Norah Blossom, District 7

"Though I travel far from home,

I'll always have my cutting stone."

The Decemberists, Cutting Stone


Once upon a time, in the land of Panem, there was a pretty little girl named Norah. She grew up in a little cottage in the woods. Norah's family weren't very rich and couldn't afford to buy sugared cupcakes or fine silk dresses for their daughter so Norah grew up eating simple bread rolls and wearing simple cotton frocks.

Norah was a very quiet girl but, when she did talk, she only said nice things. Everyone who knew her thought she'd grow up to become a lovely woman. But disaster struck and, on her eighteenth birthday, she was chosen to take part in the Hunger Games.

Young Norah tried very hard not to cry when they took her away from her parents and put her on the train to the Capitol. On the train, she met the only person from her district who had won the Hunger Games. You may have heard of Nathaniel No-Kills in another story. When Norah met Nathaniel No-Kills, it had been twenty years since he had won. Now he was seven-and-thirty years old (which is a very nice number to be, indeed) and very tired.

Nathaniel No-Kills was a very wise man, even if the visions in his head sometimes overwhelmed him. He gave Norah many pieces of advice but the one she remembered was "Always be respectful and kind.". Norah decided she would be respectful and kind to the people of the Capitol. She would be respectful and kind to the other boys and girls in the arena. She would be respectful and kind to nature, as she'd always been.

In the Capitol, the people dressed Norah like a princess and asked her a lot of questions. She always answered politely and thanked the people for giving her pretty clothes.

Then Norah went into the arena. She waited patiently until she could run into the forest and then she ran, as if death itself was on her heels. When she reached the forest, it felt like stepping into the embrace of an old friend. Norah had grown up in a forest. She knew a lot about living in the wild so she was never hungry. She ate leaves and berries and drank from clear streams and was always sure to thank the arena for the food.

Once, when Norah was drinking from a river, she found a very sharp, very shiny rock. She liked the look of it so she picked it up and carried it around with her. Norah even managed to kill a few small forest animals with her rock and eat them for her tea. However, whenever she killed an animal, she always said sorry to nature and used as much of the animal's body as she could, so nothing would go to waste. Soon, she had a sling made of rabbit-skin, which she could use to throw rocks.

If Norah had been alone with nature in the arena, she might have been very happy there for the rest of her life. But, unfortunately, there were other boys and girls in the arena and none of them were as respectful or kind as Norah.

The first person that Norah encountered was the little girl from the coal-miner district. This girl was as thin as a broomstick and very weak but she was also very hungry and hunger made people do desperate things. The girl found Norah eating some rabbit and attacked her.

It was the wrong choice. If the girl had only chosen to be respectful and kind and asked for some food, Norah would've surely shared her rabbit.

With one swing of her arm, Norah brought her rock down on the girl's skull. It cracked like an egg and the girl fell down, dead. Norah apologised to the girl for killing her and went back to eating her lunch.

The second person that Norah encountered was the boy from the grain district. This boy wasn't much bigger than Norah. He was very lonely, having had nobody to talk to but the voices in his head for the last week. He just wanted to go home, where he'd have somebody to talk to. He heard Norah talking to a butterfly and attacked her.

It was the wrong choice. If the boy had only chosen to be respectful and kind and tried to make friends with Norah, she would've surely given him someone to talk to.

With two swings of her arm, Norah brought her rock down on the boy's skull. It cracked like glass and the boy fell down, dead. Norah apologised to the boy for killing him and returned to her conversation with the butterfly.

While Norah had been having her adventures, all the other boys and girls, had been killed by either nature or the big bully pack. As Norah was wandering around the forest, the bullies decided that there weren't enough people left to bully and they were going to fight each other! Norah found the bullies when all but two of them were dead. The boy from the gemstone district was killing his district partner and calling her all sorts of nasty names. And, no, I will not repeat those names. Nice try, kid.

It was the wrong choice. If the boy had only chosen to be respectful and kind and apologised to his district partner for killing her, Norah surely would've left him to go about his business. But Norah heard all these nasty names and decided that the boy from the gemstone district needed to be taught a lesson. The boy was as tall and as wide as a doorway and Norah realised that she couldn't just hit him on the head with her rock.

So she put her rock into her rabbit-skin sling.

With three swings of her arm, Norah sent her rock hurtling into the boy's skull. It cracked like ice and the boy fell down, dead.

Norah had won the Hunger Games!

After the games, Norah went home to her district. The Capitol gave her a lot of money so she could buy sugared cupcakes and fine silk dresses and everything she'd never been able to afford. Every year, she went back to the Capitol to try to help another little girl win the Hunger Games but, while she always told the girls she met to be respectful and kind, none of them ever won during Norah's lifetime.

Norah died peacefully of an illness when she was four-and-sixty years old (which is another very nice number to be, albeit one not as nice as four-and-seventy). The year after she died, the little girl tribute from her district won the Hunger Games, but she was not respectful or kind in the slightest. In fact, she was quite the opposite. Her name was Johanna Mason and she was just the kind of little madam who always got called by her full name.

So, the moral of the story is, always be respectful and kind.

Unless you're Johanna Mason.

And you're not Johanna Mason, are you?


I decided to do a lighthearted chapter before the Quell. This one's meant to summon some nostalgia for childhood fairy tales. We also get to see Seven's other female victor, who'sdoomed to die before Catching Fire. Norah's a bit of an oddball. She'd definitely get on well with Gajin. I have a tendency to write polite victors.

Next Chapter: The absolute chaos that is the First Quarter Quell.