The Silent Huntress
A/N: Hi again guys! It's me, Whovian-CapitolGirl, and this is my new story The Silent huntress. For all of you who've read my other stories, hopefully the chapters for this one will be a LOT longer. Please check out my other stories (A tale of two cities) and (Dear Diary) Please, please, PLEASE review! Thanks guys! xxx
Chapter 1-Strawberries
Katniss and I are sitting in the dining hall of District 12's school. "God, this place is way too crowded." Katniss yells over the stampede of apes around us. "Should we go to the library again?" I shout back, already packing the rest of my lunch in my bag. "Doesn't sound like a bad idea!" says Katniss, and we push and shove our way out of the farm-like room.
Katniss Everdeen and I have been friends for 3 years. Ever since she came in late from hunting with her father and I covered for her. She's very nice, but quiet, like me. But she doesn't really like people. She doesn't know how pretty she is, nor how popular. Ever since her first day of school she's been admired by everyone…
I was sitting in the hall on my first day of school and the music teacher spoke gently, "Who here knows the Valley song?" That's when I saw it. A small hand shot up before anyone else's. "Why don't you come up here and sing it for us then?" The girl stood up. She was wearing a red plaid dress and her long brown hair had been tied in two pigtails instead of one-just like mine. "Who's she?" I asked the blond-haired boy sitting next to me. "That's Katniss Everdeen!" he said excitedly, "My dad says that when her father sings, all the birds stop to listen, but I don't believe him." He told me quietly, as Katniss Everdeen sat on the stool at the front of the room and started to sing.
"Down in the valley, the valley so low
Hang your head over, hear the wind blow
Hear the wind blow, dear, hear the wind blow;
Hang your head over, hear the wind blow.
Roses love sunshine, violets love dew,
Angels in Heaven know I love you,
Know I love you, dear, know I love you,
Angels in Heaven know I love you.
If you don't love me, love whom you please,
Throw your arms 'round me, give my heart ease,
Give my heart ease, dear, give my heart ease,
Throw your arms 'round me, give my heart ease.
Build me a castle, forty feet high;
So I can see her as she rides by,
As she rides by, dear, as she rides by,
So I can see her as she rides by.
Write me a letter, Send it by mail,
Send it in care of Birmingham Jail,
Birmingham Jail, love, Birmingham Jail,
Send it in care of Birmingham Jail."
Everybody sat silently. "Papa was right," the boy next to me said, "Listen." So I did. All was silent for a minute but then something strange happened. A baby mockingjay flew over to the window of the hall, and started singing Katniss' song. Then more came. And more came. Soon, the air was filled with a hundred mocking jays, singing the Valley song back and forth to each other. "Wow." I whispered in awe. Then I looked back to the front of the hall. Katniss Everdeen was still sitting on the stool, waiting to be excused…
I snap out of my daydream to find Katniss and I are already at the library doors. "Come on then." Katniss says, a little softer this time. "Ok." I reply with a small smile, as Katniss opens the doors that lead to my favourite place in the school.
We sit down and get out our lunch-Katniss' sandwiches and my strawberries. We sit and eat in blissful silence. That's what I like about Katniss. She's always quiet, and prefers quiet company, like me. I offer some strawberries to Katniss and she hands me a sandwich in return. We smile at each other and then the doors of the library open swiftly to reveal him…
He enters the room quickly and takes a seat next to Katniss. "Hey Catnip! Thought I'd find you in here. Hall a bit too crowded for you?" he asks, raising his eyebrows. 'Wow!' I think, 'he's amazing.' "You know it Gale," Katniss replies, eating one of my strawberries, "It always is." Gale eyes up the strawberries sitting in the middle of the table. "Would you like some?" I offer quietly. Oh my gosh, his eyes are amazing. Delightfully grey, pale but powerful – the eyes of a hunter. So different to my rare blue ones. Almost everyone in District 12 either has brown eyes or green eyes or grey eyes from the Seam. I think the only people in our year who have blue eyes are me, Delly Cartwright and Peeta Mellark. "If you don't mind," Gale says cautiously.
"Of course I don't mind. Wouldn't be offering if I did, would I?" I reply a little bolder. It gets just the reaction I was after, as Gale gives me his most dazzling smile, the one he usually saves for Katniss. I envy their closeness. They go out hunting every weekend and are almost inseparable the rest of the time. They know each other so well, yet Katniss can't see the look in his eyes when he makes her laugh, the way he scowls when he sees other boys eyeing her up. Gale almost beat up that Peeta Mellark when he found him following her home. Luckily Rory was there so Gale didn't do anything too bad. Rory looks up to his brother like he's a God. Of course Gale doesn't know this, but everyone around him sees it as clear as day. Well, not a day in 12. Maybe in the Capitol.
"Hello? Earth to Madge?" Gale says as Katniss raises her eyebrows at me.
"Sorry, guys, I guess I must have zoned out!" I reply, shaking my head, "What were you saying?"
"I said, where did you manage to find strawberries? I always look out for them at this time of the year, but I never find any!" Gale says.
"Easy! I get them behind the Seam, next to the coal mine. The dust layer actually foliates the soil so it makes them bigger than the average berry this time of year." I tell him, and I watch the look of awe sink in on his flawless face.
"Ahh."
"You were looking in the woods weren't you? They won't grow there. Mother took me out there one day when she was feeling good. She taught me about all the different plants. I had a look at the positions of the strawberry plants, but they're all too close together. The roots don't have enough space to grow and no matter how much sunlight they get, it won't give them nearly enough photosynthesis as they need, and so the strawberries will only be as big as your finger nail and sourer than last month's milk." Gale stares at me and Katniss' jaw drops.
"I didn't know you knew plants!" Katniss outbursts.
I feel my anger rising. Of course she knows! I bring it up every time she talks about her 'escapades' outside the fence with Gale, in the hopes that she'll take me with her! "Of course I do. How else do you think I get by? My father spends all our money bribing the Capitol for more drugs to help my mom and I spend all my free time playing the piano and gathering by the lake, it's not like I've got any friends who'd invite me out!" I reply to Katniss' shock.
"I had no idea you snuck out the fence." Gale says calmly. He looks at me strangely, as if his whole view of me is changing. "Haven't you been caught?"
"Of course not! I go to the lake. Unlike everyone else in this god-forsaken district, I don't have someone who'd teach me to survive in the Games, so I practise my knots, identifying plants, climbing, and hiding!"
"But why?" Katniss questions.
"Because," I start as the bell rings, "you aren't the only ones who have to sign up for the tesserae."