I chuckled as I crossed my arms looking up at the slightly tall tree near the shrubby bushes a few ways from the sandy golden shores that were kissed by the pale sea green waters that resembled the color of my eyes, soon coming the sun raise burnt the sky in the east with a beautiful mixture of light soft yellow and bright amber as the darkness slowly dissipated around me , it was one of the simple pleasures of District 4 and believe me those few in numbers, however my thoughts were interrupted at a sudden blunt assault of a tiny plum as it knocked off my forehead from above leaving me to rub the slight red spot it left on my head.
Though tiny, saltwater plums were heavy because of their large seeds that practically made 3/4 of the plum leaving barely any fruit and they packed a punch, light, but a punch is a punch.
"OOPS!" the tiny voice in the tree chirped as she looked down at me, her dark green eyes gazing down at me. "Sorry!"
"It's ok Ari" I chuckled "just be careful remember grip on the branch". I warned her as she giggled hugging the base tree trunk her frail tiny five year old arms. Her pale skin, her skinny and short build, common for the young kids around District 4, mostly the first few years showed just the nature of everything around us.
After all, nothing says poverty like, frail underfed kids but that it was like that for most of the districts or so I imagined. However the main reason why the kids were put to work, so that we'd gain strength, muscle, develop quickly at a younger age with a knowledge of weapons, traps and nets as to provide a show for the Capitol and giving us an advantage over some during the Hunger games.
And then it hit, eleven, just one more year, one more year before my name could be up for their horrid slaughter.
"I almost have a hand at it Finny!" her voice was so happy at that moment but I carefully eyed her, making sure that the height of the saltwater plums in her tiny cloth bag didn't sway her already unbalanced body off the branch. The tree wasn't too high but at the same time the bag of plums could possibly weigh more than she did.
"That's great !, I think we have enough plums, come on throw the bag down we have to get back before the peace keepers start at their posts." I said as she nodded throwing the heavy bag down making sure to tie it to leave no escape for the plums to go through. Resting the bag on the ground I held my hands for her to jump down. "Jump!"
She looked back down at me and without even a second thought jumped into my arms, I caught her setting her to the ground, her short dark red with hair messy with the shorter strands to the front sticking to her forehead.
"That was fun!" she giggled once again.
"It was, you climbed five seconds without falling, new world record squirt" I teased before she pouted. "Come on, let's get out of here "I warned picking another bag off the ground, one filed with a few Bonefishes, two blue fish and one Tarpon, taking her tiny hand and led her away from the beach knowing that only in a matter of minutes it'd be swarming with peacekeepers and early morning fishermen and women and children, like me.
Kids, who lost their parents to disease, killed by peace keepers or lost to the sea, kids with no with no one to look over them, where food was mostly uncertain however death often was.
I had lost my parents in a shipping accident a few months back and with no one else to take me, no other family members, I was all alone. An Eleven year old, left to fight against the world. And even though months had passed the dreams of my parents sea both, going down under the stormy waters woke up at night In a cold sweat and in the dark tiny, wooden shack, the only comforts I had was a long about 15 inch of dark blue rope which I did numerous knots that my father had taught me and also a single tear necklace of cast iron that once belonged to my mother. She called it the sea maiden's tear and it followed instant memories of the stories of fishermen meeting sea woman and how'd it always lead them to their demise.
'I found it extremely funny that even in the sea, women were trouble' I remember my father had commented one night. His dark hair, eyes from which I had gotten mines from while my mother had short bronze hair and light brown eyes.
I missed them. I missed them both.
"Finny?" I heard Ari's voice chirp once again bringing me back from my thoughts.
"Yeah Squirt?"
"Can I go to the Sammy's with you this time?" she asked knowing full well what the answer would have been, since her voice seemed more suggesting than it was asking.
"No Ari, you know why you can't" and that was that end of the suggestion, Sammy's block District's 4 main black market one of only two in the district. Sammy's block was basically a fairly small, run down, market place, much like every other building in the district however this is where half of the district's trading seemed to take place, however only Sammy's had a particular item of extreme valued trade what many would think of as "the gold mine" which was District 11 bread, which was sold in District 4 to limit the death of the fishermen from hypertension. District 4, known for fish and salty fish shaped bread; however the bread was a blessing and a curse.
The Capitol had a thing for the salty dough and ordered in mass numbers however, the increasing years of the salt often lead to hypertension in many of District 4 residents even sometimes Hysteria.
The Capitol loved seafood and of course with no fishers they'd equal no fish, so they had shipments of the bread brought to the district from district 11 which was high in grain and wheat and often suppressed the effects of the disease when eaten for long a period of time but it was expensive and with the tiny ration of coins given to the workers, people still died anyway.
However at Sammy's a man, Sarius a local bread maker, traded the district 11 bread for other items, such as smuggled fish, plums, whatever was of value to him, after all as a lone baker with surprisingly barely any knowledge of fishing, he needed his protein but that was illegal.
Trading all in itself was illegal, which meant, Sammy's was a danger zone and no doubt if the crueler peacekeepers ever found out, any and all traders would be as dead as the fish they traded. Looking around I saw the kids headed in the other direction, most with spears, nets, tridents and traps in their hands, heading off to the sea.
I stopped at a house, door open and anchored by a block keeping it in place, there sitting on the front step, washing clothes with the water in an old rusty bucket was a man, slowly being aged by diseased, dark green eyes and black short haired, his fingers shaking as he tried to keep hold of the dark shirt in his hand, his hands, arms and legs scarred.
"Daddy" Ari said before hugging the man, who simply smiled at our return.
"I was getting worried, everything went peacefully" he said as his gazed fixated on me.
"Yep, promising too"
"Good, now boy, head to Sammy's quickly and return before the peacekeepers take their morning rounds before they catch you with that bag of goodies there" he said with a hoarse chuckle but it still had seriousness with it.
"Come on, with this smile" I said with a smirk, flashing a smile while I struck a pose. "They'd forget all about it"
"Distracting" Ari giggled as she handed me the bag of plums and I handed her a few back.
"Here keep"
She said thank you before running into the house to place the fruits in an old bowl while I hurried off to Sammy's, Sarius being displeased with my catch and absence of the usual Amberjack fish only rewarded me with 5 loafs of hard crescent shaped bread, with was fine with the remaining plums I traded a few for, small amount of soft goat cheese, mint leaves and herbs then I left, immediately returning to back to the house passing an old woman, back hunched over as she sat in an old rocking chair, long dark hair in a low braid which was tainted grey by age, she laid in the rocking chair, cracking a few nuts with her bare hands into a bowl.
"Morning Mags!" I smile before giving her a simple wave to which she smiled and waved back weakly before throwing a few of the nuts toward me and I caught them not letting one hit the floor. "T-thanks" I said with a smile before heading off.
Hi, My Name is Finnick Odair, I'm eleven years old and I live in District 4, my parents are dead and this is my life in District 4, this is my story.
Ok Guys, I hope you like Chapter 1 So far, sorry for the shortness of it, Chapter 2 would be better and more drama filled. I hope you Like my Original Character Ari and later on during the series will have Timeskips and such so Finnick's not staying 11 forever~ where's the sexiness in that?
I just also want to say that Ari and Finnick only have a sibling like bond and nothing more okie? Annie X Finnick forever 3