smaller by the time that the drainage stopped.

       Boyde was in no shape to keep moving, so they didn't even bother to try. Boyde slipped his hoodie back on, and used Sage's as a blanket on his legs, after he had been sitting still— he had begun to feel just as cold as Sage thought he was. But his skin was still sweating from the humidity. He also drifted in and out of sleep, at least Sage was pretty sure it was sleep. He could have just been slipping in and out of consciousness— regardless, if they wanted to keep moving, Sage would have had to carry him. They were better off staying right there with Sage keeping watch.

       While Sage stayed awake, it seemed like forever that he sat there, he watched as the sky began to change in color. Meaning they were nearing the end of the day. The end of the first day— he was relieved. Not only because it was the end of the day, but because he was in the arena now— there was no anxiety or nervousness anymore like he had felt that morning. He had been so anxious about entering the arena and having to survive— but now there was no point in being anxious about it. That wouldn't help him get to the end, he couldn't afford to lose— not after what Snow told him. He couldn't let that happen to his family— if he died, Prim would be even more terrified of the games, Katniss would feel like it was her job to do what he had done for years, his mother would undoubtedly slip into one of her episodes, and it would leave his father to hold things together. Then on top of that, Katniss would be exactly where he was next year. He couldn't afford to be anxious now that he was in the arena. Surviving was all that mattered now.

      Once the sun began to set, it went down quickly. And as soon as the sky was dark, the anthem filled the arena. Sage watched the sky as the Capitol symbol was projected across the arena, and was then followed by the faces and district number of each of the tributes who had died. The boy from District Eleven, Deedee had called him Carver. The girl from District Ten, followed by the girl from District Eight. Then Ryder's face appeared— that was the five that they had known about. Sage watched, almost with one eye closed— if it was Marena or Deedee, he wasn't sure if he wanted to see their face. But luckily, it wasn't. Instead it was both tributes from District Seven.

Good, Sage thought. Immediately hating himself for thinking it. He was glad it wasn't Marena or Deedee— but there were still seven tributes dead. That meant there were seven family's and their friends who had lost someone. But it wasn't you. Sage told himself, "You're still alive..." he muttered to himself. As much as he hated being relieved about the death of seven other kids. He knew that meant he was seven tributes closer to going home.

*edited*