DISCLAIMER: HG characters do not belong to me.

Words not spoken in English will be italicized.

Chapter 18-First Glance

Just as Red Bear said, it took them 3 days to reach the Comanche tribe. Katniss rode with Red Bear on his horse while Sequoyah rode with White Wolf and Trent rode with Hawk. Sequoyah and Trent were still tied, but were tied from the front and sat in the front while riding. At times the ride was abruptly stopped due to Sequoyah frequently getting sick, having to jump off the horse and run to empty the contents of her stomach. The first day it happened Katniss didn't think anything of it and believed Sequoyah when she told Katniss that she was vomiting because of the stress of the situation the two of them were currently in. But by day three when it was still happening, Katniss began to have her suspicions.

Because Katniss had been away from her personal belongings for so long, more importantly her dreamcatcher, her nightmares started to return. However, they were not as intense. She would abruptly wake up, but she wasn't waking up screaming. Most of the nightmares were about Prim, and the most recent one was about Rain. Katniss was anxious to get be reunited with her stuff, amazed at how one object could make such a difference in her life.

Due to the whirlwind of the last few days, Katniss had forgotten the tribe was still on foot and wasn't going to reach the Comanche tribe at the same time. Katniss and the others arriving two days before them. Red Bear and the other tribesmen approached the Comanche first, with Katniss, Sequoyah, and Trent staying behind. Hawk explained to Katniss that his mother was originally a Comanche tribe member and that he knew some of the language. The five of them would approach the village first and explain the situation.

While Katniss and the two soldiers waited far off in the forest, they mostly sat in silence, listening to the heavy rain falling down. Two days ago it started raining, Katniss guessed this was the first official sign of spring. Because the rain was falling so heavily, all the snow was melted and mud was forming. Katniss wished she had some type of rain jacket instead of the heavy fur she was still wearing, getting soaked.

Sequoyah finally broke the long silence and turned to Katniss and said, "They say you still live in District 12 with Peeta, is that true?"

"Yes" Katniss said staring ahead.

"Why is he not here with you then?"

"I don't think we are at the point where I can trust you enough to tell you why" Katniss gave a pointed look at Trent when she answered. He snickered.

"Are you and Commander Hawthorne really cousins?" Sequoyah continued with the questions.

"What did he tell you?" Katniss was getting aggravated with all the personal questions.

"He never says anything about you. He hardly even called you by your name, mostly referred to you as the Mockingjay. I figured maybe that's why he was chosen to lead this mission, because you were related. He became very anxious once we lost surveillance on you."

"Well, I would imagine losing the ability to invade someone's privacy would be nerve wracking." Katniss's could feel her temper starting to rise, Gale doesn't call her by name but yet he's all concerned once he lost camera footage of her? She was getting angry at herself for caring about his actions.

"He was really worried, he never said it, but you could tell, his voice changed, he starting swearing, he wasn't acting himself."

Katniss snickered. "How noble of him".

Sequoyah looked at Katniss in disbelief. "Some people would appreciate someone caring about them" she responded harshly.

Katniss choose not to respond. She wasn't going to continue this discussion. Katniss thought it was strange Sequoyah ran away from Gale yet here she is defending him.

They continued sitting in silence again.


The tribesmen finally returned, informing Katniss that after a lengthy discussion, the Comanche agreed to allow the tribe to stay and agreed to help the Sioux warn the other 5 tribes. However, the Comanche wanted Katniss to find the cameras and destroy them. The Comanche tribe was a very superstitious tribe and did not want to destroy anything from the Capitol. Katniss gave the men a skeptical look.

"It is the only way they would agree to not take the two soldiers captive." Hawk informed Katniss.

"Okay" she responded. She figured they found the other cameras within a half an hour and she knew what they looked like, how hard could it be?

Once Katniss arrived at the Comanche tribe she realized the task would be much harder than she thought. This village was completely different from the Sioux's village. It was more than twice the size and was way more spread out. They were also deep in the forest unlike the Sioux whose village was in a large meadow. There was no way a single camera could capture images back to the Capitol. She figured there had to be multiple cameras here. As soon as she arrived she began looking for the camera's, Red Bear and White Wolf helping her, but after two days of searching she couldn't find anything. Part of the problem was the trees in the village were so tall, they were much leaner and taller than the trees in the Sioux's village. Even though Katniss, Red Bear, and White Wolf were good climbers only an aircraft could safely reach the top.

She knew she needed to talk to Gale as soon as possible. Only he could help her find these cameras.


The next morning the Sioux arrived. As expected, the tribe was devastated to hear about Rain and Otter. A lot of shouting and crying occurred after the announcement by the tribe's leader. Rain's half-sisters took it especially hard. That night the tribe held a Ghost Dance. Katniss had learned from Rain what a Ghost Dance was. She explained to Katniss that a Ghost Dance was performed to reunite the living with spirts of the dead, to bring spirits of the dead to fight on their behalf, and bring peace and prosperity and unity to the Native people.

Katniss watched as members of the tribe performed the circle dance. The members holding one hand up in the air as they bent over and danced around. The women of the tribe chanting heavily, a sad chant, mourning for the tribe members they lost. Katniss was so overcome with emotion she decided to join in the dance, copying their movements.

That night, she was able to sleep soundly with the dreamcatcher hanging above her head in her tepee.

The next morning, while Katniss was getting ready to continue her search for the camera's, Red Bear came into her tepee and said, "Comanche hunters said they spotted 7 people dressed in black heading towards the village. These are the people you are looking for yes?"

Katniss jumped up. Finally, Gale and his group have arrived. "Yes" she responded eagerly.

Katniss, Red Bear, and Hawk took off on horse to reach Gale's group before they reached the village. She felt it best to confront them with as few people as possible watching them.

They saw the group approach from a small hill the three of them were hiding in, their bodies crouched low to the ground, peeking behind the tall trees. She had a perfect view of Gale. He was leading the group, holding his weapon in front of him. He looked almost exactly the same as Katniss last saw him, still in the all black attire, still wearing a helmet. 'And still handsome' Katniss thought to herself.


Gale and his group traveled for the next eight days, moving at a very fast pace, only stopping once in the morning for a 15 minute break, at lunch for 30 minutes to eat/rest, and 30 min for dinner before walking again until nightfall. Then they would leave at sunrise the next morning, sometimes even earlier if the weather was good. He figured they had made up at least a day and a half of travel moving so quickly. He was in contact with the other group, led by Spencer frequently, Spencer informing Gale that soldier Topper was flown safely to District 9 and recovered from her injuries and returned back to the main base. He also informed Gale that they were having no luck in finding Trent and Sequoyah, and the only thing they found were the radios they deserted, along with another bomb it looked like they were planning to set off if the first one didn't work.

Luckily, they didn't run into anymore obstacles. Weather being the only obstacle but even then, they only encountered two storms. For the past three days they had been dealing with heavy rains, the ponchos they had covering them pretty well.

They were currently walking through a very dense forest, with extremely tall trees, almost blocking out the sunlight. He was told by the main base that once they reached this area they would be close. He warned the group to be on alert. He was told Katniss was there, the stationary camera picked up images of her, solider Woodard said that from the images it looked like Katniss was searching for something. Gale knew she was looking for the cameras.

He saw a small hill over to his right. His eyes instinctively scanning the area. He saw movement, he immediately put his fist up to signal the group to stop. They did, all of them at alert with their weapons.

Three horses came into view. He saw Katniss on one of the horses, her hair blowing in the wind and he thought for a second his heart stopped.