Chapter Two

I decided to scale the trees and travel that way. Peyton, with her light tread, could stay on the ground. It took about half an hour to locate them. There were three. One buck, two does. All plump and big. I could shoot one and throw my dagger at another. Peyton could take down the last.

I nodded to her. Seeing me through the leaves, she nodded back. I pulled back the string and took aim, right at the buck's eye. Heart racing, I released the string. Twang.

The buck crumpled to the ground and the two doe took flight, sprinting away. Peyton leapt forward from her hiding spot and shoved her knife into the smallest of the doe. My dagger whistled to its target but missed, catching the last doe by its flank. It limped away into the darkness, taking my father's weapon with it.

"Hey!" I protested. I jumped down to the ground set chase to the injured deer, stringing my bow.

It hadn't been able to go far. With a good view, I took aim at its head. Then a figure sprang from the darkness and tackled it to the ground.

The woods are dangerous. Everyone knew that. Even with the five years that I've grown to trust the place, I knew that I still didn't know what dangers roamed around. Instead of fleeing and warning Peyton, I took aim instead at the figure, thrashing on the ground with the animal.

I waited for an opening. As the deer finally gave itself up to death, I took a deep breath and readied myself to let go of the arrow, aimed at the figure's head.

"Wait!" The silhouette called suddenly, holding up a hand.

A humanoid creature. I'd heard stories about muttations, an invention of a Capitol, and that enough kept me holding onto my bow. The person stood up and stepped into the light.

I recognised his heart-melting smile.

"That's my deer," I said, arrow still aimed for Nyal's throat.

"Hey, I killed it," he reasoned, brushing off his shirt.

"So? I tracked it. I injured it. If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have killed it."

"I tracked it too. Besides, if I hadn't had killed it, it wouldn't have been killed."

Stumped. I tightened my grip around the bow. "That doesn't make sense."

Nyal shrugged and swung the doe around onto his shoulders. "You already have a doe to yourself, anyway."

"How do you know?" The tip of my arrow followed his movement through the space.

"Are you seriously still considering to kill another forbidden child? That's hypocritical," he said, ignoring my question.

I lowered my bow and turned back to where Peyton and the other deer were.

"Lanie," he called.

"What?" I asked, without turning.

"Your dagger."

I turned around. Sure enough, he held out my father's silver dagger.

I stomped toward him, snatched the dagger out of his hand and continued on my way to Peyton.

"If you're that grumpy, you can have the doe," he said to my back. "I mean, yeah, I have five people in my family to feed, but you can have it to feed- you know, yourself and your father."

"No thanks. It's yours. Go home." Dawn was almost about to break. I needed to head home myself, or my father would start to worry. I still had to pick some greens as well.

"Nah, I think I'll come with you. Just in case you decide to shoot another one of us."

I ignored him and found Peyton. She had lopped off the buck's antlers to sell. He looked less grand without them. Peyton looked up at the sound of Nyal's voice. She raised a not-so-subtle eyebrow at me. I shot her a look that obviously said, shut up.

"Hi, Nyal," she said, the sing-song tone back in her voice.

"Here, let me have that," I said, taking the sack from her, making sure my nails scratched against her skin 'accidentally' in the process.

"Ow!" she exclaimed, rubbing her hand.

I grinned at her.

"What are we going to do with the deer?" Nyal asked.

"We are going to sell some stuff at the Hob. You are going to go home with your doe, unless you don't want it to feed the 'five people' in your family."

"I think I'll come with you. The people at the Hob aren't too nice. You don't know what they do to girls like you."

"Girls like us can shove our dagger blades into their skull," I corrected, hand gripping the hilt of my dagger. "Want a demo?"

"No thanks," Nyal muttered. "But I'm still going to the Hob with you."

"You can go by yourself. We're going to take a detour." I loaded the doe onto my shoulders. Only years of labour kept me from stumbling from its weight.

Peyton and I started off towards the berry clearing.

"Wait," Nyal said. "Can I come, too?"

"N-" I started to say, but I caught Peyton's eye. Her expressions clearly said, Let him come.

Mine went along like, No! Are you kidding me?

Peyton: Why don't you want him to come?

Me: Just because…

Peyton smiled a bit. Let him come or I'll annoy you to death.

Me: You already do.

Peyton: Shut up. Don't be mean.

Me: I'm not even saying anything!

Peyton: Let him come.

Me: Fine! Out loud, I said, "Come with us, but when we fence, we separate."

"But the Hob-"

"When. We. Reach. The. Fence." I made the repeated sentence deliberately slow and emphasised.

I heard Peyton's exasperated sigh as I walked off with my doe. The Hob was a secret trading place for meat, like a sort of black market. Apparently, there used to be a Hob as well in Katniss Everdeen's time, but now it's more subtle, because of Manley's thorough routine checks. We delivered at back doors, dealt in whispers. The only thing that didn't exist as well as the forbidden children was the Hob.

The clearing was heaven, absolutely loaded with fruits. Blueberries, strawberries, blackberries and other edible berries with no names. Greens grew here too. Dandelions were as common as blades of grass. Trees bore apples, oranges and other fruits. No. I wasn't going to go home hungry. It was in the perfect spot, too. A lake was only a short walk away, always cleansed by the stream that run through it.

This was our wild farm. My brother had found it and revealed the location to me so I could go here. When I began to trust Peyton, I divulged this natural secret to her, too. In fact, there were so much fruits that we didn't bother protecting the plants from birds and other creatures. They could have their pick and we'd still go home with bunches of our 'crops'.

Today, the clearing was a whirlwind of colour. Red, blue, black, yellow, green, every colour attacked my eyes in a beautiful iridescent pleasant hurricane. Peyton and I stripped bushes of berries, climbed trees and picked off ripe fruits, plucked dandelions from the grass. I let Nyal do what he wanted.

Peyton and I had torn apart several burlap sacks and stitched together smaller ones. There were twelve mini sacks for each of us; Nyal had brought his own. When the bags were full, I headed over to my favourite tree. The tree bore no fruit, but it was the tallest. It provided good shelter with its dense leaves. My brother and I had also constructed a small tree house almost at the top. If I wanted, I could live here. No one would know.

Finding the lowest branch, I swung myself up and continued to climb, arriving at the base of the tree house. It wasn't much of a house. It had no walls, but had a ceiling of woven vine. My brother was a whizz at weaving. I was okay at it, but I could never achieve such a interwoven blanket like he could. In fact, he had woven this particular ceiling so tightly, it was waterproof. It had no doors. Burlap sacks stitched together made a curtain that surrounded the irregularly shaped floor. I pulled back the sacks and tied them into bunches to let the breaking dawn shine through.

There was a jar and a waterproof bag always full of candles: an improvised lamp. A small mat for a temporary bed. A simple wooden chest that held a blanket, matches, spare burlap sacks, spare knives, daggers, another bow and more arrows. This place was my other home.

My escape from reality.

I continued climbing higher. There was another floor, but only big enough to fit me lying down without falling off if I rolled twice. At nights, sometimes I'd stare through the canopy and watch the stars. If it was cold, I'd sit in the sun at noon. Today, I watched the sun rise.

The beautiful colours suffused the sky and the first rays of the sun peeked through the clouds. It streaked across the horizon. Sometimes, I wonder, if there were other places, other lands, beyond Panem. Places across the ocean. If there were, was there such a thing such as the Hunger Games?

"Lanie?" Peyton called from below. "Do you still want to go to the Hob?"

"Yeah," I called back down. I leapt off the small floor onto a thick branch. I had practiced this route many times. Sometimes I'd sprain my ankle from landing, but now, I was experienced from jumping from heights like these. Once, I managed to make it to the ground in only three bounds. Ever since, I'd been trying to reach the ground with only two. But with Nyal possibly watching, I decided not to be reckless and make a fool of myself.

I made it to the ground with a safe three jumps.

"I hate it when you do that," Peyton muttered.

I shrugged.

"Okay," Peyton said, mentally counting our stock. "A burlap sack full of greens, a couple of squirrels and rabbits and three deer. I think we've hit the jackpot today."

I can't help but grin at our magnificent haul. "I think trading some of this would give us about a month and a half's supply."

"We're rich," Peyton agreed.

The whole trip back, I ignored Nyal. Half of it was because I was already half-dead from carrying a bag of greens, my weapons and a doe. The other half was because I was already doing well enough not worrying about him.

The fence was missing the sound of humming electricity when we reached it. I pushed the things to the other side and crawled through the gap in the mesh without a goodbye to Nyal. Peyton was nice enough to say, "See you."

She started on me the moment Nyal was gone. "Why are you so mean to him?"

"Because that's the way I am, Peyton. If I act all warm and open up to him, I risk hurting myself. I can't afford that, especially when I have one immobile father to look after."

With that in mind, we're both quiet on the way to Hig's house. Hig is the butcher. He's a fair person, and hardly anyone messes with the price that he gives for meat. I think that it's mainly because he's always holding a knife in his hand.

Sure enough, when we knock on the back door, he shows up holding his machete. His eyes take in the doe.

"How much?" I asked.

"A hundred and a dozen for both."

"How about for one?"

"Depends," he said. He motioned to the doe I was carrying. "For that one, it's sixty-five. For the other, it's fifty-five."

I gave him the two does. One to sell, one to skin, gut, clean and halve for Peyton and I. I also handed over two squirrels and two rabbits, leaving four and three left.

I split the ninety-five in half for Peyton. I also gave one of the squirrels and another rabbit.

"You keep it," I said, shouting down her protests. "Your family's bigger."

Eventually she agreed. We went around and continued our trades, until we had enough greens for a day, paraffin, candles, matches, a couple loaves of bread and tea leaves. I even splurged and bought a thick blanket. By the end of it, I had about thirty left.

I left the things at my house, checking up on my father. "How are you, Dad?"

"Fine," he grunted, attempting to sit up and wincing.

"Dad," I said, helping him. "Don't get up."

"I hate seeing you do all the work for me. Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?"

"No," I said, thinking. "When the parents get old, the kids start helping."

"Am I that old?" Dad sniffed.

I sighed. The loaf of bread was still warm so I cut off two slices and fed them to him. The bread was from the bakery, and the baker was a member of the secret Hob community. The loaf was full of raisins and nuts.

My father placed the remainder of his bread onto his bowl.

"Dad, finish it all," I said. "You'll starve."

"We'll need to have some left for tomorrow."

"Guess what I caught today morning?"

His eyes brightened. "What?"

"A doe. Actually, two, but Peyton brought the other one down. I traded the other for money, and mine is being gutted at the moment. You don't need to worry, Dad, I've got lamp fuel and everything. Look," I said, holding up a thick blanket that I'd bought. "It's for you so you don't have to be cold." I placed it on top of the bed.

He smiled. His eyes became watery.

"Aw, Dad, don't cry."

"I'm not. But I might not get well again-"

"Yes, you will. Don't give me that speech, okay?" I began to store the things I had bought into the cupboards.

"But if I die, I want you to go to the Capitol and live with your mother."

I dropped a wooden bowl. "What? Why? You're not going to die, Dad, you're not."

My father shook his head. Sighing, I walked over to him and hugged him. "I'm not letting you go, Dad. Never."

He took something from his shirt pocket and pressed it into my hand. It was an intricate silver key.

My throat thickened. "Dad…"

"Take it."

"No." I put it back into his hand and closed his fingers around it. "Bye, Dad." I kissed him on the forehead and tucked him in. I wolfed down a quick breakfast of bread and left to pick up the doe.

There was a lot of meat, but it was less heavy with hardly any bones.

I went over to my brother's house after dropping half of the deer at Peyton's. He was at the coal mines, but his wife was home.

I liked her. She was a nice person. Her father was killed in District Eleven for being framed as a thief. Her name was Sarah. If she could have a kid, she'd make an awesome mother.

"Hello, Lanie. How's your father?"

"He's fine. Can I have the usual jar?"

Sarah nodded. She opened a cupboard door and took out a jar filled with medicinal herbs. "Half price only."

"Sarah, don't do that. You already let the poor go by free. If this keeps going, you might go out of business."

"Just take it, Lanie."

"I'll tell Thomas."

Sarah stubbornly shook her head.

Sighing, I placed a package of the deer onto the table. I also placed two squirrels and one rabbit, half of the remaining money. "These are yours."

Her eyes widened at the pile. "I can't take these, Lanie."

"Yes, you can." I took the jar and turned for the door before she can return them. "Say hi to my brother for me, will you?"

She managed to grab my arm before the door slammed shut. "Lanie, take this," she shoved the deer and money into my arms.

"Why?"

"You already gave me some in the morning," she said.

Confused, I rechecked today's events in my head. "No, I'm sure I didn't."

"Well, a boy came by at the back door and gave me some deer. Said it was from you and that you were still out hunting."

"Where is it?" I asked.

She pointed to a package on the kitchen counter. Looked like two back legs.

"Nyal," I said simply.

"What?" she asked.

I shook my head. "Nothing. See you around, Sarah."

I walked out the door and quietly shut it.

"Lanie!"

I looked around.

"Lanie!"

It was Peyton. "What is it?" I asked.

Panting, she doubled over. She said something I didn't understand.

"Peyton! Calm down, breathe. Say it in a full sentence. What's wrong?"

She straightened up. Her brow was creased and this tiny detail stuck in mind as she spoke. "Lanie, it's your father."

For a second, I am immobile, then my surprise comes out as the sound of a laugh. "Peyton, are you kidding?" I am still grinning, wondering about the deep line in her forehead.

"I'm so sorry, Lanie," she said, starting to sob. I felt the smile being wiped off my face. "H-he's dead."