[open]

[mudbloodhater]

WHO | Draco and OPEN
WHAT | Draco's escaped the Cornucopia unscathed, but for how much longer?
WHEN | the day after the Cornucopia
WHERE | Q5, and thereabouts
WARNINGS | language. This is Draco, after all.

He'd gotten away from the Cornucopia, albeit empty-handed, but with his life still intact. Judging by the look of things over there, in that initial five minute span, he was lucky that way. Swimming across what felt like half of the entire Arena - not that he had any idea how big the bloody thing was, though it certainly felt huge - had taken up most of his stamina for the evening, and he had climbed the first tree that looked secure enough to hold him, and passed out for the night.

And now it was morning; Draco had very nearly fallen out of his temporary home when he'd forgotten where he was, the danger he was in. As he recovered, he sat there still, still clinging to the tree as he tried to think of just how he got there. Portkey? The Dark Lord wasn't much above that. Which meant that this could plausibly be a method of punishing him for not doing his job fast enough. But this was just cruel and unusual.

Comments

[mudbloodhater]

Thankfully, there were coconuts. Draco had had a similar thought early that morning, when he awoke to a terrible crick in his neck and more irritability than he knew what to actually do with. How to get it open was still evading him to some extent, though he had a feeling he could smash it well enough with a bit of trying, maybe pry it open with his fingernails.

He was cursing under his breath, though. He needed something more than just his hands for this to work to any real extent, and the blond began to glance around for some sign of a rock, or a stick, or anything sturdy; he'd heard noises before, someone nearby him, and had paused to let them pass. But now he continued to hear them, not too far away, but getting no closer. Only now did Draco spy another Tribute in another tree, and he froze, pressing himself closer to the trunk in an attempt to remain hidden for now.

[luckofthedevil]

Alex considered arming himself with a coconut. They were sort of like oversize rugby balls, a good size for throwing. But the other tribute made no move to attack him, so Alex decided to take a chance. Plus, he was hungry. Knocking loose a few coconuts, he dropped them to the ground, all the while he kept an eye on the guy in the other tree.

[mudbloodhater]

Grey eyes remained locked on the other boy, narrowing slightly in curiosity as time slowly passed between them. He felt marginally better about himself when it seemed he was going unnoticed, and his attention briefly turned back to his so-called breakfast, still sorting out how exactly he'd manage to crack it open. Periodically, he'd glance back to Alex, subtly trying to gain something by way of technique without actually asking.

[luckofthedevil]

Once he'd successfully dropped the coconuts to the ground (and waited a few minutes to make sure no one else in the vicinity had noticed), Alex climbed down from the tree to inspect his prizes. They were young coconuts, which meant there would be quite a bit of water inside. It'd been several years, but he'd once seen someone open a raw coconut while on vacation. Finding an outcropping of large rocks, Alex started whacking the end of one of the coconuts on a rock. After a couple of hard whacks the husk starts to split enough that he can tear it off with his fingers.

[mudbloodhater]

A smug smirk curved his mouth as he watched Alex bash the coconuts open, managing to keep most of the contents within them. Lucky for Draco, he was a quick study; though he didn't dare drop to the ground and risk a fight immediately, he spent another few moments considering his own coconut, trying to find a nice weak spot.

And then finally, he called down, voice a quiet hiss to keep anyone else from hearing: "Oi! You!"

[luckofthedevil]

Alex was carefully poking a hole through the soft 'eye' of the coconut when he heard the quiet hiss from above. Looking up at where the other boy was hiding, Alex arched an eyebrow.

"What do you want?"

[mudbloodhater]

Part of Draco wanted to not ask for help - he was more than capable of taking care of himself on his own, anyway - but the slightly more rational part of him decided that if Alex wasn't going to kill him now, he may as well ask at least one little favour.

"Pass me that rock," he stated, nodding his head towards a little one with a sharp enough point that it could be drilled through the coconut's husk. Or someone's head, given enough trying. But Draco didn't really plan on that.

[luckofthedevil]

Technically, Alex could refuse, or just demand the other boy climb down and get the rock himself. But was there really a need to antagonize each other? They'd already been told to off everyone else in the arena. Alex shrugged, then picked up the rock to toss it up into the tree toward Draco. His aim was rather good, and unless Draco was completely fumble-fingered, the rock passed within an arms length of him.

"Catch."

[mudbloodhater]

One thin hand darted out, snatching the rock out of mid-air with a sort of practised precision that came from years of playing Quidditch. Draco cracked a brief smirk - almost appreciative - and nodded to Alex before giving his coconut a tentative crack on the end with it.

[luckofthedevil]

So the other guy had good reflexes. Useful to know. Alex wondered how far those reflexes extended, but the only way to really gauge that was to either get in a fight with the guy himself, or watch someone else get into a fight with him.

"A bit harder," he called up quietly. "And it's easier if you're hitting the rock, rather than the other way around."

[mudbloodhater]

"Really? Why would it even make a difference?" Draco asked, sneering a little at the coconut as if it had personally offended him by not opening easily. All the same, he flipped it around with only minor difficulties, finding that Alex was indeed correct - the coconut split slightly after an additional crack against the rock, and Draco's sneer turned to a pleased smirk.

[luckofthedevil]

"Physics," Alex replied glibly before taking a sip of coconut water. He watched Draco carefully, but still kept himself aware of the area around them. If he wanted to get out of this place, he had to be careful.

[mudbloodhater]

Physics. Muggle science. Naturally, it had no place in Draco's life. He wrinkled his nose a little, bracing the coconut as he cracked it again, grinning to himself as it opened enough for him to actually enjoy the pseudo-breakfast. Maybe he wouldn't die from starvation any time soon.

"So tell me about this physics," he states as he takes a tentative sip of it, deciding he can't complain too much. It's no worse than pumpkin juice.

[luckofthedevil]

That... wasn't exactly a response Alex had expected. He wasn't sure if this guy was just taking the piss with him or is he was actually serious. Judging from the green skinned horned guy he'd bumped into while leaving the Cornucopia, there were some individuals around here who weren't from home. While this guy looked relatively normal, that perhaps didn't mean he was.

"What's there to say? Physics makes the world go round."

[mudbloodhater]

"I don't suppose you have a better answer for me, do you?"

Draco's face suggested he didn't much like that one. And though he didn't really see any reason to learn all about physics from Muggles, it wasn't like he didn't have time on his hands. Or the inability to otherwise hole himself away from aforementioned Muggles.

Really, he was just making do with the incredibly unfortunate hand he was given.

[luckofthedevil]

"It's the truth," Alex replies with a shrug, "physics does make the world go round. 'Objects in motion tend to stay in motion. Objects at rest tend to stay at rest.' When the Earth was formed, the rotation of the nebula it came from led to the Earth itself rotating. At least, that's how we say the Earth was formed where I'm from."

[mudbloodhater]

He raised one brow at all of that, deciding that while it made sense, it was obvious that Muggles had far too much time on their hands. Not that he didn't already know that. "And where did you learn all that, then?"

[luckofthedevil]

"School. It's standard stuff for the GCSEs." Alex whacked the now empty coconut against the rocks again so he could get at the meat inside. "What do they teach at your school?" The other guy looked maybe a little older than him, so still school age, right?

[mudbloodhater]

"Magic," Draco replied plainly, as though that much should have been obvious. This tree was starting to get very comfortable, to the point where he was almost content to just stay there the entire time he was in the Arena. Peering down at what Alex was doing now, he eyed the inside of the coconut thoughtfully before starting in on that as well.

[luckofthedevil]

"Magic? Like Hogwarts?" Alex's tone was a touch disbelieving, though at the same time, he couldn't help thinking of the horned green man he'd met earlier. Maybe somewhere in the universe magic was real. He rather doubted it, as that would require suspending various laws of physics and weren't the laws of physics supposed to be universal?

[mudbloodhater]

He just stared at Alex for a moment, narrowing his eyes a little bit as he tried to deal with that statement. Someone knew about Hogwarts. Someone he didn't recognise.

"Should I know you? Is that what this is supposed to be?" Draco simply asked, giving up on his coconut for a moment. His guard was up a little bit - why shouldn't it be, when everyone was trying to kill him, and now suddenly there was someone who recognised what school he went to? - but he was giving Alex the benefit of the doubt.

[luckofthedevil]

And once again Alex got a response that he hadn't anticipated.

"I don't think so? I was just making a joke." Alex was puzzled. He had expected maybe a laugh and a comment about the books, or simple blank confusion. But the response he'd gotten was something else entirely. Or maybe this guy had read the books and was just trying to confuse him. If he was, it was working.

[mudbloodhater]

"A joke-" He echoed, sneer tugging at his mouth as an automatic defence mechanism. "What kind of joke is that? How is that funny?"

It probably didn't help matters at all that Draco was so completely out of his element here, his first instinct was to lash out at everyone around him. Even if the question had been innocent enough, now he was starting to have second thoughts, like perhaps this kid was the reason he was here instead of there.

"This is all your fault, isn't it?"

[luckofthedevil]

"My fault?!" Alex was starting to wonder if there was something seriously off with this guy... or maybe off with him. Maybe this was all just a massive halucination and he never really left Egypt. Maybe this is just some long protected hallucination and he's still stuck i that hellhole of a compound.

Maybe he never left it in the first place.

"How is this my fault? I didn't ask to be kidnapped let alone to have you kidnapped. I don't even know you."

[mudbloodhater]

"Then why in the hell are you making comments about my school, like you do?" Draco demanded, looking more like a lost puppy with a worse bark than bite than anything else. He had no intention of lashing out and trying to hurt Alex, not with himself up in the tree and without a weapon. If he'd had his wand, maybe it would have been a different story, but even then, he couldn't see where that would get him.