A/N: soooooo, i've been workin on this for a while, and now i get to share it with you :D hope you like it!
DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Hunger Games, just my own OC's
It was warm, despite it being a good hour before dawn on an early winter's morning. I trudge through the scarcely-populated streets, nodding silent greeting's to the peacekeepers I pass, sometimes flashing a smile to those I know.
I don't bother checking to see if the fence surrounding the meadow is charged, I know it is. Instead I climb up a tree near the fence and carefully crawl over a branch that hangs over into the forest.
I take a moment to catch my balance as I stand before jumping over and landing on the soft grass of the forest. Before I set off I recognize the soft electrical hum of the fence and smirk, wondering if they really think they can keep the people in when there's a tree growing right next to the fence.
I stride into the forest and grab a bow and a sheathe of arrows that my mother used to use for hunting before trekking through the forest, listening and watching for prey.
I'm just about to send an arrow into the head of a squirrel when another arrow, not my own, shoots it first.
"You know, the forest is no place for a married woman." The shooter said from the branches of a nearby tree.
"Well then you shouldn't have married me." I say with the smallest hint of the chuckle as I go over and take the arrow from the squirrel and stuff said squirrel in my game bag.
I lean against the trunk of the tree and watch my husband Trevis climb down the tree he had a perch in and walk over to me.
"There's nothing that can keep you out of this forest, is there?" He asked, extending his arm and pressing his hand against the tree I was leaning against, effectively trapping me.
"Nope." I say, popping the 'p' and smirking at him.
Trevis smiles and kisses me before taking his arrow from my grasp and putting it in his sheathe with the others. "Let's hunt then." He says, waiting for my response before heading off.
"That's what I came here to do." I say, smiling as I follow him through the forest.
After a few hours we end up back where we started with not much to show for our hunting trip. Three squirrels, a rabbit, and a turkey. Not much, but enough.
I sigh at the small catch and stash my bow and sheathe in its normal hiding place, hiking around the fence with Trevis until I find the tree that allows us to get back over the fence.
As usual, Trevis makes me get over first. If a Peacekeeper comes by and catches one of us on the wrong side of the fence he'd rather it be him.
Of course, this part of the town, behind the shops in the square, was completely void of Peacekeepers.
I wait the few seconds it takes for Trevis to scale the tree and jump over before turning and walking into the bakery, which was owned by my parents.
"Allamanda, where have you been?" My father asks as he saw me enter.
"You know, out and about." I say cryptically.
He nods slowly, knowing I mean I've been in the forest, even from my cryptic response. "Tell us next time." Is all he says before going back to icing a cake.
Now would be a good time to explain everything I guess.
I live in what is known as District 12. It is the twelfth of twelve districts that supply what is known as the Capitol. District 12 is the coal mining district.
Somewhere around a hundred years ago, there were thirteen districts, but there was an uprising throughout the districts against the Capitol. The districts lost. This time is commonly referred to as the Dark Days. To show the districts that the capitol was in control, they destroyed District 13.
After that, every year, the Capitol would hold what was called the Hunger Games to remind the districts that the Capitol was still in control. The basics of the Hunger Games was that a boy and a girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen, called tributes, from every district would be chosen to fight to the death in an arena, until one lone victor remained.
In the 74th annual Hunger Games, my parents, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, were chosen to go and fight to the death with 22 other children.
My father teamed up with the Careers, the tributes from Districts 1, 2 and 4, to lead them away from my mother, and keep her alive.
The Careers turned on him when my mother dropped a Tracker Jacker nest, a nest of mutant wasps who's venom makes you see hallucinations and can possibly kill you, on them, resulting in the death of two of the Careers.
The Tracker Jacker's had stung my mother too, and she was out for days. When she woke up she became allies with the girl from District 11, who's name was Rue.
Long story short, Rue died. My mom killed her killer and adorned Rue with beautiful white flowers before the Gamemakers took her.
Soon after there was a rule change to where two tributes could win if they were from the same district. My mom found my dad abandoned and betrayed by the careers, and they ended up being the last two tributes.
They changed the rules again to revert it back to the "one tribute can win" rule, trying to make them kill each other.
My parents threatened to kill themselves with nightlock, a deathly berry that kills you before it hit's your stomach.
This started another rebellion which ended up killing the President of Panem, meaning, the districts won this time.
Sadly, this came with a cost. My father was captured by the Capitol, and was hi-jacked, a very dangerous operation to twist a person's memories into something they're not. My father thought my mother was a Mutt, a genetic mutation made by the Capitol, for a long time. The hi-jacking makes him have "episodes," times where he reverts back to the man who believed my mother was a dangerous Mutt. They aren't frequent, not anymore at least, and they usually aren't that bad. Usually.
"Allamanda, get ready. There's a last minute gathering in the square today, soon." My mother said as she came downstairs with baking ingredients for my father.
"Mind preparing dinner?" I asked, tossing her my game bag, which she caught without a hitch.
"Sure. Make sure you brother and sister are coming." she called after me as I left to go to our home in the Victors Village.
The Victors Village had the best houses in the entire district. Only three were occupied. My moms, which is more mine and Travis', my dad's, which is where my parents and siblings resided, and Haymitch's, the first winner of the Hunger Games to come from District 12.
I've met Haymitch a few times, although I don't know him as well as my parents do. When I was a little girl, I could hear the three of them talking downstairs when I was going to bed. Could never hear what exactly they were talking about though.
Now, usually, last minute gatherings are very important. So I put on one of the more formal dresses my mom gave to me and brushed my blond hair out, leaving it down. It was so straight it seemed unreal, even to me. It hung down to my lower back and actually looked half decent when washed and brushed.
I dropped by my dad's house to check on my older siblings before heading off to the square.
I nearly beat down the door trying to get them to open up.
"Violet! Rye! One of you open this door!" I yelled, not really caring who else heard me.
"You know, even though you're the first of us to get married and move out, you're still the youngest. We deserve your respect." My brother Rye said, chuckling as he opened the door.
"Yeah, well, maybe when mom and dad stop telling you what you can and cant do." I laughed. "Anyway, there's a last minute gathering at the square, mom said you and Violet better be there." I informed him before walking off.
"Sure thing, see ya there!" Rye called after me, closing, or more like slamming, the door behind him as he went to presumably get ready.
When I got to the square, I saw Effie Trinket up on stage. I had never met her, but my parents talked of her ofter. She was the escort of the District 12 tributes back during the Hunger Games and almost never came to the District anymore.
I was too busy puzzling over this to notice Trevis calling me over to where he and my parents where they where standing until Trevis came over to me and grabbed my arm.
"You okay?" He asked, looking t me with eyes flooding with worry.
"I'm fine Trevis, just a bit puzzled." I told him, reassuring my statement with a smile as I walked over to my parents with him.
"Are Violet and Rye coming?" My father asked when we reached them through the heavy crowd.
"They should be. I told Rye, and he went to presumably tell Violet and get ready. They should be here in a few minutes." I said, relaying all I knew.
Just as I had predicted, Violet and Rye were in the square a few minutes later, and just in time for the gathering.
"Welcome everyone, and thank you for coming. I know most of you don't know, or remember me, but I was the escort for the Hunger Games all those dreadful years ago. Many of you are not aware of what has transpired in the Capitol, and some know but don't care at all." Effie started, hesitating and looking down slightly, as if trying to decide what to say next.
"I am sad to be the bearer of such dreadful news, but a new President has risen to power, and has reinstated the Hunger Games, affective immediately." Effie relayed, choking on her words.
Shocked gasps filled the air, I looked over to my father worriedly, fearing this might trigger one of her episodes.
His expression was like stone, and his fist's were clenched like he was trying hard to control himself.
My mother moved closer to him and whispered quietly into his ear, slowly but surely easing him out of his episode and making him relax.
"As a comeback special, the new president, President Frost, has decided to take one idea from a past quarter quell, and add his own twist on it." Effie managed to say, despite stopping several times to keep herself from crying.
"Like in the fiftieth Hunger Games, there will be four tributes instead of just two. For a twist, two will be between twelve and eighteen, and two nineteen or older. More tributes, calls for more mentors. So all three previous winners of the Hunger Games will be mentoring. Peeta and Katniss Mellark, Haymitch Abernathy, please come up on the stage." Effie explained sadly, looking apologetically out into the crowd, searching for them.
At first my father wouldn't move, but with some gentle coaxing from my mother, he reluctantly walked up on stage.
It took a bit longer to get Haymitch, who for once very surprisingly wasn't drunk, to get on stage beside my parents.
Before the actual reaping began, the peacekeepers forced us into groups with our own age and gender.
My heart was racing, I was exactly eighteen, and as was Trevis. Even though this time it wouldn't have necessarily helped at all, it's still nerve wracking.
"As always... Ladies first." Effie brought herself to say and she walked over to the bowl with the 12-18 year old girl's names.
She took a moment to decide which piece of paper to grab before reaching her hand in and pulling one out, walking back over to the microphone and braking the seal with one of her nails.
Her face went ghastly white as she saw the name printed on the small piece of paper, she looked out to the crowd, again apologetically and sorrowfully, before announcing District 12's 12 to 18 year old female tribute.
"Allamanda Mellark."