Safe and Sound

Chapter Twenty Two - Blue Moon
I woke up on day twelve in the arena, to find that Grayson wasn't in the sleeping bag. I was used to it, though. He did it quite often. He was one of those people who were used to either not getting much sleep or waking up really early. Perhaps even both. As I was waking myself up by rolling up the sleeping bag and putting it into my backpack, I heard the cannon go off. My back immediately straightened and my head snapped up, almost cracking my neck. Was Grayson okay? I quickly pulled on my backpack and quiver on over the top, before picking up my bow. Grayson's backpack wasn't here with me and neither was his belt. Had he left me and managed to get himself killed? I started to get frantic. I jumped out of the tree and then put my belt on. I stormed forwards and into the trees.

"Grayson!" I called out. "Grayson? Grayson, where are you? Grayson!" I started to pick up my pace to a gentle jog that didn't feel quite so gentle. My heart pounded in my ribcage and my lungs seemed to be gasping loudly. "Grayson!" I shouted.

"Harper?" I turned around and towards where Grayson's voice was coming from. I sprinted towards it to see that Grayson was standing by the tree we had slept in, looking completely unscathed. I ran forwards and head butted his chest, almost sobbing. I held back my tears of relief back as I took in the fact that Grayson was alive and doing pretty well.

"Grayson Stengard, you almost scared the last bits of life out of me! I do not need to be panicking first thing in the morning, especially when the cannon goes off." I scolded, but I wasn't mad. I leaned against a tree and did what Grayson had done the day before, fanning myself with a big leaf. Grayson smiled sheepishly. "Anyway, where were you?" Grayson held out the Katniss flowers.

"What can I say, I like Katniss flowers." Grayson said, casing me to chuckle slightly. "Who do you think it is?" Grayson then asked me. I shrugged in response.

"I have no clue. I mean, there's now nine tributes left, aren't there?" I answered. The forest went eerily silent as the hovercraft dipped down into the trees. As it rose, I swore I could see a wave of chocolate brown shine in the sunlight. My jaw dropped and I choked on my own breath out of pure shock. "I-Is that Caritta?" I exclaimed. As the hovercraft disappeared overhead, my worries were confirmed by the sheet of brown hair that glistened in the wind. I stood were I was staring at the I was about to take a step forwards, but Grayson pulled onto my shoulder.

"Harper, you're going to end up hurting yourself. I can tell." He said, completely calmly, but I turned on my heel and glared at him.

"That girl-" I pointed in the direction of the hovercraft, blinking back tears. "-saved my life. I only knew her for a few minutes, but I swear, she is probably the nicest person in this arena. She had no reason to save my life, but she did it anyway. She could have sat and watched me being torn to pieces. But no, she came up and killed it. She, for you information, was the one who told me that you were still well. She let me know that you were doing well and so I wanted to come after you. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be here right now. So for heaven's sake give, me a few minutes!" I was crying by the end of it. My voice had grown into a maniacal shriek that caused several mockingjays to fly overhead and away. Grayson stood there, silent. He didn't stop me as I stormed off. I walked towards a tree and sat down in front of it, leaning against it. I sat there in silence for a couple of minutes, before the regret hit me. I turned around and punched the tree, crying out in anguish. My knuckled started to bleed, but I didn't care. I had let myself become attached to the girl. I didn't even know anything about her past or her present, besides her name and District, but she saved me. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be here.

I slumped against the tree, knocking my head against it a few times. I ignored the pain that I was giving myself and continued to knock my head. I shouldn't have snapped at Grayson, he was just looking out at me like all good allies would do. I guess Caritta's death took me by surprise and that seemed to be my instinctive reaction. I had to sort that out. So much had happened in a space of a few minutes and it was making my head feel weird. Well, maybe the bruise on the back of my head was making me feel that way, but the shock wasn't helping. I wanted Grayson to come over to me so I could apologise, but that wasn't going to happen. He was probably going to wait for me, perhaps not at all.

The pain on the back of my head was starting to become overwhelming. I then moved forwards so I was lying in the foetal position, where I curled up and closed my eyes, not wanting to face reality. Not wanting to face the Games. I eventually started to breathe slower and the pain on the back of my head dulled my other senses. The tears that had started to spill dampened my face, but I didn't care. I just concentrated on picturing myself back home, in my forest. And that was how I fell into a dark and dreamless sleep.

_______

I woke up, my head throbbing and the sky dark. I sit up slowly, only to have a searing pain race through my head. I shouldn't have battered myself so much. I now probably had concussion or something. I took a couple of deep breaths, before sitting up gingerly and very carefully. That was when I noticed I was in the sleeping bag and something had been placed under my head as a makeshift pillow. At second glance, I saw that it was a jacket. It wasn't my jacket, though. It was Grayson's. I looked about frantically, only to yelp in pain and clutch my head. I shouldn't have battered myself. It was stupid of me to hurt myself over something I couldn't prevent. I then froze for a second, feeling something under my fingers. A bandage!

"Harper, shh. You're okay. Easy now, lay back down. You're okay." A soft voice whispered from beside me as a hand helped me rest my head back down onto the jacket.

"Grayson?" I whispered as I curled back up. "Grayson, you came back?" I reached out and patted the air, before I finally felt Grayson take my hand, squeezing it gently.

"Why wouldn't I? We're allies, remember? When you banged your head on the tree did you forget that or something?" Grayson squeezed my hand. "We're on the ground because I thought I would hurt you if I tried to get you up onto a branch. I've been keeping watch. You threw up a little in your sleep, so I had to move you. Don't worry, you're good now. How's the head?" I blinked up at him, squinting at him in the moonlight. The dark of the night and the dim glow of the moon caused his features to look shadowy and paler than usual.

"Since when have you been a doctor?" I asked. "No, don't answer. And yes, my head's feeling okay, thanks to you. It just hurts when I move too much. I'm just...just...I'm sorry. I really am, I was just shocked and I mean. I shouldn't have taken that sort of tone with you. I really am sorry, I can't believe you came back after me having a total fit at you. I'm-"

"I swear if you say sorry one more time I shall remove that bandage and leave you here without a sleeping bag." Grayson threatened, but he didn't sound scary. He just sounded like an owner scolding their dog for knocking over a glass or something. Not mad and angry, just firm. "I forgive you. I've had much worse, trust me." This time it was me squeezing Grayson's hand.

"But that doesn't make what I did right. I'm generally sorry." I then let go of Grayson and quickly grabbed the sleeping bag, pulling it up to my chin, before Grayson could do anything, causing him to chuckle slightly.

"I didn't actually mean it, you know." Grayson said, pulling the sleeping bag down from my chin and tucking me in at the sides. "You should get some rest. It will allow your head to heal quicker. It bled a little bit, but there was nothing major. It just needs a little bit of time and you'll be all ready to go fight a mutt or something." I rolled my eyes and snuggled into the sleeping bag.

* * *

As time passed, the night got darker, but my head seemed to vet better. After about an hour and a half, I was hardly feeling any pain at all. It was just sudden movements that did it for me. I no longer needed Grayson's jacket as a pillow. So now, Grayson and I sat, quite still, in the small clearing. The moonlight shone down on us and the trees cast odd shadows here and there. I was staring at nothing in particular, when Grayson tapped my shoulder gently. He obviously thought I was still quite fragile.

"Look Harper," He said, "Through the trees." He pointed to a small gap in the trees, where the moon shone down upon us. I looked through the canopy of leaves to see that the moon was large, full and had a light blue tint. Yes, the light was dim, but it was beautiful. I smiled to myself slightly.

"It's blue." I replied, "People say that a blue moon is romantic or something. I'm not too sure, but that's what I've heard." Grayson's eyebrows rose up and into his mop of brown hair.

"Do they? I don't see how that can be true. It's just the moon...except for the fact it's got a more blue hue than usual." He shrugged. "I was merely pointing out that it looked nicer than it usually did." I laughed to myself quietly.

"Well, I guess people think it's romantic because a blue moon is actually quite rare. Hence the phrase 'once in a blue moon'. I guess we should be honoured that we are looking upon one right now. However, it might just be part of the arena, a mere alteration that the Capitol have made. But I must say, if it is an alteration, they've made it look quite pretty." I explained, squinting at the blue moon. Grayson was nodding slowly from beside me.

"Oh. Okay." Grayson then looked down at the ground, before looking back up at the sky, his eyes squinted and his eyebrows furrowed. He then got to his feet and held a hand out to me. I blinked up at him, confused. Grayson made a noise somewhere between a giggle and a chuckle. "Just do it, you'll see. You won't need your backpack, quiver or you bow. We're not going anywhere."

"Why?" I asked, suspiciously. Grayson smiled and flexed his fingers.

"Come on. You know you want to. You're curious." He smiled down at me. "Please."

I sighed and took Grayson's hand. He then helped me to my feet, slowly and carefully. I looked at him and he smiled right back. He then took my left hand in his right and moved my right hand to his left shoulder. I was now seriously confused. he then placed his left hand on my waist. I almost tensed, but I knew Grayson wasn't going to do anything. He wasn't going to spring as surprise attack on me and pierce a knife right through my heart, even though he probably could if he wanted. No, definitely could if he wanted.

Grayson raised our conjoined hands to about shoulder height. I then realised when he was making us do. We looked like we were going to do some sort of dance, perhaps a waltz from many years ago. I smiled at this wonderful, wonderful boy. He, in all seriousness, had just prepared us to dance. We were in the middle of the Hunger Games and all he wanted to do was dance.

But that bad thing was that...I wanted to dance with him.

"You understand now, don't you?" He leaned right into my ear and whispered so quietly that I doubted that the Capitol could hear, "You can't blame me when they went and set the mood." He then pulled away and, with that, whistled and sang a few pretty notes. He then paused. That was when I noticed that it was completely silent. The mockingjays were listening. My smile turned into a huge grin when I heard the first mockingjay repeating the tune back to us. Then the next. Then the next.

The little tune mixed and bounced between the birds, creating a beautiful song. The notes and rhythm overlapped, creating a beautiful mixture of bird calls.

"So, do you want to, you know." Grayson asked, giving my hand and waist a small squeeze. I smiled up at him, genuinely happy and finally forgetting that we were in an arena with bloodthirsty children. But that didn't matter right now. I could have cried, but I had already cried my amount during these Games. Now Grayson was giving me hope, and in a great quantity at that.

"Of course." And with that, despite our previous injuries and sickness, we started to dance in time to the chorus of the mockingjays. When I said we danced, I mean that we stumbled about somewhat gracefully around the clearing. We even at times had a graceful sway. We weren't the best dancers, in fact we must have been quite close to being the worst, but at least we were trying. Yes, it wasn't one of the District 12 dances that everyone in our District was good at, but it was something nonetheless.

Every time the music began to die out, Grayson repeated his tune and the birds would instantly start singing again. Grayson didn't seem to be the best singer in the words, but the tune made Grayson sound pretty much irresistible. The mockingjays must have thought it was beautiful, because whenever Grayson repeated the tune each time, they seemed eager to start up again.

"How long have you been planning this?" I asked him as he twirled me around gently and carefully. I had to speak a little bit louder than usual to be heard over the mockingjays. Grayson let go of my waist for a second so he could brush a strand of escaped hair from my face and behind my ear, before he answered.

"Since about twenty minutes ago." He replied, smiling slightly. I grinned as we continued to dance about. We did so for a long while, before all we could mange was to sway side to side, shifting our weight from one foot to the other. Suddenly, the anthem of Panem started, cutting our mockingjays short. Grayson and I had jumped, crashed into each other and stumbled. But luckily and like always, Grayson caught me. "We do actually have to stop doing that."

We straightened ourselves out and looked up at the sky as Caritta's face suddenly looked down at us, the name of her District glowing. I let go of Grayson's hand and stepped forward slightly, walking quietly. As I did so, I felt my left hand raise. The first three fingers found their way to my lips, before my arm started to rise higher, saluting to the dead girl that had saved my life. I had walked a few paces, so I stopped. I still left my salute in the air, thanking the girl. Giving her a goodbye. Giving her the appreciation nobody else would.

"I'm sorry." I whispered to Caritta, to her District, to my District, to all those people of Panem that were starving as I stood here. When the anthem died out and the picture faded, I left my arm there. But it was slowly falling back to my side as I continued to look up at the sky, as if expecting something to fall from it.

And something did.

A small, silver parachute came fluttering down and landed right in my hands. The material from the parachute fluttered in the slight breeze. I fumbled for the pot and opened it, my hands shaking. Inside was a note that I opened first.

We hear you, Flaming Mockingjay. We hear you loud and clear. Until the end. The very end.

I looked back up to the starry sky, the blue moon, the frosty rings surrounding the moon that were caused by the blue tint. They heard me. They heard me and they sounded as if they were on my side. They accepted my apology and they were with me until the end. The very end.

I then looked back in the pot and there sat a black feather. It had the white specks and meant only one thing; it was a mockingjay feather. I picked it up and smiled. I looked round to Grayson, who was looking at me with some form of amazement evident on his expression. I looked back up to the sky.

"And I hear you, District Eleven."