" 𝔰𝔲𝔯𝔳𝔦𝔳𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔠𝔬𝔪𝔢𝔰 𝔞𝔱 𝔞 𝔭𝔯𝔦𝔠𝔢 "
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
With a mind burdened by her own actions,
Rowan Everdeen must return to her home
district, and face her loved ones. But around
her, a...
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" this isn't real "
rowan's view
𝔅irdsong whispered through the woodland, and every few seconds I would see a mockingjay cut through the trees and soar into the sky. It was familiar, a sound I heard in my more pleasant dreams.
Often, I found myself yearning for the freedom of birds, the luxury of travelling wherever they wished, of living their lives according to them, but even then, it was a fantasy. Mockingjays were evidence of the hold the Capitol had on all of us. They were accidental, a mutation of the jabberjay, and without interference they would not even exist. Perhaps the same could be said of me.
I looked ahead to Katniss and Gale, both silent and brooding. Only together could they convince me to return to the woods, insisting that if I was going to force our families into a meal together, I should at least help put that meal on the table. I couldn't argue with the reasoning, so I followed them into the forest, fear following me all the while.
Katniss was ahead of us, clearing a path through the overgrown branches. She was more familiar with the forest than I remembered, a change that must have occurred during my games. Gale hadn't said a word about hunting with her, though he had no problem following her faithfully.
It raised the question that had been left unanswered since my return: what happened between Katniss and Gale? When I left, Gale was still following Katniss around hopelessly, but he now seemed completely uninterested. The only thing that hadn't changed was Katniss' indifference towards him.
As we ventured further, drenched in complete and utter silence, my nerves were set further on edge. My chest rose and fell quicker, and my nails dug into my wrists. I couldn't escape the feeling of being enclosed, of being somewhere forbidden to me.
"Gale," I called, moving faster so I could catch up to his long strides.
Noticing me, he slowed and glanced down, smiling softly. "How are you doing?" he asked, and I knew he could sense how uncomfortable I was.
"I-" I couldn't talk about me. If I let myself dwell, even just for a moment, I... "What happened with you and Katniss?" I asked outright, and Gale almost recoiled, his gaze shooting to my sister to ensure she couldn't hear. Katniss continued ahead, apparently oblivious as she ventured further away from us.
"When I left, you were planning on asking her out, and you got along better, I mean, you spent more time together than-I mean, how much could I have missed?"
"More than you know."
I flinched. Gale had said it offhandedly, but my fear needed nothing more to hold on to. If I had died in the arena, lives would continue exactly as they had before, and my name would join the hundreds of others, the fallen.
