Fighting the friendship,
but trying to be,
something that someone,
might want to free.
Trying to save,
that one common goal,
wanting it so much,
it makes you feel whole.
A/N--the product of procrastination. I do not want to write that speech. Gr. Anyway, thanks so much to all my reviewers :). You guys are utterly amazing! Over 300 now :D. Wow, wow, wow! Thanks guys, and keep it up :).
Disclaimer--A-la-blah. Fa-la-la-la-la. Wait, it's not Christmas, it's Easter. Either way. Go Jesus! :D.
Enjoy :)!
I must admit; I'm getting quite annoyed with Gale's hot and cold attitude. One minute, we're halfway to becoming friends, the next he's shunning me. And the shunning lasts for a lot longer than the kind-of-friendship does.
"Gale," I say, trying to get his attention after what seems like hours of silence. He, of course, ignores me. "Gale," I say louder. He turns around and gives me a look that would pierce my soul through with ice if that were possible in humans. I bet the Capitol could make some muttations that could do that.
"What do you want, Bread Boy?" Gale sneers at me, stopping shortly. We've been walking at a quick pace, and it has been tiring me out. I wouldn't admit it to him, but I'm thankful for the momentary breather.
"What's your problem?" I say this in the exact tone one would expect me to say it in; annoyed. He seems a bit taken aback by my annoyance, and his face shifts a few times, quickly changing emotions too fast for me to identify, then transforming back into his signature glare.
"You. You're too noisy, too slow, and don't mind your own business," Gale finally says, fixing his eyes on something behind me. Or maybe on nothing at all, I can't tell.
"What do you suggest then? Want to split up? I'm sure we'd cover more ground that way, get to Prim faster. Hey, maybe I'd even die in the process, that'd be nice for you, huh?" I say sarcastically.
Gale's sneer turns into more of a grimace. "I don't want you to die, Peeta." I'm impressed that he actually says my name, rather than calling me 'Bread Boy'. When he calls me that, it brings back memories of when Cato and the rest of the Career Pack called me 'Lover Boy'. "And I don't suggest we split up, that wouldn't resolve anything anyway. Just...be a little quieter, and stop asking me questions."
We fall back into silence, if you don't count all the noise I'm making climbing over the needles and leaves. Gale continues to walk too fast for me to keep up, and pretty soon I fall behind. I actually have to jog, because I'm not used to walking through branches, and they trip me up and slow me down. Gale's so used to dodging the death-sticks that he doesn't even have to concentrate, and he walks as if he has nowhere to be, whereas I'm practically running at this point.
"Could you slow down?" I ask finally, giving in to my exhaustion. My pride cringes, so it's a good thing I don't have much of it.
"I thought I asked you to stop asking questions," Gale mumbles, but he obligingly slows a bit, allowing me to stop running and lapse back into a fast-walk.
I refrain from apologizing, but I want to on instinct. It's weird, how much I want Gale to like me. Maybe it is just that I want to like him, and I really can't do that if he continues to treat me like a pariah.
"We're never going to find her, are we?" The thought slips from my mouth before I can think to stop it. I hadn't even been thinking that, as a matter of fact. I had been thinking about Gale, not Prim. So why did I just say that? I'm really in for it now.
I brace myself for the angry lecture I know I'm about to receive from Gale, but I am preparing for nothing. "Maybe, maybe not." That is all Gale says, and I can't believe it. I expected him to have high hopes of finding her. Maybe he is just so sick of me and my incessant questions that he has decided to answer that to everything I ask.
"Do you still like Katniss?" I ask stupidly, testing out my new theory. I'll admit that I would never do this if I wasn't so bored and worried. I'm sick of rummaging around in the forest looking for Everdeen girls that I'm never going to find. Even if we do find Prim, I'm worried that she will already be dead. And who knows where Katniss is at this point. Woods, dungeon, heaven, hell, underground, a safe house. I have no idea. I'm pretty sure I'll never see her again. But Gale was right about what he said earlier. ... if Katniss died.. I'd know. It's true, though. That feeling you get, when you know someone is with you still, even if not physically. I can feel it with Katniss. I know she's somewhere, waiting for me...and Gale, probably. Maybe we won't have to rescue her, but chances are she will need us for something. No one can accomplish impossible tasks alone. Not even the great Katniss Everdeen.
Gale doesn't answer my question at first, he just stops dead in his tracks. He pulls a branch off of a nearby tree, snaps it in half, then turns on me with fire in his gray eyes. "That's none of your damn business!" he yells. Although his voice isn't actually raised, his tone is cold and steely. I'm genuinely terrified when I look in his eyes, and I just shake my head in apology.
"I didn't mean it," I stutter out after a moment.
"I know," he replies curtly, and we move on.
Which is when I hear the barking, about a millisecond after Gale does. His head whips to the side just before the menacing sound reaches my ears. He throws his arm out, pushing me back a couple of steps. I stumble until my back hits a tree, and I feel the reassuring stability of it holding me up. Then there is a deep cracking sound, and the tree begins to shift. I turn around clumsily, and see that the tree isn't as stable as I thought it was. It begins to fall, tipping over backwards from me.
I just catch Gale's look of annoyance as his eyes flash back to me and my predicament, then he pulls out his bow and knocks an arrow, aiming towards the growls. "Can you climb a tree?" he asks me calmly. He is deadly still, not moving a muscle, the arrow not quivering a bit in his capable hand.
"Not that one," I say quietly, but the sound is lost as the tree crashes to the ground. I note that this specific tree would make a sound falling no matter how far away anyone may have been.
"You think? That one?" He twitches his head to the side, where a large, thick, many-branched tree stands, sure of itself amongst other trees. I start to climb it, and as I'm looking up, I notice that a few of its branches overlap with branches from another tree, that happens to be closer to the growling. That tree is just a small leap away from another tree, and so on.
"Gale!" I call once I reach a safe distance up, climbing steadily to the tree next to it. "Up here!"
He looks up, and a smile twitches at the corners of his mouth as he sees my plan. We would be much safer if we had a bird's eye view of the threat, and if need be, it would be much easier for Gale to take the animals down. "Go," he says, gesturing for me to continue along my path. He begins to climb up after me, and it doesn't take long before we are on a tree that is pushed against a large pile of rocks, leading into what might be a cave. On the other side of us, is more than just a pack of wild dogs. I see now why we hadn't had any trouble with wild animals in the last few hours; they are all barking at this tree.
The only thing that I see in the branches, aside from Gale and myself, is a lone mockingjay, looking at us with its head cocked to the side.
Why, hello, Mockingjay.
Borus is a very happy person, Prim thinks as she trails along behind him. He has a flashlight, which Prim had before thought of as Hope, and continues to think of it as such, and his three pets darting in and out between his legs. They are the weirdest things that Prim has ever seen, and she remembers well all the various muttations that the Capitol has created for the Hunger Games.
It takes her a few minutes of complete trust before she wonders if Borus might be working for the Capitol. That would explain a lot. Like how he was able to live out here alone, or how he got a hold of these strange creatures that he calls pets.
In the last five or ten minutes since Prim was rescued by Borus, she learned the names and makes of his 'Beasties'. The one he calls Figgy is a mix between a bird and a beetle. It is fairly small, around the size of Prim's head, and has a sharp, elongated beak. It also has beetle wings, and beetle legs, on a birds' body. Prim thinks that it is by far the least creepy of the three.
Jellum,--which reminds Prim of jello, and also makes her hungry--is part bear and part fox. It crawls stealthily on four legs, its bushy tail splayed out behind it, but it is twice as big as Borus--about five times as big as Prim--and has a mouth big enough to swallow Prim whole if it wanted to. Prim decides to get on Jellum's good side, as soon as possible.
Rae, the only Beastie with a normal name, is a cross between a lynx and a dog. It is mostly quiet like a lynx, following the others, bobbed-tail and all, but when it wants to, it barks and yips like a wild dog. It has the lean build of a dog, with the muscular back legs of a lynx. It also has a dogs' head, with the strangely tipped ears of a lynx.
Rae and Jellum both bother Prim, but she sort of likes Figgy. It flits back and forth between the shoulders of its three companions, and occasionally will even land on Prim's shoulder for a few moments, looking at her with intelligent eyes. She tried to pet Rae, but he or she snapped at Prim, and left her in a state very near tears. Then she tried to walk alongside of Jellum, but couldn't get close enough for fear of its massive jaw, and crushing structure.
Borus starts whistling as they make their way through the cave. Then he stops abruptly. "Why, I almost forgot to ask, little lady. What are you doin' out here?"
Prim doesn't know if she can trust Borus enough to tell him her story, but she doesn't suspect that he will keep her around if she doesn't answer him. She decides for a partial truth; it seems safest. "I got lost," she whimpers, and it sounds very genuine, because she is honestly scared for her life.
"So I figerred," he says in an odd accent that Prim still can't place. It's nothing like the shrill tones that they produce at the Capitol, which puts Prim's mind at ease; a little. "But how come you aren't back safe inside that nice ol' electric fence?"
Here comes the moment of truth, Prim thinks. She would really be going out on a limb to trust this strange man she just met. Then again, she already went out on a limb--literally--trusting a bird she just met. A bird. So why shouldn't she trust a human being? Because of the Games, she thinks. I've seen what humans will do to each other. But Borus is still waiting for an answer. "I was looking for my sister," Prim replies sheepishly.
"Your sister, huh?" Borus rubs at his stubbly chin with the hand that isn't holding onto Hope. "She out in these parts?"
Prim breaks down, not able to handle the pressure, and just decides to tell him the whole, if revised, story. "She just disappeared the other night, and P--my friend told me to stay put so he could look for her, but I couldn't just wait for him to find her! What if they all got lost? So I went looking for her, but I got cornered by all these wild animals, and they chased me up a tree, but then a mockingjay showed me this cave, and I came inside, and then I thought I was going to die when the Beasties growled at me, but then you came with Hope, and I thought everything would be all right. But I still don't have Ka--my sister, and I still don't have my friend, or my other friend, or anyone! And Jellum wants to eat me!" By the time she finishes, she is full out crying, tears streaming down her dirty face. Rae flits over and lands on her shoulder, brushing its beetle-wings up against her cheek comfortingly.
"Come now," Borus says, clearly uncomfortable with Prim's tears. "Jellum wouldn't eat you. He's a vegetarian."
"Really?" Prim asks, looking up at Borus hopefully, a manic laugh bubbling its way up her throat, threatening to escape. She pushes it back; now is not the time for laughter.
"No, but he doesn't eat people. Only animals. Like, the kinds that had you up that tree. The reason you got here. You'll be safe now, and I'll find a way to get you back to your sister. Okay?"
"Okay," Prim says, wiping tears off her face with a fist. My sister, she thinks, my Katniss.
A/N--:). Well, press that nifty ol' button and let me know what you think :). Thanks guys!