Delilah-anne Elora - District 11 - - - it had been so many minutes, almost agonizing as she waited. being in district eleven, you got to see all others meet their fate before you met your own. she knew she would die in the next few weeks. there was no way for someone like her to make it through. all the way through. and yet she kept trying? why was she? there was no one home for her to return to. any friends she made in the arena would be gone as well. perhaps it would be solace if she died. her sister would frolic through the fields to meet with delilah again, oh. oh. what a wonderful thing that would be. her lovely macy-lou. delilah closed her eyes, leaning against the cold, harsh chair. she might’ve even have fallen asleep. she woke to the words being shouted quite rudely. “Delilah-anne Elora!” annie tumbled to a start, rubbing her eyes. it was quite an embarrassment seeing all the other tributes remaining watching her. but lilah wanted to get as much sleep as she could before she met her end. sleep was just practice for death anyways. you just couldn’t wake up. delilah-anne exited the waiting room, glancing around at the other room she had entered, brows furrowing only slightly in confusion. before she did anything, she smiled politely at the gamemakers, dipping her head. “hello.” was the murmured greeting she gave. it only took her a few seconds after to try to take in her surroundings, seeing the stack of weapons and dummies around the area, how she would guess it would go. but. there was a balloon. a green one, floating in a corner. drifting aimlessly, much like delilah imagined herself. how quaint. annie took a few steps toward the balloon when immediately air gushed into the room. cold from below, immediately freezing her paws, and hot from the sides, making her eyes sting. it had to be something with the balloon, why else would it be there. except. where did it go? annie whipped her head around, ribbon in her hair flying around, barely held in by the knots she had tied earlier that day. perhaps she had to pop the balloon using the weapons? or just collect it? delilah-anne hopped from paw to paw, wincing. was it just her or were the gusts of wind getting stronger? her body swayed, causing her to yelp as she toppled over. annie was in no way sturdy and strong, and any of the muscle she might’ve gained the past weeks were completely useless if she was hanging in the air. annie yelped again when she got to her feet( just to get lifted into the air for a second and put back down. were the winds laughing at her? perhaps this was just a cruel joke. no. no, she had to find that balloon. delilah grabbed onto the vents on the ground, wrapping her claws to the best of her ability to keep her in place, but oh how it burned. she had yet to know that a cold burn could feel just like your paws were on fire. maybe if she just… delilah groaned as she pulled herself forward, in the direction where she had just figured out where the balloon was. her back legs weren’t necessarily working with her, floating in the air every so often. it didn’t help that the metal of the vents beneath her were becoming even colder. annie took a breath in, shuddering. come on. come on. imagine it’s a raging tide, a river unwilling to quit. your mother told you want to do in this position. annie clenched her eyes closed, trying to stop the stinging for a moment as she clawed a few more steps forward. then a few more. more. luckily, the balloon had become stuck in a corner, the tassel at the end wrapped around part of the vents. luck. she could use as much as she could have in the moment. almost there. a couple more tugs. during the time delilah-anne had been crawling, she had been getting closer to the fan on the side of the walls. extremely close. hot wind blew in her face, burning her eyes. but she was so close. if only she had taken one more crawl, one more tug of her muscles, she would’ve been fine, she could’ve held on for another few minutes. but she was oh so tired, her bones ached. so she did something she knew she would regret. annie lunged forward, trying to grab hold of the tassel of the balloon a sob wrenched from her throat as her hind paw became stuck in the gaps of the vent, twisting as she tried to yank it free. annie bit lightly into her shoulder to conceal the scream she wanted to let out. the only good thing was she had the balloon, safely in her paws. how long would she have to hold it? keep it? the wind wasn’t letting up, and annie needed to do something about her paw. she took a deep breath. and another, wiping away the tear that had formed on her cheek and counted down from three. once she hit one, delilah yanked as hard as she could, as best as she could, and thanked whoever was watching over her as her paw came free. - - - cont below :]
please read above first!! ty <3 - - - then immediately cursed whoever was looking over her as the combined weight of her freeing her paw forcefully and the wind shoved her across the room, straight into the rack of weapons. she yowled in pain, her back hitting the weapons harshly, sending them scattering. the wind still wasn’t letting up. and it was so hard to hold the balloon, the rubber continually slipping whenever she tried to hold it tight to her body. nevermind the fact her back paw still ached in pain. delilah-anne glanced around, green gaze settling on a dagger nearby. an idea formed in her head, though she just hoped it wasn’t one that would get her disqualified. annie craned her paw towards the dagger, groaning as she realized she was just out of reach. she crawled her way along the vents, containing the sobs of frustration and hurt she wanted to let out. it took her a few seconds, but she finally grasped the dagger. a few more seconds later, the balloon was popped, a loud bang echoing around the room. annie wrapped the tassel of the balloon around her paw, wrapping it in a tight knot as she grabbed the dagger, raised it above her head, placed the balloon on the vents and drove the dagger into the balloon and metal vents. she angled the dagger slightly so it would get jammed between the gaps, holding the balloon in place. delilah gathered up the pieces of the balloon that had came off of the larger piece when she had popped it, luckily only being three pieces, all enough in size she could place them securely in her mouth, even if it tasted horrible. she made sure to keep a paw on the popped balloon being held down by the dagger, waiting with clenched eyes for everything to end. 33 seconds later, the wind died down, and delilah collapsed to the floor, exhausted, hurting, and shaky. brave the current. brave the storm. don’t let it drag you under. “oh mami.” annie whispered, the first words she had spoken since the challenge had started, if you didn’t count the yowls of pain. delilah yanked the dagger out of the vent, frowning when she saw it had chipped a little. hopefully they wouldn’t force her to reimburse her for that. she grabbed the balloon, spit out the pieces from her mouth and placed them down in a shape that could’ve almost resembled a heart. the gamemakers wouldn’t know if that was her intention or not. /she/ didn’t even know if it was her intention. nevertheless, she looked up with shaky legs, shaky everything and smiled once again. not rudely, not sarcastically. a polite smile she gave most cats, dipping her head like she had before. “thank you.” she said in a hushed voice, hobbling out of the room, trying her best not to collapse or even limp. alive another day.
