Katniss Everdeen's father died in an oil rig explosion six years ago. She and her family (her mother and her sister Primrose) had been told that a pipeline had burst spilling tonnes of the sticky black liquid all over the deck of the platform. Whilst everyone had been panicking about fixing the immediate problem they had failed to notice the rising pressure in a natural gas tank and that by the time someone did notice, it was too late. The tank ruptured and exploded in a massive fireball. The intense heat from the blast was enough to ignite the oil that was spilt all over the deck. There were no survivors. Not even the remains survived. The fire decimated everything.

After the funeral Katniss and her family moved to Panem city using some of the compensation they had received. Her mother had been offered a job as head nurse at Panem ER. This would provide a new stable source of income and keep food on the table. However, unfortunately that was all she was now good for. After her husband died she shut down, only talking and eating when absolutely necessary and shutting everybody out, including Katniss and Prim. This had left Katniss to look after pretty much everything: Buying food, cleaning, caring for Prim, ect.

The older Prim became, the easier life was on Katniss. She found herself with more free time to spend doing what she wanted as Prim was more self sufficient. In that free time Katniss often found herself in the forest that backed her house on 12th Street. She enjoyed hunting. It had been one of the few things that she and her father did together when he was home. The only things Katniss had left to remind her of him were his old hunting jacket and boots. After he died Katniss wore them everywhere, school, the shops. you name it she probably wore it there.

She also met her best friend in the forest, three and a half years after they had moved. One day whilst she was out hunting she had spotted a young buck down by a shallow stream that cut straight through the forest. Moving as quietly as she could, which to her came like a second nature at this point, she positioned herself so that the wind was blowing towards her masking her scent from the animal whilst at the same time removing an arrow from her quiver. She calmed herself taking a deep breath of the pine scented air before completely emptying her lungs and lining up her shot. Just as she was drawing her bowstring back getting ready to let the arrow loose a loud crack from behind her startled the deer causing it to bolt into the forest.

"What the hell?!" Katniss shouted clearly annoyed, as she turned around to see who had spooked her kill.

She was faced by a tall, dark haired boy who could've easily been mistaken as her brother by anyone who didn't know the children. He had light blue eyes and was obviously going to be handsome in the future, his baby fat starting to fade away revealing a chiseled jaw structure.

"You weren't planning on carrying that back were you?" He asked, amusement obvious in his tone.

Katniss huffed indignantly before responding "I would've figured something out."

"Suuuuure..." The boy drawled.

Katniss rolled her eyes at the sarcasm that was woven into the single word.

"Here." He continued in an attempted apology, "What about this?" He promptly picked up a stone and gestured for Katniss to raise her bow. Once she did, he threw the stone into a nearby bush which quickly erupted with an explosion of feathers and scared squarks.

Katniss drew her bow and fired before reloading quickly and firing again bringing down two of the birds.

She turned to him and stared sternly before flashing him a brief smile.

"Katniss Everdeen." She said, extending her hand outwards.

The boy smiled before replying and accepting the handshake. "Gale Hawthorne."

The two were practically inseparable after that day with one rarely ever being seen without the other in public.

Years passed and Katniss, now 17, enrolled at Panem College. Over the years she had taken an interest in protecting and researching the environment, specifically forests, and the organisms that live in them. That is why she had begun taking a course in ecology. Her family had used the remainder of the compensation money that they had saved to pay the tuition fees and also rent her a small apartment not too far away from the college.

She and Gale had also found jobs in a local coffee shop called "The Hideout", which was a suitable name as it was a small building nestled between a bookstore and a small apartment complex. The interior was simple enough. There were small couches set up in the corners around coffee tables with other tables dotted around the floor and a jukebox to the side playing various songs and music pieces. The counter was set up with various cakes and sandwiches set up on display with a chalkboard menu on the wall behind displaying the usual drinks and specials of the day.

The coffee shop was owned by a man called Plutarch Heavensbee, a jolly sort of fellow in his early 50's who was always amused by a good joke and didn't mind general "mucking about" as long as the customers were happy and the job was done properly. Alongside Gale, Katniss also worked with a woman called Cressidia. She was a tall woman with half of her head shaved and an amazingly intricate vine tattoo running down the side of her neck. She was aspiring to be a film director and had already been offered a position in the production of a few small films but she had declined as they weren't exactly "what she was looking for". The three had quickly become good friends and would often crack jokes at one another as they worked.

Life for Katniss was pretty much the same day in, day out. That was until the day of the robbery. That was until the day she met "Her".

So that's the end of the second chapter. Now the actual story starts to kick off. Sorry about the tardiness of this chapter but unfortunately that's not going to improve I don't think. I go beck to college after next week which will leave me with little time but the story will go on! A shout-out and a huge thanks to Zelouche for being the first to like and comment on my first story, You have no idea how much confidence that gave me. And a thank you to everyone else who has faved and followed this story.

Hatchets