Black Swan.

Well I guess the last post went wrong so here's just:

Part 9
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Peeta's face flashed with worry but left after a few seconds.
"Don't worry Peeta. " I whisper taking his face in my scarred hands.
"I won't. We'll be alright" he says leaning down and kissing me. Peeta is, in a way, my safety blanket, I can trust him with my life. He's the only one that will make me feel better. My Peeta.
We break away and walk out the door not bothering to check for danger. If there is, bring it on.
"How are we gonna find Jack?" I ask realising how we just left him before. Alone and mostly unwanted.
"Well.... We look even if it takes all day and night."
"First we should set up a base, if we get split up go straight there."
"What if we can't though. We should have something as well as a base."
"Like a call?"
"Exactly like a call! What about your song?"
"That's a perfect idea! Just whistle the melody, if in danger or just loose me ok?"
"Sure. We won't get split up though. I'll be by your side all the way."
"Ok. Lets go" I say standing at the edge of the woods. I arm myself with my bow and Peeta lifts his spear ready to throw if necessary. We walk until we get to the huge oak tree that's now surrounded by small, white, delicate flowers.
"Ok so.. Camps in the tree." I say pointing to a thick branch that is easy to get to if you tried.
"Umm Imogen. I can't climb trees" moans Peeta
"Yes you can! It's easy here let me show you." I say handing him my bow and bag of arrows. I climb up the tree with no ease at all, I look down and signal Peeta up. He eventually gets up half way.
"That's great Peeta! Keep going" I call down. There's a light tap on my shoulder so that I spin my head around to see two large brown eyes staring at me. I back away suddenly and feel my hands slip from the tree. I fall down from the branch and hit the ground with a loud thud.
"Oh God Imogen!" says Peeta rushing to my side,
"I'm fine" I mumbled sitting up and slamming my hand to my throbbing fore head.
"Oh that's not good." said Peeta scrunching up his face in disgust,
"What?" I ask. I take my hand away from my head and my hands all wet and sticky. I look down and my palm is covered in warm crimson blood,
"Oh that is not good" I agree, my vision goes blurry for a few seconds and I lean over into Peeta's stomach, head butting him.
"Sorry" I say now seeing a few little birds flying around my head.
"No worries. What happened?" he wines.
"Jacks in the tree" I say casually, "Jacks in the tree!" I repeat now standing bolt up and making my way back up the tree forgetting about my head. Jack's sitting in the branch picking at his teeth.
"Nice trip? Send me a postcard next time. Ta" he says arrogantly,
"Look we didn't come to mess around Jack." I snap,
"You sure?" he smirks
"Do you want us to help you fight?" this gets his attention. He stops picking his teeth and puts him face so close to mine that all I can see is his eyes.
"You serious?" he asks. I push him away from me and start to climb back down to Peeta who's clutching his stomach. Jack clambers down quickly and clumsily loosing his grip now and then.
"Peeta!" I say running over to stand next to him.
"You have a hard head" he moans
"Sorry" I say guiltily, I rub his stomach like I used to do with Zaya if she had a tummy bug. Zaya. My Zaya. Dead Zaya.
"Imogen?" says Peeta interrupting my thoughts,
"Hmm what?" I shake my head slightly washing away bad memories. No one can hurt you now Zaya.
"Are you going to fight or what?" asks Jack, he has a strange accent, kind of Italian. They died out years ago.
"Well... We both have reasons to. But we can't trust you yet." I say, he glares at me then at Peeta,
"But you can trust him? A stranger sent to kill you"
"Yup." I say simply taking Peeta's hand protectively.
"Fine, your life I guess. What made you change your mind?" he asks. I look up at Peeta who's staring down at me wearing a small frown. I shake my head saying I don't want to talk about it.
"Why don't we all sit down? Have some food. Make camp." suggests Peeta saving me from tears. Jack nods and goes to sit at the foot of the tree.
"Thanks" I say quietly to Peeta who just squeezes my hand a little.
We all sit at the foot of the tree, my ankle is now throbbing with pain, at least the birds have gone to annoy some other person.
"So.." I say slowly. I can see this is quite an awkward silence....
"What should we do then?" asks Peeta, this spurs Jack on.
"Right well.... We need all your village to help fight or well have no chance. All of my town wants to fight. Wait do you know how to fight?" he asks curiously,
"Yep. I can use a spear. Imogen can use everything!" Peeta exaggerates.
"I can't use everything." I lie.
"Well we'll see. First we need to see each others skills. Crookside only knows how to knife throw. Simple stuff. So what do you lot use here?"
"Knife throwing is pretty good" I say to Jack who nods at me.
"Do you have weapons on you?" Peeta asks Jack. He nods and empties a large bag, it's packed with knifes, a few swords and even a couple of spears.
"Whoa" I gasp at the sight of all the silver weapons. Heaven!
"Let's see what you can do then" says Jacks stretching his arms.

I grab my bow and arrows, Peeta picks up his spear. We stand in the field waiting for Jack to throw something to hit.
"Ok Jack?" I call.
"Yep just thinking"
"Well hurry up!"
He walks over to us with two rocks in his hands.
"I throw these, birds fly. You kill" he says simply, we both nod. Jack throws the rock into the forest which is a way away. We hear a low thud and a screeching of birds. Three fat pigeons fly from the trees and away from us. I shoot a bow and hits the furthest away. It calls to it's friends, but they've gone. It falls to the ground and dies. Furthest I've ever killed.
I look at Jack who is staring at my bow still raised in my hands,
"What?" I call over to him
"Amazing!" he says running over to us and slapping me on the back.
"You should see how fast she can run." says Peeta taking the bow and sack of arrows from my hand. I nod and start to run toward the pigeon. My ankles pain starts to fade. I run as fast as I can to the pigeon and back to Peeta who I slam into. Oops.
"Sorry" I apologise
"No worries, that took 15 seconds!" exclaimed Peeta smiling, I smiled back and winked at him.
"Ok Peeta your go." Jack held up the second rock and Peeta positioned himself ready. Once again, he threw it far causing a few pigeons to fly away. It wasn't as far as mine but it was understandable. Bows have more strength. Peeta threw the spear killing a pigeon in an instant.
"Good job" said Jack impressed by both of our skills. I picked up an knife and threw it at a small skinny tree that sat quite far away.
It hit it right in the middle, I picked up another one and threw it with more strength at a branch growing out of the tree, it hit it in the perfect place and the branch fell from the tree.
"You never showed me that." said Peeta
"Just did" I say back smiling. Peeta picks up a knife and try's as well. As he's good at using a spear a knife was easy for him. He's much stronger in the arms so he could throw further. He just needed aim.
The knife flew past the same tree I hit, only by a few centimetres but you wouldn't kill by missing.
"Good first try" I say showing him how to aim correctly. After a few goes he gets the hang of it and can throw extremely far and precisely.
"Well you can both do very well.. Peeta try the bow and arrows. Imogen try the spear. I pick up a spear and hand Peea the bow and a single arrow. I throw the spear easily and hit a tree where a humans head would normally be. Peeta try's with the arrow but once again, fails. He try's a couple more times but gives in and stays with knifes and spears.
"Imogen amazing, Peeta excellent for a beginner" praises Jack. I don't take it but I can clearly see that Peeta's pleased with himself so I smile at him and embrace him. His warm strong body gives me some comfort and make me feel all my worries fade.
"Ok Peeta, Imogen. Time for the sword." this gets my full attention.
Dad showed me how to handle a sword a few months before he died. He said I was good.
"You only have one" I say, jack pulls another one from his bag and hands it to me. It's reasonably heavy but it's a beautiful thing.
"Peeta..... Sword fighting is hard. And as your new to it.. Maybe just watch for now?" I suggest. He nods thanking me. I could see he didn't want to try. Jack shows me the basics which I already knew.
"Ok don't hurt each other this is just a test" Jack says warning me.

We fight with swords for awhile until I see that Jack is getting tired,
"Stop now" Jacks says panting,
"The capturers won't stop because they're out of breath!" I snap back. Jacks sighs and starts to fight again. I don't feel a bit tired so I keep going. All of a sudden I forget this isn't real. Zaya enters my mind, how they killed her. Black hoods. I seethe flash of black hair from Jack's hair and I strike. This is the capturer that killed Zaya, black hood. I make contact with the sword and Jack's face.
"Imogen!" Peeta shouts running to me. I have my hunters mind now. Peeta's hand reaches my shoulder and I step back pointing the sword at his neck. Terror flashes on his face, I tun my head to see Jack lying on the floor hand covering his blood covered face. What have I done? I drop the sword to the ground and run to my tree climbing up it so that no one cam see me. I climb as far as my ankle allows, I sit down on a branch that sways a tiny bit from the wind. What did I just do? I nearly killed the one person who could help us and nearly killed the boy who meant the world to me. All my fault.
I sit in the tree watching a small nest of birds opposite me chirping for their mother to bring them food. Peeta's face appears moments later climbing up the tree.
"Hi" he says casually like nothing happened
"Hey." I say cradling my head on my knees. Peeta make his way next to me so he was sitting next to me his face close to mine.
"I'm sorry Peeta. I forgot. I thought that Jack was the capturer that killed Zaya. I lost it" I feel a tear roll down my face which is instantly wiped away by Peeta's soft fingers.
"It's ok. I knew that. I explained to Jack about Zaya, he doesn't mind."
"Thank you" I smiled and start to whistle our song, it makes me feel better, it's like Zaya's looking over us protecting us from many of horrors.
"I still believe you know" Peeta says taking my hand in his, I shimmy closer to him and wrap my arms around his neck,
"What do you believe?" I ask resting my forehead against his.
"It's you and me until the end of time." I need this boy. The boy that tried to kill me but fell in love.