Enjoy this story of Lig Kihcs, a district 12 boy whose life proves that you don't have to be a tribute in the hunger games to have a rollercoaster of events come your way.
"Lig, look! I found an idol!"
District 12 was the worst district to live in. The poorest of Panem's districts, it was littered with crime and poverty. But even in these harsh conditions, even as the Capitol's cruel hunger games continue to tear children from their homes to be slaughtered live for the entertainment of bloodthirsty capitolites - people still aspired to live a sane, normal life.
"That's not an idol, Conor. It's just a rock"
It was a peaceful afternoon when it all took place. The reaping for the 32nd hunger games had just concluded not longer than an hour ago. A fourteen-year-old Lig was taking a stroll outside the district's borders along with his friend Conor and his brother Charles. Normally Charles would not allow Lig to cross the border, but today was the last time Charles was eligible to enter the hunger games. It was a cause for celebration and, well, Charles promised him he would take him on a trip.
"That is where you're wrong," Conor kindly explained to Lig, as if he is teaching him a meaningful lesson: "this is a masterful rendition of the physical representation of the Capitol's very own official chancellor of rocks.".
"Chancellor of rocks, that looks like an actual rock?" Lig wondered, "and what would his name be?"
The question seemed to have caught Conor off guard. "Umm, well, obviously his name would be… Randy" Conor answered, looking pretty satisfied with the answer that he managed to come up with.
"That's such a dumb name for him to have" Lig laughed as he snatched the so-called 'idol' from Conor's hands. "Hey, it actually does look pretty nice for a rock" he said, as he was examining it from a closer look. It was a bit pinkish and did not look like a normal rock.
"Hey, give it back!" Conor called, which prompted Lig to break into a run. Conor started chasing him and they both ventured further away from Charles, into a nearby forest.
"Come on guys, we need to stay close!" Charles shouted at them, and then proceeded to angrily follow them after it was made clear that they had ignored him.
Had Lig and Conor not been running so quickly, they could have really appreciated the beauty of the green forest that surrounded them. The thick trees, lush plant life and cool breeze really made it seem like it was a different, more peaceful place.
"Okay, stop, I'm exhausted!" Conor shouted at Lig, and they both finally stopped running. Resting on the ground, they panted and laughed as a cloud perfectly cleared, revealing the sun right through the leaves of the many trees above them.
Conor died almost instantly. When the beast jumped from a nearby bush, he did not have any time to react as it landed right on top of him, its razor-sharp teeth sinking into his skull.
"CONOR!" Lig yelled in terror as he stood up, the grim reality that his best friend just died in front of his eyes still being processed in his brain.
The beast - some sort of a mixture of a tiger, a bobcat and a mountain lion – quickly turned its focus to Lig and charged right at him, while emitting a terrible roar. Lig managed to dodge to the right, but his left cheek was slashed by the beast's claw. Shocked by the sudden pain, he did not react in time when the next charge took place. The beast headbutted him straight in the stomach into a nearby tree. The last thing Lig thought about was how he would never be able to apologize to Conor's brother, Tom.
"Lig, wake up, come on!"
Lig opened his eyes slowly. Charles was sitting next to him, with a worried look in his face. Lig quickly touched his left cheek. The pain started to come back as he touched it. That's when Lig realized that it was in fact not a dream. That everything that happened had been real. That…
"Conor…?" Lig asked Charles as he rose up to sit on what he now recognized as a cold and damp ground.
"I'm sorry…" Charles couldn't bring himself to look at Lig's eyes, "I didn't manage to be there in time for him… I barely saved you. I should have never agreed to this. Such a stupid idea... I should have never agreed to this..." If what Charles tried to do was to make Lig feel better, he did a poor job at it.
"It's not your fault Charles," said Lig, "we ran into that forest away from you because I took that stupid rock. And now Conor is dead and it's all my fault". Hearing himself speak about what happened made Lig make sense of the event that took place. A good amount of time had passed before Lig suddenly asked Charles: "Wait, did you kill that… thing, on your own?"
Charles did not think about that until now. "Oh, well, yeah… It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. I don't know how I did that. I just jumped on it and stabbed it as hard as I can with my knives".
"You were always good with knives" Lig chuckled, and then immediately felt terrible about finding something humorous after his friend got brutally killed earlier that day.
Charles suddenly got to his feet. "Okay, so listen. I managed to get us to a nearby cave. Now that you're up we should really get back home before it gets dark. We also need to be out of this cave as soon as possible anyways, the foundations are bad and we don't know if anything else lives in here. No, Lig, you're still hurt from that tiger thing, let me help you" he said, as Lig failed to get up on his own.
Shortly after, the two brothers started to walk out of the cave, with Lig aided by Charles. Right as they got outside, a giant boulder fell right in front of the entrance to the cave in the exact place that they were a few seconds ago. "Holy shit!" exclaimed Charles, "I knew that the foundations of this cave are bad, but I did not expect them to be this horrible. What are the odds of this happening?"
Lig did not care. He did not care about the odds of the boulder falling. He did not even care about the odds of the hunger games.
All he thought about is how he had enough of rocks for one day. To be quite honest, Lig felt like he had enough rocks for a lifetime or two.
Or three.
Stay tuned for chapter 2!