With the coming of the crisp fall the autumn leaves turned red and orange like flames on the treetops, everybody dug out threadbare scarves and hats to guard against the bite of the cool air. The woodlands crabapples matured into a rosy colour and tempted a few brave souls to slip under the fence to harvest them, and as the winds tugged at the flame-coloured leaves swaying before the Everdeen bedroom window Ruth gave birth to a grey-eyed dark-haired boy. But when Robin looked at him, he saw someone else and as he held his son in his arms for the first time he felt a connection to a person that was still a part of him after all these years.
"Ruth," he turned to her, his voice was full of emotion when he looked at her with tears already beginning to fall.
She gave him a small smile and touched his hand. "It's ok Robin, I understand." And so they named their son Raven in honour of his brother who he missed everyday.
The new father lightly rubbed the fine, blood stained hairs between his fingers and became fascinated by their feather-like softness. When he studied his son's face, Robin had an inkling that his son might look like his late brother. He gently pressed his forehead against his sleeping son's and whispered, "I love you, Raven. I always will."
.
When he had a day off he brought his son to visit his uncle at the first chance he got, the leaves crunching under his feet. "You have a nephew now," he said to his brother's grave. Raven was wrapped in a blue blanket in his arms to protect him from the autumn chill, still asleep.
"Ruth says it's too soon to tell, but I think he has the Everdeen look. We named him after you. I'm hoping he gets to grow as tall and strong too." Pausing with reflection, Robin diverted his gaze back to his son. "I'm sure he'll be brave as well. Ruth and I want another child. Not too many, but we agreed that two would be perfect. And I'm sure Raven will be a wonderful big brother, just the way you looked after me." There was no reply from the cold stone but he knew that wherever he was, Raven was smiling.
Later he was taking a walk with his son in the square, just showing him the lamp posts and birds and people walking by when he ran into Dannel carrying a sack of flour across his back.
"Hello Robin," he greeted him cheerfully. "Heard the good news about you and Ruth, is that him?"
Dannel bent over and made a funny face. "Hi little guy!"
Raven blinked his large grey eyes and suddenly began to chuckle.
"He likes you," Robin admitted.
"Babies usually do," he beamed. "You know, my younger son's just his age. Bring him over to the bakery sometime, maybe they could be friends when they start school, eh?"
"M-maybe." Robin was touched. Not a lot of people in town wanted to have anything to do with people from the Seam, it was main the reason why some people had a hard time understanding how Ruth had left the town for him. But at this point, talking with the kindly baker and Merle Undersee in office it seemed possible that the divide between the town and the Seam wasn't so big and the two groups had more alike than they thought.
The next time he needed to trade in town he brought Raven. It felt good to have company with him, in a way it was like having his brother back.
Strolling down the dirt roads Robin began to imagine his son as a man grown, he pictured him drawing back his bowstring, taking aim like a real hunter and he realized excitedly that with his help they could haul in larger game together as a team, father and son and suddenly he couldn't wait for his son to become old enough to take under the fence.
He opened the door to the familiar jingling bell of the bakery and the scent of fresh bread. He preferred to trade when Mahra wasn't around, marriage had made her bitter and when she wasn't shouting at Dannel she was sneering down her nose anybody from the Seam, and that included Robin and Ruth.
It was just Dannel today, who brightened when he saw him. "Hello Robin, brought your son with you eh? Me too." Under his arm he held a fat blond baby idly banging a rattle against the counter.
"Look Rye, your daddy's friend brought a friend for you." He heaved him him up across his shoulder. Rye glanced at the Everdeens, then back at his father and hit him across the face with his rattle.
The two men both laughed and a pleasantly warm feeling began radiating from his chest when Dannel called him his friend. In the end he left the bakery with a generous amount of bread and bright hopes for the future.
.
Now that he was a father he was keenly aware of the pain he would feel to have his son ripped from him to die in the Hunger Games. He kept his ears pricked for any mention of insurgence and began secretly fighting a cold war against the Capitol.
It started with just casually chucking rock along with coal in their buckets to dilute the shipments. The Capitol couldn't figure out where it was coming from or punish all of them or else there would be no one left to mine coal so the government patiently waited—telling the mine supervisors that the miners simply needed to be more careful.
Then in town graffiti started showing up stating the odds were never in their favour, but with both the mayor and Peacekeepers looking the other way no one could pinpoint the perpetrator. It was small, but people whispered that things were only rising and that the two victors were planning something big. There was a change in the atmosphere, a crackling anticipation for what was to come and with it a camaraderie that they were all in it together, town and Seam against the common enemy which was the Capitol.
Until the sickness came. Nobody knew what it was or where it came from. An older miner in the Seam developed a cough, which normally wouldn't raise an eyebrow but then it turned into a burning fever where he burned up despite the frigid winter and babbled incoherently. He had convulsed on the Everdeen's makeshift table outside while Ruth tried to nurse him and then suddenly stopped dead.
Ruth was afraid, she had never seen anything like it and she didn't know how to treat it. It spread through the Seam like a wildfire, but for the most part its victims were the very young and the very old. It somehow spread to Victor's village where old Madelyne Donner, the first Victor of District 12 fell ill, and only then did the Capitol rush its expensive medicine to the district. Still, despite the Capitol's best science the old victor and many more eventually succumbed.
When Madelyne died, all hope for the growing rebellion died with her and the District was quiet once again as if in mourning. The next summer came and Haymitch was like a lost child at the Reaping, not knowing what to do without his own mentor to guide him. Two more teenagers were Reaped and two more teenagers died, but Robin could only mourn his poor son who died in his arms before he even had a chance to watch him grow up.
He couldn't remember a worse feeling than being able to nothing while the person he loved was dying, it was like watching his brother bleed out on screen all those years ago, he couldn't save him and the guilt ate at Robin until Ruth was begging him to stop crying. The next time he visited his brother's grave he asked him to take care of his son for him up above, and then apologized for always asking so much of Raven when he had never asked anything of him.
Despite their grief, Robin and Ruth eventually decided to rebuild their family.
.
He walked into the bakery where Dannel was chasing a very naked Rye crawling across a spilled bag of flour. "Rye no!" He exclaimed in exasperation as he scooped him up. He heard the tinkle of the bell and turned to see Robin.
"Oh Robin, I-I heard about your son," he said awkwardly, fully aware his own son was very much alive and wiggling in his arms. He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault, Dannel." His voice sounded strange to his ears. "It's nobody's fault." He dropped some money on the counter and Dannel quietly bagged his order. His own wife was pregnant with another child too, but he knew better than to suggest they would be friends.
Robin shouldered his lunch and dinner and grimly headed to the mines for his double shift. Capitol medicine was expensive, even when it didn't work and he had about a month of extended hours ahead on his loan. For the next few weeks he left the mines aching and tired with nothing on his mind than sleep.
In the end, any small acts of rebellion stopped as they returned to the coal mines, hunched and defeated. It was easier to resent the town who was miraculously unscathed by the sudden sickness than the Capitol which had rushed over the medicine when Madelyn fell ill- which was of course the point.
His second child was a daughter. He and Ruth had been thinking of names for a girl so when the blessed day arrived they named their daughter Katniss, after the edible underwater tuber with arrow shaped leaves. That way as long as she found herself she would never starve, he joked.
As he held the wrinkled bundle in his arms he pictured her as a young woman, strong and beautiful with slate-grey eyes framed with long lashes and long dark hair in a braid. She would have a voice that could make the birds go silent, he decided, and all he wished for was her happiness.
However baby Katniss cried rather than sing. Day and night, when she was hungry and when she was full, when she was wet and when she was dry. Ruth who never had a break from her unrelenting wails handed the baby to her husband, "I'm scared I'm just going to go crazy one day," she stated with tired red-rimmed eyes.
Robin, who had the luxury of spending half his days in the mines where it was blissfully quiet except for the striking of metal against rock wouldn't say no. He took Katniss in his arms and gently bounced her up and down, but she continued to scream lustily. At least they knew her lungs were strong and robust, he thought. Not knowing what else to do, he took her for a walk down the dusty lanes of the Seam to the edge of a bordering meadow, and when reached an empty stretch he began to sing his brother's favourite song.
Now I think I understand,
How this world can overcome a man
Like a friend we saw it through,
In the end I gave my life for you
She didn't stop crying right away, but slowly her shrieks became quieter and quieter until she was just watching him with her big curious eyes and reaching up with her tiny baby hands to touch his face. Robin chuckled, then began to laugh when he realized that his voice didn't just make the birds go silent, it made his daughter go silent too. Before long Katniss was chuckling away too, just happy that her father was happy.
Weeks passed and Robin held his breath but Katniss stayed healthy and continued to grow bigger and bigger until one day he was holding her in his arms in the square to watch that summer's mandatory broadcast. Around him he could see the other parents with their own young children. All around him were grim-faces and white-knuckled hands as the parents tightened their grips on their children as if fearing for them, already dreading the Reapings that their children would face in the years to come.
On screen the countdown timer reached zero and the tributes made a mad dash to the golden horn in the middle of the field. Within minutes the girl from Twelve went down, with her dark hair in a braid fluttering upwards as her lips parted in surprise, and for a second Robin saw Katniss on the holo-screens.
In his arms Katniss made a panicked noise and he realized he was squeezing her too tightly. Never before had he so desperately wanted to cover his daughter's eyes with his hands but what good would it do? She would learn eventually, if not in school then from each year's mandatory broadcast that she would be old enough to join the gruesome death-battle for no reason other than having the misfortune of being born in the Districts.
Later that evening he was drinking bitter tree-bark tea, a substitute for coffee in the Seam with Ruth as they watched Katniss play. She stacked block after block on top of each other in a wobbly tower until it was too tall for her to reach. Katniss stared at it thoughtfully with toddler-like attention, then grabbed a block from the bottom. She jumped back as the tower of blocks came crashing down onto the floor. Giggling and clapping with glee, the little girl plopped herself down and returned to the process of rebuilding.
"She's too young to understand," Ruth said softly. "When do we tell her?"
"We'll tell her when she turns twelve," Robin said firmly, dreading the day her name would enter the Reaping bowl. "We'll tell her everything. About her uncle... and Maysilee, we'll tell her together." They only wanted to keep her safe from fear and heartbreak a little longer but life had other plans for little Katniss.
.
"Daddy why did Willow have to die? Did I do something bad?" A frown creased her three year old forehead and she tugged on his sleeve insistently.
Robin shook his head sadly as he watched his wife dress tiny stillborn Willow, the size of a doll with her eyes closed as if asleep in one of Katniss' old dresses. "It's not your fault sweetheart, sometimes things just happen and it's nobody's fault."
"If I was a better sister would Willow still be alive?"
Robin blinked back the tears that threatened to overflow his reddened eyes. Taking a deep, calming breath, he forced a smile and said. "Katniss, you're already the best sister in the world, but nothing could have saved Willow."
Katniss launched herself into his arms and buried her face in his wet shirt. He held her tightly, feeling her sobs wrack her small body as she cried for the sister she would never get to love.
.
Later the following year Robin awoke one night to see Katniss on her tip toes, hands clenched around the bars of the cradle. Her wide grey eyes were reflected by the moon's light, watching baby Prim's tiny chest rise and fall.
"Katniss, what are you doing?"
"Making sure Prim's still breathing."
He yawned. "Go to sleep sweetheart, your sister's fine."
She shook her head, not taking her eyes off Prim. "She might not, she might all of a sudden stop breathing, and die too." Katniss knew she had an older brother who died before she was born and she had buried a sister she couldn't save, but she finally had Prim and she wasn't going to let another sibling disappear from her life.
"Katniss," Robin said sternly. "Bed."
She slunk off silently to her small bed on the other side of the room and crawled under the covers, still watching precious golden Prim. And as her exhausted father promptly fell back to sleep, Katniss vigilantly stared into Prim's cradle, watching and listening until an hour later when she herself fell unknowingly into a deep slumber.
.
Soon after the birth of his second daughter, the biggest piece of gossip around the Seam was poor cuckolded Robin Everdeen. Whenever he walked by the women hanging up their laundry or shucking corn they would look away and fall silent but as soon as his back was turned the giggles would start up again and he could practically feel their judging stares on the back of his head.
At least the men were more up-front and told him right in his face, "Hey Robin, don't let your wife pick up bread at the bakery anymore, who knows what else she's picking up!" Hoots and laughter galore from men too dumb to know better.
"Just shut up," he grumbled and slapped on his helmet.
But eventually this too became old news and eventually the teasing and gossiping faded away. He trusted Ruth and he knew in his heart that Prim was his which was all that mattered.
One day he opened the door into their house, only to be greeted with silence. Something was odd, Ruth usually had something cooking in the kitchen at this time and Katniss would come running to greet him. A chilling sense of foreboding ran down his spine.
"Hello?" he called hesitantly.
He walked inside to see Ruth rocking on her armchair but there was no emotion at all on her blank face. It scared him. "Ruth? Where are the girls?" He was almost afraid of the answer.
Her eyes blinked as if suddenly seeing him for the first time. "They're-they're playing outside in the garden." Robin dashed outside and to his relief Katniss was happily pulling baby Prim on her toy wagon while they munched on mint leaves.
He turned back to Ruth. "What happened?"
She shook her head and tears began falling. "I-I went to visit my parents today. Oh Robin I was so stupid." His heart lurched, sensing what she was about to say.
"I-I thought, maybe with Prim... she's so pretty I thought my parents would love her and forgive me."
"Shhhh, it's alright," he pulled her into his arms and laid her head across his shoulder.
"They slammed the door in my face! Katniss didn't even know what was happening, I only told her we were going into town to go shopping, she kept asking me who those mean people were and-" she began to sob. "They were her grandparents."
His heart lurched, because he knew why she had tried. Robin had nobody on his side of the family, if anything ever happened to him and Ruth, Katniss and Prim would end up in the community home like he and his brother had. He couldn't think of anything to say that could comfort Ruth so instead he heated some soup and made her eat it.
Ruth picked at her bowl and sulked while Robin worried and watched her from the corner of his eye. Luckily for her parents Katniss had plenty to say, sparing everyone from an uncomfortable silence.
"Daddy, what's a whore?" Katniss said unexpectedly.
He sighed and pressed a head to his throbbing temple. "It's a very bad word that doesn't belong in our home. Now finish your soup, Katniss."
.
When Katniss became old enough for the District school, Ruth decided to start setting up a small apothecary business in their house, so they could have something to fall back on in case anything happened to Robin.
They grow up so fast, he mused on his way to the mines, seeing the line of children, almost like ants walk the other direction into the town.
"How was your first day of school Katniss?" Ruth asked at dinner. "Did you make any new friends?"
She shrugged and continued eating. Katniss ate like she would never see food again, he had sometimes joked. "I guess."
"Any nice looking boys?" he teased. Ruth swatted at him playfully.
"She's much too young for boys, you know that."
Katniss frowned and paused. "This boy in my class kept staring at me, or I don't know, he might have just been looking out the window."
"Five years old and a heartbreaker." He gave Ruth a look and she blushed.
.
Robin watched Katniss carefully, trying to see if he could trust her, if she could keep a secret. He remembered his brother bringing him under the fence soon after he started school when both their parents were busy working.
"Katniss, can you keep a secret for me?" He whispered one day when she was walking him home from the mines.
"What is it daddy?" her eyes were wide and innocent.
"It's your mother's birthday in a month and you know how she really needs a new mortar and pestle?"
"Uh huh," her glowing eyes widened until they were practically moons.
"I've saved up for one at the general store, but don't let her know because I want it to be a surprise."
It only took her a week to crack, Ruth was just complaining about fishing grit out of her paste when Katniss blurted out, "It's okay cause daddy's buying you a new mortar and pestle for your birthday anyway." Then her eyes went wide and she clasped both hands over her mouth.
"I'm sorry daddy," she turned to him apologetically with her big eyes furrowed and the corners of her mouth turned down.
He sighed and gave her a smile, apparently five years old was still too young. "It's alright darling, no harm done." He hugged her tight with the understanding that he should hold back the secret of the fence for just a bit longer.
.
The spring turned into summer which turned into autumn which turned into winter. And with that winter turned into another disease coursing through the Seam and Robin felt fear tighten in his chest until he could barely breathe.
Remembering his fate of his late son, he fiercely tried to protect Katniss and especially Prim from the same. Ruth was constantly busy with the steady stream of patients who couldn't afford the doctor and Robin gave Katniss special instructions to look after Prim and stay away from the front room where their mother was working.
When the snow melted into a spring, the mild sickness disappeared as well, claiming very few casualties. Robin felt his chest finally relax. With the rebirth of spring he could resume foraging again, making up for the depleted winter which not only emptied their cupboards, but also Ruth's apothecary herbs.
But between his twelve hour shifts at the mines and hunting whenever he could, he had little time for anything else, including sleep until he realized guiltily that he had been neglecting his brother's grave and made a promise to pay him a visit as soon as he could.
"Daddy, Prim is sick," Katniss complained and held up Prim swaddled in blankets for him to see. He picked her up and scrutinized her carefully, pink cheeks, clear eyes, and leaned his ear close to her chest to listen for any signs of laboured breathing. "Did you tell your mother first? She's the healer," he said almost irritably.
"I did, and mom said she's fine but-"
"Your mother knows best dear," he said brusquely and placed Prim in her playpen. Just then the whistle went off. "Shoot I'm late!" he yelped and grabbed his lunchpail, dashing out the door.
When he staggered home he was vaguely aware of Katniss telling him something but her voice drifted off into a faint hum as he collapsed into a chair and fell into a deep sleep.
He woke up a few hours later to an empty house, looking around in bewilderment. He looked down to see a note tucked under his arm.
Went to the doctor's. Be home when we can.
-Ruth
When Robin arrived home that evening, he opened the door to find a contrite Ruth and triumphant Katniss feeding baby Prim.
"See I told you Prim was sick," she exclaimed. "But you didn't listen!"
"I'm sorry Katniss, I didn't know how I missed it," she said apologetically. She turned around to see her husband. "Oh Robin it was silent pneumonia, I just didn't expect it when after flu season was over."
Katniss whirled around and glared at her mother distrustfully, Robin was alarmed at the hostility on her face. "She could have died because you were too careless!"
"Katniss, don't blame your mother," he said sternly. "She learned her lesson, we'll both be more careful next time."
Katniss frowned and her shoulders relaxed. "Okay. But I'll be the most careful of all."
When Katniss was eight she started to notice him disappearing to for long periods of time and was old enough to wonder why and come up with her own explanations. After about her third guess where she suggested that he sneaking on the trains to visit the other Districts he decided to finally show her where he had really been going.
.
"Katniss, time to wake up," he shook her gently by the shoulder.
"Hmmm?" She yawned and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. "Is it time to go?"
"Yes."
She dressed quickly and slipped her small hand in her father's after they shut the door. The sun was not yet up when they left, the darkness hugged them like a blanket as their footsteps crunched down the gravel road. Breathing in the coal-smelling air, Robin led his daughter to the fresh scented meadow onto a circular trail where they stopped near the fence.
Under the first rays of light, Robin blew warm air into his cupped hands before asking, "Katniss, what do you hear?"
Katniss stared at him, confused.
Robin nodded towards the forest. "Can you hear the fence?"
"No," she admitted.
"Exactly," he said with a small smile. "The Peacekeepers like to pretend that the fence is electrified." He reached out with his hand while Katniss squeaked with alarm and rested his hand against the wire. "But it's not," he said, giving Katniss a small grin. "At least not all the time."
He gestured to a clump of bushes and crawled under the stretch of loose wire. Katniss hesitated, then followed. Without saying a word they took off deeper into the forest.
He stopped again at a hollow log where he bent down and reached inside to pull out a bow wrapped in oilcloth and a quiver of arrows. There was a sharp intake of breath from Katniss.
"You know what this is?"
"It's a bow." She said in awe.
"You know what would happen if anyone found out I had one?"
Katniss nodded. "They would arrest you," she said solemnly.
"Exactly."
He took her by the hand and led her deeper still. "Let me show you what I do." They got to a clearing and crouched behind a bush.
"Do you see that hare?" he whispered, nodding to the light brown bump nibbling at a blade of grass.
"Uh huh."
He got up silently, nocked an arrow against his bow, and sent it through the rabbit's skull. It was dead in less than an instant.
They jogged over and he pulled the arrow out. "You see this Katniss?"
"It's a rabbit," she noted, inspecting it up and down.
"Or it's a fresh loaf of bread from the bakery, you understand? A meal for tomorrow, another day we can live."
Her eyes lit up with understanding and her mouth formed a wide o as she stared at the rabbit then at him.
"Can you teach me?"
He ruffled her hair affectionately. "Of course."
.
Fffft
The arrows flew right past the empty cans he had set on tree stumps.
"I… missed." Katniss said as if she couldn't believe it. The corners of her mouth turned down.
He was leaning against a tree with his arms crossed as he watched her practice. "It's alright Katniss, no one's perfect on their first try. Just keep your feet centred, focus on your target, and try again."
She tried, and tried and tried, and in the end could manage about one can out of five.
"Great start Katniss," he clasped her on the back. "Let's practice more next week."
"Dad," she asked shyly as they walked back to the fence, "where did you get the bow and arrows from?"
"I made them myself, from wood I got from the forest, then I trade with the blacksmith for scraps of metal to fletch the arrows. One day I'll teach you too."
"But how did you learn all of this?" she asked.
"My father taught me. He learned it from his father, who learned it from his father, who learned it from his father." He closed his eyes thoughtfully. "I don't know where it started but it did. One day you and Prim will have your own kids and teach them as well."
On the way back Robin began to teach Katniss tree identification, explaining how maple trees could provide tasty syrup. Sliding under the fence, they passed through the town square just after lunch. She stayed silent all the way into town as she mulled it over in her head.
When they neared the bakery, inhaling the aroma of fresh-baked bread that was always present Robin decided to make a stop.
"Ah it's the Everdeens, what can I do for you?" the baker greeted them cheerfully.
"We have... a trade," he explained.
Dannel nodded and led them to the back. "Watch the counter Rye, I'll be right back," he called.
His middle son nodded and strolled to the front. That's how old Raven would have been, he thought with a pang. As if sensing his discomfort, Katniss stepped closer to her father and slipped her small hand in his.
When they were safely in the back he pulled out the rabbit from earlier in the day and handed it to Dannel, who inspected it in his hands. He offered him one loaf or three buns, and Robin let Katniss decide.
From the corner of his eye he saw Dannel's youngest boy hiding behind a bag of flour, watching them shyly. He must be about Katniss' age, he thought. Robin smiled when the flour dusted blond curls withdrew behind a corner of the room where the boy had been kneading dough that lay on a counter behind him.
"Peeta, don't be shy come over there and say hello to your father's friends," Dannel called cheerfully.
We're not friends, Robin almost said out loud before stopping himself, then feeling ashamed.
"H-hello," Peeta mumbled, not quite meeting his eye. "Nice to meet you sir a-and Katniss." Before Robin could say a word he scurried away.
"He's a bit shy," said the baker apologetically.
Robin shrugged faintly. "So was I at his age."
In the end Katniss chose three cheese buns which Rye solemnly packed in a brown paper bag for them.
"Wow dad, they're still warm," Katniss exclaimed as she opened the bag and stuck her face in the steam."We get all this from a rabbit?"
Robin laughed and placed a hand gently on her head. "The baker's a nice man. Just try to to trade with him when his wife's there though," he added almost as an afterthought.
Over the following months he taught Katniss about which berries to eat and which to avoid, how to set up fishing poles, and climb trees to wait for larger game to walk by. Before he knew it baby Prim became old enough to start school as well.
When he could, he would watch Katniss clutch her small hand firmly in hers and as they marched off to school together. He smiled at their retreating backs and his heart swelled with pride at his two beautiful girls.
.
He woke up early one morning, with a sudden urge to find his brother. He crept out bed silently, as not to wake Ruth and padded to the kitchen for a quick breakfast.
In the serene dawn he felt strangely peaceful as he walked to the tribute graveyard. His footsteps crunched through the light frost dusting the earth as he climbed the slight hill.
Unsure why, and without an expectation of a reply, Robin felt compelled to ask, "Brother, is there really peace on the other side?"
At first there was no reply. Then it began to snow lightly, like soft white feathers falling from the skies settling on top of the grey stone and the words that were engraved on it.
He started to think about his brother favourite song, the one their mother hated because of the meaning behind it, only little did she know how appropriate it would become.
I hope it's worth it
What's left behind me,
I know you'll find your own way, when I'm not with you
So tell everybody
The ones who walk beside me,
I know you'll find your own way
When I'm not with you tonight
In the end Robin was smiling as he walked towards the mines, unknowingly entering his own epitaph.
As the elevator lowered him into his unbeknownst tomb, Robin failed to realize that he had already changed the world. And when grace found him, delivering the much needed mercy to his tired soul he realized that he wasn't afraid of death because joining his brother and parents again allowed his hurt to finally begin to fade.
.
Instilled by her father's love, Katniss would remember Robin's teaching. She would overcome mental and physical exhaustion and pick herself up off the ground, and though she would not always be aware of it, her father would continue to resonate through her, guiding her when lost. Not only would she survive, she would help others to continue living.
As Katniss's story entered her teenage years, she would not grow to be tall nor possess any great beauty, the heroine would develop stamina and a keen eye. And contrary to propaganda, Katniss would still be vulnerable, naive and untrusting to a fault. Her pride would weaken her, and under the mounting hardships, uncertainty and doubt would almost kill her.
Nevertheless, it would be her self-sacrifice, her embodied hope that would endure her to those broken and lost. She would inspire change, for this miner's daughter, embodied by her father's spirit and strengthened by grace, would at long last give voice to Robin's song.
And that's all that she wrote...