Chapter 4- The Cave

It irked Peeta that Sae was ripping Katniss off by paying her so little for the meat she provided. Katniss had only been in the camp for a couple of days. She had no idea of the amount of gold the miners were finding, how much it was worth, and what Sae was charging them for their meals.

Sae wasn't happy, when after taking out a few choice pieces for her family, Katniss offered the remainder to her for $20. Peeta thought Sae was going to collapse from apoplexy, she got so red in the face. But Sae finally agreed. She pulled a leather pouch from her pocket, opened it, and pulled out a couple of nuggets, placing them in Katniss' open palm.

Katniss looked at Peeta for confirmation, as if to ask, `is this enough?' He nodded and her hand closed around the gold.

"Might have to get my old man out there hunting again," Sae muttered before giving him a scathing looking and walking away.

Peeta knew that Sae blamed him. It was obvious that he'd told Katniss to ask for more. But he was glad he did, especially when her sister Prim came running up to show her the gold she'd found that afternoon in the river.

"Gale said it's worth at least $25," Prim said excitedly.

Katniss looked shocked. She picked up the nuggets and eyed them carefully. "How long were you at the river?" she asked her sister.

"Only an hour. The water is too cold to stay much longer."

Katniss pursed her lips. He could see she thinking things over. Maybe she'd give up hunting now and work at the river instead. He hoped not. He enjoyed going out with her, even if he was more of a hindrance than help.

He wondered why she'd changed her mind about asking him to accompany her. Peeta hoped she hadn't run into Cray. He was a fool who fancied himself the sheriff of District 12 and rode around bullying every stranger that passed through the area. Katniss wasn't safe out there by herself. If her father were alive, or her uncle in better health, he was sure they would have forbidden her to hunt alone.

But her mother was still lying in the tent grieving, her aunt was tending her sick husband, and Gale, who should have known better, was fixated on the river and getting as much gold as he could before winter hit in full force.

It was getting colder now. It was already November. Some of the miners were talking about leaving the camp, maybe moving closer to the California coast for the winter.

He knew that Rye wouldn't leave because he didn't have the money to pay for lodgings anywhere. Rye had found and lost a small fortune already due to his gambling. Peeta, on the other hand, had saved a considerable amount from the sale of his baked goods. He wondered what Katniss' family was planning to do. He was just getting to know her. He didn't want to lose sight of her again.

Over the next week, he and Katniss went hunting everyday after the miners left for the river. But it was getting harder to find game as the weather grew colder. They had to walk farther away from camp searching.

Peeta didn't mind the extra time he spent with her. If he woke up earlier, he was able to schedule his baking around her hunting, but the cold and the longer walks meant his leg was throbbing almost all the time. However, it gave him the opportunity to get to know her better. Not that she said very much to him. But she seemed friendlier than she had been initially.

Tiny flakes of snow began falling one morning, just as Katniss had shot a plump squirrel.

"Maybe we should turn back," he suggested. He rubbed his gloved hands together.

But Katniss disagreed. She watched the snow hit the ground. "It's barely sticking. We'll be back long before this gets bad."

They continued walking forward, toward the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Katniss shot a rabbit and was pulling the arrow out of it, when a sudden gust of wind blasted through the pine trees surrounding the couple. Snow began falling quickly, big flakes that were clearly sticking to the ground.

"We need to find someplace to wait this out," Peeta said. He scanned the hillside in front of them. "Over there," he said, pointing to a small opening in the rocks.

She hiked toward the shadow he'd pointed out on the hillside. She scrambled onto the rocky ledge and made her way to what looked like a small cave in the side of the hill. He followed slowly behind her. His leg was aching badly. He needed to sit down and rest.

The cave was at least six feet high, tall enough for him to stand in, and about ten feet deep. It was cool inside, but at least it was shelter. Katniss sat down on the hard ground and he joined her as the two watched the snow coming down. With the wind blowing and the snow falling, it was getting difficult to view the surrounding landscape. All they could see was a white blur.

Neither of them spoke for a while. "When do you think it will stop?" Katniss finally asked.

"I don't know."

Unless the snow stopped immediately, there was no way they would make it back to the camp today. Even thought the camp was only a couple of miles away, it wasn't safe to go walking in a snowstorm. It would be too easy to get disoriented and lost.

Sae would have to feed all the miners. He hoped Katniss' family wouldn't be worried, that they would assume he and Katniss had found shelter to wait out the storm. Hopefully Rye would think the same.

He thought about starting a fire. He had flint and steel in his pocket. But he needed something to burn. He eyed Katniss' wooden bow. Probably not a good idea, unless they were really desperate. He scanned the cave. In the back was some animal dung. It would work as a fuel source.

"I'm going to start a fire," he told Katniss. He handed her the pocketknife he always carried with him. "You skin the game and we can cook it."

She nodded.

Peeta wanted her to stay busy. He could see the uneasiness in her eyes, heard it in her voice. He guessed she was worrying about her family. They didn't need this additional concern so soon after the loss of their father.

He kicked at the dry animal dung and positioned it in one corner of the entrance of the cave before attempting to start the fire. It didn't take too long. Using dried animal waste as a source of fuel for fire was a neat trick he'd picked up when his family had traveled to Oregon. Of course then, they used dried buffalo dung or chips, as people called it.

By the time he had a small fire going, Katniss had neatly skinned the squirrel and rabbit.

"How exactly will we cook it?" she asked, handing his knife back.

He cut off a small cube of rabbit meat and skewered it on the end of his knife. He held it in the fire until the outside of the meat was blackened, but cooked on the inside. He drew it out of the flame, blew on it for a moment, then quickly pulled it off the knife and handed the piece to Katniss.

"It's hot," he warned.

She tossed it between her icy hands, cooling it before she popped it into her mouth. It took a long time to cook the rabbit bit by bit, but eventually they ate all of it. While the fire was still going strong, he knew the fuel wouldn't last much longer.

"Let's cook the squirrel too, we can save it for later," he said. The fire was nearly out by the time the last piece of squirrel meat was cooked. He scooped up a bit of snow from outside the cave and set the cooked meat on top of it.

The light was fading fast and it would be dark soon. However the snow was still falling thickly.

"I guess we're spending the night here," he said.

Katniss turned sideways to lean up against the wall of the cave and sighed. She reached into her pockets, pulled out a single mitten, and frowned.

"What's wrong?"

"I must have lost one of my mittens. It's not in my pocket." She put the single mitten on her right hand, then rubbed both hands together, blowing on her uncovered hand before shoving both hands back into the pockets of her father's leather hunting jacket. She had started wearing it after his death.

Peeta turned to lean his back against the cave wall, as well. He scooted next to Katniss.

"It's cold in here right now and it's going to get worse later," he said. "So please let me do this." Without waiting for an answer, he moved his right arm around her shoulder and pulled her close.

Katniss flinched. She didn't say anything for a while. Then, in the darkness, he felt her body relax into his.

"Thank you," she muttered.

Neither spoke for a long time. After a while the snow stopped falling and the cave took on a golden glow as the moon rose in the sky. Even though he was wet and tired, Peeta could still appreciate the beautiful snow scene that appeared outside the entrance of the cave. Everything was blanketed in white. The pine trees looked like they were sprinkled with powdered sugar. Best of all he had his arm around Katniss.

He thought Katniss had fallen asleep, but then she spoke. "How's your leg?"

Instantly the pain seemed magnified. He'd been thinking on other things and had been ignoring the throbbing of his leg ever since they'd taken shelter in the cave.

"It hurts," he admitted, wondering why she had even brought it up.

She didn't say anything for a while. But then she asked, "what happened?"

He didn't really want to talk about it. He didn't want her pity. But the question was hanging there and he felt compelled to answer the girl who he was holding close to his side. "I was run over by our wagon when we were traveling to Oregon."

Katniss remained quiet for a few moments as if digesting the information. Then she gasped, as if recalling the event. "We were on the same wagon train. I remember when you were injured."

He laughed. "I recognized you and your sister when you arrived in camp last week," he admitted.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"I don't know. You didn't seem to know me."

"No. You're older now. You don't look the same."

Peeta was pleasantly surprised to realize that she'd even noticed his twelve-year-old self on that journey.

The shared experience of the trip to Oregon seemed to loosen Katniss' tongue and she began to tell him about her life in Oregon, her family's small farm, and her father's decision to have his family join him in Dirty District 12.

He listened carefully. He forgot all about his painful leg as she continued to talk. For all he knew, they'd die in this cave -of cold or starvation- but it didn't matter, as long as he was with Katniss.

But a shiver ran down his spine as she spoke of her desire to leave California, as soon as possible. "We need to get back to Oregon," she insisted. "My mother and Prim and I. There's nothing for us here."

He had felt the same way a few weeks earlier, but he was beginning to reconsider it. Clearly, there was plenty of opportunity for an entrepreneur in this land of plenty. He wondered if Katniss understood that. Why was she in such a hurry to go back to Oregon? Did she have someone waiting for her, a sweetheart perhaps? No, probably not. If she had a sweetheart, he'd be here in California, too. It was almost a joke, but everyone looking for gold seemed to be from Oregon.

Eventually their conversation died out. Katniss leaned her head into his chest and fell asleep. He could feel her steady breathing at his side. For the first time in a long time, he felt content.

He dozed off after a while. He woke up to the soft light of the sun's early rays dancing around the walls of the cave. Katniss was still asleep at his side. She was leaning even closer to him, if that was possible. He felt her twist her body slightly and gently moan. He hoped she was having a good dream. Because when she woke up they were going to have a nasty trek ahead of them.

Looking at the world outside the cave, he could see that it had gotten warmer. Wet snow was dripping from the tree branches. Walking back to camp was going to be a slushy mess.

He felt her body stiffen slightly and pull back from him. She was awake. He pulled back his arm from around her and bent it slightly. He'd lost all feeling in it during the night and hadn't even noticed.

"Good morning," he greeted her. "We can probably get back to camp now. But we should eat first." He pointed at the cooked squirrel meat that lay piled up near the entrance of the cave.

Katniss frowned. The pile of cold, greasy meat didn't look particularly appetizing. "You don't have any biscuits in your pocket?" she joked.

He laughed. "I wish." He stood up stiffly. "I'm going outside for a minute to check it out." He limped out of the cave.

The snow was at least six inches deep, but soft. He returned to the cave to see Katniss scratching at the side of the cave wall carefully with the end of her bow.

"What are you doing?" he asked her.

"What is this shiny stuff?" She pulled the bow back so he could see.

He looked more closely. There was a golden streak along the wall. He pulled his pocketknife out and began digging around it in the soft, limestone walls of the cave. He was able to dig out a chunk about the size of dumpling. He held it in his hand, staring at it closely.

"I'm not sure," he admitted. "It looks like gold. But I've never heard of gold being imbedded in stone, though. It's probably iron pyrite, which resembles gold."

"How can we find out what it is?"

"There are people in camp who would know."

"Can we trust them?"

Peeta knew Katniss was right to be suspicious of the other miners. If they showed the chunk to someone to verify it, the person would immediately want to know where they got it. Claim jumping was a big problem in the gold fields. You had to live at your claim site, or very close to it to prevent other miners from taking over. Even the miners panning at the river had staked out certain sections to work.

There was no way either one of them could attempt to dig out the gold, that is if it was gold, from the cave wall with winter upon them. They'd have to pry out what they could now and come back in the spring.

"It might not be gold," he countered. He didn't want to get her hopes up, even though for a moment he, too, had begun to fantasize about striking it rich.

"We need to find out," she said insisted.

They spent the next hour taking turns carving into the soft stone with his pocketknife, and eating the cold, greasy squirrel meat. "This would be so much easier if we had a pick," he complained.

Finally, they were able to dig out a second chunk.

"Now we both have a piece," Katniss said, as she handed one to Peeta and put the other into the pocket of her jacket.

The sun was getting higher in the sky.

"We need to get back," Peeta said. "I'm sure your family is worried."

Immediately Katniss' face changed. The look of intense concentration she displayed while digging in the cave wall was replaced with one of sadness.

"I got so caught up, I forgot about them,' she said simply.

The two of them exited the cave.

"We need to mark the entrance somehow," Katniss said. "In case it is gold."

She gently kicked one of her feet into the snow until she felt a rock. She bent down and picked it up. "I'll make a little pile by the entrance," she said.

Within a few minutes, the two of them had gathered several stones and stacked them in the front corner of the cave.

"We can't tell anyone about this place," Katniss said to Peeta. "Because if it's gold, it's ours."

"You were the one who found it," he countered. "It's yours."

"But you found the cave," she insisted. "It's ours."

They walked back toward the camp slowly in the slush. Their shoes were soon soaked through, as was the bottom of Peeta's pants and Katniss's long skirt. On the way, Katniss was able to shoot a couple of squirrels. It wasn't much, but it was something.

"If it really is gold, a lot of gold, what are you going to do with your share?" Katniss asked., as they trudged along.

"Open a bakery, maybe even a restaurant," he said. "What about you?"

"Get back to Oregon."

For a moment his heart skipped a beat at her answer. But then he thought that it didn't matter what either of them wished because it likely wasn't gold at all.

About a half-mile from camp, they heard voices calling their names.

"We're over here," Peeta shouted.

Gale was the first to appear. There were several miners, including Rye, who were on horseback searching for them.

Gale stopped his horse and got off. "Thank God you're safe," he said as he threw his arms around Katniss. Gale took her bow, arrows, and game bag from her and helped her up onto the horse, before turning to glare at Peeta.

Rye hopped down as well to let his brother ride back to camp. "So where were you hiding out Peetie? His brother's voice was low and he grinned lasciviously as he spoke. You should hear the stories back at camp about you and that Everdeen girl. Guess you didn't freeze last night."

Peeta's face grew warm. "It wasn't like that." His voice was harsh.

"I know," Rye guffawed. "You're not the type and I don't think that one would let you even if you were."

Author's Note: Initially the first miners to arrive thought that gold was only in the streams and rivers because that's where it had originally been discovered. It was later that they realized there were gold deposits in the hills and mountains, as well.