Chapter One

She dropped Prim off at their house and found that their mother had gone off to help one of their many neighbors give birth. At least that's what the note on the table had said.

Katniss instructed Prim to behave before explaining her crazy idea about going off into the woods to hunt and gather food. Not everyone could pay their mother with money or food, and favors couldn't really sustain them.

Prim hesitantly nodded, and wished her luck on her endeavor. She mentioned needing to find a kitten that she had noticed yesterday hiding behind their house.

Assured that Prim would be alright on her own adventure, and that their mother was actually functioning for once, she pulled out her father's old hunting jacket from their bare storage cupboard and pulled it on. It used to be filled with snacks and locked up to be kept away from their impulsiveness since snacks were a treat, but that rule died with their father. This didn't really matter though, not with the plan that was churning away in Katniss's mind. With more sustenance, she could actually use stronger more complicated magic. With both things combined, she knew that her plan would go off without a hitch. At least she hoped so.

Katniss slipped on her leather boots and slung her father's old leather satchel on before snatching the fountain pen off of the kitchen table. She scratched in some runes onto the inner leather compartment of the bag making it feel feather light, and snapped her fingers to add an undetectable extension charm and a stasis charm. She felt a little light headed with that small use of magic, and that just confirmed that she definitely needed more sustenance to do what she wanted to do. Katniss grabbed a corked glass bottle and stowed it away into the leather satchel, before finding and kissing Prim's forehead, and rushing out towards the Merchant square.

She swung by the Merchant square fountain and filled her bottle with ice cold water before she headed back towards the Meadow. District 12's water pipes and sewage system had been repaired from the blast months ago, but the water that came up from their pipes still tasted off even when they boiled it. She didn't want to risk getting sick right now.

Katniss took a moment to carefully listen for the hum of electricity when she reached the fence. Right now, it was as silent as a stone. Concealed by a clump of bushes, she flattened out onto her belly and slid under a two-foot stretch that had been loose for years. There were several other weak spots in the fence, but this one was so close to home that she almost always entered the woods from here. Electrified or not, the fence had been successful in keeping flesh-eaters out of District 12.

She was determined to feed them. She scurried deeper into the Meadow and made her way towards a hollow log where her father had hidden his hunting and fishing equipment along with her mother's apothecary book. The Katniss of Before had forgotten about them in her haze of starvation.

Katniss managed to find and pick various herbs, wild vegetables, buckets worth of dandelion greens, stems, and flowers, cat tails, and dug up a bunch of potatoes that she knew would be useful. Plants were tricky. Many were edible, but one false mouthful and then you'd be dead.

Munching on a couple wild carrots, Katniss checked and double-checked the plants she harvested with her father's pictures.

The woods would become their savior, just like it had been back when her father was still alive. Inside the woods she and her father had roamed freely. Bears and cats lived deeper in, perhaps disliking the sooty reek of their district. And there were added concerns about venomous snakes, rabid animals, and no real paths to follow too, but there was always food if you knew how to find it.

Her father always knew where and how to find food, and had taught her all that he could before he was blown to bits in a mine explosion. There wasn't even anything left to even bury. Even months later after the accident, Katniss still woke up screaming for him to run. The nightmares weren't as consistent as before, but they still happened now and again.

She silently made her way deeper into the woods, past another person's snares and nets, and ignored them. She knew that there was a possibility of other people hunting in the woods, it was impossible not to. Even though trespassing in the woods was illegal and poaching carried the severest of penalties; a public whipping.

Public whipping's were a rare thing in District 12, although occasionally one occurred. Technically, she and her father could have been whipped on a daily basis, when he was alive. The sole reason being poaching in the woods, except all the officials bought their meat. Besides, the mayor didn't seem to have much taste for such events. Some people still risked it though, especially if they had weapons. But most people weren't bold enough to venture out with just a knife.

Most of the 20 Peacekeepers in District 12 turned a blind eye to the few people that hunted and gathered, because they were just as hungry for fresh meat, vegetables, and fruits as anybody else here was. They were actually among the best customers when it came to the illegal poaching business. However, the idea that someone might be arming the Seam would never have been allowed even if it was just to hunt so they wouldn't all starve to death.

In the fall, a few brave souls always snuck into the edge of woods to harvest large basket fulls of apples amongst the veritable orchard that grew there, but always in sight of the Meadow. They were always close enough to run back to the safety of District 12 if trouble ever arose.

Katniss idly thought as she creeped further into the forest, 'The Merchant butcher had to get her added stores from somewhere, right? Not to mention everyone else in the Hob market...' She kept her grip on her bow, alert and cautious as she moved along the forest floor with a velvet tread.

Katniss's bow was a rarity, crafted by her grandfather along with a few others that were kept well hidden in the woods, carefully wrapped up in waterproof covers. Her father could have made good money selling them, but if the officials had found out about them, then he would have been publicly executed for possibly inciting a rebellion. Her mother's apothecary book would have made them a lot of money too. The pages were made of old parchment and covered in ink drawings of plants. Neat handwritten blocks told their names, where to gather them, when they came in bloom, and their medical uses. Her father had also added other entries to the book. Plants for eating, not healing. Dandelions, pokeweed, wild onions, pines, and etc. It was just as precious as her grandfather's weapons, and Katniss wouldn't dare sell them. It'd be more beneficial in the long run to keep them anyways.

"District Twelve. Where you can starve to death in safety," Katniss muttered. She quickly glanced over her shoulder. Even here, even in the middle of nowhere in the secluded woods, she worried that someone might've overheard her. She'd feel safer once she was further into the woods.

When Before-Katniss was younger, she scared her mother to death. She had the tendency to blurt out her opinions about District 12, about the people who ruled the country, Panem, from the far-off city called the Capitol. Eventually, she understood that this would only lead them into trouble. So she learned to hold her tongue and to turn her features into an indifferent mask so that no one would ever read her thoughts.

She did her work quietly in school. Made only polite small talk in the public Merchant market. Discussed little more than trades in the Hob. Even at home, where Before-Katniss was less pleasant, she avoided discussing tricky topics. Like the reaping, food shortages, or the Hunger Games. Before-Katniss worried that Prim might begin to repeat her words and then where would they be?

She shook off that line of thought, and set up some snares and a couple of nets before venturing further in towards the river. Katniss felt the muscles in her face relax as her pace quickened while she hurried down towards a rushing river. A thicket of black berry bushes protected it from unwanted eyes, and her father had taught her to fish and swim there when the river wasn't rushing so hard.

The sight of the handmade bench her father had made and left there, sitting there as though nothing had happened, brought a watery smile onto her face. She made sure that she had her father's fishing gear before she set out to drift fish in the river. Within 45 minutes, her luck seemed to have won out with her catch of three large sockeye salmon, and two equally large, large mouth bass. They all seemed to weigh about 5 kg give or take. She was always pretty good about guessing something's weight.

She trudged out of the river and shivered before plopping onto the bench. Katniss stored her catches and her father's equipment into her new bag of holding. She was certain, with magic on her side, that all her father's treasured belongings would be safer on her person now and not in the woods.

The afternoon sun was high in the sky and dried her off in no time. After making sure that she was completely dry, she went along the edge of the river and collected a bunch of drift wood, and as many soapstones as she could find. The plan that kept clunking in her head, made her giddy with anticipation. She really hoped that it would work.

She climbed up some nearby trees and stole some eggs from nests, and managed to shoot a couple squirrels down from the tree tops. She gathered more plants that sprung up beneath her feet near the river, before she stowed them all away into her satchel. Before she left, she gathered as many black berries as she could, without killing the bushes, and decided that she was more or less done with this area for the day.

Katniss quietly slunk back to her snares as the afternoon sun dipped down in the sky, and found that her luck was still holding. She managed to snare three fat dead rabbits, four live pigeons, and a couple dead squirrels. She made sure that they were safely stowed away before she made her way back towards the Meadow.

Katniss hadn't noticed the hidden snare ahead of her, or the looming figure of a young man that was quietly stalking towards her.

She let out an undignified squawk as she tripped and tumbled onto her butt. She let out a string of quiet curses as she glared at the empty snare. A shadow covered her suddenly and made her flinch before she realized who it was. A rush of anger and resentment filled her. It was her paternal cousin, Gale. His mother was her father's first cousin.

She'd seen him around the Seam and at school. And one other time. He'd lost his father in the same blast that killed hers, and eight other miners. In January, Katniss had stood by while he received his medal of valor in the Justice Building, another oldest child with no father. She recalled his two little brothers clutching his mother, a woman whose swollen belly announced that she was just days away from giving birth.

'Must be hard to feed that many mouths,' Katniss had thought pityingly. She was glad that she only really had to worry about Prim, her mother, and herself.

That side of the family didn't exactly like them either. Not enough to help them while she and her family had started starving.

She recalled her father explaining why they shunned them. Too Merchant to fit in with the lower class and too Seam to fit in with middle class. It sucked being in limbo just because of your coloring. She had her father's coloring, but her mother's features and Prim had the opposite problem. She tried valiantly to forgive them for her father's sake, but even in this new life, she still wasn't the forgiving type.

Gale glared at her and scoffed, "Little cousin, Cat- Catherine? Cat something. What was your name again?" He scratched his head and retrieved the snare with a disappointed glance.

Katniss shot her cousin a dismayed glare and muttered, "Katniss, and I'm not little." She was tempted to add jackass to the end of her sentence, but she recalled that he was much larger than her and could crush her if he did so wish. He cleared six feet and was as tall as any adult Katniss had seen.

He raised his brow and tilted his head to the side, "Like Catnip? Uncle Aven, sure did love his plant names. And yes, you are little. You're what, three years younger than me? That makes you little."

Katniss grimaced, "Well, it's not like Aunt Hazelle doesn't like her nature names. Gale and Posy are nature names. And also, I'm not. Cause I'm the tallest girl in my class right now, so there."

He snorted, "Yeah, right. Sure, but Rory and Victor aren't nature names. What are you doing here anyways, Catnip? A cougar might eat you."

She shot him a dirty look, "Katniss, not Catnip. I can defend myself against the wild life here, and I'm looking for food. We're starving, although I highly doubt that you hadn't already noticed that by now."

Gale gave her a blase shrug, "Who isn't starving around District 12, Catnip? People keel over from starvation all the time around here." He emphasized her new nickname with a teasing sort of glee. She recalled how he loved to give people nicknames, especially if they pissed people off.

Katniss gingerly got up and brushed off the dirt that clung onto her butt, "Yeah, well...I don't want to join the dozens of the dying, thanks."

"Okay, well... See you around. I gotta go catch up to Thom. If you want any superior hunting and gathering advice, just come to your good ol' cousin Gale," he gave her a rough sort of pat on the shoulder. It was a strange sort of affection that she'd seen him give to Posy on occasion, so she took the offered olive branch with a touch of hesitancy. Katniss didn't forgive him for not trying to help them earlier when death was surely looming.

She nodded, "Okay. I suppose if you need help too, you know where to find me as well."

His eyes twinkled in that familiar way that her father's had before he died, and her heart constricted. He let out a gruff laugh before walking off, "Sure. Stay safe, little Catnip."

She silently nodded and decided that her older cousin wasn't as much of a jackass as she had initially thought. She'd keep in mind that he and Thom hunted in this area before she decided to quickly continue her trek back towards her house.

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The sky was already darkening by the time Katniss made it home. She was surprised to find both her mother and little sister huddled around the world's ugliest kitten propped up on the table.

She made sure that their door was locked up tight before she made her way towards them, still clad in her hunting gear. Prim noticed her first and gave her older sister a beaming grin, "I found the kitten! Please, can we keep him? I swear once he gets better that he'll be a great mouse catcher!"

Her mother nodded, "He's a bit scrawny and swollen with worms. Plus, he's crawling with fleas, but we should have him cleaned up in a couple days. It would be nice to not get spooked by vermin in the house."

Katniss snorted and shrugged as she took a seat at the table, "Okay. Fine."

Prim's eyebrows rose as tears gathered in her eyes, "Really? Just like that? No, 'we don't need an additional mouth to feed, Prim'?"

She wrung her little hands in front of her dress, unsure about the easy way her older sister had given in. The last time she had done this with a wild rabbit, Katniss had drowned and cooked the rabbit for dinner.

Katniss shot her a sardonic smile, "Nope, as long as he's not tracking in worms, fleas or any other sort of parasite, I don't see why not."

It would be easier to feed more mouths with the amount of luck she'd been having. And if her magical plan went off without a hitch, then having a pet wouldn't be troubling at all. In fact, she quickly glanced down at her leather satchel, she was going to add more members to her family herself, so it would've been hypocritical for her to be angry with Prim over this.

Her mother hid a small smile as she took the cat and put him into a quarantined corner of their dilapidated house, "He'll have to stay there while we get rid of his worms and fleas, Prim."

Katniss nodded and added, "You'll have to make sure to heal him yourself, little duck. He'll be you're responsibility. Can you do that?"

Prim eagerly nodded before she wiped away her tears, and beamed up at the two women in front of her. She rushed over and gave them both bone cracking hugs. Squished together, both Katniss and her mother shared a fond look towards Prim before returning her embrace.

Katniss tilted her head before she spotted a small bag of wheat flour and a loaf of bread on the table, "How'd that happen?"

Her mother pulled out of their embrace and gestured to the treasures that she had managed to acquire on the table, "The wheat flour is from Mr. O'healey. You know, the one who has that secret crop of wheat behind his house. He lives a couple houses away from us. We got that from him because I helped deliver two healthy twins, and Mrs. O'healey didn't die. While I was wallowing and stuck in my head..."

She drifted off before clearing her throat and giving us a remorseful look, "A lot of people suffered and died because I was being selfish and stupid. I am so sorry girls. A big part of me died when your father did, but that's no excuse for not taking care of you both and everyone else that relied on me."

She roughly rubbed the heel of her hand on her forehead as she sat down onto one of the rickety kitchen chairs. Guilt and disappointment in herself was clearly awash on her face.

Katniss frowned. One half of her wanted to agree and push the sword of disappointment further into her mother, to make her hurt almost as much as they did. The other newer half of her understood her mother's pain. People were stupid and selfish all the time, but they didn't always get and up to try and fix it. And sometimes things happened to people, and they weren't equipped to deal it.

Still Katniss was wary. A small gnarled place inside her hated her mother for her weakness, for her neglect, for the months she had put them through. It would take a while for Katniss to ever really trust her again.

Katniss sat down at the kitchen table with her mother along with Prim, and both of them took their mother's hands.

Prim shot her a watery smile, "It's okay. We're okay now." She was clearly thrilled to have their mother back and had easily forgiven her for the wrongs she had committed against them.

Katniss slowly nodded, a thoughtful look present on her face, "I can't say that I wasn't mad at you for what you did, but it doesn't mean we don't love you any less. It'll just take a while to you know..."

She shrugged helplessly as she looked away from her mother's tired face. She was a bit better at talking now, but some habits were harder to break than others. This body was still better at actions rather than words, and it would take a while for her to break that.

Her mother nodded, "I know. I know. .. The raisin and nut bread was from Mr. Mellark. He gave it to me after I whipped up some willow bark tea for his son Peeta. That witch of a mother of his, beat him again. The tea will help with the pain, and he thought that was enough of a reason to pay me with some bread."

Prim's face crumbled into a deep frown, "I'm glad we have something to eat to night, but I don't know why she keeps doing that to them..."

A heavy flush appeared onto Katniss's face as she murmured, "I hope he's okay."

'It was all because of me,' Katniss thought, guilt eating away at her. She pushed it away and decided that now was the best time to bring up phase one of her plan. She'd make it up to Peeta somehow, but not right now.

She cleared her throat, "On a happier note, my hunt went well."

Both Prim and her mother looked around and frowned. Prim tilted her head, "What do you mean? I don't see any game on you or wild greens. You only have dad's little leather satchel on you."

Her mother gave her a sad smile, "Prim does have a point, Katniss."

A nervous grin pulled onto her lips as she began to bite her nails automatically before she laid the aforementioned leather satchel onto the table, "Ah. You're both right, and wrong. I think it would better if I just showed you."

She opened up the satchel and she pulled out various bundles of wild herbs, bunches of different wild vegetables, bucket fulls of dandelions, a dozen cat tails, three large sockeye salmon, two equally large, large mouth bass, a large bundle of drift wood, a large amount of soapstones, a couple bird's eggs, a basket full worth of black berries, three fat dead rabbits, four live frozen pigeons, and a six dead squirrels.

Prim and her mother sat there and rapidly blinked before they each gasped in wonderment. Prim was the first one to move towards Katniss's large haul, "How are they...how did they? How did you? They're still fresh, but you were out for hours in the woods..."

Her mother gently took the satchel and peered into it before she inspected the outside of it carefully, "How intriguing. How did you do this, Katniss?"

Prim suddenly bounced in her seat before she leaned in and whispered, "Is this magic? Like in dad's old fairytale stories?"

A sheepish tentative smile pulled at Katniss's lips, "Yeah. Basically. I can do magic now. I'm not too sure how it really happened, but I found that as long as I have sustenance and wish for it hard enough. I can do things to things. Like here. Watch."

What was she had said was the truth, in her first Cycle of Lives she didn't have magic and then she had a Life Cycle wherein she did, and it stuck with her soul ever since.

She popped some wild black berries into her mouth before she waved her hand over the four live frozen pigeons on their kitchen table. As she waved her hand over them, her brow furrowed while sweat began to gather onto her forehead. They shimmered and their forms contorted before they suddenly popped into four white Sussex hens. She unfroze them and they clucked and hopped down from off the table and proceeded to wander around their house.

Prim squealed in delight, "That. Was. Amazing! Aww, I always wanted chickens." She hurried off of her seat and went after the chickens. The birds didn't seem to mind her as they huddled together and clucked at one another.

Her mother blinked and gaped at what she had just seen before she put her hand onto her forehead, "Well...life is certainly very different now that I'm awake..." She gave her daughter a bewildered smile before gently kissing her forehead, "I need to lie down now. I'll join you girls for dinner in a little bit. This is a lot to process." Her mother disappeared into their tiny drafty bedroom, and gently shut the door behind her.

Katniss wordlessly nodded before she watched in slight bemusement as her sister fawned over their new chickens and her new kitten. Prim loved animals and had always wanted one even before she could toddle.

She got up and put away the haul that she had recently acquired back into her bag of holding. The stasis charm inside of the bag would keep everything fresh until she could go through part two of her master plan. Katniss left out one salmon on the kitchen table. It took a while, but she managed to skin, de-bone, filleted and season the fish before she moved onto boiling the cattails on their tiny kitchenette. The river drift wood fueled their stove, and filled their house with a wonderful burning scent as she continued to fry the fish and finished cooking up the cattails. Dinner would be a veritable feast tonight in comparison to all their recent meals.

Prim stopped cooing over the new members of their family and popped up beside her sister, "Do you want some help, Katniss?"

Katniss looked up from what she was cooking and gave Prim a small sweet smile, "Sure. Could you set up the table while I finish frying up the fish?" Her stomach grumbled as the delectable smell of fried salmon wafted up and around her.

When Katniss turned back towards what she was cooking, Prim shot her a surprised look. Her sister was much happier, much more relaxed, and so open right now that it was shocking, but in a good way. Prim decided not to ask about Katniss's sudden change and happily did her aforementioned task.

Their mother came out of their bedroom with a bewildered look on her face as she spotted the wandering chickens, the freshly fried salmon, cooked cattails, and her daughters waiting for her at the table. It dawned on her that this was all real, and that she wasn't trapped in another one of her episodes. Her eyes watered at the thought of how happy her husband would have been had he seen all this before... Tears sprung up into her eyes as that thought trailed away. She wiped away tears that had escaped her eyes before giving both of her girls a warm soft smile, "Thank you, girls. This all looks delicious."

Prim beamed and shook her head, "It was Katniss that cooked all of this, mom. I just set up the table."

Katniss rolled her eyes and shot Prim a silly smile, "I still appreciate that you helped, little duck."

Prim blushed and dug into her food, a happy smile stuck on her face, "Quack, quack."

Her mother let out a happy little sigh as she began to eat their dinner. Katniss hummed happily while she ate as well. It was wonderful to be able to eat this much, and she knew that it was very important for her to have enough strength in order for her to do what she needed to do next.