Katherine

Four weeks later

"What are you doing up so early?"

I'm startled by Haymitch as he steps into the room. I glance up at him and disapprovingly stare at his appearance. He clearly just woke up. His sleeping clothes are crumpled, his hair is all over the place and his beard covers half of his face.

"You should consider dressing more properly."

He tries to fix his clothes. "There. Now answer the question."

He usually doesn't care this much. He avoids any social interection and chooses his bottle of rum instead.

"I couldn't sleep." I say, trying not to remember what kept me awake the rest of the night.

"A five year-old can lie better than you." He grabs a high stool and sits next to me. "Was it a nightmare?"

"It's nothing." I continue carving the block of wood, so he'll forget the situation.

"You can't fool me, sweetheart." He snatches the wood from my hands.

"Why are you worried all of the sudden?" I stand up, almost knocking my stool down. "You prefer you booze than other people's problems!"

"You are very easy to read. Since the first day, I have heard your screams almost every night!" He stands up too and slams the wood against the working table. "I know something is wrong with you."

I have been his guest for a year now. I was in Alighter, the farthest kingdom from Saldrian to west. No one had heard of me and so I wasn't in danger of being discovered.

I was wrong.

One of the thieves hired by the queen found me one night. The village was almost deserted and I could feel the presence of someone following me. He eventually tried to harm me but I ran away, towards the nearby woods. We fought and he injured me on my tigh. When I was on the mossy ground, he stood above me ready to strike again. I was paralized and knew that I was going to die there. However, someone striked him, preventing the thief from killing me.

It was Haymitch.

I asked him why he had saved. He answered.

"I know who you are."

A foolish answer. Although, I saw the pain in his eyes. I also saw something else.

He is welcomed me into his house, in a quiet village outside Alighter, Dawnsun. I knew he would take me to the queen. He was like all other men and he just wanted the prize. However, he never did. Haymitch promised he would help me, if I worked for him as his apprentice. The village was suspicious of my sudden arrival. They didn't talk to Haymitch much but they knew he didn't have any family, much less a niece.

"I was alone in a forest." I say. "And she was there. I tried to run but there was something keeping me fixed to the ground. All I remember seeing was her arms stretching and her hands trespassing my chest and ripping my heart out."

Haymitch is quiet as he listens to me. Without another word, he leaves the room.

I work the rest of the day, transforming three block of wood into knife handles. Haymitch only talks to me to ask for something. People come and go, but the business is small. I also try to avoid any social interection. Dawnsun may be a quiet village but I have heard some words about me and seen some posters with my name. They don't suspect of me, of course.

Since I try to keep a low profile, I don't know another person besides Haymitch. They are just acquaintances. I don't have time to make real friends and I can't get to attached to a place. Here in Dawnsun, I stay most of time inside the house and when I go out, people look at me like I'm a foreigner. However, I have catch some young men looking at me in a strange way. My boy-ish appearance is becoming more feminine because my hair is a bit longer and my body has more curves.

Haymitch and I eat dinner, quietly and when he goes outside, I clean the table and wash the plates.

"Good night." I say, standing under the threshold of the back door. I wait for him to say something but he just stares at the sky, a bottle of rum in his hand.

"She was 28." He stops me before I leave.

"Who?"

"My girl." He drinks.

"What happened?"

"The queen." He says, coating her name with poison. "I was in Alighter in some businesses. I came back a week later and found some guards carrying her into the street. I fought them but they took her to the square and she was killed there, right before my eyes."

I eye him as he drink some more. This is the first time I'm hearing about his past. We never talked about each other pasts but when I looked at him and at the way he acted, I jugded him based on that. Perhaps I was wrong. He had a family, a woman he loved and they were taken from him by the queen.

"The day you saved me-"

"You want revenge on your father's death." He finally looks at me. His eyes are glassy with unshed tears. "I'm going to help you."

...

One month later

"Wake up, sweetheart!" Haymitch knocks on my bedroom door, loudly.

I bury my head deeper into the pillow. Haymitch has been training me incessantly for a month now. Every day before sunrise, we go to the woods near the village and he makes me work hard, until my muscles are sore or I'm vomiting my meal. I have been learning how to throw a knife and sometimes we perfect my bow and arrow skills. When night time comes around, I'm sleep walking and as soon as I lie on my bed, I black out.

Haymitch has also been teaching me how to defend myself in a body to body confrontation. For three years, the thieves haven't used such technique. They prefer to use knifes or swords. However, it's always helpful to have a bit of knowledge on how to hit and how to defend. He has been teaching me how to throw a punch, to position my feet so I won't lose my balance and to fight with an object. I got some cuts on my palms and forearms. One day, Haymitch gave me a black eye. He hasn't apologised yet.

I stretch my sore muscles, snaping a few and get out of the bed. After putting on some clothes, I climb down the stair but suddenly halt on the last step.

"What are you doing?"

On the small cookroom stands Haymitch preparing the morning meal. The table has already been set and in front of two chairs are two bowls. Usually, I prepare the food because he is to busy sleeping off the hangover.

"Morning, sweetheart." He greets, lamely.

I resume my walking and approach him. I laugh when I see the food he is preparing by the hearth.

"What is that?" He's trying to prepare a kind of recipe with rice. "What's wrong with its colour? It looks like something people use to cover the slits on the wall."

"You should appreciate what I'm trying to prepare." He scolds, sarcastically.

"Is there a reason behind such peculiar behaviour?" I sit on my chair as he fills the bowls with food.

"It's a reward for training so hard yesterday." He says, sitting on the seat in front of me.

"Your heart is turning soft, oldman." I eat a spoonful and chew a hard part of the food. "For a drunkard, this isn't bad. Despite having a strange colour and looking like... dirt."

He gives me a close-mouthed smile. We eat in silence, with only the occasional scrap of the spoon in the bowl.

"I'm going out to make some errands." He stands up. "Can you manage the shop for one hour?"

"No training?"

"Only today. And you still have to finish you previous work. You can't blame the black eye forever."

"I'm still waiting for an apology."

"It wasn't my fault." He says, leaving the room.

After washing the tableware, I go to front of the house where the shop is located. I unlock the door of the shop and open the window's shutters. I have been helping Haymitch since he saved me. He gave me a few notions of how to sculp a knife hanlde and how to receive the coins for them. I remember the first day he taught me. He expected me to know how to sculp a block of wood already. I tried and when I showed him my "handle", he scowled at me. I wanted to scold him for being stupid but I knew that would cost me my only hope of obtaining my revenge.

"Good morning."

I look up from behind the counter.

"Morning." I greet the costumer and resume my work.

Haymitch's shop is a bit far from town square. Therefore, not many people shop here and sometimes they don't even come.

The woman places something on the counter, startling me from my work. She smiles gently and I wrap the two wooden spoons in brown paper and received the coins for them. As she is exiting, Haymitch almost collides with her. She looks incrediously at him but he pays her no attention.

"Did you forget something?" I mock. "You have only been gone half an hour."

He takes me by the arm to the back, into the cookroom. He closes the door and lets go of me.

"What's going on?" I massage my tender arm.

He moves around the room, grabbing random food and putting them inside a big satchel.

"Will you tell me already, Haymitch?" I ask, annoyed.

"We have a visitor."

"Tell me!" I plead, losing my patience.

"Your stepmother's new killer." He looks at me for a moment before resuming his work.

"What?" My nose can't inhale and my lungs are losing oxygen.

"I heard him asking for you. He had a poster with your face when I looked at him."

My mind is spiralling out of control. It was too much to ask for more serenity. She will search for me day and night until I'm dead on the ground with a empty hole in my chest.

"I can't keep running."

"Katherine, you aren't ready to face him yet." Haymitch hands me the heavy satchel. "Inside is food, two throwing knifes and a rope. Go get your bow and quiver and leave immediately."

"I'm good enough!" I say, thrusting the satchel against his chest.

"You have been very lucky these past years but the killers she sends after you won't be merciful." He scolds, handing me back the satchel.

I stare into his eyes. I know he is trying to save me once again but this running and hiding is making tired. I can fight this new killer and win the fight once more.

"Get out of here, sweetheart!" He orders, walking past me angrily.

"What about you?" I ask. "How will you defend against him if he comes after you, oldman!"

I wait for him to return from upstairs and he brings me my bow and quiver and a woolen cloak.

"I can defend myself." He says, giving me the objects. "I'm not that old."

"I'll come back."

"Don't come back." He warns, his eyes begging me. "You will leave and find a safe place."

There are no safe places in this country.

"Alright."

I hear the bell ring above the door and immediately Haymitch ushers me out of the room. He closes the back door without a farewell. I look one last time at his house and then walk towards the woods; towards a new chapter of my life.

I would like to explain this chapter. The first half of this chapter happens at the same time as the second half of the previous chapter. The rest develops naturally. As for the characters, Haymitch has a fundamental role in the beginning of the story but eventually I'll have to let him go. Favourite, follow and review. And I don't own any character or plot ideias.