AppleUnderscore presents:
Flying Feathers; a hunger games fanfic
Trigger warning: includes talk of death and swearing. This is a warning people!
Chapter 1: Call my Name
My name is Willow. My mum and dad, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, led the rebellion against the Capitol several years ago.
Currently, I am sitting where Madge, the mayor's daughter, would have lived, if she were still alive. I haven't seen anyone who was originally from district 12 in a long time. At district 13, it's a mishmash of Careers mostly, but there are other children, all fighting for attention in the hollow bunker.
It's very claustrophobic.
I have made one friend, another girl whose parents met in 13's bunker. She's half 1 and half 7. I've never seen a mixed district child before, other than her brother, but she doesn't know that.
Her name is Sage.
She has a younger brother like me, but he thinks he's really a girl. Not that I care or anything. I learned that people are people a long time ago, everyone has.
Stupid entitlement like that destroyed most of the human population back in 2100.
It's now 2221, a long time since World War Three. People say there was a World War One and Two, but I don't believe it.
How could people let themselves be divided three times?
I'm just thinking these things when Sage sits down beside me. Mum thinks she looks like a mix of Foxface and Marvel, two of the children who died in the 74th Hunger Games.
Personally, I don't really understand how people enjoyed kids killing kids.
Sage has blue eyes, pale skin, and hair that looks like it's on fire. She's quick, and slight, and very smart, but she has an ego that constantly needs to be filled with hollow compliments. She likes to talk and party, but I like to stay quiet. I like baking, and the smell of fire.
My parents talk about them so much it's hard not to.
"Have you seen Anna?" Sage whispers under her breath. My heart catches in my throat. Aaron likes to be referred to as Anna, but it's still hard to wrap my head around sometimes.
I grip my axe tighter, and shake my head before tossing it into a tree.
"ANNA!" Sage yells. She drops her spear and stomps her feet.
"Where the hell is he?!" Sage mutters. She has a hard time controlling her anger sometimes, and I can tell she's about to snap.
Quickly, I whistle a four note tune. Mum taught it to me and Rye many years ago. She says it was the tune of one of the sweetest people she ever met.
Another victim to the Capitol's games.
I stand up from where I was sitting and perch on a rock. Sage laughs. "You look like a bird, going to take flight," she smiles before yelling for Anna once again.
I whistle for the second time, clasping my hand over Sage's mouth so I can listen.
Then, in the tiniest of sounds, some Mockingjays begin to whistle a lower version of my tune. I grab my axe and Sage's arm and take off running.
"This way," I yell over my shoulder as I run.
Sage doesn't bother to grab her spear; there isn't exactly anywhere to lose it.
We run through the woods, our feet slapping against the soles of our boots as we run. Eventually, we stop at a lake with crystal clear water.
"Mum and Dad used to swim here," I realise, whistling the tune again.
I hear echoes, coming from a small cave on the right side of the lake, near a fruit tree. I nod towards the cave, and Sage gives me a thumbs up before quietly stalking towards the cave.
I sneak to the fruit tree, effortlessly climbing it and sitting on a high branch. I pick a large, red fruit off its branches, and watch a small brown animal with a furry tail munch away at it. Deciding it's safe to eat, I bite down.
The fruit is sweet and crunchy and juicy, with thin red skin that is shiny, and a little brown stem that attaches it to its mother. I continue to eat, but spit out the little brown seeds in case they are poisonous.
I eat through the first fruit fast, and am just about to pick a large green version of the delicacy when I hear a scream from inside the cave.
I jump down from the tree, and despite the pain in my knees from the hard impact, pick up my axe and brace for a fight.
Fights over food, or water, or property, aren't uncommon in 13.
I hold my ground, waiting for attackers, but the pain in my knees is stronger. I've never felt anything like this before.
I'm just about to call out to Sage when my body is thrown forward, and if it wasn't for my training, I would've landed onto my sore knees.
I jump back, but am once again lurched forward as my attacker pushes me from behind, supposedly into the lake.
I hesitate for the smallest of seconds; I can't swim.
My attacker notices this withdrawal and once again pushes me forward. I try to brace myself, but my knees give out and before I know it, I'm on the ground. The person grips my hair tightly, and I scream out in pain, trying to kick him or her, but my knees are still too sore to manage that type of impact.
They flip me onto my stomach, and I catch the smallest glimpse of their face.
His face.
I scream bloody murder as he drags me by my hair to the lake.
"What the fuck?! Let me go!" I scream, trying to get away from the lake, "Sage, where the hell? I need you, Sage, you bitch!"
I continue swearing at the man, until I realise how close I am to the lake.
"Sage, the lake! Where the fuck are you?!" I yell, just as my head touches the water. I open my mouth to scream, but instead, I get a mouthful of water. Unprepared, I try to hold my breath, but my lungs are screaming as black dots dance in my vision.
My body feels heavy and I quit resisting. I'm vaguely aware of screaming and the fact that he let go of my hair.
I let go of the breath I was holding, slowly ingesting water. As the lake is in a pothole-like area, my body begins to slip until my clothes are soaked through.
A small part of me can tell I'm going to drown if someone doesn't hurry up, but I'm so sleepy I don't care.
I finally succumb to the sleepiness just as I feel a hand grabbing my shirt.
Next Chapter publish: 1/10/21