The first thing that registered in Gale's mind was the sudden lack of birds chirping. The second thing, was the reason why they had all fallen silent.
His sharp grey eyes widened in shock at the sound of her voice, but the shock only lasted a moment. His hunter instincts quickly kicked in, and his hand tightened around his bow as he ran silently towards the sound, his heart pounding in his chest with false hope. Could it possibly be her? No. How could it be? She's miles away, locked in the arena right at this very moment, fighting for survival. But still... who else would be out here in this forest, singing? A thousand thoughts ran through Gale's head as he approached the clearing, but nothing prepared him for what he saw when the trees finally stopped blocking his view-

Dripping wet and completely naked, with her back to him, stood a tiny girl with incredibly long, starched white hair, her twig-like fingers caressing the water slowly. Even though he could not see her face, Gale knew without a doubt that it was her that he had heard, and not his dear Katniss, as he had so stupidly hoped.

Shaking away the burning tears at the thought of Katniss, Gale approached the pool, not seeing the dagger hidden by the girl's body, nor the slight tensing of her shoulders and arms. He was too mesmerised by her voice by that time, too gripped by the sudden desire to see her face behind all that hair.

As his boot reached the edge of the water, centimetres from getting wet, the girl moved so fast it was all Gale could do not to fall on the sharp end of his bow. In a matter of seconds, she lunged forward and took hold of her now revealed dagger, spun around and leapt from the water, placing a firm hand on his chest and pushing with a force Gale would never had guessed that that miniscule frame could have possessed. The next thing he knew, he was on his back two metres from where he was standing, a dagger tip at his Adam's apple, held by a naked girl with wild blue eyes and bared teeth. She did not seem bothered at all by the fact that she was crouching on top of him with nothing stopping him from staring at her body, but maybe that was because all she had to do was exert a little more force, and his neck would be scewered.
Her eyes were so big Gale was almost worried he would drown in their midnight blue depths, but just as he was about to reach for his hunting knife, he sensed how fragile and terrified she truly was hiding behind her weapon and fierce expression, and his resolve to kill her softened. Instead, he adpoted the quiet, gentle voice he used when he was approaching an injured animal.

"Did I frighten you?" If possible, the girl's eyes grew even bigger, startled by the tone of his voice. Granted, it was slightly strange to hear coming from Gale's mouth, given that it did not fit his rough appearance at all. She seemed to chew through his words before swallowing them. She was taking so long to reply, Gale was worried that she might be just a bit slow, or 'not the sharpest arrow in the quiver' as his mother sometimes said. And when she did answer, it seemed to him as though she was struggling to find the right words.
"No, you... startled me, is all. I heard you, coming closer and... I assumed, you were my... enemy. My apologies." She attempted a smile, but it slid off her face the moment it appeared.
Gale was beginning to realise just how beautiful she was, beneath her dry and cracked lips, hollow cheeks and unruly hair. He also realised that, despite apologising, she had neither removed the dagger from his throat nor shifted from her crouch.
"I am not your enemy, if you give me no reason to be." He hinted, hoping she would understand what he wanted. It seemed that she did understand, because after a few moments, she got to her feet, searching his face before walking over to where her clothes lay.

As she was pulling on her underwear, she began talking again, still sounding slightly like a robot.
"You must, forgive me. It's been... so long, since I've talked to, anyone. So long." Her voice broke on the last whispered word, and an unrestrained sob cut through the air, slicing Gale to his heart. His head was turned away, so that she could dress without worrying about him staring, but he couldn't help opening his eye just a slither when he heard her mutter in frustration.
"Still wet." Her brow was creased in a frown at the damp pants in her hand. Gale couldn't help but to smile; she looked so cute when she pulled that face. Like a small child refused a treat.
"Here;" She looked up at him, her wide eyed expression back, only softer, less startled this time. "you can wear this for the time being, if you want." Her eyes went from the jacket he was holding out to her, to his face, to the jacket, back to his face again, finally resting on the jacket.
"Go on, I've got another one back home." Her face clouded over at the mention of home, and Gale saw her mouth the word silently, her eyes staring at something in the distance over his shoulder. He put the jacket at her feet and took a step away, hoping that she might feel more comfortable taking it that way. Eventually she knelt down and picked it up, holding the soft material against her cheek like a child would a favourite blanket. He watched as she inhaled the smell of it, closing her eyes and almost smiling. When she pulled it on, she hugged it to her, her thin arms locking together across her chest. Seeing her stand there like that, rocking slightly from side to side, her face shielded by a curtain of hair, her skin ghostly in the sunlight, Gale felt a pull towards her that he had never experienced before, not even with Katniss. Almost without knowing it, he took tentative steps towards where she stood, until he was close enough to kiss her bloodless lips. Slowly she looked up, as she felt the warm weight of his hand on her upper arm. He smiled at her.
"You know, I never did get your name. I'm Gale Hawthorne."
"Mercy." "No last name?" A slight shake of the head was her reply. "Surely you have a last name. Come on, tell me, please?" A small sigh passed Mercy's lips, and she looked straight into Gale's eyes, with a look that dared him to object when she uttered that one word, just one small word that sounded like a death sentence on her smooth tongue.
"Snow."
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