"You're like the ocean Rowan. Breathtaking to look at, strong enough to not be destroyed, and gentle enough to make people find comfort in your presence."
IN WHICH THE GENTLEST GIRL BECOMES THE FIRST FEMALE VICTOR FROM DISTRICT 12.
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ROWAN HAD ALWAYS LOVED the woods behind her home of District 12. It was peaceful and calm, a thing that was hard to come by inside the district itself. Children crying of hunger, broken men who worked in the mines their whole lives who's bodies could no longer keep up, moms struggling to raise their children and keep them safe at the same time. She understood, she'd experienced it all first hand. Her heart ached for her neighbors who struggled every day.
She did what she could to help though, gathering wild greens as well as edible and medicinal plants for those in need. They could use it or sell it at the Hob if need be. It would be more to offer a deer or a boar but she wasn't very skilled at hunting. But she could pick out amaranth and chicory in an open field and knew to stay dead clear away from snakeroot and rosary peas, she could thank her late mother for that.
She had to be back soon to get ready and look presentable. It was the day of the reaping. A day where 24 children were sent off to fight to the death for the entertainment of others. Of course, it wasn't necessarily broadcasted as such, according to the president of Panem it was a reminder to the districts that the Capitol will always be in control. Surely the districts dying of starvation and working like dogs for the Capitol's needs was reminder enough.
Rowan refused to watch the games, despite being transmitted in every home and around the town square. She'd escape to the woods to avoid it all. She couldn't handle seeing children die at the hands of one another. Sure, there was one victor but at what cost? After taking the life of an innocent, their friends, their neighbors surely the victors could never be the same.
She saw it first hand with Haymitch who drank himself sick to try to forget his games and what came after it. She didn't judge him for it, how could she? All that pain and punishment he'd endured, she would try to forget it too. Besides, Haymitch was the one who basically saved her. He gave her a warm place to stay, and food to eat when she had nothing. They both had pain in their heart and maybe that's why he allowed her to stay when she was just a kid because he could see that familiar expression in her eyes. The look of loss.
She started hiking back towards town, her boots crunching the leaves and twigs beneath her as she moved. She wasn't supposed to be out there, there was a fence that surrounded the district and all residents were required to stay inside of it. If they were caught beyond the boundary it was punishable by death. Thankfully for her and the other hunters and gatherers of the district, the peacekeepers in 12 were a little more lenient. They even went so far as to buy the prohibited goods that were illegally attained and sold at the local black market shop in town known as the Hob.
She and Haymitch frequented there to buy goods. Most of Haymitch's victor money went towards alcohol but he allowed some to Rowan to buy food for the house and a little extra for her to get whatever caught her eye. He was generous, in a way that Rowan never expected him to be. The town saw him as nothing but a drunk who was a little harsher than he needed to be. But after 8 years, Rowan knew the real Haymitch the one who cared about those he loved with the entirety of his heart. The man who was honest and true. The man who just wanted peace in his life but it was always just barely out of his grasp.
