And the Waters Flow

Nicanor ran behind Lori, partly to look out for anything that may be chasing them and partly because he was terrified what Lori was going to do to him after that incident. The years of running back in district 12 was paying off. he was able to keep up with Lori and feel like he still had something left in the tank. They finally got out of the thicket, the sun shining into his eyes nearly blinding him. When he opened his eyes it took a bit to get the black spots that he saw to disappear and show the world around him. What that revealed was a waterfall that was looked like a rainbow that would shimmer in the sunlight after a little rain shower. He was a little shocked at the beautiful colors that this area held. "What a colorful place for somewhere where people will kill each other", he thought to himself. He then looked over at Lori, knowing that she was bound to do something to him for the way he acted. He braced himself while she walked up to him. He noticed that she had her fist clenched and he knew that he would be struck near the face. She pulled back fist back by her head, he closed his eyes when she started to bring it forward. He felt her strike him in the face, but it was not the strike of an clenched fist, but a strike with an open palm. His face was tingly and numb, but he could still feel the pain through his cheek. "What was that back there" she said to him while he tried to recover. He was not going to lie to here and try to play it off as something that it was not. So he replied to her nervously, "I do not quite understand what i did or why i did it either. I just found myself extremely hyper, which i think was from the poison from that mutt, and i just did it. But i know that if I had not been affected by the poison I would never have even thought of it. I do not know why it happened and it seemed to be a blur to me and then all of a sudden i am pinning you to the ground and thinking 'she is going to kill me'."

Nicanor could see that Robin was right by the water, looking like he wanted to try and drink some of the water. He thought about how he was thirsty himself and went into his bag and grabbed his water bottle. He took a little sip of the water, knowing that he needed to conserve some of the water for later. He quickly but it back and looked up to see Lori scooping some water into her bottle. He shouted towards her, "No, don't do it!" But it was too late. She had already taken a drink of the water that she got from the waterfall. he ran over beside her, waiting for any sort of ill effect that may or may not occur in the few moments to come.

nicanor was shocked that nothing bad had happened to Lori. Maybe the gamemakers did not have it out for them after all. He figured if it was safe to drink that water that he had currently. He opened up the water bottle and put it against his lips. The wetness of the water felt good on his lips that were starting to crack from being to dry. He kept drinking until every single last drop of liquid slid down the back of his throat, making him nearly bloated. He then went to the stream while answering Lori with a simple, "Okay." He dipped his empty bottle into the blue stream of the water fall and collected the water until his bottle was overflowing.

Nicanor admired the fish that Robin had fetched out of the water for them. It looked really good and fish was a great source of nutrients that they would need to help them survive. He noticed that Lori had started to look for something to get a fire started, so he went with her to give her a hand. He did not know how to talk to her anymore after the little stunt he pulled in the thicket. He used most of his brain power that was not looking for kindle to think of something to start a conversation with her. He decided to say something from his heart, something that he felt, "Can you ever forgive me Lori?"

Nicanor watched as Lori nodded her head as she was implying that she was going to be able to forgive him. He felt a sense of relief come over him as she touched his cheek with her hand. The warmth from her hand felt nice upon his cheek that seemed to be cold for some reason. He gave her a little smile back, acknowledging what she was trying to show. She turned back to a piece of wood that was lying on the ground. But once she grabbed it started to melt in her hand. "What kind of wood is this", he thought to himself in the back of his mind. Robin started chewing on it, and it became apparent that it was not wood at all but some sort of chocolate that just looked like wood. She found some wood and something to start a fire with and quickly had the fire going. He could feel his stomach rumble with hunger as she started to cook the fish over the open flame. She took the fish off the fire as he reached to grab his portion of it. That is when she said, "You will get some in a minute. I have to make sure it is safe enough for you to eat." He did not understand what she meant, until she took a bite from the fish before Nic could do anything to stop her.

Nicanor knew immediately that the fish had some sort of side effect on Lori. She seemed... a lot more talkative and open than she usually was and she did not make sense for some of it. "What did she mean 'Is this what it is like to be normal'", he thought to himself, "Could be pretty much anything I guess." He pondered what she meant when she made her way slowly paced towards him and sat down next to him. She seemed almost hyper with how she could not sit still and wanted to get moving right away. "We barely just got here", he said in response to her wanting to move. Whatever that fish did to her was similar to what the venom had done to him and he did not want any part of that again. Things did not work out well for him last time and probably would not work out well for him this time if he ate it. For the time being, he would just stick with his partly ate box of crackers for food. Then she commented on how cute he was, which was extremely strange since she did not tell people what she thought and was a closed book when it came to her feelings. "Uh... Thank you", he replied to her.

Nicanor almost did not know how to react to Lori, it was one of the very few times where he was speechless. "Well... uh... you are quite cute yourself", he said in response to Lori who was know doing snow angels in the grass. "Are you okay", he asked in a worried voice. He never had seen Lori like this before and he kinda liked how open she was right now and how she was finally just speaking her mind. He gave a small grin as she continued to do her snow angels. For the first time in awhile, he found himself feeling happy and that something good might actually come there way in this god forsaken arena.

Nicanor nearly blushed as Lori leaned in and kissed him. Her lips felt so warm when they touched him, almost as warm as any meal that he had had back home. He gave her a big smile as they separated and she tugged on his hand while saying "lets go." He did not even think to ask where they were going, he just knew that he would go to the end of the world and back for this girl. This girl who just a few weeks ago almost fainted at the site of him. Since he looked so much like her brother that had died in these very games in the dreaded bloodbath.