After nearly a week of writers block and struggling with writing I've managed to write this 2000 word chapter for Running all in a single day. Thank people who pulled me through it with their encouragement!
Also slight romance bundled in this chapter, I want your opinion on it once you finish because I'd like to know if it's good or not.
Unrevised!
Anyways, I'm pretty tired and not going to write anymore! Begin the story! :)
Chapter 23: Only a dream
When we enter Annie's room I am shocked by it all. Everything is so much better than the orphanage even at first sight.
The first thing I see is gold curtains with light spilling through them into the room. There's two beds, queen sized beds which are lined up one on each side of the room covered in large zebra print comforters. The walls are a shade of lavender purple. Small beside tables align the beds that each have small lamps on them.
"Bathrooms over here," Annie calls pointing at a door behind her on her bed which she has claimed already by slumping on. "And the closet is over there, you can put your stuff in it, " she points at the small closet door behind me and I nod still taking it all in.
For that night I sleep more peacefully then I can remember doing the past.
The next day Annie practically drags me to the mall to buy some new outfits. No matter how many times I exclaim to her that I have enough already she refuses to listen. In the end she's talked me into getting a coat, a few shirts and a pair of jeans. Well she didn't really talk me into it rather she just bought them and said "this will fit you." She says we still need to more shopping, I seriously dread the occasion. But I guess Annie just has a way of getting things done.
The only light in the room is the faint golden glow the small lamp beside Annie's bed casts. It's something like eleven o'clock at night. Right now, her parents believe we have gone to bed. That may be true but we are not sleeping, I lie here motionless while I hear shifting coming from Annie nearly every thirty seconds.
"Katniss, you awake?" Her voice calls from her side of the room, however quieter than usual not to make to much noise.
"Yeah." I call in the same voice.
"Why do you have Peeta's jacket?" She asks her question straight to the point and a spike runs through my chest, strangely.
"Oh, I was, uh, cold and he gave it to me." I answer uneasily slightly struggling with sentence.
"Are you sure that was the only reason why?" She asks not even looking in my direction, instead her eyes study ever crevice of the wall her bed is pushed against.
"Annie, of course it is, even you know he's way to kind for his own good." I reply truthfully to her question without a second thought.
"Besides, why would you snoop through my bags?" I add.
"Come on don't change the subject." She says, where is she getting to with this topic, he gave me a jacket when I was cold, so what?
"You must know why Katniss," She pleads.
I'm silent, I already told her why. I dont understand.
"He cares about you Katniss." She points out like it was the most obvious thing ever and I was as oblivious as they come. I remember she told me this once, yet she tells me so again. Why?
"Annie, he cares about everyone, he's Peeta," I say in a state of disarray.
"You're going to put it together or he's going to loose patience, which ever comes first, but I honestly don't understand how this doesn't stick out to you." She tells me, more like mutters to herself and I just feel even more puzzled than before.
She sighs exhaustively, it sounds rather from the conversation than the actual day.
She turns out her lamp a signal that we're actually going to sleep now, "night Katniss, " she says lightly and shifts in her bed.
I lie my face into the cool pillow and wait for sleep. It feels so soft against my cheek so much better than what I had before. I wish for good slumber like last night.
-Dream-
My noes is black and velvety and crinkles together when I sniff the cold air. However, this cold weather doesn't affect me much because of my thick coat which I am glad I was born with.
A snowflake drops on the tip of my noes before melting into a puddle and falling off in thick drops. I sneeze and shake my head internally laughing, quickly, my long pink tongues darts out and catches the droplets of water on my mouth. Before myself is a frozen lake which reflects my image. My eyes are wide and shiny black, they look so innocent. Thick, long, black lashes flair out around my eyes. Pure white dusts out around my muzzle and my eyes as well as aligned in a patch on my chest. My body is small and slender. There's four thin legs sprouted from my body along with perfectly rounded shiny black hoaves. Completing it all is a small brown tail flecked with white. I am graceful, elegant and beautiful. I am a doe.
Aimlessly, I travel through the woods, my head held high. Each step leaves marks from my hoaves in the deep cool snow but I can't feel it. Immense trees are sprouted from the ground and the tops are magnificent, blanketed by layers of glistening snow.
Suddenly, a flare of fiery pain grabs my leg and runs down my calf. Immediately, I look down and see a snare, no I must not be caught in this. I can't die yet. I kick and struggle but it's all futile, I am trapped. Blood trickles down in thick red drops, as my leg sears with pain.
I'm already mourning my life.
Here I am about to die and I'm not even close to old age.
A stocky, medium sized boy appears through the trees and sees me. This is it that's the hunter, I'm dead, it's all over. If only I had watched out. I could've been more careful. I squirm even more.
"Ssh it's okay, you're alright. " He speaks softly, soothingly, and kneels in front of me. Quickly, his hands grasping the trap enclosed on my leg and making work of it.
I look at him instead of the blood covered snare. He wears a gray cap and blonde waves of short hair spill out of it. Every once in a while his gloved hand brushes on my leg, I'm not scared but comforted by him. I'm okay?
The snare opens unexpectedly and pulls it's tongs out of my calf. The pain is oh, so unbelievable.
He grabs at my shoulders to help me stand. I stand on three legs one lifted and he grabs it and rubs circles on the unwounded part. "Ssh you're going to be alright," he murmurs.
I'm lifted quickly into the boys arms. His strength is surprising. I'm not even fully grown but I must at least weigh a hundred pounds. Like I'm weightless he holds me around my stomach and back legs before walking.
He smells of musk and honey something like bread as well. I'm pulled flush against his chest as he carries me back to his home. He doesn't treat me like an animal but instead he welcomes me.
I'm laid out in front of a fire, and for the next few days he cares for my wounds, and myself while keeping me company. I grow a care to an extent for the unknown boy who is not strange to me at all but pleasant. In fact, everything about him displays pure goodness, from the brightness of his vibrant hair, eyes, and smiles to his huge gestures that he shrugs off as nothing.
So when my wound is healed I am saddened. I don't want to leave the boy who generates the light to everything. Now that I have come to know this life I no longer think twice about my old one. But I want this, and only this.
His look that day is crestfallen and sorrowful, something like my own. "I think you're better now," It's as if he's silently giving me the message it's okay to go now.
But I don't want to leave you.
I can't talk though, after all I'm only a deer, he's a human. I want to cry and beg him to let me stay. How could I ever leave this for the woods, how could I ever leave him?
My next breath, is different. No longer do I look at a snout in front of me. I have two hands and two bare legs and feet, replacing my slim furred legs and black hoaves. I sit up using my elbows and a tendrils of long brown hair falls on my face. I'm unclothed no longer covered in fur but pink skin. It's like his skin color only mine is a shade darker, an olive color.
I have everything a human girl does too, my cheeks heat, a strange sensation.
I am human. Like him.
His gasps mirror my own. His eyes run over my body before he focuses on my face pink cheeked with an innocent smile.
"You're beautiful," he whispers.
A shock travels through my body, I'm not embarrassed now, but I just can not name this feeling, it's so amazing. As I look at him now I have new feelings for him then when I was a doe but now I feel such a strong care for him that it is indescribable. This feeling sits warmly in my chest wrapping around me and holding me like a heated comforter.
"You're perfect, please don't leave." He gasps, vulnerability etched into his face.
I won't leave, I need this boy. Maybe I can have him now that I am a girl. Until now, I was uncertain but now I know what this is, it's love. Before it didn't appeal to me but I want this so much now that I can hardly breathe.
"No I won't leave." I say wobbly, using my voice for the first time, but it is clear he heard it and understands because of what he does next.
He leans over me, I loose my hold on my arms propping me up and I fall back into the thick carpet. I'm sucking in shaky breathes and my heart moves rapidly slamming into my ribcage. Our foreheads touch and I'm staring into his warm blue eyes. So compassionate, so loving, so beautiful.
The tips of our noses touch, he sighs. I feel as if I've been touched by a million needles.
He closes all the space between us when he presses his lips unto mine. They're warm and soft, moving gentley against mine heatedly, my eyes close. I move my lips back clearly inexperienced, but none the less moving back and reciprocating his lips, no matter how uneven I am he brings a steadiness to it all.
All to suddenly he leans back, "I love you," he breathes against my lips and places a quick kiss on them again.
My heart stutters.
I awake my eyes slowly creep open as I try to hang on to the wonderful dream like state I was in but the evanescence of it disappears like dew does from grass.
A small gasp escapes my lips, the boy-was Peeta. The girl was-me?
How could my mind conceive such a thing? I can still feel it though the feather-like touch of his lips and the warmth of him. What would that be like everyday? What would it be like to have someone care for you like that?
I don't understand, my mind played such a cruel joke, it felt good? But it's gone now. The me in the dream looked at Peeta differently, for his good qualities. Now to think about it they are actually true. His unmistakably blue eyes, his thick sandy blonde hair, his smiles, his kindness. That same feeling from the dream now dwells in my stomach, the fluttering and the warmth. I can still picture him. The way he looked at me, I felt so loved.
I put my fingers to my lips, I can still feel the ghost of his lips from my dream.