Author's Note:
I do not own the Hunger Games.
So here we are at the end. I... don't think this epilogue is going to be what anyone expected, but I did have this planned from the beginning.
The pale one led, as always, picking her way through the trees. She was graceful and surefooted, finding her way as though she knew where she was going without even looking.
The dark one, nearly twice her size, was never far away. This day he was close behind, glancing round every so often to check on the others. He walked with a limp and slowed them sometimes, but he could still hunt and they left no one behind.
The smallest one, coppery red, kept close to them. He was small, but sturdy, and the pale one liked him. He knew where to find food, never questioning or wavering in his conviction.
Their little family was scattered behind them. Next closest were the three girls, brown, golden yellow, and tawny, their eyes shining in the sunlight. The tawny one was sensible, but the yellow one liked to play, darting here and there among the trees, bringing the brown one tearing after her.
The remaining four roamed further, black and brown and gold and sandy blonde, though none were ever far.
The gold one stayed close to the black one when she tolerated him, but she was prickly with a hot temper. When she turned him away he stuck near to the three girls. They had taken some time to accustom to him, but he was sweet and understanding, and had quickly grown close to the brown one.
The three-legged one liked her own company, but she stayed with the group for the sake of not being alone and finding safety in numbers. She could fight, despite her missing limb, and rarely fell behind.
The pretty, pale brown one was clingy. Most of all she clung to the black one, whining and crying when she lost sight of her companion, but on occasion she'd fall in with another, usually the gold one. She could never be alone; she cried when she was alone.
The nine of them padded through the woods as the sun reached its peak high above them. It was a hard life out here, rough and wild and uncertain, but it was better than the cage.
And there was freedom.