A/N: just a trigger warning I guess coz there's some relatively graphic descriptions of someone butchering fish in paragraphs 4-7, just if that makes anyone uncomfy.
There's no super gory details about how it looks or anything g like that; just the process of hurting and butchering and all that :)

The sound of crunching gravel was what woke him up.

Eden's whole body jerked as he readied himself to fight before his eyes even opened, the only thing that allowed him to relax was a familiar scoff, and his shoulders immediately drooped as the realization set in. "You have really terrible reflexes," Beau scoffed, an object too blurry for him to process right away grasped in hand.

Upon blinking twice, he realized it was the fishing net he'd made the night before, only this time there were 4 wriggling fish in it. "Shush," Eden grumbled, rubbing his eyes while simultaneously settling Flora down onto the cave floor with his jacket as a pillow. "I'm used to waking up to aggressive cows, not grown men with fish nets," he huffed.

Beau just snorted to himself and sat down next to the opening of the cave, his feet bumping Ivy's calves, though she didn't wake up. He watched curiously as he grabbed the first of the fish and without a moments hesitation, took one of the knives from Rin's bag and drove it through the fish's skull, then wiggled the blade side to side.

Much of it was similar to the butchering they carried out in District 10, what they were all taught in schools so they'd be ready for the day they turned eighteen. If they turned eighteen.

So Eden watched as Beau then nicked an artery in the fish in order to bleed it out, before repeating the same process with the other three fish. When he'd finished, he returned to the first one and sliced it open down the belly and removed its insides, dropping those into a pile just outside the cave, and the split it down the length of its spine.

Then he carefully plucked out the bones and sliced it into sizeable pieces before moving on to the second one.

"Want me to light a fire for that?" Eden asked while stifling a yawn into his palm.

He received a nod, so he set to work.

He grabbed a few sticks and twigs Rin had scavenged from the beach the night before and got himself organized at the back of the cave and carefully lit the fire. The smoke was enough to wake everyone up, and they all quickly exited the cave while Flora just laid beside it and basked in its warmth.

"Good morning, sweetheart," he murmured softly, unable to keep himself from smiling. "Did you sleep okay?"

She blinked tiredly and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "My back hurts, but other than that I'm okay." Her grey eyes drifted around the cave for a little bit, as if she were trying to figure out where she was, before they finally landed on him and widened just the slightest bit. "Did I miss...did anyone...was there..."

"Just one last night," Beau answered bluntly from the mouth of the cave. "We don't know who yet, but I guess we'll find out tonight. You hungry?" He sauntered over and began grabbing small sticks and piecing them together until they created something he'd seen called a grill, and settled the fish onto it.

Flora nodded soundlessly, and Eden couldn't help but smile as she was handed a chunk of fish that had already been smoked, though he didn't know when. "You want any?" She mumbled to him, but he softly shook his head. "No, that's okay. I'll wait 'til the next bit is done. You eat, okay? Stop trying to share with people."

She frowned at him, but did what she was told, anyway.

He situated himself more comfortably with his back against the cave wall, and gently tugged Flora over to him. She fit herself into his arms almost immediately, as if she would be doing it every chance she had for the rest of her life.

It sent sharp pang through his chest, and hew as sure it was visible on his face, but he managed to quickly push it away. He knew that he should be appreciating the time he would get to spend with her, rather than dwell on all the time he wouldn't, but realizing the number of chances he had to hold Flora was now limited made him want to throw up.

Instead, he just buried his face in her hair and closed his eyes, inhaling the familiar scent that was sweet and comforting and so uniquely her. His heart hammered in his chest as he all but crushed her against him, and she felt her gentle fingers card through his tangled locks of hair in a swift manor. "What's on your mind, honey?" She asked him softly, her lips pressing a short kiss to his temple.

"I love you," is all he permitted himself to say in front of the rest, because he was sure he'd end up in tears if he said any more.

For the next few hours the seven of them slowly packed up their camp while periodically restocking the fire, and the only one who wasn't given a task was Flora. She was just resting her feet and preparing her somewhat frail body for the exhausting walk ahead.

Eden kept himself busy by gathering some berries he remember distinctly being edible that grew in thorny bushes a few hundred yards away from the cave, one of Rin's knives tucked into the belt of his pants. Apparently Ivy hadn't been able to sleep much that night either, because she'd taken a portion of the plastic sheeting and melted the sides together with a hot knife, and turned it into a small little baggie perfect for holding small things like berries. His fingers moved swiftly, pulling the deep purple spheres off their branches while keeping his ears perked for any sign of noise or hostile attackers.

But after an hour he hadn't heard anything, he felt it was safe to assume there was a much more entertaining fight going on somewhere else in the arena. The cannon went off not ten minutes later, proving his point.

They didn't stay in their cave much longer after that. The fish had been thoroughly smoked, though Beau had wanted it to sit a while longer but knew they didn't have the time. So as he divided it into seven portions and packed it in more of the bags ivy had made, the rest of them packed up their belongings in the camp. Rin was assigned the job of making sure everyone's canteen was at least half full of the water they'd collected over night, while Lara and Ivy spent their time with Volt gathering sticks and logs to cover the mouth of the cave.

Eden helped packed up everyone's sleeping supplies so it would all be done quickly, and laid their backpacks out against the cave wall to be grabbed when it was time to go.

Within a half an hour, the entirety of the cave's opening was completely invisible, thanks to Ivy's knack for engineering. Eden once again carried both his bag and Flora's, and went slowly below her with Beau as they climbed back up the same portion of wall they gone down the night before.

The air was still full of a light mist that chilled everything to the touch. It made the cliff face slippery under their fingers and cause their assent to be much slower than they'd estimated. Rin almost fell off a couple of times due to her not having the same muscle mass as the rest of them did, so she was moved up to the middle with Flora and the two were given as much assistance as was possible.

By the time they were on solid ground again, Edens finger tips were scraped up and he had a dirt mark on his forehead where Rin had accidentally slipped and stepped on it, but he didn't mind because they'd all made it up alive. It was much warmer out now that it was mid day, which made the most warm and their clothes stick to their clammy bodies.

Flora walked ahead with the three girls again, and he couldn't help but smile at her tired but peaceful eyes as he fell into step with Beau once again. Rather than talking, as he could see the boy next to him, he simply basked in the eerie silence that he wasn't sure would last long at all. He licked his cracking lips while looking around uneasily as it felt like something g was watching them.

Before he could voice his thoughts, something shifted beyond a canopy of trees in the distance, and he caught a glimpse of sandy fur before the figure was gone.

Not really knowing what to do, he looked over at Beau and lightly nudged his arm, drawing his attention over to the figure as well. "Nobody move," he instructed in a hiss, and Eden watched as he stalked up to Volt and pointed out the shape off in the distance.

There was a rustling of bushes again.

A shift in the breeze.

A twig cracked.

Then a massive figure with fur the colour of the sand he'd seen on the beach cane flying out of the bushes at them, claws extended as it let out a ferocious, feline snarl. Eden reached for his blade but before he even had the chance, Volt had hurtled his spear at the massive...cat? Can I even call that thing a cat — at an astonishing speed.

The weapon sunk into his chest mid air and they all paused, breathing heavily as it dropped to the ground and didn't move aside from the occasional twitch of a muscle.

Eden had Flora in his arms before he'd even realized he'd moved, and held her tightly as she hid her face in his chest. "Okay, what the hell was that thing?" He heaved out, eyes wide and terrified.

He couldn't look away from it. Volt stalked forward and pulled the spear from the animals chest with a single swift tug, and a spurt of blood followed. "It's called a cougar, I think," Rin answered softly, looking down at it with wide eyes. "They live all around my district...I've seen them on my way to school once or twice."

He couldn't help but stare at her in astonishment, having Flora still crushed into his chest because he was afraid of letting her out of his grasp. "Seriously? Those things are just...out there are you kidding me? On the other side of a wall and you're all okay with that?"

"It's an electrified fence, actually," Rin corrected him plainly. She knelt down and carefully pulled its gums back from its teeth, and then looked it over carefully. "I doesn't look like a mutt or anything, so I'd say it's safe to eat."

Volt, who'd already wiped the blood off his spear using a handful of moss from a tree, nodded once in agreement. "Of course it's not a mutt, it's only day two...but I'd say we just got ourselves dinner."

From beside him, Beau lightly kicked it's back leg. "We'll have to eat it fast," he uttered, beads of water dripping from his hair onto his face and neck.

It took all three of them to carry the cougar through the forest for an hour, since the three boys all alternated while Rin scouted ahead with her quiet footsteps, Ivy and Lara keeping an eye on Flora while also making sure nothing would sneak up on them from either side.

They walked and walked and walked until the sun was beginning to set, and only then did they stop so Flora could rest her feet. She'd been determined to walk the entire time since they boys were already dealing with the weight of the cougar, but it meant that they were walking a little slower than any of them would've liked.

Eden could feel the ache blooming in the souls of his feet as they trudged on, mud squishing beneath their boots with every single step. It took all three girls to keep Flora from slipping each time she moved, and himself and Beau to help keep Volt balanced as he hauled the cougar carcass between tree after tree, over rock beds and puddles and patches of slippery moss.

He wound up piggy-backing Rin for an hour or so after she started shivering, her clothes that were already too big for her frail body soaked through with mist and clinging to her clammy body.

It was getting quite cold out now that the artificial sun — or was it the real one? — was slowly drifting behind the clouds, and Eden could hear her teeth chattering in his ear as they went. But they kept going because what other choice did they have?

After a while Rin decided she wanted to go for a jog and nibble at some of the smoked fish in order to get her heart pumping blood quickly enough to have her lips and fingers go back to their normal colour instead of a cold blue. So he'd set her down and watched her closely, the same way he would whenever Eve ran off to go play amongst the calves in the paddocks, and they continued on.

But they didn't have to walk much further than they already had because within the hour, Rin was calling to say she'd found some kind of valley in the shape of a bowl just a few yards ahead of them, and they hauled their way over to the sound of her voice as quickly as they could.

The sun was good and set and as they set their belongings down into a pile with Flora, Rin and Ivy would stay with her while the rest of them agreed to walk 100 feet in different directions to check their perimeter. Eden was assigned the hill that was in the opposite direction of they way they'd come from, and he hauled his exhausted body up the muddy incline.

Admittedly, it took him longer to reach the top than he thought it should've, but he wasn't in the most prime physical condition, and he certainly wasn't used to mud.

But he reached the top, and when he did, he felt himself inhale a sharp breath because he realized that down the hill on the other side, across a large grassy field, was the Cornucopia.

They'd walked all the way back to the start.

He raced back down and met the others just as they got back, and he could feel himself trembling. "We're — the — it's the cornucopia, over there," he heaved, a hand pressing harshly into his chest. "We came all the way back."

Even though they were much better at hiding their panic than he was, he could tell Volt and Beau were still concerned. "Well, it's too late for us to go anywhere else...the others'll be traveling by night, it's better cover, so we should set up camp while we're semi-sheltered and get moving quickly in the morning," the former suggested, his expression as impassive as it had been since Eden met him.

When they all came to that conclusion, they set to work setting up camp, and Eden was tasked with butchering the kill. Flora patiently helped him without even the slightest bit of nausea, though she did hesitantly complain of a bit of cramping in her stomach. She assured him that it didn't feel anything like what her mother had described contractions feeling like, just a little bit uncomfortable.

Just as they were putting the cougar meat on over coals to slow-cook through the night and they ate what was left of the fish for supper, the Capitol anthem appeared in the sky and two peoples faces appeared in the sky; the boy from District 6, though Eden didn't know his name, and Penn, Rin's District partner.

They ate well that night. Eden took first guard and he watched Rin fall asleep without even the slightest of grumbles in her stomach, and tears rolling down her cheeks.