As I woke up a chill went through me, 'reaping day' I thought. The room was still relatively dark as I turned and got out of bed. I heard heavy breathing, Prim, I said under my breath. Her breathing got heavier as I walked closer to the bed where she and my mother, Renee, slept.
"Katniss don't, don't die." she was having a nightmare.
"Prim, it's okay." I cooed as I stroked her hair.
Prim was only 12, the age where you can be chosen for competing in the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is a yearly event where two people from each district get chosen, one man and one woman between the ages of 12 and 18, to fight to the death in an enclosed arena until only one person stands. This all started because of the Capitol. America was turned into thirteen districts and we had one Capitol. District 13 started an uprising, rebelling against the Capitol, and that started a huge war, soon enough District 13 was no more.
As I was getting dressed Prim's cat, Butterball, was hissing at me. I tried to find a good cat for her and Butterball was a nice cat that I got for trading a wild turkey at the Hob. He was a Chartreux cat with a good weight, but after the years he started disliking me and took a favoring to Prim.
"Shut up you dumb cat." I said with annoyance in my voice. I don't know why Butterball hated me, I never did anything to him. If anything Prim was worse to him than me.
While I was walking to the woods I saw only one person outside, Peeta Mellark, the baker's son. He was a good looking guy nonetheless, but he wasn't approved by my mother. Peeta was doing something that involved bread, I couldn't be too sure though. In the bakery window I saw someone hitting someone with a spoon. I hoped he didn't have an abusive family.
When I got to the fence that surrounded District 12, I noticed that the electricity was on. The electricity was never on, only for a few hours a day if there was a need for it to be on.
"Gale!" I yelled into the forest. Gale was my hunting partner who was much taller than Peeta by a landslide. They were both handsome guys for District 12. During the tribute parade and interviews there have been a few nice looking guys from Districts 1 and 2, but not District 12.
"Ahh!" Gale snuck up behind me and almost gave me a heart attack.
"What was that for?" I asked raising my voice.
"Shhhh. It was just a joke Katniss. Don't be so loud we're not supposed to be here." He said looking pleased at his prank.
"I almost had a heart attack, Gale. You didn't have to scare me like that." I said. It was obvious that I had a hint of laughter in my voice.
"Well what do we have here?" Gale said as he looked at the fence. "The electricity is never on." Gale threw a stick at the fence and the electricity went off.
"Gale," I said, "there could be mutts running around that's probably why the fence was on." Mutts or Muttations were strange creatures created by the Capitol that were very deadly.
"Nah, they only had it on because it was Reaping Day so no one would run into the forest." Gale said sounding like a very bossy kind of guy.
"Gale it's never been on during Reaping Day before." I said
"Whatever. I'm going in anyway." He said in an intimidating way.
"I'll wait here!" I yelled to him as he was going over the fence.
After a couple of minutes, about 20 I should say, I heard a yelp of pain. I ignored it but I heard it again. Then growling.
"Gale! I'm coming!" I yelled to the forest.
"Katniss don't! There are mutts!" he yelled. It was obvious he was crying.
"Gale I'm not leaving you!" I climbed over the fence only to be face to face with a mutt. Crap. I thought. I pulled out my bows and just stabbed it in the neck. Easy kill. I smelled the very strong scent of blood.
Soon enough I saw Gale, wounded in the leg with a dead mutt beside him. He wasn't wounded too much but he was alive, I was sure of that.
"Gale! I told you that there were mutts! Damn you!" I yelled at him. I saw tears in his eyes.
"Easy kill that mutt was. Killed it by punching it in the neck." He was obviously proud of his accomplishment. I was just happy that he was alive and well.
"Gale how are we going to get you out of here without people noticing you?" I asked staring off into the woods to see if there were more mutts.
"Walking." He said. To my astonishment he got up and walked like nothing was wrong. "Come on we don't wanna be late to the reaping" he laughed and we went back to our houses.