Greed. Need. Fame. [Full :)]

Micah,

"I was just going to say. Thank you for that lesson and...and your hair looks very nice in the sun." Nadia says, turning pink.

"What?!" I splutter, feeling stupid, but amused at the same time.

"Oh, you can just forget about it," she says, turning away and blushing more fiercely. Abruptly, she turns back towards me.

"Good sir, you are a true gentleman," she says, and then looks around at the others, all milling around, tending to wounds.

I want to hold her close, stroke her hair, let her know what she means to me, but I can't not now, not after the fight, in front of everyone. I sigh, following Nadia as she approaches the others. I have to say something to her, though.

"Nadia, I--" I begin, but Lire cuts me off.

"Um, don't mean to intrude, but we don't have any water. We're going to go thirsty soon..."

That stops me in my tracks. It's true: none of us have had anything to drink in a little under a day. That can't be good. I address the others, and even Dill listens.

"What say we explore the perimeter of the island, since we know that the others are in the interior? A stream might drain onto the beach, or something."

Nadia

"Nadia you what?" I asked putting my hands on my hips and cocking my head. I sounded too brash and bold. It was my nature. And I suppose no matter how hard I tried I could never change it. Not even for a boy. A new and interesting boy. I sighed.


"What say we explore the perimeter of the island, since we know that the others are in the interior? A stream might drain onto the beach, or something." Micah continued. He had most everyone's ear now. Mine included. Though I was terribly curious to know what he had to say. I kicked my toe around impatiently. The souls of my boots were smeared in blood of the opposing team.

"I could help. I would go around the island. If you need me." I said rubbing the back of my neck and tucking the knife, which I realized I still had, back into my boots. Stupid, stupid Nadia. Of course they would need you. They would need every one. I scanned the camp. Looking for other volunteers. Maybe we wouldn't need more than three or four. But who knew how large the island was.

But we would have to go a bit into the belly of the island. To get water that was not polluted with salt. Even if we found a stream or small river than drained into the ocean. We would all have to have our weapons at the ready, though some of us would tear open newly healing wounds if we were to go through a battle as intense again. Unconsciously I stepped closed to Micah. And away from Dill and the rest. Maybe we would all go. It would certainly be faster. I touched my throat. I was getting thirsty. Just talking about it made it worse.

Micah,

Nadia is the only one who responds to my query. Everyone else makes noncommittal gestures or grunts. Well, Lire nods, and Persephone says yes. I look at everyone else. Nadia moves closer to my side.

"Well? Like Lire said, we need water. Fast. Chances are, the other team has already located a source for water. We can't hope to face their entirety, even with the good fighters that we have. Shall we split up and look? Go as a group?"

*****

<<Sorry it's so short, but I can't really say more until other characters respond...>>

Ten Sauna

I sat perfectly still as Lire cleaned my cut. It didn't hurt, not at all really, but it was nice of her. She pulled away, as if about to do something, but stopped with a worried look on her face.

"Um, don't mean to intrude, but we don't have any water. We're going to go thirsty soon..."

But I really didn't care about that since I was not very thirsty. I suppose I would be soon but for now I was just happy. Very happy. Happy that I got to fight and happy that Dill hasn't snapped my leash back on yet. I was very happy.

The rest were talking about something but it didn't sound very important. The only thing I got out of it was that a small group was going into the forest.

"Are we hunting now," I ask quietly as Lire works on both me and Dill.

"Yeah," that Micah guy answers.

"For water and for food, Ten," Dill replies, "would you like to come?" I nod yes which cause Lire to gasp and ask me to stay still. I want to tell her she's not the boss of me, that I can nod if I want to, but I don't. Lire's nice. Lire's not food. The next few minutes are spent breaking up people into groups. Dill, Mason, Seph and I are going hunting for food. The rest are going to look for water. I stand when Lire finishes on my face.

"Sorry, there's nothing to cover it with." I shrug and step back.

"It's fine," I mumble. Dill walks up to me and I bow my head, ready for the leash should it come, but he didn't snap it on.

"You can stay off, Ten. Come on, let's go."

Micah,

So it's decided: Dill, Mason, Seph, and Ten will go looking for more food, and Nadia, Effy, Lire, Mavrick, and I will look for water. We'll meet back at the shelter in two hours. We walk in different directions, the water group to the left, the food group to the right. Nadia and I fall behind the others as we trudge down the beach.

"So," Nadia says, "What exactly were you going to tell me before?"

Now it's my turn to redden, "I, uh, well, I--"

Nadia sighs irritably, "Micah, just say it. It can't be that difficult."

I take a deep breath, "Okay. Nadia, I--I think I have feeling for you, and not just because of the pact. I guess the pact happened...because I have feelings for you. I know that we're not here for that kind of thing, and we could die but...Please don't be angry."

I look worriedly at her, then at the guys up front. I don't want any of them hearing this.

Effy Culpepper

I headed off with the water group, an stayed close to mainly Nadia and Micah. I watched them from behind, mimicking Nadia's footsteps. I don't know why I'm doing this, guess I feel that I have nothing better to do. I crossed my arms and threw my head back.

"... I think I have feelings for you."

My head came down and I raised an eyebrow. Micah's got feelings? Already? Doesn't he know that this is a game? Doesn't he know that Nadia or him might die any second now, and that feeling will just disappear? I rolled my eyes and glared at their backs. These two don't even know it's a game... Do they?

(I'm so sorry it's so short! I hope this is okay!)

Nadia

Feelings, for me?! I let the smile spread over my face slowly. I hardly noticed the girl, Effy, behind us. I followed Micah's eyes, watched then flicker nervously towards the men in front of us. As if he didn't want any other members of the group knowing.

" Are you quite sure you don't want me to fall in love with you just so I will lay down my life for you?" I asked jestingly, laughing a little to relieve the giddy feeling of nervousness and thrill. The idea of someone actually liking me. Absurd.

I look into Micah's face, he looks utterly confused and still worried. With out thinking much this time I lean in and kiss the bridge of his nose. I pull away in an instant, red faced and still smiling. The color of our faces match.'

"Micah, I'm all new at this so forgive me. But I--I like you too." I said quietly, letting my own eyes dart back to Effy. I didn't mind her coming along but I didn't want her to think I had gotten soft, and I didn't want her to ruin the moment.

As we walked I allowed my own hand to brush his. Perhaps that was my problem before, thinking too much. Not thinking was so much easier.

"See anything yet?!" I called to the men ahead of us. Then tilting my head back i inhaled the island smell. It smelled like...salt water. I groaned inwardly.

Micah,

I grin, boosted by the fact that Nadia likes me too! I don't care that Effy has snorted in disgust behind us. All I care about is the fact that, for once, the feelings I'm having for someone are being reciprocated. Right now, I feel that I could face about a hundred wild boars or ten swordsmen and win without breaking a sweat. Oh, yeah. I'm high on life. The place where Nadia kissed my nose still feels warm, and I get a tingling feeling when her hand brushes mine. Yep, I could live with this, even if I might not live to see the night.
Nadia groans beside me, and I immediately know why. The air continues to smell solely of saltwater. None of that clean, fresh scent of a freshwater stream, no gurgle of a rushing brook. I sigh. I'm starting to get seriously thirsty.

"Well," I say, speaking to everyone, "Should we move further inland, or continue along the beach?"

Mavrick grunts, "We should keep going on the beach for a while longer; we haven't been walking very long."

"Fair enough," I say, trying not to think about my parched throat. Still, I try to smile encouragingly when I look over at Nadia by side.

Lire Else

Dill breaks us up into teams, him, Ten, and the sisters are going hunting - which is probably for the best since they seem like the most trained - and the rest of us have to go look for water. I'm actually feeling thirsty myself, my mouth is getting dry.

We've been walking for ten whole minutes without anything but salt water around us.

"Is there any drinkable water here on this island," I ask sadly.

"It's not looking like it," Mavrick replies with a frown.

"We just have to keep walking and looking," says Effy with a grunt. She looks very tired but, then again, she also looks tired. "There has to be fresh water somewhere, how else would the animals survive?" I thought it over a minute and smiled widly.

"That's true," I mused out loud. "I didn't know you were so smart, Effy," I say to her with a grin. She scoffs and pushes some hair out of her face.

"That's just common sense," she mumbles. We keep walking, chatting briefly but not often because we were tired, and in time I came to notice something.

"Where's Micah and Nadia?" I look behind me to make sure they're gone. "I think we lost them."

"Or they lost us," Mav replies before, leaning on a tree casually. I look behind me again and through the trees to confirm their absence.

"Yeah," I sigh. "They're gone. Should we look for them?"

"No," Effy says quickly, "we have to find water. Let the lovebirds do what they want if they don't want to help."

I'm agreeing silently when something lights off a spark in my head.

"Love birds?"

Effy shrugs with a lazy smile.

"Don't you know, they have the hots for each other. I heard them talking. I think it's stupid. This is a game, you don't fall in love." For some strange reason, when she said this, I glanced over to Mavrick who seemed to be oblivious, instead starring intently into the distance. I could feel my cheeks color slightly but I shook it off.

"Well," I drawl, "I didn't know that..."

Effy's just shrugging lazily when Mavrick suddenly tells the both of us to quiet down. I can see Effy about to reply, nastily most likely, but I just raise an eyebrow.

"Shhsh," Mavrick whispers, "don't you two hear that?"

Effy holds back her comment and cocks her head to listen closly. Nothing happens for a while but then, when everything is dead quiet, I hear something rushing in the background.

"Rushing water," Effy asks. Mavrick nods, a smile slowly working it's way onto his mouth. I get it suddenly and it's not long before I cheering happily.

"Yay, water! Thanks, Mav!" I run over and give him a big hug. It doesn't hit me until I hear him laughing that I'm giving him a big hug. My eyes widen and I step back, still smiling, and also give Effy a hug, which she scoffs at, to hide that fact that I just jumped Mavrick.

There, that was casual enough.

"So...," I cough and smile, "let's go find that water."

Nadia

I look towards Mavrick and Lire in front of us. I feel like we have been walking this same path for..far too long. I was getting bored. A trait my cousin said would eventually bring my downfall. I fidgeted a little as we walked along. Twirling my hair around my fingers, skipping at strange intervals as we walked. Eventually I slowed my pace and allowed Effy to get in front of me and Micah as well.

I looked into the woods to see a small doe look around and then dart over towards our left. Animals always knew where the water, was. And maybe this was a wild goose chase but maybe she would lead me some where faster. I really wanted to water. I leaned into Micah.

"I just saw a deer go over there. I'm going to follow it. You can come if you like." I whispered taking his hand. I hardly waited for his small yet concerned nod before I pulled him with me.

The ground is coated in moss and small shrubs as we cut a diagonal path through the woods. The doe zags back to the right and I skip after her. It occurs to me that I should probably have told Lire where we were going at the least. But they would find us.

The deer darted through a thick wall of brush and I dropped Micah's hand, realizing I had been holding it this whole time, and took a leap over the bushes. I heard Micah following close behind, muttering something. But what I saw before me was slightly more thrilling.

A stream, maybe even a small river, about eight feet wide rushed past me. Across the way was Effy, Mavrick and Lire. I could hear their voices floating across the murmuring water. I gave them an arm raise.

"Guess I should have followed you after all!" I called out, Micah stepped up just in front of me.

"I would have stayed on the path, but she didn't give me much choice!" He yelled back to them. Lire waved away the apology and bent towards the water, Mavrick did the same, Effy stood staring with her arms crossed. She seemed, annoyed. But then again, she was always annoyed. I kicked off my boots and walked to the banking on my tiptoes. Dipping my feet in the water. It wasn't very deep. I could cross over to them when it came time.

"Now the question is, how do we get this back, did any one thing to bring a vessel of some kind?" I asked Micah, bending down and running my fingertips through the water.

*Masn and Seph*

Mason awoke to Persephone screaming. She instintly jumped up and grabbed her sword, looking around frantically for her sister. It seemed someone had attacked the camp. Her team was in full battle, spraying blood evrywhere.

Seph was a few feet away, dodgig a man. He had a knife and was trying to stab her. Without a second though, Mason threw her sword, piercing him in the stomach. He cursed and threw the knife at her, hitting her shoulder. Mason hissed, but ignored the burning pain. She walked over and pulled her sword out of the man, whirling around. It seemed the battle was over. "Are you okay?" She checked her sister's wounds. Just scratches.

"Yeah." Seph winced.

Mason tured to Dill. "Did they give us any fucking peroxide?"

"Nope." He shook his head. Mason cursed and ripped up a spare shirt they'd brought, bandaging Seph's cut arm. She threw the rest of the cloth to Dill, and he gave some to the others.

"Come on Seph, you were taught self-defense." Mason said sternly, sitting beside her sister.

"I panicked." Seph said softly, rubbing her injured arm.

"Don't. Let your instincts take over and fight." Mason growled.

"Okay." Seph whispered.

Dill appoached them. "Are you gonna hunt with me and Ten?"

Mason snatched the un-used cloth from his hands and wiped her sword clean, nodding. "Yes."

"Let's go." Seph stood up and folowed the men into the forest.

Dill Rivanni

We walked into the forest, making our steps silent as not to scare away the game. The other group was working on water and if they didn't bring some back, well I might just go insane. I was so thirsty, my mouth was so dry.

I resist the urge to sigh and tighten my grip on my gun. There's a crack from nearby and I quickly turn and point my barrel at a bush, not yet shooting just in case it was nothing and not wanting to risk the noise scarring the rest of the animals away. The rustling in the bushes stop and I raise an eyebrow. If it was an animal it would have run away by now. I turn to Mason and the look on her face tells me that she's probably thinking the same thing. I turn to Ten now and nod towards the bush. He knows what to do. His eyes darken and a large smile spreads on his lips.

He drops down onto all fours, twisting and bending his back so it looks as if he was made for walking on all fours.* He starts forward slowly, quietly, towards the bush and suddenly jumps into it with a loud guttural laugh. There's a short agonizing scream from behind the bush and then everything silent save from a few breaking noises and sounds of ripping. I narrow my eyes and frown.

"Ten, stop!" The noises stop and Ten stands up, smiling widely with his face and shirt covered in blood. I sigh loudly and run my hand through my hair. "Come on, what was it?"

"Food," he chrips back immediately. I glare and his smile wavers but doesn't drop.

"I'm not joking, Ten."

"Enemy." He looks around suspiciously and leans forward. "I think he was spying," he whispered.

"But no animals?" He shakes his head and gets a sad look about himself before perking up.

"I'll go find one!" Then he turns and runs off into the woods. My eyes widen and I take a few steps forward.

"Ten, no! Come back!" But I don't think he can here me, he's already so far away. "Ten, di tornare qui!" When he doesn't come back I know he's gone. "Fuck!" I grab my hair in my hands angrily before sitting down on the ground. I take a few deep breaths to calm myself down and, once I'm no longer on the verge of killing someone, I stand and turn towards Mason and Seph.

"Should we look for him," Seph asks. I shake my head and ready my gun again.

"No, it'll be no use. We should keep hunting." We go on and we're able to find another boar. Mason kills it, swiftly and quickly, and I can't help but to admire her skills.

"Nice," I say when she cuts off the head. She didn't even flinch or hesitates. "Very nice."

She just brushes my comment off and I lean back against a nearby tree.

"So, hunt for more or go back to camp?" She stands up with a sarcastic look on her face.

"You're asking, oh mighty leader?"

I don't react to her sarcasm, instead choosing to hold my gun by my side.

"Of course, oh unworthy follower."


(*Ten's like this guy, Ito Kenichi, on all fours, http://www.kirainet.com/english/world-r ... all-fours/ )

Micah,

Water! Precious, delicious, ice-cold water! It's amazing, and I'm actually delighted to see Mavrick, Lire, and Effy on the other side of the stream, even if they might not like me.

"Now the question is, how do we get this back, did any one thing to bring a vessel of some kind?" Nadia asks, bending down and trailing her hand in the water.

"Hmm," I say, thinking, "I have a small canteen, but it's not enough for everyone."

I catch sight of some sort of large seed pod, hanging in a tree nearby. I reach up and pluck one. When I shake it, liquid sloshes around. Grinning, I take out my knife, drill hole, and empty the liquid and then wash it in the stream. I fill it with water and hand it to Nadia. She grins also, and hugs me.

"That's brilliant, Micah," she says into my shoulder. I hug her tightly as well.

"Oh, yes, it's brilliant," Effy says sarcastically, "But we can only carry so many in our hands. I mean, those things are fucking huge."

I'm barely listening to her snide remarks as Nadia and I pluck more pods and drain the syrup from them. This time, though I make three holes. Nadia looks over curiously.

"Why three?" she asks, puzzled.

I smile, "You'll see."

She makes three holes in her pods as well, and Mavrick, Lire, and Effy start making some, too. When I'm finished, I fill them with water, and then pull at the vine of a thick, climbing flower. It breaks loose, and I string the pods on it, using the two extra holes. Finished, I drape the whole thing across my chest. The string holds six pods, all full of the clean water.

Nadia

I watch as Micah goes about his work. He finishes and creates a kind of pod-chain. Perfect for bringing a good deal of water back to the camp. I give a little clap.

"Wonderful!" I say, handing my last pod to him, smiling brightly. Once he is finished I turn and begin to walk through the shallow water, towards the others.

"You coming, water bearer?" I asked beckoning him towards me, now calf-deep in the freezing water. He follows, walking carefully across the rocks in the stream. As he comes closer I begin to walk again but, not being as lithe or as careful as him, I slip on a algae covered rock, landing hard and up to my waist in water. I shake my hair out of my face and stuck my bottom lip out. Micah reaches me, I can tell he is holding in a laugh.

"Brilliant!" Mocks Effy from the shore. I roll my eyes and grab Micah's offered hand, pulling myself up. I slap at my soaking pants and frown. Now walking more carefully towards the sandy banking.

"Sorry again. For abandoning you." I said. It was hard, I liked doing things my own way. That is probably why I dislike Dill so much. I don't like getting orders.

Micah,

I can't help but almost smile when Nadia slips in the stream. I offer my hand to her as she rolls her eyes and I pull her up.

"Sorry again. For abandoning you," she says, addressing the others. She looks a little pained saying so. Effy makes a noncommittal grunt, but Mavrick and Lire nod.

We now have enough water to bring back to the others, and we know where the stream is when we need to refill. We all start trudging back towards the beach, laden with pod-chains. Nadia and I again fall to the back.

"I think that we need to work on keeping our balance, not knife-throwing," I say, playfully.

"Micah! It's not my fault I'm not as graceful as you," Nadia says, part annoyed, part laughing.

"Me? Graceful?" I say in mock indignation, "Are you kidding? I'm, like, incapable of walking ten feet without tripping!"

Even as I say this, I put my foot down in the middle of a circle of rope that is lying in the path. I know even before it hoists me up by the ankle that this is trouble.

"Oh, bugger," I mutter.