44th Games

It is rare that a tribute manages to use such a deadly creature to their advantage, but once they have mastered this skill, their chances of victory significantly rise.

This year's victor was Daniel Bernhardt, age 18, from District 9. The arena was set in an abandoned university, featured blood-thirsty crows, a building demolition, and lasted for 16 days.

When the gong sounded. Daniel grabbed a sword and some bread, then stabbed Dante (2) in the back, whilst Dante was stabbing Morella (8) to death. Dante had a training score of 11 and was thought to be a favorite to win by The Capitol, so this gave every surviving tribute better odds of winning. Daniel also managed to kill Modem (3) and Carpa (4) before grabbing their backpacks and escaping from the remaining careers.

Over the first few days, Daniel tried to stay inside the buildings as much as possible, so that he would not risk encountering the crows. He chose to stay in a large lecture hall that was covered in graffiti and had plenty of hiding places where students would have once sat. The back rows of the lecture hall also gave him a good view of the street outside and he soon realized that a particularly ravenous murder of crows which was outside would violently peck tributes as they tried to flee, which often killed them.

Until the evening of the fifth day, Daniel kept watch from the window at the top of the lecture hall and was able to see the action occurring outside. As the sunset approached, he saw Columbae (5) turning a corner, seemingly running from something. The crows were busy pecking away at the cheese that had been dropped by a tribute, but when they noticed Columbae, she very quickly stopped moving and stood completely still.

Just at that moment, the three remaining careers rounded the corner and seemed delighted to see Columbae simply standing there. As they readied their weapons and were about to attack her, the crows perked up and flew straight past Columbae, who had remained as still as a statue. The careers shouted at each other as they saw the vicious murder of crows approaching, but as the turned to run, even they realized that it was too late. The three of them very quickly had their eyes and necks pecked at until they died. As soon as they started screaming, Columbae grinned and looked backwards to see what was going on. She grabbed one of the knives that had been dropped, then ran away from the crows into a building on the other side of the street. Daniel now realized that the crows' vision was based on movement.

Daniel also realized that he could step outside and travel through the arena, as long as he stayed completely still when the crows neared him. Over the next few days, this helped Daniel see the demise of Barlay (9) and Roofus and Chizelle (both 12) when they tried to attack him, but were instead attacked by the crows, whilst Daniel fled once he could hear that they crows were to distracted by pecking his opponents to notice him fleeing.

On the eleventh day, there were still six tributes remaining and Daniel was hiding out in what appeared to have been the student bar. As he explored, he was amazed that there still appeared to be come clear liquor behind the bar. He opened the bottle and sniffed it, later revealing that the smell took him straight back to early memories of when his father was alive, and he remembered how this had made his father unsteady and even fall over at times. He then realized that this could have the same effect on other tributes and hence make them visible to the crows.

The next day, he found several water bottles and placed the liquor into these bottles. As it was clear, it looked like water albeit having a different taste. He wandered through the arena and conveniently left these bottles scattered around in places where they would easily be found. After leaving a bottle on its side by a blood splatter, so that it looked like a deceased tribute had dropped it, he entered a nearby lecture hall and waited for some tributes to find it.

This plan worked and within a few minutes, Woody and Splinta (both 7) quickly grabbed the bottle and ran away. Although they said that it tasted strange, Splinta convinced Woody that it may be some form of medicine and as they were already dehydrated, it didn't matter. However within an hour passing, they became louder and louder and their voices attracted the crows. It appeared that they had figured out that they needed to stand still around the crows, but as they tried to stand still, Woody lost his balance and the pair's position was given away which subsequently led to their death.

With just four tributes left by the fifteenth day, the game-makers planned to demolish the majority of the buildings, in an effort to remove the tributes' hiding places. However in order to give them a chance at escape, buzzers went off within these buildings for a minute before their demolition. When this happened, Daniel was sleeping in a lecture hall and was awoken by the buzzing. At first he was unsure of what to do, but decided not to take any chances and got up to leave the hall. However just as he was exiting, the building started to collapse and he damaged his leg on a falling plank of wood.

By the evening of the sixteenth day, Daniel was one of just two tributes left, but he was unsure of who his remaining opponent was. He returned to the cornucopia, which was positioned in what must have been the old campus's main square. After about ten minutes, he noticed that the crows seemed to have vanished, but just as he was considering how he could kill whoever was remaining, he was hit by an arrow in the back and saw Columbae standing behind him, ready to shoot another one.

Columbae shot another arrow, but despite having a strong limp at this point, Daniel managed to dodge her. As she tried to reload her bow, Daniel seized his opportunity and pounced on her. They wrestled for the remaining arrow, with Columbae putting up a strong fight and pinching the injury on Daniel's leg, but through the intense pain, he headbutted her and then grabbed his sword and slit her throat, thereby killing her and winning.

After winning, Daniel was known as 'Lord of the Crows' by The Capitol. Upon returning to District 9, he carried on working in the fields and went on to start a family. However his son was the runner-up in a later games, before Daniel himself was killed in the 75th Hunger Games.