this is my first fanfic! hope you like! please leave reviews and tell me what you think.
The forest was old, perhaps even older than the mountain it stood on. The last mountain before the endless grasslands. I came here often to practice my skills, presently knife throwing. Six large boulders that sheltered it from the wind and cold flanked the clearing where I stood, all the trees surrounding it leaned in to the middle blocking the cold dirt from the suns piercing rays.
Wild game often wandered into this area to drink from the pool I had dug out and filled what must have been years ago. I'd created this pool for the sake of drinking from when I went up here time after time again. There were also several rows of berry bushes that dot the perimeter of my area and more throughout this part of the forest. That was why this spot was so perfect for me to live.
Sometimes I would wander back down the mountain slope to the cities of district two, but more often I would live of the wild blueberries or the fish I breed in my little lake, and I would lay under the outcropping in the boulders and sleep the winter away like the grizzlies. So I hated the people that lived in the village below, and I knew they hated me. I felt no connection to any of my species; I was not one of them. In fact, to the capitol, I probably didn't exist.
It's not like I didn't have a family, I just never talk to them and they never talked to me. They never visit me up here in the mountains, they never waved to me the few times they saw me sulking through the streets, and they especially never mentioned me to anyone they knew. I was a shame to them, ever since they realized my "special" problem, for many years day after day I slowly drift away from them as they thrust me in the opposite direction. For who would want a homicidal child, " there are enough mouths to feed in this family without taking care of a girl who could possibly send the capitol rushing to our house and killing us all!" they said to each other in guilt, trying to push back the fact that their daughter's ribs would show beneath her skin and her eyes would burn with desperation. It was not like they were poor, they were rich in fact, my father was one of the most famous doctors in Panem, but that wouldn't dismiss the fact that they kept a wild animal in their basement. For a while they clung to hope that I would turn normal, that my father could fix my horrid "disease" like he fixed so many others.
But now I lived here in the mountains, with nothing but my knives and shear determination. I struck out with my right arm, releasing the weapon and sending it straight into the heart of the tree. I heard a squeak from above and a rustle of leaves as a squirrel shot up to the top of the tree, fearing for its life.
"Don't worry!" I called up to it, "I only kill retards!"
I thrust the knife from the tree and examined it closely. It was a fine blade, more suitable for throwing then slighting, but I still used it quite often. The red glare of sunrise, I realized, had long since passed. I glanced over to the sundial I had created awhile before the wristwatch I had owned had broke. I had fenced it with stray animal bones I had found around the forest to keep wild animals from stepping across it and messing the symbols I had drawn in the dirt to indicate the times. I had also draped animal hides stolen from the people of district two over it to keep out the wind that would also surly destroy it, I only lift the drapes on days when the wind seemed to rest. The sundial indicated ten o' clock by the fish it lay peacefully on, ten was usually when the bears would wander into my clearing and fish. Since I couldn't stop the bears from this I packed away my knives and shoved all my tools into a rocky outpost, hidden from view by a large huckleberry bush.
I needed to move anyway, today was the day of the reaping, and I always went down to the city to see the reaping. Even if it wasn't me doing the killing, it always brought good feelings to see the look on a tributes face when they heard their name called for the whole nation to hear. I was burst out of my daydreaming by a low growl and a flash of fur through the trees and I swiftly rushed out of the clearing and down the path I always followed off the mountains.
The hunger games were always a good time for me, I never had the same anxiety as the other children even though I would bet my life on the fact that my mother and father had signed me up for about a million Tesserae, not because they need it but simply to be finely rid of me. The trail I was walking was stomped even and round about the trees, walked on so many times that not even the root of the trees broke into the pathway. It was not an animal path but more my path.
Quite often, at least once a month, I would wake in a cold sweat in the middle of the night and I would wander down to the city with nothing more than a sharpened blade in my hand. The next morning I would wake up, wondering if it was just a dream, to find a bloody knife and several valuable objects ransacked from the victims house. People I saw in the streets would often speak of how " instead of starving to death, dieing of disease, or sacrificing all your children in the hunger games, you can get killed the classy way here! In the middle of the night by an insane child from the woods! No wonder people say we're the third best district." They would shut up though when they saw that I was watching them.
I went on like this, thinking of all the people I had killed, until I stumbled upon the fence that separated the village from the outside. I was one flat grasslands now and I sweat was running down my back in abundance from the piercing sun, I did not envy those in the hunger games who were sent into barren desserts. I practically scaled the fence and dropped on the other side. It was like leaving a safe haven, jumping over that fence, like stepping from heaven to hell in one small jump. I shuddered a little in the heat and trudged on to the buildings and through to reach the town square.
When I arrive people are already filing about the clearing, kissing their children hopefully and pushing them towards the middle. I look around for a second as if expecting to see my mother and father waving towards me from within the crowd but I'm brutally disappointed. I scold myself for thinking this way and step over to the space where all the fifteen year olds are gathered. They all back away from me as I walk towards them and when I finally stop in my place, there is a large empty circle around me perimeter by anxious girls with both the possibility of being chosen and being so close to the wild girl. I watch as the mayor steps up and addresses the townspeople with his speech. I ignore this part of the reaping; I didn't come to hear his moronic rant.
He introduced three past winners, one was a very large man with strong muscles and a blank look on his face, he's known as Troop, the other was a small girl, of about thirteen who won the year before. I didn't remember how she won, but I guess she just tried to survive while the others beat each other and themselves to death, her name was Siana. I smiled up at Siana, I already hated her, and about two years ago she had witnessed me killing someone, not just someone, her father. Those were the only two tributes left after the fire several years past.
Now the mayor introduced a short grinning man, he looked a little like he wanted to kill the mayor, and I respected him for that, but it was most likely because he was so happy to have been promoted to such a nicer district then his last, since this was his first year in district two. He smiled and thanked everyone for coming, although, except for me, everyone here had been forced to come. He smiled in said the token " happy hunger games! And may the odds be ever in you favor!" then reached into the girl's bowl and, in the last second, I felt that something was wrong, with that long lost animal instinct that had helped so many times in the wild. The man stepped up and said in a loud but slightly jittery voice.
"Cassie Rineran!"
I look around searching for the unlucky girl who's been chosen but only see the other children waiting for someone to step up as well. I hear a gasp from within the crowd and turn to see my mother with her mouth gaping from behind the baker's shop, I start to wonder if that's where she's stood the last three reapings and I've just not noticed her. Then I see the little baby in her hands and frown, my little sister, the littlest Rivera. And then it hits me. Cassie Rineran is my name!
