The town the advantage of being close and had plenty of shelter to offer. A downside, was that the careers may have already staked out areas of it. And although it felt secure, Katniss wasn't sure what traps could be lurking in the ruined town. The mountains seemed like a long shot, anything could happen between now and then. She really wasn't sure but her gut was telling her to take a gamble and go with the mountains. She hoped Gale and Prim would see them and head that was as well, as opposed to sticking to what felt safe, but was surely dangerous. Of course the whole arena was dangerous but nature was what Katniss and Gale knew best. "Mountains." She replied and looked at the horizon and squinted.
"It could take us a day, and that's if we don't run into trouble." She considered. Of course she was anticipating trouble in the guise of blood thirsty tributes, traps and terrifying creatures but for now, they couldn't try to predict anything, as it would only distract them from the present. The goal was now known and Katniss was sure they could focus and keep moving steadily and carefully. Had the girl not drowned, they could have checked her for anything useful. Scavenging bodies was uncommon though, as most were evacuated before anyone could get to them, aside from the initial convergence at the cornucopia. "There's nothing here for us." That much was certain. She bent over and touched the water with her finger tips and then brought them to her nose.
The water didn't smell bad but she didn't think still water was good to be drinking.
"I have this picture in my head of Johanna, she's already at the mountains, sitting on some rock made throne with Finnick fanning her and feeding her things while a pile of bodies sits under her." She joked. Humor was hard to come by. Both Haymitch and herself were evidently finding it hard to find a middle ground. Being in the arena was giving them a different dynamic they weren't used to. And they had just started getting use to intimacy, Katniss hoped this ordeal wouldn't drive a wedge between them. They needed each other, inside the arena but also outside of it. "This water is no good." She concluded and wiped her hand on her pants and kept moving, pushing the few bushes out of their way as they kept moving toward the tall grass in the distance.
"Anything could be hiding up there. Let's keep close."
Seeing the jabberjay was a sign, an ominous one.
As Primrose mentioned what the berries could do, he nodded, thinking about how useful they would be. It was better to have them and not need them, than to need them and not have them. She then mentioned a moment, like so many, back home. His lips smiled but only briefly. Gale moved to where Prim was and helped her get some but she seemed much quicker, and less clumsy. "I keep squishing them." He laughed at himself and wondered if Peeta was laughing right now. The blond baker was good with his hands, nimble, while Gale was better at making traps, as opposed to being gentle with berries or making things cute. The further thing Gale could do well, was skin animals. So he stepped back and just held the bag open for Prim to finish gathering.
After she finished, she zipped it up and he put his pack back on and looked around.
Prim didn't want to linger and he knew why. Those birds could be real horrible, they could mess with your mind and Gale didn't want to provoke them. "I'd rather have them, than tracker jackers." He said. Both creations were bad enough but he didn't think surviving a tracker jacker would be easy. Katniss' survival last year was due to Rue, if it weren't for her, Katniss would have died. He swallowed and gave Prim a nod, wanting to just move on, all the same. "If we see anything, we still need to stop. If those are hanging around, it's a possible sign that the Gamemasters are hiding something useful and just want us to be scared off."
Or possibly tortured. Either way, Gale didn't want to run off and miss a key herb or rabbit or something. He patted her shoulder and headed back along the general direction they had been heading. Gale kept an eye out for anything else. About three minutes later, he looked up and saw two more jabberjays in the tree. He froze and looked to Prim, knowing they needed to keeping. "Don't worry about-" He stopped himself when he saw a squirrel scamper along another one of the long branches. It made sense, try to go for the game and the birds would surely begin their tricks. He looked back to Prim, unsure if she wanted to keep moving quickly, or try to get the food, risking the birds spotting them. Clearly The Capitol wasn't going easy on anyone and he had a sickening feeling of what he'd be forced to hear if those birds opened their beaks.
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