DISCLAMIER: HG characters do not belong to me.
Words not spoken in English will be italicized.
A/N: Meant to update sooner, but, I got hooked on the TV show Stranger Things…I recommend if you are a kid from the 80's (like me).
Chapter 107-Winds of Goodbye
January 3
"You are so beautiful" Gale says in a low voice as Katniss spreads her legs for him. Bending over her, he quickly enters her and begins gently but urgently moving inside her. Not getting many chances to sleep in, they were surprised to wake up to silence as opposed to Sienna's usual morning cry letting them know she was hungry for her first meal of many for the day. They decided to take advantage of the silence by sleeping in and when they awoke and saw she was still out, they soon had their hands and mouths all over each other.
Now at the beginning of January, it was still very cold and very windy at the village. Katniss hears the flap of their teepee rustle from the wind as Gale begins kissing her neck. She reaches up and grabs onto his shoulders bringing him down closer to her as he continues his movements. He abruptly flips them over so that she is on top, she repositions herself and looks down at him as she begins moving up and down, his hands gripping her waist. Her hair down, it reaches past the half way point of her back, the longest it has ever been. She wanted to cut it, but after seeing the look of disappointment on Gale's face when she mentioned it, decided not to. She decided to let it be for now and would decide later what she wanted to do with it.
She reaches up and pushes her hair behind her back as she feels her forehead begin to sweat. She begins to climax as Gale strokes her clit, his movements quick and precise. She almost collapses on top of him from the pleasure but feels him wrap his arms around her in an embrace as he sits up and continues pumping into her. She holds onto him as he finishes and they both continue holding each other as she feels his heartbeat return to normal.
He gently moves her with him as they lay down on their sides, bringing the thick blankets up to cover them. They look into each other's eyes without saying a word while he caresses her body under the covers. She inhales deeply as she closes her eyes, savoring his touch. She realizes she has missed this, missed the two of them being intimate like this since Sienna was born. She hopes this is a sign the baby will continue sleeping longer in order for her and Gale to get more sleep, and for more opportunities to make love.
Her eyes still closed while he caresses her breasts, she is about to reach down and begin touching him when suddenly she feels a funny sensation and feels her breasts leaking.
"Dammit" she swears as she pulls the covers back and sits up. Feeling embarrassed, she pulls her legs up to her chest and tries to shield herself from Gale's eyes and tries to stop the leakage by applying pressure. She was used to this happening every now and then since she was exclusively breast feeding, but luckily it had happened during the day while Gale was working and she was alone with Sienna. It never happened in front of him.
"Hey, it's okay" Gale says as he puts his arm around her. She sees that some of it had squirted onto his other hand and she becomes even more mortified.
"I'm not used to going this long between feedings" Katniss explains feeling her face turning red.
"Its fine Catnip, I know that….this type of thing can happen, it doesn't bother me, you should know that" he says as he gets up and finds one of Sienna's bibs to wipe his hand with.
She raises her eyebrows at him as he says, "I read the book my Mom gave you."
"When?"
"When you weren't paying attention."
"I guess that happens a lot" she says suddenly feeling guilty.
"You are taking care of our daughter every minute of every day. I know how hard and tiring it has been for you. If you don't want to return to work you know you don't have to."
While Katniss knows their finances are more than sufficient, she wanted to return to work because she loved teaching. She had already enrolled Sienna in Silver's Lake's daycare run by PES, and was planning on trying to give her formula when they returned to District 2. She had spoken with the school was given permission to return February 1, a couple of weeks after class starts back.
"I'm going back" Katniss says firmly, letting him know she hadn't changed her mind on the subject.
Before he can respond they hear Sienna start to stir, hearing her mumbles while she begins to wake up. Gale walks over to her portable crib that also serves as an enclosed play area and picks his daughter up, rocking her gently as he hands her to Katniss. Now back under the covers, Katniss brings pulls the cover up to Sienna's head as she begins nursing.
Once finished, Katniss and Gale get up and begin getting ready for the day. After she is bathed and her hair braided, Katniss heads with Gale while he holds Sienna to the main area where the tribe eats breakfast. Starving, Katniss begins devouring her food. Morning Sun comes over and asks her what her plans are for the day and Katniss responds by saying she wasn't sure, but that she had clothes and blankets to wash.
Morning Sun gives Katniss a smug look at hearing that their sleep blankets needed washed and Katniss responds by saying that they would be leaving in a couple of days and wants to get a head start on the things that needed to be done before they go.
A few hours later, Katniss is down by the river with some of the other women from the tribe washing her stuff when she sees Gale running at full speed down the snow covered hill.
"Katniss" she hears him shout.
Frowning and knowing that something must be terribly wrong, she drops her wet clothes and begins running up the hill to meet him.
"What's wrong? Where's Sienna?" Katniss says frantically.
"She's fine, she's with Morning Sun" he says as he reaches her.
"What is it?" she says confused by the look he is giving her.
"Katniss it's….it's Marlon."
"Marlon?"
"His tracking locator just went off on my device, I brought it with me in case anything happened to us while we were here."
"Where is he?"
"Looks like he is at his cabin."
"Something's wrong, we need to go to him" she says as she turns around and heads back down to her stuff.
"Katniss-"Gale says wearily.
"He wouldn't activate it unless it was important" she says cutting him off. She turns to the tribe woman standing next to her and says, "I need to go, it's important-could you please wash the rest of these for me and place them in my teepee when they are dry?"
"Of course Killing Bird" the woman says to Katniss nodding.
"Thank you" Katniss says appreciatively placing a hand on her shoulder and turns around and walks quickly up the hill.
"You are staying here with Sienna, I'll go to the cabin" Gale says as he follows her.
Katniss scoffs and says, "Not a chance. We are going-all of us."
"We can't bring a baby in the middle of winter into these mountains!"
Katniss stops and turns to look at him. "Gale-it's you and me, and hopefully maybe some of the tribesmen. We can do this."
"This is crazy."
"I thought you said once no matter how crazy my ideas were you would still go with me?"
"What if it's a trap? What if the Jay Killers have him?"
"If it's a trap he wouldn't activate the watch, not at the cabin. I think it's something else, what if he's hurt?"
"Then he'll need more than our help."
"The tribe can help, or the Capitol."
"Katniss-"
"I'm going Gale" she says irritated, heading towards the village.
"What if the Jay Killers approach the village?" he asks trying to come up with more excuses to talk her out of this.
"The cameras will see and the Capitol will come" she says calmly. "Besides, they have constant watch of the perimeter of the village, they know there's a chance unwanted visitors can approach."
Knowing he has exhausted all efforts to talk her out of this, he reluctantly follows her to into the village. She tells some of the members of the tribe what has happened, and that she has to leave. She learned from when she returned to the village after Marlon saved her that the tribe knew about him, for they had observed him over the years hidden from view. They had found him to be a non-threat and only watched from a distance. They had seen him observe their village from afar years ago but never approached, knowing that he wanted to be left alone as did the tribe. It was a Strong Wind said an, "Unknown but known understanding between them."
Since they knew where his cabin was located, Red Bear, White Wolf, Hawk, and Walks without Sound volunteered to go with them. Not surprised by who volunteered, Katniss begins packing Sienna's things into her backpack while Gale packed their stuff into his backpack. When she walks out of her teepee she sees Morning Sun approach, holding Sienna in her arms and giving the baby back to her Morning Sun says, "Be careful."
Katniss smiles at the old woman gently and says, "We will, I have to help him. It is because of him I'm still here, I can't forget that."
With Sienna strapped securely to Katniss's body and an extra small bison blanket covering the baby's body, the six of them depart the village. Knowing it will take almost two days to get there on foot, they are given horses in the hopes to cut the time in half. Katniss and Gale ride together since he is not as familiar with riding as she is. They know they will need to stop frequently in order for Katniss to rest, feed, and change Sienna.
They do well the first six hours, stopping only once for fifteen minutes in order for Katniss to feed. Despite Gale's protests to rest a bit longer, Katniss stands up and re-secures the now sleeping baby strapped to her chest and walks over to Red Bear, beginning a conversation with the tribesman she considered one of her closest friends here. They decided to walk for a bit to give the horses a rest from carrying them. Frustrated that she is pushing herself too hard and not able to follow the conversation the two of them are having, he hangs back with their horse and focuses more on their surroundings, offering that extra level of protection as the five of them walk ahead of him.
They continue on, finally deciding to stop for the day and start a fire around 8 pm. Hawk and White Wolf chop wood from a thin tree and make a small shelter shaped like a triangle for Katniss and Sienna. While she and Gale can both fit into the shelter it is too tight of a fit and he only stays with her inside while she undresses and feeds Sienna a final time before putting her down for the night. Once she pulls the baby away from her breast and pulls her bra back up Gale takes her and places her inside her swaddle and covers her with a blanket and lays her down gently on another blanket Katniss laid out. Seeing his daughter sleeping soundly from the light produced by the mini portable lamp laying on the ground, he turns and goes into his wife's outstretched arms.
"We covered a lot of ground today" she says softly into his chest.
"We did, get some sleep. If you are tired it's okay to sleep in tomorrow."
"I'll miss you not being beside us tonight."
"Me too, but I'll be right outside, all of us are going to take turns sleeping."
He kisses her before he goes, the kiss lingering for a few seconds before he reluctantly pulls away and exits the shelter.
The next morning, they leave around 6 am, Katniss wanting to leave earlier but too tired to get up when she first hears the birds outside.
They continue to cover a lot of distance, Red Bear and the others knowing the best way to safely move through the mountains. They stop more often today, for Sienna was fussier and at times didn't cooperate with Katniss when she tried to feed her.
When they are about a half hour from the area where Marlon's cabin is located, Red Bear informs Katniss that he and Hawk will approach on foot and scan the area to make sure no one is there.
An hour and a half later they return, letting her know it was safe to approach. She quickly has Gale help her onto their horse with him getting on in front of her as they head out, wanting to get there before dusk.
She sees the sun begin to set when they reach the cabin, Gale quickly gets off and helps her down, her arm securely around her baby, while the other hangs onto the rein. Once on the ground, she unstraps Sienna and hands her to Gale. She takes the bow offered by Walks without Sound and straps it to her back, she jogs to the cabin as she calls out, "Marlon!"
She slowly and cautiously enters the cabin with Hawk behind her, her bow and arrow ready. She peeks inside and sees blood stains on the ground and hears Marlon breathing heavily. "Katniss?" he calls out, unsure if it was her voice he heard outside.
Dropping her bow and arrow to the ground, she rushes towards the bed and kneels down beside him. "Marlon-it's me-I've come for you."
Seeing that he is injured, her eyes move to the wounds on his leg. She sees deep gashes and puncture marks. "I was outside, hunting for food when a cougar attacked me, I was able to fight him off, but, as you can see, my leg got torn up pretty bad. I just don't move as well as I used to."
Seeing that his leg is infected, and knowing that he needs immediate attention she hears Gale and the others come inside the cabin and yells out, "Gale call the Capitol, tell them to send a hovercraft now!" She knows Gale has access to a small portable phone he can use to call the Capitol only in extreme emergencies.
"No! Don't call" Marlon shouts, too weak to lift his head up. "I'm dying Katniss, I know I am, I activated the distress watch in the hopes you would come for me to say goodbye."
"I've been with the tribe, how did you know I was close by?"
"I just knew. Being out here for as long as I have, one becomes….one with the land. As crazy as this sounds, sometimes I feel as if, the winds talk to me. The wind guides me, just as it guided me to you that day I found you injured. I knew you were near."
Sienna begins to babble loudly, becoming uneasy in Gale's arms. Marlon tilts his head and says, "Is that a baby?"
Katniss laughs softy and says, "Yes, Gale and I…we got married two years ago, and we had a baby a couple of months ago. Sienna Rose is her name" and she motions for Gale to bring Sienna to her.
Sienna calms down as Katniss places her on her knee, bouncing her up and down gently. Marlon lifts his head up and looks down at the baby staring back at him and says, "Named after your sister?"
Katniss nods her head, feeling the tears start to form in her eyes. "The middle name yes" she responds.
"She has your eyes" he says smiling.
"Yeah, mine and Gale's."
"I knew things would work out for you, I'm happy for you."
"Let me help you, if you can just hold for a few more hours, the Capitol can take care of you, they have medicine-"but she is cut off from saying another word when Marlon says, "My time has come. I want to be with Bette again, I'm ready Katniss."
"What can I do?" she says pleadingly, despite the fact that Marlon was only in a part of her life for a short time, he held a special place in her heart. He saved her in every way possible and she would never forget that.
"Can you sing?" he asks now gasping for breath.
She nods and begins singing deep in the meadow. When Rue lay dying in Katniss's arms, when she sang to her she focused only on her, not caring that the cameras were on them. While singing to Marlon, she focused only on him and didn't care that Gale, Hawk, Red Bear, White Wolf, and Walks without Sound were staring at her intently.
She grabs his hand as she continues to sing, the other now cradling Sienna as the baby looked at Katniss as she sang, her little gray eyes getting heavy for Katniss would sometimes sing to her to help her fall asleep.
She sees a content look on his face when she is finished. He smiles at her as he says, "I always wanted to hear that song again."
She squeezes his hand tightly in response, trying not to cry. She feels Gale's hand wrap around her shoulder.
"At least I made it till the New Year, and I made it to 70, that is considered ancient in District 11" he says chuckling.
Katniss nods back at him in response, in District 12 it was the same, for a person from the Seam hardly made it to their 70's. Now of course things were much different.
She sees him start to struggle as he says, "Katniss-".
She leans in closer, for she was having a hard time hearing him. She watches as he struggles to say, "I want to be burned…in here."
"Okay" she manages to say in response.
She thinks he is about to say something else but instead watches as he closes his eyes, releasing his final breath.
She tastes the saltiness of the tears that were slowly running down her cheeks, almost sensing herself that something was wrong Sienna starts to throw her arms up and begins crying softly.
"Katniss, I'm so sorry" she hears Gale say gently to her, reaching for Sienna. She lets him take the baby from her arms as she releases her hand from Marlon's and stands up.
She looks and sees the tribesmen looking down sadly, Walks without Sound begins chanting a tribal song that is sung right after a person dies.
An hour later Katniss watches as the cabin burns to the ground, Gale is further back holding Sienna as she and others form a line watching the flames light up the darkness around them.
No longer crying, she says her goodbye silently as the wind suddenly picks up, a burst of cold air hitting her in the face, she felt as if Marlon was letting her know he hears her, his way of saying goodbye to her too.
