Disclaimer: The Hunger Games Trilogy is property of Suzanne Collins. This is a parody fanwork by fans for fans. No money was made off of the creation of this fanwork.

Note: This is Gale's side story which takes place in the same universe and runs concurrently to my story "Spectator." You will likely want to read that fic first since I will be making reference to the events that take place in it. This chapter takes place after the some of the events in Chapter Seventeen. This story will be updated biweekly on Tuesdays. There may be times when I won't totally adhere to this schedule, it will depend on where the main fic is in its storyline. But even if I miss a week, my update day will still remain a Tuesday.

Forgotten

By Fanfic Allergy

oOo

Chapter Two

The next morning I meet Madge at her house. It's early and the sun is barely up, but if I'm going to teach her how to the survive in the woods and set snares we need to get a move on.

She's awake, which surprises me, and ready and waiting for me, wearing what are obviously her grungiest clothes. They're still nicer than most of my clothing, and I feel a twinge of anger run through me at the class differences between us.

The merchant girl just regards me solemnly and shakes her head. "Let's go, Gale. You're just going to have to deal with me and my merchant self." There must be an expression on my face that's giving away my feelings for her to be able to tell what I'm thinking so easily. She starts off toward the Meadow and the fence beyond without me.

I chase after her and pull up alongside of the slim girl. "I'm sorry," I say.

She looks over at me and raises her eyebrows. "Do you mean that? Or are you just paying lip-service?"

"Lip-service?" I haven't heard the term before and I'm not sure I like it.

"Saying what you're supposed to say even though you don't mean it," she explains. "Because if you are, don't bother apologizing. It won't change anything."

So she wants to know if I'm telling the truth. I suppose I can't really blame her, considering our relationship to date. If it weren't for Katniss, we'd never actually interact other than when I come to her house to sell strawberries.

"I am sorry," I repeat. "It's just I don't have much use for merchants."

It's clear from the expression on her face that she's not impressed with my reason because she counters, "Unless you want their money. That's really all we are to you, someone to trade with."

She's right, that's really the only interaction I have with anyone from the merchant class. I shrug. "They're the ones who have money. Other than the Peacekeepers," I point out. "Who else would I trade with?"

That skeptical look deepens. "What about that place Katniss goes to?"

"You mean the Hob?"

She nods. "Yeah."

"That's more of a barter system. There isn't much coin to be made there," I explain. "And most of what's there is second or third hand and there are some things you really don't want to buy second or third hand."

"Ah, that makes sense," Madge says, her tone less hard. "You'll have to take me there some time. I'm sure there's going to be stuff we'll need to preserve all of the food we're going to get Katniss." All of the anger seems to drain out of her, and it surprises me. She's not like Katniss who if you rile her up stays riled for days, it's another thing I'm not used to.

"So sure are you that you're going to get enough that we're going to need supplies?"

She smiles at me. "Yep! You're going to teach me, aren't you?"

I take the words as the peace offering I know they are. "I'm not going to promise to be nice to you."

"I didn't ask you to be nice to me. And I wouldn't believe you if you were." She looks off in the distance. "I get enough of that as it is. I'd rather you were honest with your dislike than try to pretend to like me just because of who I am."

Understanding hits me, she doesn't have any real friends other than Katniss just people she hangs out with because she has to. "Right. Because of your dad." I give her a sympathetic look.

She nods. "Right." Madge changes the subject. "So what are we going to start with today?"

"We're going to set several snares and then from there set some nets in the stream."

"Is that hard?" she wants to know.

I shrug. "It depends on how fast you catch on. Fishing is easier, but fish isn't as filling and it doesn't keep as well. That's why I prefer snares."

We get to the fence and go through it. When we're on the other side she asks me, "That can't be all we're doing today. I mean, the fish and the game aren't going to just run into your traps as soon as you set them."

Her words spark a memory and I throw back my head and laugh. "Sometimes they do. When I was about fifteen, I'd just set a few snares and was heading off to meet Katniss at our place when I heard some horrible ruckus from where I'd set my second to last snare. It was a rabbit and I'd scared it right into my trap."

She laughs with me. "I stand corrected. Still, that can't be all you have planned."

"It isn't," I answer with a small quirk of my lips.

"So what else is on the menu, literally?"

I smile at her pun and shake my head. "You'll see. Come on. I'm going to teach you how to set a deadfall trap first."

We work on setting a variety of snares and traps for the first two hours of the morning and I teach her how to differentiate a rabbit trail from a deer trail. I don't think she can tell the difference yet, but she's got a good eye and is able to spot broken vegetation from an animal passing better than Rory can now or I could when I first started and it's only her second time outside the fence. She's got the makings of being a good tracker.

But where she is good with her eye, she is almost hopeless with her hands. I can see that Madge is having trouble with the wire and various knots I use but she doesn't complain. Even when the wire snaps back and jabs her in the leg for the fifth time. Finally, I give up and teach her the simplest snare I know, a basic slip knot set in the middle of a game trail. It's not as good as some of the other traps I set, since it doesn't always kill the animal. But it's easy.

She gives me a grateful smile and sets about ten of them around a small slow moving pool along the stream. When she's done, Madge stands up and brushes her hands off on her pants. "So now what?"

I check the sky and see that it's about mid-morning. Time to move on. "It's too late to do any fishing. How do you feel about picking berries?"

"Strawberries?" she asks, her eyes lighting up.

I shake my head. "The field's pretty picked clean. We should wait a few days for the berries to ripen. I was thinking about getting blackberries."

She nods and I lead her to the rocky overhang that used to be Katniss's and my old place. I feel a little twinge in my heart when we get there but I tell myself to get over it. I show Madge how to pick the berries correctly, with the centers still in them. She gets the hang of it quickly and I move down to a different set of brambles. I look up, expecting to catch her sneaking a few berries to find her looking at me with an unfathomable expression on her face.

"What?" I ask, unable to keep the defensive snarl out of my voice.

"This was your place, wasn't it?" she asks bluntly. "Yours and Katniss's."

"So?" I challenge, refusing to answer her question.

"It bothers you, having me here."

I snort. "Get over yourself, Undersee. You're not that important."

She shrugs. "I know. So do you think once we've picked the berries we should go back to Katniss's place and take care of that goat and cat of her sister's? I haven't been yet today and the goat probably needs to be fed and milked."

I nod. It's better than what I had planned, gathering greens. And it will give me an excuse to get away from the annoying merchant girl.

We both go back to picking until we've each filled our bag with berries. On a hunch, I check my traps to see if we've caught anything in the few hours we've been out.

Nothing.

Madge seems disappointed. "Maybe we should switch to fishing when we come out later. Katniss always seemed to be able to catch fish."

"I don't have any nets," I point out.

Madge rolls her eyes. "Katniss does. And she's not using them right now."

I'm not sure that's a good idea and I tell Madge so.

The girl just smiles at me. "Gale, do you really think Katniss will mind if we use them to help her stock up for the winter?"

When she says it like that, I feel kind of stupid. It's just so engrained in me that I'm the snare hunter that I don't want to change that. It's who I am. It's what I'm good at.

We head to Katniss's house and go inside, leaving the front door open. Madge puts the berries on the counter and roots around to find food for Buttercup. There's some leftovers from the night before and she picks the meat out to give to the cat.

"Do you want the rest of this?" she asks. "It isn't going to keep until Katniss gets back."

I nod and grab the milking bucket and go out to see to Lady. The goat greets me with a little bleat and I pet her head affectionately. She's a good goat and I check her food to make sure she has enough. It's a little low but enough to get her through the night. I vow to have Vick and Rory take her out to the Meadow with them tomorrow when they go there to pick greens for our family to eat.

When I go back inside, I see a female Peacekeeper in the doorway talking with Madge. The girl seems comfortable and certain and I clear my throat to get their attention. "Is there anything wrong?" I ask.

Madge shakes her head. "No, I was just telling Peacekeeper Gneiss here that I had hired some help to make sure that the Everdeens' animals were taken care of." She turns back to the white-uniformed woman. "That's Gale Hawthorne, one of the help I was telling you about. I feel responsible, you know, for making sure that my friend's animals are well taken care of and really what do I know about taking care of animals? And since the Hawthornes lost their main earner in a mine explosion a few years ago I try to do what I can to help them out. You know what I mean?" her voice is almost haughty and nothing like the girl who's been teasing me all morning.

It raises my hackles to hear her talk of my family like we're a charity case and I bite my tongue to keep from snapping at her.

The mayor's daughter ignores my rising anger and continues talking to the Peacekeeper. "As you can see, he's already seeing to the goat. So I trust it won't be a problem if they come by without me here. I've got other things to do and they know they won't get paid if I don't get proof that the animals have been taken care of."

"What kind of proof?" the Peacekeeper wants to know.

"The milk of course. I'm sure you've heard of my mother's headaches. Sometimes warm goat milk is all she can stand to drink when she's in a bad way. It's how Katniss and I got to know each other, don't you know?"

I know for a fact that the last statement is a lie. Katniss never has traded milk to the Mayor, but when I see the Peacekeeper nod I finally catch on to what the merchant girl is doing.

Madge is spinning a plausible lie for me and my family to be in Katniss's house without Madge being there. She's telling the Peacekeeper what the woman wants to hear and spinning it in such a way that keeps Katniss's and my illegal activities out of it. Again, I've underestimated her.

It's beginning to become a habit. One I need to grow out of.

The Peacekeeper leaves and I close the door. "You left the door open deliberately, didn't you?"

She smiles at me. "I figured that this would happen sooner or later. Better to deal with it sooner. That way, we don't have to waste time hanging around here when we could be elsewhere."

"Outside the fence, you mean?"

"You said it." She looks at the pail. "Is that it? Can we go?"

I nod. "You still want the milk?" I ask, pouring the white liquid into a glass jar.

"Yeah. I think Rachel has a recipe for making cheese for it. If not, I can always sell it in town."

Thinking of the snares that we have out in the woods, I ask. "When do you want to go back out?" It's only early afternoon and the sun doesn't set until eight this time of year. Mandatory Viewing is at seven, but I normally eat during that so I don't feel like I'm wasting time.

She considers it. "Supper's at six-thirty and I should be home before that to get cleaned up. So want to say meet at four at the fence?"

I nod. It's good enough for me.

oOo

AN:

Written: 11/20/13
Revised: 12/10/13
Beta read by: RoseFyre

So if any of you are aware of what point this is in my story you know that Gale is going to get a huge shock soon. But before I get there, and I will, I wanted to show what Madge and Gale are doing so I can skip it in favor of the more interesting stuff that's going to be happening with Gale and Madge.

There will be no pairings here. Gale is not over Katniss, as you can imagine. And as Madge said in Chapter Thirteen, Gale isn't her type, nor is she Gale's. Don't worry, I have plans for them both. Or maybe you should worry, this is Panem after all.

I look forward to seeing what you think!