This is now going to be a rewrite of A Different Fate, I don't know if I'll be continuing it properly but I do plan on adding a chapter or two every once in a while; I'm sorry to those who like my stuff because I shouldn't have taken two years to post something new.
"Ladies first" echoed around the town square of District Twelve as Effie Trinket slowly twirled her hand around the girls tribute bowl of District Twelve, ready to condemn a young girl and boy to die in the 74th Hunger Games. So many little slips of paper in the bowl that held different names, some holding at least ten names of some tributes due to tesserae.
Both tributes last year, Peeta Mellark and Serena Black, had died within moments of entering the arena like all tributes from this district, everyone had thought that Peeta would at least give District Twelve a chance of having a tribute last longer than five minutes but it never happened.
Effie plucked out a small piece of paper and slowly opened it unaware of the tension and fear that this small action evoked around the square, to her this was just a form of entertainment.
"Primrose Everdeen"
There was only silence for a half a breath, there wasn't even enough time for it to sink into the heads of some of the people of the district that the young girl with a goat was reaped to die for sport.
"I volunteer as tribute!"
Her eyes shot open as she heard movement in the other room, she couldn't remember where she was this time, looking around she remembered that the Everdeens had decided to go against every thing and had housed her last night.
The reaping was today, a horror filled ceremony where two children were sent off to kill or be killed as entertainment, people only ever allowed Onyx to stay in their houses for a night if the reaping was the next morning, they had decided that she had needed somewhere where she could sleep peacefully (with less of a chance of being caught outside unable to find shelter). The peacekeepers were sometimes lenient when it came to Onyx but half the time they let her be unless it was reaping day.
"Onyx, are you awake?" Katniss whispered lightly as the older girl came through the house softly, wincing lightly as she moved a little too harshly.
"Yeah" the younger girl replies just as quietly as she stretched the kinks out of her muscles from where she slept on the run down couch of the Everdeens home.
Katniss smiled lightly, her grey eyes watched the fourteen year old in front of her wearily. Onyx had the mixed look of a seam girl and a town girl, her stormy grey eyes had flecks of blue dotted in them while her raven black hair flowed down her back. The older girl sighed with a wince, due to the trip off of her roof two days ago, her ribs were broken and the peacekeepers in her district were still complete pricks and put her name into the bowl anyway even with her wounds.
Onyx climbed off of the couch and pulled her well-worn boots onto her feet ready for a morning of hunting before she faced another year of terror. She was looking forward to her little hunting trip with the older girl and Gale, she rarely went out with the two because she often went alone in the night to keep from getting caught sleeping outside by the rougher peacekeepers.
"How's Prim?" Onyx asked quietly as they walked through the empty roads towards the electric fence that never in fact held electric.
Katniss sighed "She isn't good, she was asleep next to mum when I got up, so she must have had a bad dream last night"
The both girls went into silence once again as they walked through the forest, Katniss grabbed a bow from a hollow log as Onyx pulled out one from the branches of a fallen tree. They both grinned at each other as they travelled towards their spot over-looking the valley around them.
Katniss was the best shot out of the two of them but Onyx had learned how to wield a weapon, mainly a bow or a knife. So it was always nice to see how better she got when she was with Katniss after so long of hunting alone.
"Hey girls" A voice said from the rocks above them, "Look what I caught"
Onyx grinned up at Gale as he showed the two of them a bread roll with an arrow sticking out of it. She watched as Katniss quickly grabbed it off of him and smelled it, sighing as the smell of fresh bread filled her nose and the heat of the roll warmed the tips of her fingers.
The older girl ripped part of it off of the roll and passed it to Onyx who grinned a thank you at her before taking a bite and looking around her at the freedom that the forest provided, she loved staying in the forest at night when it was warm and clear but always had to go back to the district before anyone had noticed she had disappeared, she would be followed otherwise.
"Thank you Prim" she heard Gale say, showing that she'd missed a conversation between her companions but she smiled as she saw the goats cheese in Katniss' hand. She didn't mind though, it was normal for her to drift off around them because it was easier for her to distance from them when the peacekeepers got too bad with their rules.
The three of them sat on the rocks, Gale and Katniss spoke with each other while Onyx closed her eyes and listened to the birds in the trees rather than the words spoke around her. She felt a tap on her shoulder and smiled at Gale who had his hand offered out to her to pull her up so that they could hunt before the reaping this afternoon.
She was at home when she was in the forest and watching her friends and possibly the closest things to siblings hunt made her smile as she watched them catching the squirrels and birds and then finding all the berries.
Ducking back under the fence was just as easy as ducking into the meadow towards the forest, Onyx watched as Katniss and Gale split their catch between the three of them, she caught Gale adding a bit more to her pile causing her to roll her eyes, he did this every time that they hunted together even though he knew that she had an income when the Hunger Games were off.
"Hey, Onyx why don't head down to the hob, either we'll catch you up or see you at mine" Onyx looked at Katniss at the suggestion and nodded taking her things from Katniss, she knew why the two of them wanted her to head off instead of stay with them; they were heading to the mayor's office and she knew the mayor couldn't turn a blind eye if she was right next to him and would need to send her to the community home.
She knew Katniss and Gale wanted to protect her but it often got really annoying, she was fourteen and they seemed to think she was still the nine year old girl they met when their fathers died in the mines. She could hold her own, she wasn't a weak little girl, being an orphan and dodging the peacekeepers made sure that she wasn't weak.
Smiling lightly as she entered the old warehouse that housed the Hob, Onyx felt at home as she spotted the vendors all trading and bartering with their customers. She instantly heads to Greasy Sae's stall and grins when she hears the old woman scolding Darius.
"What have you done now Darius?" Onyx smirks as she jumps up onto one of the stools, her bag being moved onto her lap as Sae grins down at the young girl on the stool.
Darius huffs at the smirk that was being sent his way and ruffles the young girls' hair as she sits next to him. "Apparently I'm as bad as you when it comes to eating so she thinks she needs to feed me up with, what was it again?, ah yes wild dog stew"
The teen laughs at the grimace that Darius sported when speaking about the wild dog stew, Onyx knew that Darius grew up on better but he ate the food when he was given it and would buy it from Sae just to give the older woman some money.
Sae huffs and swats Darius' head lightly with her spoon before serving Onyx a full bowl of stew, grumbling as Onyx hands her over some berries and squirrels, she never really liked accepting stuff from the girl because she didn't really have much but Onyx was stubborn.
"Thanks Sae" Onyx smiles lightly as she starts to eat the stew, it was an acquired taste but she was used to it by now, she spent most of her time in the Hob so they all knew her by name and seemed to care for enough not to let her starve. After all it was Sae and Ripper who were the ones to get her a job.
"Hey kiddo, try and stay safe today yeah?" Darius orders lightly as he ruffles Onyx's hair.
Onyx looked over at Darius surprised and swats his hand away half hearted, of course she'd end up having a peacekeeper as a friend, and at least it was Darius, the peacekeeper who hated being a peacekeeper.
"No promises" Onyx tells Darius with a small smile as the man rolls his eyes at her and disappears into the maze that was the Hob.
"Never thought I would see a decent peacekeeper until that boy arrived" Sae muses as she watches the young girl finish her food, she twitches lightly as she holds back the need to fill the bowl back up but she needed to make a living too and she knew the girl needed to trade with other people.
Onyx shrugs lightly as she hands the bowl over to Sae with a small smile "He's a good guy, one of the few I trust not to send me to the hell hole, I'll see you later Sae and Katniss and Gale will be here in a little bit"
Sae smiles and nods in understanding before shooing the girl away. Onyx waves lightly at the old woman and heads straight to Rippers stall, even though she didn't drink the stuff that was sold there, she knew someone who did.
"Hey Ripper" Onyx greets lightly as she takes out half of the rest of strawberries from her bag. While the others preferred to trade for money and such, Ripper loved strawberries but could never get them, not fresh anyway so Onyx could make a good trade with her. "How much he owe?"
Ripper looks up from where she was bottling up a small bottle of her liquor, her gaze moves down to the girls hands and smiles lightly as she spots the strawberries. She was always surprised when the girl came along and paid for some of her best customers' debt with her strawberries and trade.
"We got you that job so that you could pay to live yourself, not pay his debt" Ripper points out to the girl as she rolls her eyes and takes the strawberries from her carefully.
Onyx smiles at the woman "I use the money for food and for housing, I use my catch to pay his debt because he tends to forget, we both know that"
Ripper rolls her eyes again before nodding, of course she knew that. "Go and get yourself sorted for today"
Onyx smiles at the older woman and disappears into the maze of stalls that Darius had disappeared into earlier on, she stops by at the clothing stall and barters her last remaining pieces of money to get a dress that she could wear to look okay. The Capitol always wanted the children going into the reaping to look nice, she remembered the black eye she got the only time she ever looked bad when going into the square so always tried to look okay.
Getting back to the Everdeen house, Onyx smiles at Prim and Mrs Everdeen who smiles back lightly and leaves her alone to get cleaned and dressed for the hell that they were about to go through.
Onyx stood a few lines behind Prim who twisted her hands nervously behind her back, Onyx smiled as she saw the tail of Prims shirt sticking out of her skirt. She looked over to Gale who smiled at her and nodded his head towards the stage so that she would pay attention to what was being said. She rolled her eyes at Gale as he moves his gaze to Katniss and mouths the first line to the annoying film that they constantly had to watch and grimaces as Effie's voice met her ears.
"Ladies first" Effie plucked out a small piece of paper and slowly opened "Primrose Everdeen"
There was only silence for a half a breath, there wasn't even enough time for it to sink into the heads of some of the people of the district that the young girl with a goat was reaped to die for sport.
"I volunteer as tribute!" Onyx called out in distress before Katniss could and before the peacekeepers could even move towards the young girl who was unfortunate enough too chosen.