Hey everyone! Here is the first chapter - I`m sort of describing one of the tributes (Eternal Wolfe, district 11) trought important moments of his life. I still have some slots, especially for boys, but hope to get them filled soon. Oh and one more thing - a lot of you said that their tributes had volunteered for a sibling/friend and I wonder weather or not to add that for everyone. It`s a bit weird, but idk. What do you think? Anyways, enjoy the chapter, there are more to come =)
The Prophet
The darkness slowly starts devouring me.
`No!` I scream in the blind hope that I`ll flee from the prophecies at least this once. But it`s getting darker and darker and I know there is no escape from it. Images appear, blurry shadows, that go sharper and clearer.
A young girl, 12 or 13 year old, hiding in a tree. An older one shooting an arrow. Kids ferociously killing each other And blood. Blood everywhere.
I instinctively know that there is something wrong with this vision. Something that I fail to see and that explains such cruelty. Why is this happening? But the images start fading and soon I am back in my own world. That is when I hear it, the little girl`s wishper :
`May the odds be ever in your favour`
`Eternal,` says father `my brave, reckless boy! Dad is so proud of you!`
The tears storm down my eyes as I look at him. He`s wounded, I can say, very badly. The burns cover almost entirely his lean body, still red, still aching. On top of that, his arm is all bloody and dirty, with dozens of minute pieces of glass stuck in it.
`You make sure that I do not die in vane.` I feel the agony in his eyes `Take care of Adrian. Help create a better world for him to live in.`
`I almost forgot.` he takes off his fingerless gloves, smiling to himself. `Take these. To give you courage.`
With that he`s gone. His fire, his pain are gone. No longer can I see hurt in his eyes.
But I can smell the danger in the air and I know it`s time to go.
`Rest in peace, dad!` I utter, running to hide from the enemy, that is getting closer and closer. I wonder weather I should do that. It`s been a while since I learnt that I am surviving the rebellion and that Adrian is too, no matter what we do.
Since I learnt that the fight will be lost.
I run, the wind in my hair. I run. I run. I am aware of the fact that I will not escape anything by running. Not my destiny at least. But I run, and climb, and jump around the ruins of what was once my home.
Now that the riot is over it is slowly reinstated, it does not feel the same though. The pain, the suffering and the anguish are now a constant inhabitant of the once so peaceful and warm town. The streets still look like war. Kids with missing limbs are no longer an uncommon sight. People are afraid to get out on the streets, except for work. Peacekeepers patrol, fiercely looking for an offender of the newly established laws. A single wrong step and you`re dead.
But I keep running in spite of the dangers. Just as I keep training at home, with daggers, arrows or a sword. I have done it ever since the vision with the children killing each other, just in case it comes in handy.
I have, of course, tried to teach Adrian, too, but he is just not tough enough to handle it. Not physically, but mentally. After the loss of our father everything that involves combat reminds him of his death.
Well, as if to make for him, I train as I hard as I can. I also work and hunt and look after the two of us. But that will soon not be enough. That will be the time when I would need my fighting skills.
And than, I prey, the odds shall be in my favour.
`Alexandra Lean`
The girl doesn`t even shiver as she gets to the stage. The only real emotion I notice in her is the fugitive shadow of pain. Nothing more. No words, no fears, no nothing. As if she`s made of stone.
Then the Capitol women takes a boy`s name out of the bowl with a weird gesture.
`Adrian Wolfe` she reads, funnily mispronouncing the name. I almost laugh. Then I understand it. My little defenceless brother, thrown in what they describe as `a representation of the horrors of the war`. He`s already making his way trough the crowd when I speak out as calmly as I can :
`I volunteer! `
And when I'm finally on the stage I smile to myself.
Adrian will live long and happily. I do not need to be an oracle to know that.