Snippet #1912916

Ethan heard the mistrust and skepticism in the girls voice as she echoed his "us" in a low voice.
Moments later he saw her lower her knife slightly, not quite relaxed but seemingly ready to accept the alliance.
"Your right, now how do you think we're going to find shelter," she asked.
Ethan took a moment to really look around the area, this seemed to be a relatively young forest, with many trees barely larger than saplings, certainly not good for climbing. Just beyond the clearing however, there was a stand of larger more mature trees, the lowest branches of which, were high but not so high that they couldn't be climbed.
This patch of forest was damp but it seemed to be at a slightly higher level than the rest of the strange swampy arena. The woods smelled of decaying plant matter and brakish water, and even though the sun had nearly disapeared beyond the horizon the air was more hot and humid than even the highest heat of mid summer in district 6.
A plan began to form in his head, with swift decisive action he stowed the knife that he had concealed in his right palm and pulled the hatchet back out of his belt loop, keeping a wary eye on the girl he moved swiftly across the clearing to three 2 inch thick saplings.
Grasping the tree just above where he was going to cut he made quick work of chopping down the small trees.
"See that stand of mature trees over there?" he said in a low but serious voice pointing to the stand of mature trees off in the distance,
"If we can get these up into the canopy" he said glancing down at the cut trees before him,
"we can build a safe-ish platform that we can both rest on comfortably".
Ethan moved over to the mature trees, dragging the cut saplings. Leaning the trees on one side of the tree he reached up for the lowest branch, using the strength he had acquired from helping his father on the trains in his district he pulled his body weight up onto the branch and into the tree.
Moving up into a more stable part of the tree he hooked his legs around one of the branches and leaned his upper half down toward the ground, hand outstretched to help Cat into the tree.
Suddenly, just beyond the clearing where they had been moments earlier the leaves began to tremble and he heard distinctly, the sound of many small feet running.
A small black-furred animal lept through the cover at the edge of the clearing moving very quickly followed by not one, or two more, but dozens upon dozens poured through the cover, all running mindlessly en mass away from something.
Not knowing what they were, or, what they were running from made Ethan extremely agitated.
With swift movement and without consent he snaked his arms through Cat's armpits and lifted her into the tree.
He was, momentarily surprised by how light she was, she couldn't have weighed more than the heavy mechanical toolkits the grease monkeys on the older trains in his district through around on an hourly basis.
Quickly Ethan swung his upper torso down towards the ground again, and pulled the three saplings up into the tree with them.
As the mass of black furred animals grew closer he began to see distinguishing features; long rope tails, long front snouts with beady black eyes,
"Rats!?" he said in a strangled whisper as the first began to move past thier perch.
Without a second thought he nestled himself into a crook in the tree and pulled the foliage of the sapling up over himself motioning for Cat to do the same, then, through the concealing leaves he put a finger to his lips motioning for her to be silent and motionless.