DISCLAIMER: HG characters do not belong to me.
Words not spoken in English will be italicized.
Chapter 33-Choices
When Katniss awoke the next morning, she decided to head out to the see the tribe before calling President Paylor. She figured she might as well wait until she hears the tribe's final answer before asking Paylor how long she had access to her soldiers and hovercraft.
She asked Spencer to rely a message to the Capitol that she was going to speak to the tribe then call when she got back. As expected, he obliged.
"Do you think they will come with us?" Spencer asked as Katniss was walking away from their camp.
"No. I don't. If Rain was here she would have been able to maybe persuade them." Katniss had told Spencer about Rain and how Rain introduced her to the tribe. While she didn't mind this new group of people she was with, the only person she continued to talk to was Spencer, when Penny wasn't around of course.
"Well, you never know, from what you have said, they seem to really like you. I think they will trust you."
Katniss appreciated Spencer's optimism, but she wasn't so sure, she understood why the Natives didn't trust Panem. She didn't think she herself would ever fully trust them. She trusted Gale and Haymitch, but that was it as far as people involved with the Capitol. She didn't even trust Heavensbee or Paylor, not completely.
She knew her reserve when it came to trusting others would never waiver.
When she arrived at their camp, she had seen they were all packed up and ready to head out-this didn't surprise her for the tribe was very efficient when it came to traveling.
Red Bear approached her and said, "Strong Wind has decided that groups of 3 men each will be heading for the other tribes on horse. He is sending tribe members originally from these tribes since they can translate best."
Katniss informed him that the Capitol was only aware of 5 tribes and now that 2 of them had their cameras removed that only left 3 tribes, the one being the Blackfoot tribe. Red Bear asked Katniss where the other two tribes were, she said she would have to return to the hovercraft and see on a map.
She said she would return and let them know, Red Bear said the rest of the tribe was heading back to the village, but the tribesmen who would be going to the other tribes would stay behind until Katniss got back. Red Bear gave Katniss a horse to use.
She was able to get back to the hovercraft in twenty minutes. The group was alarmed to see her speeding up to the ship on a horse.
"Good thing we saw you coming from the ship, you were moving so fast we might have had to fire warning shots." Hance said to Katniss as she approached, swiftly jumping off the horse.
"Sorry, I just wanted to get back" Katniss responded while she tied the horse up and walked up the platform onto the ship. "I need to make that phone call to the President now."
Hance nodded and said, "I'll get Spencer."
Spencer took Katniss into a small control room and took out a portable phone and dialed the number for her to use. Only Panem's military had access to portable phones and Spencer informed Katniss that they were lucky the President gave them a hovercraft that had them. They were really only to be used for emergency purposes but Katniss felt this was a slight emergency. She needed to know how long she had to the team and to the ship.
Once the phone rang, Spencer quietly left the room, shutting the door. The President's secretary answered and put Katniss on hold. Finally after a few minutes she heard, "Hello, President Paylor speaking."
"Ms. President, it's me-Katniss Everdeen, I am sorry to bother you but I need to ask you a question."
"Yes Katniss-what is it?" Katniss could hear the confusion in her voice, she did just get there and she was already calling.
"The natives are not going to come with me on the hovercraft, the tribe leader said he would send tribesmen on horses to meet me at the villages. So-my question to you is-how do you want to handle this? The tribe north of here is a 10 day journey by horse. The other tribesmen will be traveling to the other villages and leaving today, but, their journeys will be even longer."
Katniss could hear Paylor go quiet for a few minutes, obviously deciding how she would handle this, finally, she said, "I will have the team you are with return to the main base in District 9, that way they can be closer to Commander Hawthorne should he need them. Commander Hawthorne's unit left this morning and are currently setting up a camp and sending tracking locators out to find the Jay Killers. Nine days from now I will have the team go to the tribe north of here. Where would you like to go? We can arrange for you to go back to District 12 or somewhere else if you would like. I don't think it is wise for you to be near where the fighting is."
Katniss swallowed and thought about Gale and possibly Spencer out there fighting, while she knew Gale's group had a lot of advanced weapons, she knew from experience the Jay Killers were good at hiding. What if something happened to Gale? She tried to push the thought from her mind.
She didn't know if she wanted to return to District 12. She would have preferred to go the Sioux village but that was not possible considering they wouldn't be there for another 12 days or so. She wondered if she should go to her mother's apartment in District 4.
"Katniss-are you there?" President Paylor asked.
Katniss snapped back to attention and said, "I want to go to District 4 and see my mother."
"Very well, we will have the small hovercraft take you there once you return to the main base. I'll have someone from my office call your mother and let her know you will be arriving."
"Thank you" Katniss said softly.
"We will have the small hovercraft pick you up at 6 pm sharp 8 days from now to return to the main base. The pilot will let you know where to meet them."
"Okay, I will be ready."
"Goodbye Katniss."
"Goodbye Ms. President."
After Katniss hung up she asked Spencer to show her where the other cameras were on the map, she saw that one of the tribes was located in the middle of the wild territory, between the Comanche and Blackfoot tribe. The other was located much further north of the Comanche tribe.
She wondered if the two tribes the Capitol didn't know about were much further away than the general area of where these 5 tribes were located.
Katniss raced back to Red Bear and the others on the horse. She saw a group of nine men sitting and waiting for her return. She figured they must all be the tribesmen chosen for the journey, for no one else was there. The tribe had packed up and headed off, as if they were never even there. Katniss explained to them what she saw on the map, drawing lines into the dirt to help illustrate.
Red Bear informed her that the tribe between the Comanche and Blackfoot was the Cheyenne tribe. The one further north was the Arikara. Red Bear explained to Katniss that the Cheyenne tribe was friendly and was the tribe that had the best relationship with the Sioux. The Arikara however, was the least friendly off all the tribes. Red Bear warned Katniss that the Arikara would need to be handled with caution. For they were even more brutal than the Comanche. The Comanche took people captive, the Arikara killed intruders on the spot. Katniss was not pleased to hear this, she didn't any tribe could be worse than the Comanche.
Katniss informed Red Bear she would meet at the Blackfoot tribe for he was traveling with two other tribe members there. The other two groups were heading out to the Arikara and Cheyenne. As Strong Wind instructed, each group had at least one member who was a native speaker. Red Bear told Katniss that the Sioux never had many former Arikara members in their village, but they did have one, who happened to have a son old enough to be a warrior. The former Arikara member had taught her son the language.
Katniss wished Red Bear good luck and watched as all nine men took off on their horses, three groups of three going in different directions.
She walked the hour's long walk back to the hovercraft. She thought about what she would do in District 4 for the next 8 days with her mother. While she wanted to try to move forward with her mother, she still wasn't quite sure how she was going to do that. She wished many times this last week and a half that Rain was here to give her advice.
When she arrived back at the hovercraft, the team was getting ready to eat lunch. They were nice enough to save a seat for Katniss. For the first time since arriving yesterday she got to have a real conversation with the other team members besides Spencer. She did learn that Stone was indeed from District 2 and Robin was from District 11. Penny was from District 4 and Hance was from District 7.
District 7 made Katniss think of Johanna Mason, Hance had a similar personality. Katniss wondered if it they were related, or if this was the personality of all of the residents of District 7.
Katniss didn't know what happened to Johanna after the war, she wondered if Johanna ever sought treatment to help deal with being tortured in the Capitol. Katniss knew she had developed a fear of water after getting to District 13.
Katniss asked Penny her advice on things to do in District 4. Penny happily told Katniss the first thing she would need to do is see the ocean, she also suggested possibly taking a fishing boat tour. She also suggested places to eat and shop. Katniss appreciated the suggestions.
After lunch the hovercraft took off for District 9's main base. Once Katniss arrived she saw the smaller hovercraft was ready for her, additional pilots were sent since Gale's unit had increased in numbers. Katniss said goodbye to the group and walked with Spencer to the smaller ship.
"See you in 8 days" Spencer said as Katniss turned to face him.
"Take care of yourself" Katniss said and then hugged Spencer, it was her first time hugging him. It took him a brief second to respond but he quickly wrapped his arms around her in return.
When Katniss arrived in District 4, she was immediately escorted to a vehicle with two soldiers standing by it. The soldiers explained that they would be her escorts while she was in District 4-for the President was still concerned for her safety. Katniss was annoyed that she wouldn't get to explore District 4 on her own, but she appreciated the gesture from the President. The soldiers explained that when Katniss was at her mother's apartment they would be staying a hotel nearby.
The drive to her mother's took not quite an hour, she looked out the window the entire time-for she had never seen District 4 before. The air was breezy and salty and it was extremely sunny.
When she arrived at the apartment building she saw her mother standing by the main entrance door-waiting for her. Her mother was dressed as if she just came from work. Katniss slowly got out of the vehicle and approached her.
"Hello Mom" Katniss said in an anxious tone.
"Hello Katniss" Mrs. Everdeen responded, a small smile forming on her face.
