From experience, Haymitch was already anticipating trouble. The arena that they were currently in had been designed to force all of the remain tributes together, with little cover between areas the makeshift town where the Cornucopia sat was sure to provide the most action, and like Katniss, Haymitch was interested in finding out what each building housed. The current threat was, of course, the Careers, who were known for parking themselves in the most vital places and waiting to pick off unsuspecting tributes. For the former Victor and the Girl On Fire, both seemed to understand that staying far away from the town was in their best interest—at least for now. Haymitch had no problems moving on into the great unknown, and agreed with Katniss before they got moving again.
As Katniss mentioned Johanna, Haymitch laughed softly. “Maybe that's what we'll find,” he said, although he was sure that his old friend was going to have just as hard of a time as he and Katniss were. It wasn't something that Haymitch wanted to think about, and he continued to move his feet forward, blue eyes on the mountains ahead. “If we find her, though, anyone that we trust, we have to stick together,” he added after a beat and craned his neck to check behind them. Every breeze that rustled through the reeds was alarming, and Haymitch wasn't going to let himself or Katniss get ambushed on the first day. For now, finding safety was top priority, and then food. Thankfully, they had the chocolate ration if all else failed.
“Maybe it'll rain soon,” Haymitch said after Katniss had commented on the water. After seeing that girl drown in a whirlpool, the former Victor didn't exactly feel good about sticking his hand into any pond and filling up the canteen. Water was such a vital thing in any games, though and there was nothing more allegedly boring than watching a bunch of people dehydrate. “If we get desperate, I'll test it out.” That may not have been what Katniss wanted to hear, but it was better him than her. She had to make it to the end; no one else mattered.
The two moved deeper into the wetlands and Haymitch kept his eyes out for any animals that could be cut out for dinner. He saw the odd squirrel every now and then, but the most abundant source was frogs. They croaked and uttered their throaty noise with almost every step—Haymitch had half a mind to catch some of them, but it was hard telling if they were poison. In nature, bright colors were a warning, but the Capitol was bound to trick anyone with even the most earthy-looking animal. Pushing those thoughts from his head, Haymitch looked forward and squinted as the visibility was instantly lowered.
“Is that fog?” he asked, looking to Katniss and then back to the lazily approaching wisps of grey.
The appearance of the berries told Prim that there were advantages to the arena, it was just a matter of where a person looked. Quickly, the blonde gathered the green and white berries into the backpack and even laughed briefly as Gale clumsily squished a few of them, “you have to be gentle.” She smiled, but there wasn't time for that kind of closeness when they were so out in the open and left exposed. After gathering at least two handfuls of berries, Prim figured that they had enough for anything that happened to go wrong. Cuts and scrapes were bound to happen, but at least they were somewhat prepared and Prim felt good to know that her knowledge of nature was finally going to come in handy—Haymitch was wrong, it wasn't entirely useless.
“Hiding something like what?” Prim asked when Gale mentioned the tracker jackers. It was hard for her to believe that the Gamemakers had put anything special to be found in the arena, and year after year, gifts seemed to come from sponsors. It was the first time that the blonde had thought of Peeta since the cannon sounded, and she wondered how he was doing with the other, more experience mentors. So far, Prim could only hope that she and Gale were doing their part and making it easy.
Soon enough, they were moving out again and Prim kept hold of her throwing knives just in case they needed to act quickly. In the distance, another pair of Jabberjays were perched on one of the sparsely placed trees, and the blonde watched as a single squirrel scampered along a close-by branch. “Do you want to catch it?” she asked, lowering her voice. A small squirrel seemed almost impossible to get with a large sword, and Prim didn't know if setting up a trap was worth it. However, food for the night seemed rather important. It was a tough call, but Gale was the one with all of the hunting skills and Prim wasn't going to argue if he wanted to chance it.
