Chapter 2
All around her, there was danger. Katniss never felt safe anymore. Before the strangers came, she felt comfortable with being alone. She was familiar with the animals, the lay of the land, but now she couldn't help but feel there was a threat, even if that threat didn't know she existed yet.
After almost getting caught, Katniss was much more cautious with her hunting. She made sure to move all of her emergency weapons she had hidden around the forest back to camp, and she made sure to only go out in the evening, when the strangers were eating what ever food they had found that day for dinner.
The morning after the incident, Katniss exited her tent to find Buttercup, a wild cat that had taken a liking to her when she fed it the insides of her kills. Buttercup was obviously on high alert, facing the forest below with his eyes narrowed.
Buttercup's lips were pulled back, his face in a snarl towards the river. Katniss figured out why pretty quickly. Below her, the group of strangers had set up camp. Of course they had. There was a fresh water source and edible berries, things that would keep them alive for now.
Going into one of her sheds, Katniss grabs her fathers old bow, some arrows, and arms herself to the teeth with knives. They were strapped all over her body, but they were mainly tied to her legs with holsters made of animal hide.
As silent as possible, Katniss climbed down her tree branch path to watch the kids as they fought over the remaining food, and talked about their future plans.
They had been trudging through the woods for hours. The little girls were tired and ended up having to be carried, and Glimmer had started to complain a while back. Cato was desperate to find a place where the others could rest their tired limbs and where he could rest his tired ears.
Just as Clove had voiced her concerns for the first time on the long hike, they found the perfect spot. There was a river, obviously fresh water, and berry bushes that were so full their branches were bending to the ground. Peeta and Prim walked up to the larger rocks by the river and sat down on them,obviously relieved they no longer had to walk, and the rest followed their lead.
Cato sat down with them, but instead of joining their conversation, he thought about the previous night. He could have sworn he saw a human in that clearing, and if there was another living person there must be some sort of civilization.
Cato decided to keep the sighting to himself, not wanting to have everyone's hopes up just to have them crushed when if could have just been an animal.
After he thought in the clearing for a few moments, Cato went back to camp. After cooking the food they caught, they made a game plan. The next day they would search non-stop for water. And that was what they did.
"So we like this spot?" Clove asked the group as she splashed her face with the cool water. Everyone nodded, ecstatic because they didn't have to keep moving around.
"Then we need to make this a more permanent camp. We need shelter. I have no clue what type of weather conditions we may face, and if the storm that hit our boat hits the island, we are done for."
Prim hesitantly raised her hand. Clove nodes her head at the girl, and she quietly spoke. "There are vines in huge trees. There are logs and branches and sticks around as well. We could use that to build a shelter against the cliff..."
When Prim started to speak, everyone listened, even the brutes from the higher districts. Prim was a smart girl, and she knew how to survive on her own. When her mother died after her father and sister were declared dead in a ship wreck, she learned to survive on her own.
Peeta was also listing to his adoptive sisters ideas, but he saw a flash of something in the trees. It was light brown, with dark brown patches, neons there was no way it was an animal. Standing up silently, Peeta snuck off into the forest.
The person obviously realized that they had been spotted, and made a dash for it. Peeta, after being forced to deliver the bakeries parcels, had learned to run quite fast and managed to not fall to far behind. He continued the chase, only catching glimpses of dark hair and tan skin every once and a while when Peeta managed to catch up.
The girl, Peeta assumed that it was a girl, took a corner around a large rock to fast and tripped over a root. This gave Peeta the opportunity to get to her, and tackled her when she tried to run away again. She continued to struggle, but Peeta had pinned her underneath his body. Now, Peeta could get a good look at her.
He was right, the person was a girl. Her skin was a dark gold colour, obviously tanned from the many days in the hot sun, her hair was a dark, dark drown, and it was full of dirt and twigs. Her eyes were grey, fierce and full of fire.
Her clothes were obviously made on the island. They were a patchwork of animal hides and skins, sewn together by what looks like thin pieces of vine. Peeta looked at her legs, and even though they were kicking wildly, he could see knives strapped on them.
"Stop! Stop! I'm not going to hurt you!"
The person follower her was heavy. She could tell from the way they stomped that the person was a man and he obviously had no idea how to walk quietly because he was scarring off all of the game for miles. Katniss was always at least ten strides ahead of him, but the guy was keeping up well. He was blonde, that meant he either was the career boy she saw while hunting, or it was the guy from the lower district.
Katniss took the corner around the rock to fast, like all the times before she told herself to slow down too late, and her legs were taken out by the root of a large tree.
She struggled to get up, but was slammed back into the ground by the boys body. Katniss managed to turn over to look at her attacker. His blonde hair was shaggy and wavy, his eyes a sparkling blue. It was the boy from the lower district, the one with the pale skin and rather innocent face.
"Stop! Stop! I'm not going to hurt you!"
Katniss stopped struggling.
"Who are you?"
