Disclaimer: The 'Hunger Games' trilogy and the characters therein are owned by
Suzanne Collins. My compliments and thanks to her for writing the books,
and I admit to using the book background and some characters in this story.
Any errors I make by not describing the characters as well and properly
as in the books are mine alone.

Introduction (feel free to skip, but no real spoilers here):

In the story, I attempt to imagine how the culture and environment might look like about a century after the events in the books, in happier times. Many characters have names based on and derived from those in the Games, and the background is going to be explained. Some chapters are written from the point of view 'Timotheus Mellark', and some others from the point of view 'Timotheus Sinterguth'; I will always show a 'POV' note at the start of a chapter or section. I hope that the mixing of viewpoints is going to work well, as this is my first attempt at such a mix.

For the ancestry of the main characters in both stories I assume my stories 'Finding comfort in the baker's son' and 'Forward looking plans with the baker's son' to be the background, which depict Ryan ('Rye') Mellark – oldest brother of Peeta Mellark – and Primrose ('Prim') Everdeen – younger sister of Katniss Everdeen – getting together and eventually marrying. Reading the background stories is not required, but recommended.

There are references to earlier events, specifically the Great War and the climatic apocalypse, as I imagine them, and the main protagonists keep that in mind, also working in areas related to ecology and climate. Myself being an engineer, I also mixed in some technical and ecological aspects. Also, there is some (positive) mentioning of religious topics – Lutheran Christian – in the story, just in case somebody has a problem with that.

I found it difficult to categorize the story. Beyond 'drama' and 'romance', there is also 'family' and 'mystery' and, of course, 'science fiction'. If you are looking for a story which has lots of sex and crime in every chapter, this is not for you. The story is more set up like a novel, building up slowly and steadily, with lots of background, details, and thoughts.

I will keep chapters mostly between 3k and 5k words, and I will aim to publish a new chapter initially on a weekly or biweekly basis, at least until I am running out of ideas. I will need to split my time between this story and others I am still working on (specifically my big 'Balu in Skyrim' project), and then there's real life, of course, too.

Chapter 1: Prologue 1 – Two very cute girls

[October/November 2370 AD – POV Timotheus Sinterguth – Erlangen, Bayern]

A few days before my final semester at university was going to start, I walked along one of the main city streets and enjoyed the view of the nice park on the other side of the road. I liked to live here in the city of Erlangen in Bavaria, although it was much different – and also smaller – compared to the old prewar times, as I had been told. Of course, the population density had been so much higher a few centuries earlier, up to the Great War in the late 21st century, and people had been forced to live much closer together, specifically when the global warming had made some regions on the globe more or less inhabitable and the rising sea levels had started to flood coastal regions all over the world. In addition to the population which had been there already, refugees from flooded areas had arrived as well, and housing conditions had been very tight for some time, until the Great War, which some had called the Third World War, and the pandemics caused by the apocalypse and by poor living and medical conditions after the war had decimated the world's population drastically.

Some of the houses in the city center had actually survived the dark times, but most of them had been built or at least rebuilt or refurbished later. Taking advantage of the much lower population levels, only some buildings had been left intact while many had been demolished, and many of the thus created gaps had been mostly filled with patches of nature, so that there was almost always a garden with trees or at least some grass and bushes between the houses. Even close to the center of the city, various birds found refuge and food, mostly in the parks of course, and squirrels, hedgehogs, and other small animals were also around. Nobody had to live in what had been called a 'Betonburg' or 'Plattenbau' in the 20th century, big houses made of gray concrete and no or only little green around, any longer. I loved to live and study here and enjoyed the environment, in particular some scenic nature areas not very far from the city.

Deep in my thoughts, thinking mostly about the chores I intended to get done later today, I barely noticed a family coming the other way on the sidewalk. A light-skinned woman and a dark-skinned man together with two children, one of them barely out of toddler age and the other one probably in elementary school, were just about to pass in the other direction, when I heard the younger child, most likely a girl judged by hairstyle and clothes, shouting with excitement in her voice:

"Look! A park and a playground!"

Indeed there was a nice city park on the other side of the street, and part of a playground was clearly visible from here, too. I had been in the park before, and sometimes I had taken advantage of nice weather to do some of my learning and studying while sitting on a bench overlooking the lake in the park and watching swans, ducks, and waterlilies. Recently, I had been there a few times with my portable computer to proof read my final thesis, which was due just before Christmas. Being in a natural environment rather than in a building always helped me to relax, and the park was really nice, in particular the various patches of flowers and the variety of tress. Even now, in mid October, there were still multiple kinds of asters showing shades of red, purple and blue, as I knew; very colorful zinnia and anemones complemented the agreeable display.

The young girl had seen the park, and before her parents had a chance to react, the little child removed herself from her father's hand and started running, right towards the street. There was no traffic light and no pedestrian crossing here, and many cars were passing along the street, which happened to be one of the city's main streets. The cars created very little noise, though, as they were, of course, all electrically powered. Despite my absentmindedness I realized that the child's life or at least her health was in acute danger; apparently she was eager to get to the playground and did not recognize the danger in between. The girl had to pass close to me, though, as I was just between her and the street, and as I noticed that the child's father had started to move way too late, I reached out and managed to grab the child at the collar and stop it. The little girl had been running fast and I was almost afraid that my hold might slip or the collar might tear off from her light coat, but neither of that happened, and I could hand the girl over to her relieved father.

"Rue!" the man shouted angrily. "What got into you to just start running?"

"But, Daddy, there is a playground!"

"Yes, and there is a busy street in between. One of the cars would have hit you, if that man had not stopped you! How many times have I told you to be careful with city traffic?"

While the father was, understandably, more concerned about his daughter, the mother turned towards me: "Sir, many thanks for catching our youngest. She is kind of a tomboy, and she sometimes runs off when we least expect it. It is very challenging and demanding to watch and restrain her when needed."

"You are welcome; I am glad that I was in a position to assist" I replied and nodded, acknowledging her statement. The lady had addressed me in English, like it was spoken in Panem, rather than German, which was the common language in Central Europe, but I had been raised with both languages and could consider myself bilingual; thus, this did not matter to me and I had easily and automatically replied in the same language.

"Maybe we can invite you to a snack or an ice cream over there in the park, so that we can talk a little?" the child's father suggested.

"If you have the time to do so, that is" the mother added.

"I do not have any appointments at this time, and I would gladly join you" I responded. My chores could certainly wait; I was not exactly looking forward to doing the laundry and some cleaning in my apartment, although both tasks required only little effort with the modern machinery available nowadays.

We made another attempt to cross the street, properly using the traffic light further down the street and with both girls taking one adult's hand, and we safely arrived in the park. The two kids were now allowed to run off towards the playground, and their parents and I found a small table to stand around at a snack bar.

"Maybe we should introduce ourselves first" the girls' mother suggested with a smile. "We are the Madison family. The tomboy daughter is Rue, and her older sister is Lily; Rue is three years old and Lily is seven. We moved over here from Panem just a couple of years ago, and our knowledge of the German language is still quite limited, although we learned the basics at school when we were teenagers. Lily, as she's in second grade and speaks it at school here and with her friends all of the time, is much better already than we are."

"My name is Timotheus Sinterguth," I replied, "and I am a student at the local university here. I am about to become an ecological engineer, and I will graduate in a few months."

Mr. Madison looked at me and asked with some curiosity in his voice:

"Sinterguth is not a common name at all. Are you by chance related to the Sinterguth family who is in charge of the foundation?"

"Guilty, I am afraid. How did you guess?"

"Well, your name rang a bell. At my job back in Panem I worked together with people from the 'Sinterguth Foundation' for a year or two. That explains why you speak English that fluently, I guess. I assumed that members of the Sinterguth family usually study at the university over in District Sixteen, close to your Rainbow Valley, though."

"A lot of us do, indeed, and I spent a couple of semesters there, too. However, I am from the Bavarian branch of the family, and we have a larger site around here as well, northeast from the city, in the 'Fränkische Schweiz' (Franconian Switzerland). We have a very fruitful cooperation with the university here, I like this area, and specifically I kind of adore my professor here; that's why I have decided to stick around, for the time being at least."

The local university of Erlangen, the time honored 'Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg', founded in the year 1743, more than six hundred years ago, had survived the big war, the apocalypse, and the long dark times afterwards. This university was one of only two in Bavaria which continued to exist, and although it was by far the smaller one of the two, the other one being the huge one in München (Munich), I loved to be here and enjoyed the environment, in particular some scenic nature areas not far from the city.

"But what about you? You are not by chance related to the famous and unforgettable 'Rue Madison' who was the female District Eleven tribute in Panem՚s 74th Hunger Games and managed to get into the hearts of so many people in the districts?"

"Yes, we are indeed; I guess that our names gave us away, too, and naming one of our daughters 'Rue' has actually been a tradition in our family for some time."

"My own ancestors include the Everdeen family from District Twelve, and we cherish the knowledge of those times in our family as well. As a matter of fact, I still have family over there, in the extended district area nowadays, and one of my cousins has been named Primrose."

The Madisons smiled when hearing the familiar name, and right at this time their two daughters came over; the little girl did not hesitate and addressed me:

"Mister, my sister told me that I need to say 'Thank you' to you – so here you go: 'Thank you for saving my life'!"

"You are Rue, right?" I replied. When she nodded, I continued: "You are very much welcome. It does not happen every day that I can do something for such a pretty young girl."

Rue now smiled widely, and her bright white teeth contrasted nicely with her darker skin. Like her sister, her skin color was medium brown, like milk chocolate, and I assumed that not so many others would call her pretty, maybe more like cute or so. Racism was officially something which had only happened in the distant past, but at the very least a non-white skin did not adhere to the local standards, and quite a few people looked down on non-white citizens or at least harbored negative thoughts about them. Our own family had different branches in different countries, and specifically the Panem branch of the holding, our parent business entity, had family members and ranking employees with all kinds and shades of skin color; at least in our family, such thoughts were not common at all, or at least I thought and hoped so.

I talked on, addressing both girls: "And by the way, there is no need to call me 'Mister' - for the two of you I am Timotheus, or if you like, Tim; all right?"

In general I preferred to be called by my full name and hated nicknames. Specifically, I always objected when somebody tried to anglicize my name to 'Timothy'. For close family and children only, I usually allowed them to call me 'Tim', as I understood that the proper pronunciation of my name was not easy for everybody, in particular for those who were not native German language speakers.

"Yes, Tim!" they both shouted while showing a wide smile on their faces.

"Can you play with us, Tim?" Rue asked.

Almost apologizing for her daughter's behavior, the girl's mother told me that I did not have to if I did not want to, but I assured her that it was all right, and I went over to the playground with the two girls. I spent more than one hour playing with the kids and talking to the parents, and then we took the short walk around the lake. The Madisons, as they told me, lived in a different part of the city and had been here in the park only a few times, and I pointed out the various birds which were around. Right at this time, a flock of migratory birds, a special species of geese, had also selected the lake as a place to rest, and we watched them for some time. Finally, before the family had to leave again, I was very cordially invited to their apartment for tea and cake on next Sunday afternoon, which I happily accepted.

On Sunday, I easily found the address I had been given and rang the doorbell. When I walked up the stairs, a blurry something came down in the other direction, and that something turned out to be little Rue, more falling than running down, until I caught her in my arms. Laughing I carried her up again and entered the Madison apartment on the second floor. I had even bought some flowers as a present to them, but only because my cousin Daniela had suggested that when I had talked to her on the phone about recent events. My own social life was somewhat limited, and I had to admit that I was something like a 'nerd' at that time. I needed to be reminded to bring a present when visiting people, and I did not really know which flowers were best suited; I mean, from my point of view they could have been plants from a meadow as well. My mother would not know either, as she was a workaholic and not very social, but my cousin knew about those things, even though she lived in Panem. "The Language for Flowers," she used to claim, "is valid on international level. Once you know about it and apply it properly, you can almost never do anything wrong with presents." Daniela was only twelve years old, but already well versed in social aspects and also popular at school. Based on Daniela՚s hints I had been able to get a nice bouquet of flowers from a florist, and the smile when I handed over my present confirmed that it had been well chosen.

When we were about to sit down around the table to eat the cake, Rue's father lifted his youngest up in his arms and wanted to sit her down in a highchair, but she complained:

"Dad! I am too big for the highchair! I am three!"

Her father objected: "But on a normal chair you are sitting too low; that's not going to work!"

Rue looked around and finally focused on me: "Tim, I want to sit on your lap!"

I was quite surprised to hear that. I was not really used to have girls asking to sit on my lap, neither very young ones nor older ones, with the exception of my cousin Daniela, who had done that very frequently and still did sometimes, but she was family and like my little sister. My surprise must have been written on my face, and Rue's father told her off right away:

"Rue, you cannot impose on Mr. Sinterguth like that! He is supposed to enjoy his first visit here!"

As a matter of fact, I was enjoying this already, much more than I had expected, and I spontaneously decided to humor the little girl:

"Mr. Madison, I assure you that I am enjoying my time here so far, and I would not mind having Rue on my lap at all, at least to find out if and how this might work."

Her father still hesitated, so that I decided to be a little forward, stood up, took struggling little Rue out of the highchair and placed her right on my lap after sitting down again.

"So, Rue, what would you like to eat?"

"Cake!"

The answer was quite easy and obvious, and soon we were attacking one large piece of cake on my plate with two pastry forks. Rue's parents looked at us, and her mother finally commented:

"This behavior is quite surprising for us. She has not done anything like that with any strangers so far, only with us."

"Well, I do not mind, and it appears that we are getting along quite well, thank you."

After exchanging a few words on common topics like the weather, Mr. Madison asked:

"Mr. Sinterguth, there is something I am curious about. I was briefed on that before we moved here, and I was roughly told what happened here in Central Europe after the war and the climatic change. But I wonder if you could tell us about your own view on all that?"

Well, that was quite a wide scoped question, but I tried to provide some insight at least:

"This area of Central Europe used to be Germany, and the southeastern state – right where we are – was Bayern, Bavaria. When the sea level rose during the climatic cataclysm, Germany lost a lot of its area, mostly in the North of course, but also down to the industrial Ruhr area. Bavaria, with almost all of it being on higher ground, survived practically intact, and so did Austria, only losing a section in the Southeast. The leading politicians from Bavaria and Austria happened to be good friends and very smart people, and they quickly decided to join forces and establish a joint government to make the best of the situation for the citizens of former Germany and Austria. In the following years and decades, other regions joined in, like former northern Italy down to where the sea had flooded the 'Po' river valley, the region of Elsaß and Lothringen, or Alsace-Lorraine, which used to be German a long time ago anyway, but had been claimed by France after earlier wars, and some parts of former Poland and Czechia. This was by no means some kind of hostile action; people in all involved countries and regions were very happy to get a stable and operational government again, specifically as this government went above and beyond to provide food and shelter to everybody as much as possible. While some other countries, like Spain and Greece and, of course, Switzerland, stayed independent, the 'Bundes- und Alpen-Republik Bayern und Österreich' - 'Federal Republic of Bavaria and Austria', official abbreviation 'BARBÖ' and sometimes 'BBÖ' - has been a center of stability and progress in Central Europe, and although not all of the leadership decisions have been popular, it has been democratic all of the time, which is more than can be said for most other regions and countries in the world."

"And how was life here during that time? Do you know much about that?"

"That was before my time, of course, but according to what I learned from my grandparents and their own ancestors as well as from lessons at school, most of Central Europe was not hit as hard by the Great War as other regions of the world, and although we lost a significant part of the population, too, most of the infrastructure was still intact, even though many factories had been destroyed. We still had many records on current technology, and as the Green party had been the senior partner in the government coalition for some time, they made sure that we did not repeat most of the earlier mistakes. The government restricted the population to a new level which was much lower than before the war, so that it is now possible to grow food, for instance, almost exclusively in a natural way. Where cows used to be crowded indoors in the barns almost all of the time before, they nowadays spend most of their lives on meadows to eat fresh grass; they go into their barns only to get protection against adverse weather or for milking. Also, the world wide technology race of the prewar times, forcing companies to innovate and produce more and more, thus draining lots of resources, has not been continued, so that we can focus on what we really need and want rather than longing for the latest and greatest cool gadgets just because one could afford them. Technological progress still happens, but slower and more controlled, and specifically, with much less impact on the ecology and the environment."

The Madisons continued to ask some more questions, and I also asked about how Panem was doing nowadays, although I knew the basics already from my family over there. Panem had of course also made quite some progress after the final rebellion. First directed by District Thirteen and also aided by small parties from Bavaria, who had re-explored the North American continent with zeppelins initially, people in the districts has been able to expand their areas, and Panem had been democratic for many decades now. Due to the fact that they had not been able to develop nicely under the former dictatorship, though, they were still way behind us in technology and infrastructure, but there was a lot of exchange of information and merchandise going on between the two continents.

The Madison family had come from District Eleven and had visited a few other districts before, too, so what they told me complemented my own knowledge, which was mostly based on District Twelve and District Sixteen where my relatives over there were at home. The latter district had been founded after the final rebellion, close to Rainbow Valley, the Sinterguth land in Panem.

We – the Madisons and I – found out on that day that we liked being together, and time flowed quickly. Before I even noticed, a few hours had passed and I felt that I needed to take my leave. The girls insisted that I come again soon, and I promised to do that; I was invited again for the Sunday in two weeks right away.

Two weeks later I got up the stairs again, this time without encountering a ball of Rue coming down. It turned out that the little girl was taking a nap, but she was up in no time when she heard my voice. To add to the cake Mrs. Madison had prepared I had brought a few additional pieces of pastry from my favorite bakery, and soon we indulged, with a happy Rue on my lap once more.

"I know that it's not really our business," Mrs. Madison asked after we had eaten, "but I am curious about what you plan to do once you graduate. What are your plans for life, as Sinterguth progeny?"

I smiled and replied: "Actually, this is a good question, and I have thought about it for some time. Naturally, there are quite a few options available, and my grandfather, our family patriarch, would have preferred me to find employment closer to him. However, my professor has already offered me a position at the institute which will enable me to work towards my doctor's degree. My professor, or more precisely the professor overseeing the area of my main and final topics of studying, is well known for not only being good in knowledge and expertise in his field, but also for being able to transfer this knowledge to others quite well. Lectures from him are always interesting and entertaining, and students even call his lectures an 'audio-visual treat'. I want to learn more from him, so that I am almost certain that I'll accept the offer rather than find a suitable task for me in one of the family's companies or somewhere else."

"Wow, that's interesting, but understandable" Mr. Madison nodded.

"Doctor's degree? Like healing people?" Lily, the older daughter asked.

"No, not quite" I responded. "A doctor's degree is an academic title and given in various areas, not only medicine. If that works out, I will be a 'Dr.-Ing.', a doctor of engineering, in a few years, and I believe that this is similar to a 'PhD' in Panem. This is not my primary motivation, though, but learning from my professor is."

"It is good to hear that you like to learn" Mrs. Madison said. "I have to admit that I sometimes suspect rich people spend most of their time just being lazy and enjoying life, just like the idle rich sometimes depicted in magazines."

I chuckled and replied: "Oh, we have a few of those even in our family. However, grandfather always encourages productive work, and he makes sure that those who do prefer to stay idle only have limited funds available. Above and beyond that, I could not just stay idle for a longer time. Long term, I hope that I can work with our foundation, like helping people in poorer and less developed areas and introducing helpful technology to them."

We continued to have some small talk, and the two girls 'abducted' me into their room for an hour or two to play with them, which I happily did. At the end of the day, I left with a content and happy feeling, and I was sure that I had made new friends.

Being somewhat 'socially retarded', as my cousin Daniela and a few other family members sometimes called me, I was very happy about that and even a little bit proud of myself.

[Author's Notes: Erlangen is a real city in Bavaria, Germany, and I attended university there in real life. I will be using real city and region names mostly; for instance, 'Nuremberg' is not the real name, but 'Nürnberg' is; it is 'München' and not 'Munich', and it is 'Bayern' rather than 'Bavaria'.

The whole idea of the 'Federal Republic of Bavaria and Austria' is entirely fictional, of course, but the German language does indeed favor some quite long names and terms. The non-profit 'Sinterguth Foundation' mentioned in the chapter is supposed to be somewhat similar to the 'Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation' in real life.

Regarding the 'Madison' family name, I invented one for Rue's family, as the books do not tell much about Rue's family and their last name as far as I know, but please correct me if I am wrong.]