Echos of the Descendant

A/N: Here's the first chapter, please read and review! SPOILERS FOR ALL THREE HUNGER GAMES BOOKS! Brief explantions of all three from Primrose. Reviwers get cyber hugs! Primrose's POV.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games or it's characters. My mind is not that brilliant!

Chapter One- Primrose Mellark

I stare at the faded pattern on the soles of my tattered plimsoles. I remember the many years I spent running through the forest with those shoes on. The leaves brushing my face and the branches snapping under my feet. I always use my mother's bow and arrows when I'm out. I never had as crack a shot as my mother had but I enjoy shooting the arrows at trees and, on occasion, accidently shooting a bird. I will be wearing those shoes later on in the square but, for now, I promised I'd meet Marice in the forest.

As I walk along the street I can see people perparing their children for the events to come. Mothers fixing their son's ties, fathers hugging their daughters, brothers and sisters of five to ten play fighting in the street, unaware of the upcoming I reach the fence I listen carefully to the newly put up chain link fence. As always there's a low humming sound, a sign that it is stacked with electricity, so I take a few steps back in search of the oak tree I always climb when the fence is electrofied. When I spot it I hurry over to it and run my hand over the rough tree bark until I snag my palm on a sharp point that sticks out from the rest. It never takes me long to climb the tree, since I have had six years of practice. The first time I tried to climb the tree, I was eleven. I climbed it fine, of course, as since I'm the oldest I'm the one who has to fix the leaks in the ceiling which includes climbing the side of the house and crawling along the roof to reach the source, but it was when I crawled to the end of the branch and leaped off I snagged my foot on the fence I got electrocuted. I was bedridden for two weeks until I got the feeling back in my foot. It took me a while to buck up the courage to try again but, after careful consideration, I had another go. Where I sprained my wrist. I kept practicing once I had recovered and finally landed on the other side without injury or harm to myself. I then started to meet Maurice there so we could be alone to talk about things that shouldn't be said in a high security district.

I see him now, sitting on the tree branch on the top of the hill, skinning a wild turkey. He has always had more of a knack for hunting and killing. I think he gets it off his father. The sun is pierceing through the trees and glints of his bronze hair. He looks so much like his dad. If you handed that boy a trident he would be the most lethal being in district 12. "Hey Prim," he grins. No-one ever calls me Prim, apart from Maurice, but only when we're out in the forest. "Hey Maurice," I grin back, pulling my bow and arrows out of the grass heap by the pond and loading it up. "Catch anything else?" Maurice shakes his head. "Just this," he sighs.

"How's the trident going?" I ask, shooting an arrow at a tree. Maurice sighs and takes a long, thick plank of wood out from behind him. The top is weakly cut out, in an attempt to make trident spikes. "Not very well."

"Do you want me to have a go?" I ask, pulling my trouser leg up, revealing the knife and strap I also keep attatched to my ankle.

"No, we've been through this. If my father could do it, I can too!" He drops the plank of wood again and continues skinning.

"Maurice, 1) your father was leathal at killing people with a trident and 2) your not your father. Give it here," I snap. I unstrap my knife, take the wood and drop to the ground beside the trunk Maurice is sitting on. I don't know what he found so hard. I begin hacking at the wood, gently curving the end to make a handhold. "Got a nice outfit for today?" I ask as the wood shavings blow away in the wind. He doesn't answer. He's been furious the past couple of weeks over what's going to happen today. "Don't be like that," I sigh. "Please?" I look up at him and see the anger that is blaring in his eyes. The meat of the turkey is lying on the ground and he is just scraping off the bone now. "We have to deal with it whether we like it or not. You can be grumpy if you want to but I don't see the point in it."

"My dad died trying to stop this," Maurice says quietly.

"I know that," I say back. "My auntie did die trying too. I have family members who are currently suffering for it as well you know."

"I know that," Maurice says. "I just can't take the fact that we fought so hard to get rid of it and yet, one granddaughter of the president comes into power after twenty five years, and everyone just falls back into place. Down with the Capitol!" He shouts. I leap off the ground and whack my hand over his mouth. "Sssh!" I snap. I poke him with the end of the stick in which I have sharpened. "Why should I? No-one will us!" He says through my hand. His breath his warm but makes my hand sweat so I slowly take it away. "Just don't talk like that," I say, hacking another hunk of wood out of the plank.

"Tell me again," Maurice says, "Why didn't they make the games with the Captiol children?"

"Because it would just prove that we are no better than them. Even though it was voted to happen people finally saw the light and listened to the people who were against it," I say.

"Like your dad?" Maurice asks.

"My dad was right about it. If we shoved the Captiol children into a games it would have been against everything everyone fought and died for."

"And look what it's brought us," Maurice mumbles as he gathers up the meat. "Have you got your pouch?" he asks. I nod and hand him the pouch that I always keep tied round my waist. He splits the meat and drops my half in. "No, Maurice, you caught that yourself," I say, "I've still got some honeysuckle and dandelions at home that I can make soup with." Maurice shakes his head and passes the pouch back to me. "Have it. On me," he says. "Come on." He gets up and takes the plank of wood out of my hands and puts it back in it's place inside the trunk he was sitting on. I look at my bow and arrows and push them back under the grass heap. Maurice and I walk back to the fence in silence. I climb the creepers that are wrapped round the maple tree and help Maurice up beside me. He stays there for a moment and swings his legs to and fro. I place my hand on his shoulder and smile. "Don't worry about it. You won't get picked," I whisper. "Wear something pretty." I then leap over the fence and land on the ground, just remembering to bend my knees inches from the ground.

At home, my brother Gale is spinning round in circles waving an airplane made out of a match box in his hands. I catch him and whirl him round in many circles, which makes him laugh happily. Mum comes in and tells me to put him down before we fall over. When I do put him down he swirls a bit so I steady him. I take a look at my mother and smile. She is wearing a lovely black, knee-length gown that has small, silver, butterflies flying along the bottom rim. Her hair is tied in a messy bun but she still looks radiant. "You look lovely mum," I say.

"Thank you," she smiles, swiping a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

"Where's dad?" I ask. Mum looks from side and side and quietly tip toes over to the patio doors. She peers out from behind the curtains and shakes her head. "He's having a problem isn't he?" Mum presses her finger to her lips so I nod and repeat the gesture to Gale who nods happily and does the same. Mum slips outside and I leap over to the patio doors. I pull back the curtains a bit and look outside. I can only see the back of dad. He is sitting on a patio chair and is clutching the arms so hard that there's a vein sticking out of his hands. His blonde hair's askew and looks like it hasn't been brushed in a few days. Mum comes into view and crouches beside him. She's saying something inaudiable but I can tell by the gentle expression on her face she's trying to calm him. I'm never allowed to be around when dad goes into one of his states but I always observe from a distance. I wish I could find out what mum says to him that calms him so. She is currently stoking his hands, which is making him slowly loosen his grip on the chair. For some reason I feel a tear run down my cheek but I immediately wipe it away. Gale joins me by the window and says, "Is daddy upset because of the reaping?"

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. The big event of today is the reaping. You may have heard of it but maybe you haven't. The reaping is an annual event where a boy and a girl is chosen for the Hunger Games as a reminder to the districts that the Captiol is in charge. There are twelve districts that surround the Capitol, who are in charge. There was once thirteen districts. Twice. But once the Hunger Games was reinstated a bomb was sent over to district 13 faster than you can blink as punishment for their role in the children chosen are forced to fight to the death until there is only one left, the victor. In the past there has been two rebellions against this. The first failed and the second succeeded. It was an empty victory though as, a few decades later a new Capitol leader came into power and reinstated the Hunger Games. I don't know why no-one protested as I have never really been interested in polictics but I do know that the new Capitol president is the granddaughter of the man who had invented the Hunger Games all those years ago.

Yes, that's why dad is upset. I would never in a million years tell Gale this though as he is only twelve and it would mean having to explain both mum and dad's past to him, which he is to young for. Mum told me two years ago, when I was fifteen. Before then I had thought mum's nightmares were brought on by a mental instability and dad's issues, which I still don't know the offical name for, was an effect of his illness called, "Hijacked." Mum approached me one day after my fifteenth birthday and explained everything.

On the occasion of the 74th annual Hunger Games, my mother's sister's, (a.k.a my auntie Primrose to whom I was named after), name was pulled out of the reaping ball when she was only twelve. Mum, who was sixteen at the time, volunteered to take her place to save her little sister's life. The boy who was chosen to join her was my dad. Apparently, the only time him and mum had interacted with each other before was when dad saved her life. You see, mum and her family were starving after my grandfather (my mum's dad) died and mum somehow ended outside outside dad's bakery scouring for rubbish. When she finally gave up she decided to die under some old apple tree outside the bakery by a pig pen. Dad purposely brunt some bread inside and threw it to mum. They never spoke but mum always thought she owed him after that. In the games mum and dad had to pretend to be in love to get sponsers. Half-way through the gamemakers annouced that two people can win if they're from the same district. When they found each other they both worked together and ended up winning the games. Only dad ended up getting a artificial leg due to a too severe injury that couldn't be healed.

I thought this would be the end to the shocking news that mum telling me but it wasn't. A year later, for the Quarter Quell which is basically the Hunger Games with a gruesome twist every 25 years, tributes had to be chosen from the exsisting pool of victors, i.e mum and dad. They were chosen to compete again for the 75th annual Hunger Games. Maurice's dad, whose name was Finnick Odair, had also been chosen as the male tribute to represent district 4. Only those games never ended. Mum did something near the end, something she wouldn't tell me, that obliterated the arena, almost killing herself and the others. Haymitch, her mentor, and a bunch of rebels saved her and a handful of others, including Finnick, before they could be kidnapped by the Capitol. Leaving dad behind.

I always knew mum was hiding important details from me about both these games as her explainations were quick and weren't very solid. I never pushed the issue though as I could tell it was hard enough for her to relive the memories in the first place.

After that, mum discovered that she would have to become the mockingjay of the second rebellion. This meant she had to be the face of the war, if she had any hope of keeping dad alive. They did get dad back eventually with a girl from district 7 who helped save mum called Johanna Mason and Maurice's mum Annie, who had been kidnapped from the district to probe for information, but they had been tortured, bruised and for dad, hijacked. Hijacking someone means you tap into their brain and play with their memories, twisting everything into something completely different. In dad's case they twisted his memories of mum so she seemed like a threat that had to be disposed of. Immediately. It took a lot of work to convince him that this wasn't true and to help him rebuild his proper memories. That's why he still suffers these episodes when everything floods back to frighten him. The war was won eventually but it meant the deaths of Finnick and Primrose and many soliders and innocents. The man who invented the Hunger Games, President Snow, died when he choked on his own blood when he laughed too hard when mum killed President Coin of district 13 for being responisble for the death of Primrose instead of him at his excuetion. It had been considered to make a final Hunger Games for Capitol children but it never went into play due to money issues and the fact that that would make us in better than the Capitol anyway.

All this information had been a lot to take in but I understood. Especially when President Snow's grandaughter, Lynn, appeared out of the ashes and brought everything back. Mum gave me strict orders not to tell Gale any of this as he is only a little kid.

I had never thought to watch my parent's Hunger Games until I found a secret archive hidden at the back of our house at the Victor's Village. Their tapes were at the bottom right corner of the video cabinet, one a normal black tape colour with 74 carefully printed on it, and the other gold, indicating a Quarter Quell, with 75 written in glitter. I knew I couldn't watch it if mum and dad were home but, to my luck, dad was working at the newly built bakery, mum was volunteering to help rebuild the new mayor's home and Gale was at school. In the tapes were the small details my mum forgot to put it. I don't know whether it was to spare herself the pain, or to spare me shock.

Mum didn't tell me that dad had joined a pack of careers, who are basically children trained to kill for the games, to lead them away from her. She didn't tell me about her ally Rue, who was wonderful with plants and climbing, who was fatally injured by a boy in district 1 and who mum sang to until she died. She didn't tell me that, when she found dad after the rule change, he had been cut by a career and was near death if she hadn't of risked her life to get the medicine. She didn't say she had to drug dad just for him to let her go and even then it was only because he was unconcious. She failed to mention that the boy from Rue's district, whose name was Thresh, saved her life in return for looking after Rue until she died. She didn't say that after the final boy died, leaving only her and dad, they changed the rules back and that they had to kill each other for there to be only on victor. I watched mum pour some deadly berries called, 'Nightlock,' into dad's hand and they both attempted suicide until the gamemakers ordered them to stop and told them that they both could win. Apparently the whole 'Nightlock' situation was what caused the second rebellion and why mum became the leader. The district viewers saw what they did as an act of defiance and began uprisings which led to the rebellion.

As I took out the first tape and held the golden one in my hands I feared what I might find in this one that she didn't tell me about. I was right to worry to. Dad died. In the Quarter Quell, dad died. He would've stayed dead too if Finnick hadn't of brought him back to life with CPR. The tributes risked their lives to keep both my dad alive. I don't know why they were doing it and I can't ask mum or dad about it without them knowing I watched their games. Finnick saved dad numerous times. A woman called Mags killed herself so they could keep moving without her slowing them down. A morphling addict risked her life to save dad from some venimous monkeys. For repayment for what she did, dad spoke to her as she died. Dad has a knack for words you see. He could turn an army to his side with only one sentence. And that had always been his weapon. Johanna also brought two allies mum had wanted to them, Beetee and Wiress. Sadly Wiress was killed later on. When they went to put Beetee's plan of electrfying the salt lake into action everything just went crazy. Everyone got seperated, Johanna cut mum's arm, mum hid from Finnick, dad went off to find mum, and mum found an unconcious Beetee who was about to do something to the force field. Everything went nuts when mum shot an arrow into the force field that kept them inside the arena,obviously thinking that was what Beetee was about to do, and blew it up. The tape cut off after that. I think that's when everything went wild and the rebellion officially began.

Mum is now helping dad out of the chair so I quickly shoo Gale away and retreat into my bedroom. Mum has set an outfit out for me on my bed. It's the lovely yellow dress I seen her wear in her first victory interview after the games. I rub my thumb and fore finger between the silk fabric and sigh. Cinna, mum's Hunger Games stylist, probably designed this. I take a shower and slip the dress on. You have to dress your best for the reaping. As if it's a big celebration. Two white shoes with pink soles sit beside my tattered plimsoles. I didn't know mum had decided for me to wear them instead but I put them on anyway. Mum braids my blonde hair into a plait, just like hers used to be, and sticks something to my dress. I look at it and frown. It's a gold mockingjay pin. That makes no sense. I look at her but she just smiles at me before fixing Gale's tie. Dad sits on a chair by the kitchen counter and I tilt my head at the sight of him. Mum must have spent half an hour alone just trying to get his hair de-matted but it's now brushed straight. His blue eyes are fixated on something in the distance but I don't try to find out what. "Is he OK?" I whisper to mum as she leans in to put a necklace on me. She simply replys, "I don't know."

We have to be at the square for two o'clock so we set off at half one. When we arrive I say goodbye to mum and dad and take Gale to sign us both in. I place him in front of me in the line and keep my hands firmly placed on his shoulders as they prick his finger for DNA confirmation. It doesn't hurt that much when they prick my finger but my eyes swell a bit with tears as I worry for my brother. I show him to were he has to stand and go to my age group's spot and wait. As I gaze around my eyes meet Maurice's. He pretends to cut his throat and does a mock hanging motion that makes me smile. On stage, our new mayor, a slightly weathered Effie Trinket, and Haymitch Abernathy sit, waiting for two o'clock. When the clock strikes two exactly the mayor takes his place on stage and he begins a long speech about the Dark Days (what they called the first rebellion), then about the second rebellion and it's success. He then praises President Lynn for bringing back the Hunger Games and showing us we are nothing against the capitol. When he finishes, he sits down and Effie Trinket takes stage. She coughs slightly and then her voice booms across the square, "Happy Hunger Games! And may the Odds be ever in your Favour!" I feel a shiver run down my spine as I remember hearing her say that on mum and dad's tapes. She looks from side to side nervously and then says, "Since this is the first Hunger Games since the rebellion there is going to be a twist." I frown. But this isn't a Quarter Quell. Why is there a twist? The mayor hands Effie a small piece of card which she immediately reads from. "To celebrate the first female president of the Capitol, there will only be female tributes competeting this year?" She sounds as confused as everyone else. People begin to murmour in the crowd but I can't help feeling a bit relieved. I mean, Gale's safe. Right? Effie chucks the card into the crowd and sighs before sticking her hand deep into the reaping bowl full of pink cards. She finally pulls one out and rips the seal with her long, pink fingernail. She looks at the card and announces the name written on the card. Which is one name. One out of thousands. The one thing I had never considered.

The name is Primrose Mellark.

A/N: So, that's it, please let me know what you think! I'll post the next chapter if I get a couple of reviews!