Katherine
"Where are you taking me exactly?"
"My home."
Alighter's air looks gray and holds a strange smell. As if something has been burning for a long time or it is still burning. We have just arrived and I'm already surprised with the imagery. I have never seen a village this peculiar. We must have entered through another road because the houses on this side are all wooden and one-floored and the streets aren't very wide. The road has an unusual colour, soft gray and it is beyond muddy, almost like a swap. The people have the same skin colour: olive, their eyes are gray or a very translucent blue and their hair is black.
"Will you tell me what do you want from me?"
If I only knew what he wanted, perhaps I would trust him with the truth. But I can't trust anyone. They are all potential ennemies.
I follow him to a house with weeds blooming from under it. He opens the door but blocks my entrance.
"Mom!"
Silence. He quickly pulls me inside and closes the door behind us. The room is small but organized and clean. To the left side is the cookroom and to the other is a table and the fireplace. The cookroom has the usual pots and pans and on the windowsill is a small jar with poppies and daisies. Gale lets go of my arm, unbelts his animal belt and places the dead animals on top of one of the working tables.
"So?" I stay by the door, ready to run at any moment. "Is the part where you kill me?"
He looks at me as he takes off his cloak. "Why would I do that?"
"What do you want from me? Why did you bring me here?"
"You want to know that?"
"Are you mocking me?" I ask. "I can very easily harm you in this moment."
"You wouldn't get a scratch on me before I harmed you first." He hangs his cloak on a hook by the door. "Now, hand me your belongings."
"Excuse me?"
"Hand me your belongings and I will tell you what you want to know." He tries to smile gently.
Suspiciously, I hand him my satchel and bow and quiver, but I keep a small throwing knife with me, that I hide inside my boot. He tells me to take a seat at the table while he starts a fire.
"Miners are dying almost every day from burns and infections." He begins, his back to me. "Our resources are scarse. The miners, including me, work double shifts. What do we bring home? Almost nothing. Our payment isn't enough to feed our families. Similiar situations are happening in Chalkton and Nevenia."
I have been blind to these situations for too long. I never stopped to think about what other people were going through. I wanted to run and hide from the queen, too worried with her next move.
"Is that why you brought me here?" I ask, interrupting him.
"No." He stands up and dust off his hands. The fire is gaining force as the flame licks the logs. "You are an outlaw. The most famous. The queen can't catch you, even with all her strategies."
"She almost did. Once."
"However, you survived and that is what matters." He sits in front of me. "People talk about you incessantly. If you survived, they can fight back too to keep on surviving."
"I don't understand."
"You are their new hope."
Time stands still.
A door opens, sending me off the chair. I quickly turn around and stare at the middle-age woman that stands by the threshold, a little girl in her arms. She eyes me curiously and then she looks at Gale.
"Hello."
Gale moves past me and takes the little girl into his arms. She notices me and smiles, a front tooth missing in her happy smile. "You are pretty."
I look at her, unresponsive. No one has ever named me pretty besides my father and that was many years ago.
"May I have a word with you, Gale?" The woman looks sternly at him as she walks to a room beyond a door.
They leave me alone. Now, it would be the perfect moment for me to leave. However, I can't make myself leave. I'm tired and the house feels comfortable and warm. I stop in front of the fireplace to dry my damp clothes. My mind finally registers Gale's words. New hope... What am I suppose to do? Stand in a square and deliever a moving speech so people will follow me? If Haymithc was here, he would know what to do.
The door suddenly opens and they all come out. He goes to the cookroom and the woman walks towards me.
"I am Hazelle." She smiles, apprehensively.
"Katniss."
"My son says he found you in the woods. Were you lost?"
"Yes..."
"The least I can offer is a bed and food."
"Oh! That - that won't be necessary!"
"Nonsense." She waves me off. "People are always welcomed in our home."
"Thank you." She nods.
"What did you say to you mother?" I ask when Gale and I stand in front of the fireplace.
"I found you in the woods. You told me you ran away from home." He shrugs.
I try to find something entertaining in his made-up story but I can't laugh right now. We stay silent watching the flames dance and flicker as the logs burn.
"Is the little girl your sister?" I glance up at him, breaking the silence.
"She is my stepsister, but I don't care about that." He smiles. "She will always be my little sister."
"Your father..."
"It may sound strange, even crazy, but my father was the king of Alighter." He tells. "Now, he is dead. We never had a relationship and I never saw him. He only knew of my existence when I was born. He gave my mother this house and forgot about us. Same years later, my mother remarried and had my three siblings. My stepfather died before Posy was born."
I eye his profile. We have something in comumn, at least. Perhaps I have been waiting for this moment. Perhaps this is the moment where I decide enough is enough and I'll fight back. I'll be what people want me to be. A new hope.
"How can I help the kingdoms?"
He looks at me, trying to read my mind.
"We will talk later." He glances back at his mother and I know she doesn't know of her son's secrets.
Hours later, the front door opens and two young boys come into the house. One has dark-brown hair and the other one has black hair. Their eyes and skin colour are the same as mine. The tallest one closes the front door and they suddenly notice me.
"Boys, go wash up."
They don't look away as they go to the other room. I stand by the fireplace as Gale brings bowls of warm food to the table. It feels strange to be in a house and to think one false move may ruin the quietness. I have just met these people and already they have offered me a bed and food.
"Take a seat." Hazelle smiles, but I can see the apprehensive look in her eyes.
I sit at the table, one of the young boys sits in front of me. The fumes hit my nostrils and the memory of home fills my mind.
"What is this?" I say, grabbing the wooden spoon.
"Fresh rabbit stew." Hazelle says.
"Are you Gale's sweetheart?" I nearly choke on my first spoonful.
"Rory." I hear the stern tone in Hazelle's voice.
"No." I cough a bit. "I-"
"Are you an assassin?" Rory insists.
Yes, I am.
"She can't be an assassin. She doesn't scares in her face." The other boy intrudes.
"That's enough, boys!" Hazelle warns.
No one speaks after that, but I know they want to. We may have the same features. However, I'm just a stranger. I finish my food quickly for I haven't eaten in a whole day. Although I'm used to starving. I wait for everyone to finish too and stand up to help them wash the bowls, but Hazelle stops me and takes the bowl from my hands.
"Don't worry. I will do it." She reassures me. "Vick will help me."
The young boy, Vick, huffs and stands up.
"Are you really an assassin?" Rory asks again.
"Try to guess." Gale picks up the little girl and sits her on his leg.
"She is." I raise an eyebrow. "She looks like a boy and has a deadly weapon, a bow and a quiver full of arrows."
He smiles, happy with his guess. Gale looks at him, entertained by his brother's foolishness. I can't help but smile. I wanted a younger sister, someone I could look after when no one looked over me. Coin was my stepmother and I didn't want another copy of her, a younger version of her tormenting me. So, I forgot the idea. I return to reality when I feel my sleeve being pulled. The little girl is looking at me, curiously.
I smile at her. She smiles back and giggles softly.
"Rory, go play with Posy."
"Why?" He asks.
"Katniss and I need to talk." Gale says, standing up and placing Posy on her feet. "Go to the room with her."
"Alright." He sighs and takes her hand.
Gale suddenly grabs my arm, too strongly but discretly, and carries me outside, not even bothering with the cloaks. He takes me to a small clearing on the other side of the road. A cold wind is blowing and I tremble as Gale lets go off me as he stops far from people's ears.
"What is your problem?" I ask, massaging my sore arm.
"Just because I offered you a bed and food, it doesn't mean you have to form some sort of relationship with them." He warns.
"If you want me to leave, great!" I say too loud. "Forget about your ludicrous dream."
He runs a hand through his hair.
"Why me?" I don't understand why he waited so many years for someone to appear and take the place as a light of hope. I need followers, but I don't want to be the face of some rebellion. If I can't get people to follow me, I'll travel back to Saldrian and I'll put an end to her reign of terror. Even if is suicide. "I'm just a poor little orpah girl."
"I have told you!" He shouts, irritated. "You survived."
"Is it all about surviving?"
He sighs.
"You know what?" I take a step forward and dig my finger into his chest. "Find another. I don't that burden. All these years, I have been surving and surviving... This isn't just surviving. It is my life. It is the only thing I know. I don't remember what I used to do before this happened."
"You are afraid."
"I'm just a girl, remember?" I dig my finger deeper into his chest. "I won't let you use me for your purposes like a puppet. If they want my help, they will come to me on their own. I will help them when I'm ready. If I'm ever ready..."
"So you'll continue running and hiding?" He grabs my hand tightly, stopping it from digging into his chest. "Where is the surviving in that?"
"That is for me to decide." I take my hand off his grip and walk back to the house.
These events happen at the same time as the ones on the first part of the previous chapter. Katniss will finally meet Peeta in the next chapter, so stick around! Favourite, follow and review :)