Chapter One
Katniss
"Prim! Hurry up otherwise we'll be late!" Standing at the bottom of the stairs watching my daughter make her way down, I realise just how much she looks like her Aunt, Peeta and me. From her medium build and height right the way down to her blond hair and piercing blue eyes from her father. Although the freckles are a mystery to me, but they suit her girly frame and delicate features. I sling on my hunting jacket, that reminds me of who I am, of the endless days spent in the woods with Gale…..Gale…I still think about him, I often sit and wonder how his life is since he stayed in district 2. If he's met anyone and if he has a family…
My attention is pulled back by the sound of Prim coming down the stairs in her chunky boots Peeta found in one of the shops in the richer part of District 12.
"Remind me again why we're going into the woods mum?" Prim said standing there watching me cautiously. She always does when we go out, it's as if her father's told her the history of the woods.
"Because, even though the Hunger games are gone, if something like it should ever happen again, or something to should happen to your father or I, then I want you to be able to be prepared to look after your brother. How I used to live." I paused briefly to think and then carried on, walking over to her and sitting down next to her. "It's important you know how to do this stuff Primrose. It's why I teach you basic hunting skills and try to teach you how to use a bow and arrow. And it's why your father teaches you how to paint, so it's an easy form of camouflage should you ever need it."
" I just don't get why we need too though, none of the other children have to learn any of this". She sighs and her curls bounce off of her chest.
"Look, I'm not going to have this discussion again Prim, are you ready to go out to the woods? Good. Now pick up your game bag and lets go before your father comes back." As I watched Prim walk ahead, I got a flashback of my sisters first ever Hunger Games with her little duck tail hanging out of the back of her shirt. With a small smile, I sigh and walk out of our victor house and look up to the sky. I hope you know just how much I loved you little duck, and how much I still do. I think the words up to sky, hoping that she'll hear them, and set off to the woods with my daughter.
As we walked into the woods, I noticed just how much it had changed. The electric fence is still up, but no longer live. The woods itself hadn't changed much, just the atmosphere of it. It had become almost empty and lifeless. No longer the secrete hideout where I would go to escape the hardships of the Capitol with Gale…Gale…My mind wonders to back when I last saw him.
He was on TV from District 2 showing everyone how the rebels won the war on the anniversary, using footage that someone had managed to film. When I think about it, none of it makes any sense, why the rebels had sacrificed the children of Panem, the Capitol and our own, to win some war. Innocent children. My sister was killed for this. For the sake of winning a war. Everyday I have to deal with the flashback of watching my sister burn, and me being helpless, not being able to do anything.
We came past an old maple tree when I saw a deer go past. Going onto my hunting toes and catching Prim's attention, I knelt and threw a rock to scare it into the open. A doe. Just like before that reaping. The one that started it all. Chances are it's an offspring of that same Doe. With Prim following behind, I step out and follow this doe, being careful of where I tread, I manage to get her into a fairly open space when I hear a twig snap behind me. The doe runs off behind a tree and leaves her head just peeping out from behind the tree. Feeling brave, I bring my bow up and pull the string to my cheek and aim for the doe. I close my eyes and breathe in. Once. Twice. And on the third as I let my breath go, I let the arrow go. Something behind me scares the doe and I miss, but I hit a squirrel behind it square in the eye.
"I've seen you do this a thousand times, and it still amazes me how precise you are" Peeta comes out from behind a bush completely camouflaged as does our son, Cole. They both look alike when camouflaged, Cole just looks a miniature version. But this was a common thing, Prim and I come out so I can teach her to hunt and we end up running into them. More often then not our trips would stop there and we would walk back home together. But not today. Today I wanted a bit of independence.
"Prim go with your father and brother home, I'll be back in a bit" I bend down and hug her and start walking away from then when someone pulls on my arm.
"You alright Katniss? I haven't seen you like this since after the last games" he pulls me too him and tips my face up so he can look into my eyes.
" I'm alright, I just need to think about something. Something doesn't feel right…Don't you feel it?"
"No, but I trust you Katniss" He pulls me into him and kisses me quickly but softly enough to leave a tingling on my lips. "Be quick okay? And stay safe". He looks me in the eyes, searching for something but I turn away.
"I'll try to be quick." I pull out of his arms and walk further into the woods, after a while I stop and sink into the ground. As I sit there leaning against an old oak tree, I let all the memories flow, memories of life before the games and before my sister was killed. The tears start flowing after a while and I just sit there and let the sadness take me.
About an hour later, I realise where I am; I'm sat by the edge of the woods not too far from where I used to enter it. Dusting myself off as I stand, I pick up my game back with the squirrel in it and head off for District 12. I come to the gap in the fence I used to go through, and I sling my bag through and clamber through after it. Standing there after I get through, I take a minute to look round the little grass meadow where the mass grave is. Then I start walking. I have no idea where I'm going untill I get there.
Walking up the house I realise where I am. I'm at the house where Gales mother used to stay untill she moved to district 2 with him. His sisters and brothers are still around, but I don't see them very often. I sit there for a few hours, thinking. Thinking about how life used to be like here. I'd go out and hunt in the morning with Gale, then come back and trade it all at the Hob and the back doors of other homes. It used to be somewhat easy, now it's just not fair. You never know when someone will attack, or if something will happen that will spark that uprising again. What we have now is just the calm before the storm. Something is going to happen and soon. We just don't know it yet.