Huge, huge thanks to xerxia for her awesome betaing skills ;) My friend, I would have stopped writing long ago if it wasn't for you.
To dandelion-sunset, you know I was frightened by this story - thank you for pushing me out of my comfort zone :)
Aesthetics - have you seen how gorgeous they are ? this is the incredible, awesome work of akai-echo who has so much talent, class and skills i'm left speechless every time she does something for me :)
As usual, reviews, comments are more than welcome :)
Chapter 1: Pavo cristatus
"It's going to be a big, big, big day!" the woman in front of Peeta giggled, in a bright blue suit and oversized jacket. She apparently was in charge of communication, but the only things she was communicating at the moment were headaches and too much perfume. Walking on high heels, her steps as big as her skirt would allow, she commented on everything they saw. Even the signs at each one of the crossroads. Or why the trash bins were green. Important questions.
Peeta followed his co-workers through the maze that was the Zoo, passing by the big monkeys and some strange birds, until the whole crew from Capitol TV reached a brick building that stood out in the sea of green and bamboos, in front of which people wearing zoo uniforms were waiting. They formed small groups, a mass of brown cargo pants and gray tee-shirts, with radios clipped to their belts or the big pockets, buzzing periodically.
Peeta stayed a bit apart with the group of journalists and technicians, not wanting to mix with the crowd of zookeepers in front of him.
"This is a strange place." A tattooed man with too many piercing to count held out his hand to Peeta. "I'm Preston Oakfield, but I go by Castor. Sound."
"Peeta Mellark. Camera." Peeta took the extended hand and shook it, almost relieved to have someone to talk to besides the strange woman who had led them here.
"It's weird being here, right? I mean, who is going to watch a story about a zoo?" Castor asked, hoisting up the strap of his bag. "But well, it's three months of work, right?"
"Right." Peeta agreed, not wanted to talk too much about it. A three month job was unexpected for him at this point in his career, and he felt the nerves starting to creep up his body at the prospect of using a camera again.
"Ahum, is this working?" The peacock lady was now in front of the building, tapping the mic in front of her, the noise reverberating through the loudspeakers that had been installed. "Well, Little Teddy says it's okay, so…" Peeta saw the woman take a deep breath before leaning against the mike.
"My name is Effie Trinket and I'm the Zoo Head of Communications. As you all know, we're having new friends join us today for three months! They will be filming you every day, even on the weekends, so please give a warm welcome to the journalists from Capitol TV!"
Effie clapped, looking straight at the group on the edge of the crowd. Peeta knew the eyes were trained on everyone, but he couldn't help sweating as he tried not to count... how many people were there. He felt Exposed.
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath to calm his mind, remembering the mantra Dr Aurelius made him memorize. My name is Peeta Mellark. I'm twenty-six years old. I come from Panem, VA. My family owns a bakery. I just came back from Afghanistan where I lost my leg and my friends. To bake cinnamon rolls, you have to just add a touch of rum to the dough to make it better. My name is Peeta Mellark.
The words were soothing, even if they were only coming from his mind and he was the only one hearing them. They were a certainty, in a world that had become a permanent threat, something he could hang on to in the wee hours of the morning, when sleep evaded him.
"Come, come, come, introduce yourselves!" Effie's voice rang in the microphone in front of her, as the group of TV-people started to move, Castor pulling at Peeta's arm to come with them. They reluctantly walked towards the front of the crowd, regrouping into the three-persons teams that would work together for a few months. Peeta joined Castor and a strange woman, who had half her skull shaved and tattooed, and a lot of piercings.
As Effie introduced the two other teams of journalists first, Peeta took his time scanning the zookeepers in front of him, so many different people and personalities gathered there. He could already spot the shy ones, trying their best to remain unseen behind taller people, the cocky ones, that guy with bronze hair was a sure winner, or the brooding kind like the tall dark man with his arms crossed over his chest, a smaller woman at his side, a scowl etched on her face.
Peeta looked again at the woman in front of him. There was something about her that held his attention, something he couldn't pinpoint right now. She was beautiful, but he had seen more beautiful bodies, or lusher hair, and women who smiled.
"Well, just call me Castor - it's easier."
"Thank you, dear! And now to the next - and last - member of the crew!"
Peeta felt a tap on his shoulder, as Castor passed by him to regain his former place, before noticing all eyes were on him
He reluctantly moved towards the microphone, rubbing his sweaty palms on his bleached jeans, starting his mantra yet again. It was the third time today.
"Hi, guys, well, I'm Peeta, and I'm a cameraman and I'm looking forward to working with you." He tried to smile as much as he could, even if it was difficult. Dr A had told him to start smiling more months ago. Here, nobody knew him. Maybe he could try to find who he used to be. After all, what harm could come from a zoo?
"Well, well, we should get started, right? Crew one is to follow Annie today… Annie, dear, where are you?" Effie looked at the crowd gathered until she spotted a tiny brown haired woman raising her hand, almost shyly. "Here she is, our favorite veterinarian! Come, come, dear"
Peeta could practically hear the sigh of the vet from where he was - a solid twenty feet away, that almost, almost brought a genuine smile to his lips. He looked as Annie greeted her crew from Capitol TV before walking away, already talking to the journalist, Messallah.
"Wonderful! Crew Two, you will be with Finnick. Where are-" Effie couldn't even finish her question when a man stepped in, all dimples and bronze hair, green eyes shining in the morning.
"Want a sugar cube?" he asked the crew that had been appointed to work with him that day, holding out his hand on which were a couple of the treats.
"One rule, though - this is for human consumption. Nothing for the animals." Finnick said, before shaking the hands of the journalists. Peeta noticed how the woman, Lavinia or Octavia he couldn't remember, looked at Finnick, ogling him from top to bottom shamelessly. They were soon on their way, opposite from where Annie had gone, already chatting together.
Peeta watched them leaving to the sound of Finnick's laughter, before his attention turned back to the zookeepers in front of him. Who would he be assigned to? The calm man with chocolate skin, or the spiky-haired brunette with a lot of piercings playing with her swiss army knife? The perky young blonde woman, or the tall one who was eating sunflower seeds? Or would it be the brunette with the silver eyes, her arms crossed over her chest, her scowl deepening with every passing minute.
"And finally, last but not least, the third crew will be with Gale, our Animal Curator. Gale, darling, can you come over here?"
Peeta hefted the bag with his camera inside, looking at the zookeepers going away, already grabbing their walkie-talkies, fading into the alleys of the zoo, until only two people remained in front of them - the tall dark haired man, and the woman Peeta had noticed earlier- whispering to each other before they finally parted, sharing a hug. Then the man walked towards them.
"I'm Gale," he said sharply, not even extending his hand. "I guess you'll stay with me all day. See if you guys can survive a full day of work. Let's go, hope you don't mind ruining your shoes."
"Gale!" Effie chimed in, coming towards the man in the strides her tight pencil skirt allowed. "You do not need to be all animalistic! You'd better behave!"
"Or what, you'll tell Haymitch?" Gale snarked.
"Worse." Effie smirked, before adding. "I'll tell Madge."
"Effie…" Gale's voice had lost all pretence of being intimidating.
"We'll see how kind you are when you have to sleep on the couch for two weeks. Now, shall we?"
Peeta could see the spark in Effie's eyes as she motioned for Gale to move over, before she turned in a flurry of blue and green, her hair never moving as she left on her too high heels towards the administrative building.
"So. I'm Gale, the animal curator. Which means I'm in charge of all the animals, reproduction programs with the vet, and exhibitions. You're going to follow me and film whatever you feel like filming then. Ready?"
Without waiting for their answer, Gale turned in the opposite direction from Effie, all the while talking.
"I'll show you around quickly, then I have to go help sexing the baby wallabies. Is that okay for you?"
Peeta exchanged glances with his teammates, and at their nods, he grabbed his camera from his bag. It felt strange at first to be holding the device again, to feel the weight of it on his shoulder, to realize his fingers still knew where to push or pull, which buttons to use.
But more importantly, it felt good.
Hard.
The job was harder than Peeta had thought it would be. Gale literally spent his day pacing the zoo, back and forth, going from helping in the marine department find out if the arctic wolves had mated, to the other side of the park, checking on the giraffes with Johanna - the spiky-haired brunette in charge of the beasts together with lions and leopards too - to check on the impending arrival of a new male in the coming weeks, then running to the petting farm to sex the wallabies.
They went to the petting farm, and Peeta had every intention of filming that part then heading back to the cafeteria to eat.
But the wallabies had other ideas. Apparently, they didn't like being grabbed by their tails and lifted to discover whether they had a pouch or not. Peeta quickly discovered the animals would fight back. And as if it wasn't difficult enough to film moving animals, outside, he had to take care of where you put your feet, because yes, the prairie was mined with poop. He had to film while said wallabies were boxing back, with their feet.
To Peeta, it was so surreal watching all of this happening. His mind couldn't help but go back to places where there was laughter too, even if often, it was covered by the explosions or the sounds of planes above them. The push of an alpaca quickly brought him back to Arrowtown though, in the middle of a prairie, with actual llama drool on his shirt. Or alpaca. Or whatever.
When they were finally done, Annie and her crew leaving the prairie to go to an emergency involving a marmoset, they followed Gale to the cafeteria, where they were able to sit for a few moments. Peeta welcomed the relief, his prosthetic making his skin itch under his jeans, as rivulets of sweat kept coming under the liner protecting his stump.
"Hope you're not tired yet. We still have a lot to do this afternoon. And there will be visitors too so we'll have to be extra careful with your big camera," Gale said before taking a bite of his sandwich.
Peeta was about to answer when the silver-eyed woman who had captivated him that morning came rushing in, her long dark braid bouncing on her shoulder as she ran to the head zookeeper.
"Gale! It's rascal ! She escaped!"
Peeta was wondering what rascal had escaped where, who the rascal was, when Gale jumped from his chair, grabbed his sandwich and turned to him. "Mellark, grab your things, we're going hunting."
Hunting? Peeta thougth. I thought zoos were to protect the animals?
It turned out that hunting wasn't really hunting, per se.
And that the rascal was actually Aska, a beautiful snowy owl that had flown away from the bird sector into the countryside surrounding the zoo.
Which meant they had to hunt down a bird, in the hopes he would willingly want to come onto the big leather falconer glove instead of wandering the woods, as Gale explained, while they all hurried to the other end of the zoo.
Peeta was already tired. His leg hurt more than he was willing to admit, his back was drenched in sweat at carrying his camera and avoiding the contact with the animals, and his mind - maybe his mind was the least problematic part right now, surprisingly. Having to focus himself as well as the camera on the animals or their keepers who kept moving around, attending to their tasks had kept everything else at bay.
They soon reached the aviary, where Gale was apparently expected. Three people, among which the brunette Peeta had seen at the welcoming speech were ready to go, carrying a rather large GPS receiver.
"You got a signal?" Gale asked the man in front of him, who was checking something on the radar of the GPS.
"Nothing yet. But Mike said he saw him fly away southwest."
"He'll go northeast," the young woman with the braid said in an authoritatively voice, before turning to grab a set of keys from the counter nearby.
"Mike said…" Gale tried to counter.
"Mike is good at technical stuff, I'm good in birds. I'm heading northeast," she answered, gathering her things before heading to the door of the aviary.
"Katniss…"
"Don't Katniss me, Gale, I'm heading northeast. She'll follow the wind," she added, pointing at a weathervane just outside the now open door.
The tip of the old, rusty vane was pointing northeast.
Gale followed her, along with the two other people from the aviary. Peeta was exchanging looks with Castor and their journalist, wondering whether or not they should follow, when Gale turned back to them, asking.
"Aren't you supposed to shadow us? Unless you're afraid of a bumpy ride in a 4x4?"
If only he knew how many bumpy rides I've been on, Peeta thought, trying to not let the memories of another place, months ago, invade his mind. Too many rides in four-wheelers, under the too shiny sun of Afghanistan.
"Oh, we're in, handsome!" Cressida answered excitedly for the three of them, grabbing her things, and ushering Castor and Peeta to follow them out.
"I guess we're on a hunt for a big white owl…" Castor said.
Well, that made a nice change from the hunt for big bad guys.
Night had fallen when Peeta got back to his room, muscles sore from the exhaustion, his shirt thick with sweat, his stump hurting from the hours he had spent with the zoo crew looking for an owl.
Said owl who had decided not to come down from the oak tree they had finally found her in, regarding the falconers with disdain. Nobody could make her move from her perch at the top of the tree.
They gave up when night fell, hoping they would be more lucky catching her the next day.
Peeta's crew had been the last to leave the park, long after the official closing hour, long after the two others teams. They had all met later at the hotel's bar, all excited about their day, all having stories to share.
Peeta had excused himself as soon as he had finished his beer, telling them he had phone calls to make - which was at least partly true. Because as he contemplated the ceiling, he knew full well he should call Dr. A to tell him about his day, to share his feelings about his first day back to work, but all he could think of were animals.
And a pair of grey eyes.
