Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Village

The mayor had welcomed her enthusiastically at Maize's return. But it was nothing compared to screams of joy coming from her family. A cold unfeeling thing that had built up in her chest unfurled and melted as Birch jumped over the fence separating them and ran into her arms.

"You're here! You're here! You're really here!" he cried into her shoulder. Maize pressed her lips to the top of his head in a loving manner as more little arms wrapped around her, Brier and Piper gripping onto the back of her shirt as Hibis and Lilac ran into her legs. The ugliness from the Hunger Games and the Capitol was being washed away by their tiny hands and genuine gratitude for her return. She feels the strong and comforting arms of her baba wrap around all of them as her mama starts to pepper kisses onto her face.

"My baby is home." she murmurs in overjoyed disbelief into her ear. A wide genuine grin tugs onto the corners of mama's lips. For the first time since she volunteered, since Cana died in her arms...

She feels truly alive.

"Maize!" Amla crows. Her curly black hair is wild in a sophisticated manner that only her cousin was able to pull off. Her smile was wide and her eyes full of unshed tears. A choked off whine escapes from her throat. One moment Amla was on the other side of the line and the next she was on her. Wrapping her smaller frame into her arms. Maize could feel the forming bump of her future niece or nephew pressing against her own flat stomach. Joy. So much joy and love fills Maize's very essence as she returns the embrace.

She had saved Amla.

She had saved that unborn baby.

She lets out a glorious and triumphant relieved laugh.

Not all was lost.

The whole District had been cleaned up and made to look 'nice' for the Capitol's cameras. Around her, all of the members of 11 had been gathered for her arrival. The crowd cheered at her arrival, as the mayor and Goldie escorted her to the stage. It eerily reminded Maize of her send-off during the reaping. Except, instead of pitying and haunted glances in her direction, her people were looking at her with relief and gratitude. Because of Maize, no one in her District would go hungry. The mayor briefly introduced her to the crowd as the winner of the 70th Hunger Games, making the crowd burst into enthusiastic cheers before they were dispersed by the Peacekeepers.

Maize holds hands with Birch on one side and Amla on the other, as her cousin regales her the tale of her wedding. Thorn smiles lovingly at his wife from Amla's side as he occasionally speaks up once in a while to add to the story, as Hibis gets a piggyback ride from the man. Piper and Brier are walking backwards in front of her so that they can watch Maize while they walk. Lilac runs around them on her short legs, giggles pealing out of her mouth every once in a while as Maize's parents lead them home.

Of course, the shack that she had grown up in wouldn't be her home for much longer. Seeder had explained to her that directly after the Welcoming Ceremony, Maize and her family would be moving into the Victor's Village. The woman was walking calmly alongside her parents, making small talk to the people that raised the new Victor. They would be collecting anything that they wanted to keep from the house and hand it over to the Peacekeepers in their entourage to carry it over to their new home. Goldie, was uncharacteristically, making up the rear with a curious Chaff as she observed Maize's family. To the Capitolite woman they probably made a strange sight. From what Maize had observed in the Capitol, couples rarely had more than one child and even then Maize still hadn't seen family units spending much time together.

The walk to their shack didn't take them too long, and despite the curious glances their group was getting from bystanders they were still giving the group a wide berth. Goldie eyed Maize's childhood home with barely concealed horror and disbelief, it was probably a wake-up call for the woman that poverty was a real thing that the Districts suffered from. Her family was quick to gather all of the essential items that they wanted, clothes and other items with sentimental value, like the molinillo that her Nyanya used to use to grind grains. Maize herself went to the small wooden chest in her shared bedroom before grabbing the small stack of photographs that their family owned, it was the only thing she really wanted. Anything else she found herself missing could be retrieved at a later date. After all the shack she had grown up in would still belong to her family. In the event that she passed her family would have to leave Victor's Village and move back to the outcropping.

Amla and Thorn kept her company as they watched the chaos from the door. Her sweet cousin regaling Maize the story of her wedding and her new home. Amla and her new husband wouldn't be coming with them to Victor's Village, it filled Maize with sadness that she wouldn't share a room with her cousin anymore, but it was expected. She was a married woman now. Amla and Thorn were excited to start their lives together, though they promised to come visit them often. Finally, they were on their way to the Village.

Her siblings skipped around her in excitement throughout their track, as her baba carried all of their clothes over his shoulders. Mama's back had been hurting her something awful, so Maize had strapped her infant brothers to her chest, cuddling them gently as they walked. Thorn helped carry some of the heavier items, like the cradle for the twins (it was the same one Maize had been rocked in to sleep). Victor's Village was beautiful, with ten mansion-sized homes with well-tended gardens and yards split up evenly into two rows. Brier and Piper were running around in awe while Hibis and Lilac cheered as they pointed at everything.

Goldie had taken the lead now as they approached the fourth house on the left side, before opening the door and turning to look at them in excitement, "Welcome to your new home!" she chirruped.

Maize's siblings were not shy as they barged into the beautifully styled home and began exploring. Her parents looked as uncomfortable as she did inside the house. It reminded Maize of the Capitol with its sleek and modern furnishing, it was clean, too clean for a simple family from the borders, Goldie helped them settle into the house as she showed them where all the rooms were. The largest room had been gifted to Maize, much to her discomfort, and was on the second floor with large wide windows that faced a wild meadow in the back of the house.

Her parents had been settled into the second largest room and Goldie was only too happy to help them order new and in-style nursery items from the Capitol. Her baba had only looked at the woman with wide eyes (disgust concealed from his features) as Goldie babbled about the wonderous items available in the Capitol. Mama was, thankfully, able to steer the conversation away from the Capitol and back to some nursery essential items, before Hibis crashed into Goldie's legs and started asking the Capiolite woman why her skin was pink. Chaff was quick to find humor in the situation and burst out into laughter despite Seeder's stern expression. By the time night settled, Maize was exhausted.

Her mama had made them a simple dinner in their new kitchen, it had taken them a couple of minutes to figure out how to use the complicated stove, before Maize showed them how to use the showers (which were infinitely easier to use than the ones in the Capitol) before they all went to sleep. Seeder promised to come back early in the morning with Goldie to help her get ready for the Parcel Day Ceremony (it would be the first of twelve, in which food packages were to be delivered to every person in the District, people in her old neighborhood would not be going hungry), before the District 11 Victor's Banquet where only the most high-ranking people in her District would be invited to attend.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" a gruttle scream ripped itself out of Maize's throat.

Sleep didn't last long.

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