Chapter One

Katniss climbed the tree, shouting below her for Peeta to climb, too. Even though she knew he couldn't. The wild dogs advanced on him. He hit one with the spear he held. It yipped as it died. The rest advanced on him, bringing him to the ground. Katniss sent arrows into the pack, but it was already too late. Peeta's throat was already ripped out. Katniss could do nothing but sit in the tree, sobbing until the pack left. There was almost nothing left of Peeta. Katniss climbed down out of the tree and walked, numbly, through the forest, back to District 12. She walked to her home, where Greasy Sae watched her children. What would she say? How? Their father was dead. What would her babies do? What would she do? She could stay here no longer. The pain was too much. First Prim, now Peeta. Her mother was working in District 4 and Gale in District 2, she would seek out her mother, first, and find that her mother had left. No one knew where to, they all thought that the pain of the loss had become too much and she had gone off to die. Katniss then took her children to District 2. Gale was married, and had children of his own. Two girls and a boy. Katniss's five-year-old daughter was the same age as Gale's youngest daughter. Gale and his wife, Elizabeth, graciously took in Katniss and her children, Lily and Briar. District 2 had changed much since Katniss had been there last. It was now a nice, tight-knit neighborhood. Elizabeth didn't like Katniss much. Who could blame her? She was once Clove's sister. A girl who Katniss had nearly been killed by in the 74th Hunger Games. Katniss had been saved by a boy named Thresh.

Gale's oldest two children are a year older than Lily. They were, obviously, twins. The twins' names are Camille and Tobby, and the youngest child's name is Poppy. Years later, ten to be exact, Lily and Poppy are the best of friends and hunt for food in the mountains.

I lie on the bed, wanting to go back to sleep. I miss Mom and wish that she would come back. She left a couple of weeks ago. Got a letter about Grandma. Somebody saw her or something. I don't really care. I never knew her and it sounds like she couldn't stand to be near my mother anymore. I think about my mother. Why is she so intent on finding my grandmother? After Dad died, she moved us here, to District 2, hoping that Gale would take her back. I don't understand why my mother chose to marry my father, but from what I've heard, from people who grew up with him, he was kind. Since I was only five when my father died, I don't remember him much. If you asked me who my father is, I'd say that it's Gale. He raised me and Briar, provided for us, and most important of all, taught me to fend for myself. Ever since I was little, Mom always said that she would never be like my grandmother. Apparently, my grandmother became depressed after my grandfather died. Too depressed to even feed her own children, my mother and the aunt I never knew, Prim. My mother started to think about why she had married my father after she found that she was pregnant with me. She told me that he had become hostile after what the Capitol had done to him, that he was no longer the boy who she had once had feelings for. He was violent and tried to kill her. She said that she began to wonder why she had married him. He had lied about her. About them. In the first Games they went into, he worked with the people who were hunting her the most. He had betrayed her trust many times. My mother feared that if she left me, as an infant, alone with my father, that something would happen. Whether it would be that he would have a memory (the trackerjacker venom had somehow bonded with his blood, and if he were mad, he would lose control of his temper, and hurt someone) and end up hurting me. I saw how much my mother loved my father, and I loved him too, but after what she told me, all of my memories of the slow-tempered, kind-hearted man I knew as my father were tainted. I just couldn't see him as the man who had danced with me in the Meadow, who had pretended to be a monster that Briar, at the age of three, could defeat. At first, I hated my mother for telling me this, after my father had died, but now I can see why she waited. She waited until I was ten, when I could really understand what she was telling me. She had given him credit. When he had gotten mad, he left. For hours, days, sometimes even weeks. When Mom went hunting, she would leave us with our neighbor, Greasy Sae, who I personally think was insane.

I sigh. I guess I should get up and eat before all the food from breakfast is gone. I get dressed. A tight, green shirt; a pair of worn-out pants, my leather boots, and a leather jacket - Mom gave it to me. She said it was important to her, but I don't know why, I think it had something to do with my grandfather who died in a mine explosion when my mom was young. I open the door and am greeted with a fist in the face.

"Well hello," I say to Brair, who stands before me with a look of shock on his face. His eyes are the same as Mom's but the rest of him is just like my father, which, I'm willing to bet, is why Gale didn't like him to begin with.

"I didn't have to wake you this morning," Brair sounds shocked.

"No," I say. "I didn't get much sleep last night." We start down the hall.

"Thinking about Mom, again?"

"Yeah. I mean, how can she just up and leave us?"

"At least she left us with Gale and Lizzy. She could have left us like Grandma did to her."

"Yes, but that's exactly why I'm worried about her. Grandma never did anything to help Mom, from what Mom's told me, and yet..." I let my voice trail off, the rest of my usual speech hanging in the air between us. Brair is twelve, but so short and chubby. Like our father once was. People often mistaken Brair for a ten-year-old, and I admire how he never lets it get to him. We walk into the dining room, where everybody sits, hands folded in their laps, heads bowed in prayer. I always try to be late for the meals. They pray before each one. Mom told me that Gale never prayed when she saw him last in District 12, and she suspects that Lizzy is the reason he prays now. I hate to pray, mostly because I don't belive there is a God or anything like that. Lizzy tried to get me to pray for so long, but gave up, claiming I was a lost cause. Gale came to my defence, asking her how someone, who has lost so much, could possibly believe that there is some spirit out there, watching over them. Especially when their own mother leaves them for months at a time. So Lizzy, being Lizzy, turned on Brair. He went much easier than I did, since he was only two when Dad died.

They finish their prayers and Brair and I move to eat. The food here isn't like what I remember Greasy Sae making us, back home in District 12, but it's okay. Not wild dog, or fresh game. Just beef from the butcher's shop in town. The guy running the place, his name is Saul, has a rather good-looking son. Fair hair; although it's not as fair as Father's was; green eyes, a round boyish face. He's tall and very muscular, probably from lifting meat. The only problem with him is that he doesn't know what it's like to lose a parent. To try to keep your mother from getting depressed. To almost be an orphan, because your mother leaves you with an old friend as she runs of and does God knows what. He lives a sheltered life, and I'm not mad that it's Camille that he's got his eye on. She looks a lot like her dead aunt Clove, from what people tell me. Lizzy seems to favor her to Poppy, who looks like Gale, which, in effect, makes her look more like me. We could possibly be distant relatives, but all the records of marriages and family trees and such were destroyed when District 12 was burned after the revolution my mother started when she was around sixteen. I think that Lizzy favors Camille to Poppy because Poppy looks like me and I look like my mother and my mother caused the death of her sister, and even though Clove has been dead for a long time, perhaps Lizzy still can't bury her big sister? I don't know, and since Liz is giving me the eternal silent treatment because I can't help that I look like my mom, I'll probably never know.

"Your mother's supposed to come home tonight," Gale tells me. Good. We'll be back at home again. I snort.

"News to me," I say, piling some eggs onto my plate.

"I only got her letter today," Lizzy says in a slightly annoyed tone.

"You'd think she'd care more about her children, rather than just throwing us at you all," I shove a huge spoonful of scrambled eggs into my mouth.

"Don't you dare go there again!" Gale exclaims. "You do this every time! I thought that just for once, you could not bring this up! Just once!"

"It's not my fault!" I yell. "If my mother cared about me and my brother more, then we wouldn't be stuck here all the time! I love it here, but I can't ever be at my own house. This place is more like a home to me, than my own! At our house, I don't have to share a room, no offence Poppy."

"None taken," she replies. "I would like my own room for once, too."

"You're not helping, Poppy," Lizzy says.

"Maybe not you, but she's helping me out here," I say, dropping my fork and crossing my arms over my chest.

"Enough," shouts Gale. "Young lady, you need to learn how to hold you tongue! Your mother's been through a lot, and your attitude doesn't help her!"

"SHE'S NOT AROUND ENOUGH TO KNOW WHAT KIND OF ATTITUDE I HAVE ANYWAY!" I scream back.

"Lily, just stop," Brair, sitting next to me, says.

"Fine," I say, and sit in a brooding silence for the rest of the meal. When everyone's dismissed, I storm up to Poppy and my room and slam the door.