Annabeth's P.O.V The forest looked wrong. It wasn’t the standard wilderness of Camp Half-Blood, nor was it the ancient, monster-infested woods I usually found myself in. The trees were too perfectly spaced, the air smelled faintly of ozone, and there was a strange, synthetic hum vibrating right beneath my feet. I crouched behind a thick oak tree, my hand instinctively gripping the hilt of my drakon-bone sword. I was tracking a monster—something large, fast, and distinctly unnatural—when a sharp thwip sliced through the air. An arrow embedded itself exactly two inches from my left ear, burying itself deep into the bark. "Don't move," a harsh, female voice commanded from above. I looked up cautiously. Perched in the high branches of a neighboring tree was a girl. She wore a strange, dark jumpsuit, and her dark hair was pulled into a single braid down her back. Her gray eyes—not the stormy, analytical gray of my mother Athena, but a cold, survivalist gray—were locked onto me. She had another arrow notched, the bowstring drawn back to her ear with practiced ease. "I'm not looking for a fight," I said, keeping my voice steady and leveling my gaze. "But if you shoot me, you'll regret it." She didn't lower the bow. "Who are you? What district are you from? I haven't seen you on the screens." "District?" I echoed, my brow furrowing. "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm Annabeth. I'm from New York." The girl’s eyes narrowed, searching my face for a lie. "New York? Is that a new sector? What kind of game is the Capitol playing?" Before I could ask what a Capitol was, a terrifying roar echoed through the valley. The ground trembled. The synthetic hum in the air suddenly spiked, making the hairs on my arms stand up. The girl in the tree went pale. "They're coming." "What is?" I asked, shifting into a combat stance. "Mutts," she whispered, dropping down from the branch with surprising agility. She kept her bow raised, looking around wildly. "The Gamemakers must have triggered a finale. We need to run." "Mutts?" I asked, my mind racing. A mutt was just a dog. Why would she be terrified of dogs? A second later, I got my answer. Bursting through the undergrowth came a creature straight out of a nightmare. It had the massive, muscular body of a wolf, but it walked with a horrifyingly human gait. Its fur was a sickening, iridescent purple, and when it opened its jaws, it revealed rows of jagged, metallic teeth. Worst of all, its eyes weren't animalistic—they were wide, desperate, and filled with a twisted, human intelligence. "What kind of curse created that?" I breathed, horror chilling my blood. It wasn't a Greek monster. It didn't smell like Tartarus. It smelled like chemicals and rot. "It's a dog! Why a dog?" I yelled, drawing my blade. "It's a biological weapon!" the braid-haired girl yelled back, already firing. Her arrow pierced the creature's shoulder. It didn't drop. It howled—a sound that sounded horribly like a human screaming in agony—and charged straight for her. "Hey! Over here, ugly!" I shouted. I lunged forward, executing a flawless side-step, and sliced my drakon-bone sword across the creature's hind leg. The blade cut deep, but instead of dissolving into golden monster dust like a normal monster would, it bled thick, dark blood. It whirled on me, snapping its jaws shut just inches from my face. "Get down!" the girl screamed. I dropped to the dirt. A split second later, an arrow whistled over my head and struck the beast directly in its open eye. The wolf-thing collapsed with a heavy thud, twitching before going completely still. I pushed myself up, wiping sweat and dirt from my forehead. I looked at the dead creature, then at the girl. She was already notched and ready for more, her chest heaving as she scanned the perimeter. "Nice shot," I said, genuinely impressed. "I'm Annabeth, by the way. I didn't get your name." She hesitated, her gray eyes flickering down to my sword, then up to my face. Finally, she lowered her bow just an inch. "Katniss," she said shortly. "Well, Katniss, your 'mutts' don't act like normal monsters," I said, studying the beast's unnatural anatomy. "If they don't turn to dust, that means they're mortal. Flesh and blood. Which means they have a heartbeat, and they can be stopped by normal means." Katniss stared at me like I was speaking a foreign language. "Of course they're flesh and blood. They're engineered in a lab. And there's never just one." As if on cue, three more of the wolf-monsters stepped out from the treeline, their metallic teeth gnashing, their human-like eyes locked onto us. "We can't outrun them," Katniss said, her voice tight. "They're too fast."
"Then we fight," I said, my Athena brain kicking into overdrive. I quickly scanned our surroundings, mapping out the terrain. "Look at the layout. The trees form a natural bottleneck right between those two boulders. If we position ourselves there, they can only attack one at a time." Katniss glanced at the boulders, then back to me, a sudden spark of recognition in her eyes. She understood strategy. "I'll draw them in. I have more range." "Perfect. Lead them through the gap. I'll take the flanks, you take the center." Katniss didn't waste a breath. She fired an arrow at the lead monster, striking it in the chest. It roared, and all three beasts charged. Katniss turned and sprinted toward the boulders, her movements fluid and impossibly fast. She scrambled up the side of the left boulder, using the height advantage to fire another arrow down into the pack. The first monster squeezed through the narrow gap between the rocks. I was waiting. I brought my sword down in a brutal arc, severing its front paw. As it stumbled, I drove the blade upward into its chest. It collapsed, blocking the path for the remaining two. The second monster tried to scramble over its fallen comrade. From her perch on the boulder, Katniss fired a point-blank shot into its neck. It fell sideways, pinned against the rock. The final monster, seeing its pack destroyed, let out a terrified whine and tried to retreat. "Oh no you don't," I muttered. I braced my foot against the boulder and launched myself forward, throwing my weight into a flying tackle. I landed on the creature's back, my arms wrapping around its neck. It thrashed wildly, trying to throw me off, but I held fast, driving my dagger into its spine. The beast shuddered and went limp, crashing into the dirt with me on top of it. For a long moment, the forest was completely silent except for the sound of our heavy breathing. Katniss slid down from the boulder, her bow still raised but her posture slightly less rigid. She looked at the three dead creatures, then at me, covered in dirt and strange purple blood. "You're not a tribute," Katniss said, her voice a mix of awe and suspicion. "No tribute fights like that. Without fear." "I have plenty of fear," I corrected, sheathing my sword and dusting off my armor. "I just don't let it control me. My mother taught me that strategy wins battles, not just brute force." Katniss frowned. "Your mother? Is she a stylist? A mentor?" I laughed softly, shaking my head. "Not exactly. Look, Katniss, I don't know what kind of messed-up arena this is, or who those 'Gamemakers' are. But whoever is running this twisted experiment, they just learned that we aren't their prey." A ghost of a smile touched Katniss's lips—dangerous, sharp, and entirely resilient. "No. We're definitely not." Suddenly, a loud, artificial cannon fire boomed through the sky, echoing off the trees. Katniss stiffened, looking up at the canopy. "That means someone died," she whispered. I looked up too, sensing the unnatural magic—or technology—that ruled this place. "Then we need to find a way out of here. Together. Do you know a way out?" Katniss looked at me, really looked at me, and for the first time, I saw a flicker of trust in those cold gray eyes. "No," Katniss said, slinging her bow over her shoulder. "But I think with your brain and my arrows, we can find one." ~~~ Ok so plz dont ask me how Annabeth got into the Hunger Games cos idk!! I just thought of it!! Idk... my brain works rlly weirdly... lol Anyway plz like and fav :)
