Chapter Forty-Three: Days Inbetween (pt.2)

The week following the birth of Milho was busy one. Maize would stop by at her cousin's home twice a day -once in the morning and early evening- to see how Amla was recovering from the birth or if she needed any help with the baby or around the house. She'd been making her daily appearances back at the orchard during the lunch break as well, her guitar always on hand to accompany the songs her fellow fruit pickers wanted to sing.

Baba was working long hours at the factory again. It made Maize feel more than a little guilty since her father seemed to be doing it just so that he could avoid her. Mama wasn't too concerned over it just yet. Her husband was a stubborn man, but he always came around after a while.

She'd jumped right back into training. Even though her siblings weren't in danger of being reaped anymore -although, she honestly didn't trust anything that came out of President Snow's mouth- she still insisted on training with them. Birch, Brier, and Piper ran in the mornings with her, Ollie often joining them, before they'd eat a healthy breakfast. Maize would then instruct her siblings to copy her as she fell into various exercise routines -that worked all the muscles of their bodies, from abdominal's to their glutes- until they were too tired to copy her before they'd do some yoga to cool down.

After that, she'd help her mother make lunch for everyone and clean up. From there Maize would walk Birch -and Ollie, who had only missed the first two days she'd been back- to the Fairgrovel home with food and some money before going to the orchard. Her little brother, and Cana's, were slowly filling in. Healthy weight gain making it so that their skin no longer stretched onto their cheekbones, and visible muscle started to build up on their arms and legs. It made Maize insanely happy to see both boys completely healthy and looking the way children should from her memories.

-Would Cana be happy that she was taking care of his family in this way? That she was making sure that his little brother ate healthily and his mother and sisters had money to buy food, clothes and gas for the stove? Would he be angry that she wasn't doing enough?-

When lunch ended at the orchard, Maize would walk back home with Birch. She'd go over to Seeder's home and practice with her bō until Seeder urged her to take a break... Which usually meant that Maize would wander back home and make Birch practice for an hour. Maize would go on another run, stopping at Amla's house on her way back, before checking up on Chaff to make sure that he hadn't passed out from over-drinking and go home. Mama always made enough food for her to bring over to her Mentors' homes. Sometimes Maize could even convince them to come over to her place to eat. But when they couldn't bring themselves to leave their homes... well, Maize knew what that felt like and instead would place their plates at their doorsteps and ring the bell before leaving.

With her new Victor status and all of the money that came with it, she'd been able to purchase and read books for the first time in this life. The written language of Panem was very similar to that of the English and Spanish alphabet, it was fun learning the differences between them and then reading some -since a lot of it held Capitol propaganda- of it to her siblings. Though... Birch, Brier, and Piper seemed to prefer the stories she'd "made-up" over the years more than the written ones from the Capitol.

Not that Maize blamed them.

After all, she preferred the watered-down version of "Harry Potter" she'd created for them over the Capitol's warped and disturbing version of "Little Red Ridinghood"... Still, the date in which she was required to go back to the Capitol felt like a noose tightening around her neck as each day got her closer and closer. She had told mama that morning that she would be going back to the Capitol at the end of the month. Despite not telling her the reason why -Maize had simply stated that President Snow required the newest Victor of the Hunger Games to make their presence known in the Capitol- mama was furious.

So were her siblings.

She promised them this time that it wouldn't take her two weeks to get back to them. Only two or three days. That's how long her assignment was. But she could see the bitterness and anger hanging over brothers and sisters' faces.

Her family was finally learning what she'd known for a long time.

No one really won the Hunger Games, and the Games never really ended in the Arena.

For now, Maize would let her mind drift, her fingers forming chords and strumming her guitar, eyes shut in bliss as she sang along with all of the enthusiastic voices of the fruit pickers. "To all of my children in whom life flows abundant/ To all of my children to whom death hath passed his judgment/ The soul yearns for honor, and the flesh the hereafter/ Look to those who walked before to lead those who walk after."

Mockingjays hummed the tune above their heads as a flute helped them carry the song, "Shining is the land's light of justice/ Ever flows the land's well of purpose/ Walk free, walk free, walk free, believe/ The land is alive, so believe."

Voices began to overlap beautifully, "Suffer -feel- promise -think- witness -teach- reason -hear-/ Follow -feel- wander -think- stumble -teach- listen -speak-/ Honor -speak- value -tell- whisper -tell- mention -hope-/ Ponder -hope- warrant -wish- cherish -wish- welcome -roam-/ Witness -roam- listen -roam- suffer -roam- sanction -sleep-/ Weather -sleep- wander -sleep- answer -sleep on-"

The song itself was morose and haunting. The voices of young children and adolescents intermingling with one another only emphasized how unjust their world was. How terrible it was that the children of their District had never not known hunger. Never not known the whip of a Taskmaster or the brutality of Peacekeepers. That all of the children in the Districts had never not known or experienced the consequences of the First Rebellion.

"Now open your eyes while our plight is repeated/ Still deaf to our cries, lost in hope we lie defeated/ Our souls have been torn, and our bodies forsaken/ Bearing sins of the past, for our future is taken."

Words 1128

(I hope you all enjoyed the update! Told you it wouldn't take me long to update... LOL, I figured a double-update was warranted, especially since this one's a bit short anyway. LOL. As promised previously, this song is: Answers - Final Fantasy XIV [performed by Erutan]; you can just copy&paste that into the search engine of YouTube and it should be the first one to pop up. Eruten has a very pretty voice that can be haunting at times. If you've never heard of her, I suggest you listen to some of her covers and originals! Anyway the lyrics of this song were pretty fitting for this universe so, yeah. If anyone has any song recommendations feel free to leave them in a review; my only prerequisite is that the song try not to mention anything to modern that wouldn't make sense in the Hunger Games universe.)