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00: PROLOGUE
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GAMBLING WASN'T SOMETHING you'd consider a normal thing in most districts. It was popular in the Capitol, sure, but the districts? They barely even had enough money to buy themselves breakfast, let alone taking the risk of losing the little money they had left.
Yet, gambling was an activity done daily by the people of District 10. Don't be fooled, though. It was nothing like the Capitol's version of gambling. The Capitol had poker, fancy card games and most important of all, no chance of becoming as poor as the dirt with all the money they owned. They could throw it around all they wanted, and yeah, losing sucked, but after five minutes they were spending their money on yet another useless item.
Lahar always thought the District's way of gambling was more fun than the Capitol's, despite not having ever played their version.
She was six, maybe seven, years old when she played her first game, right after the war ended. Each session, one person was required to bring a stack of cards. Some groups switched between the members, others had a specific person who always brought certain items. The games were always different, the cause of that being everyone owning a unique stack of cards. Each person had their own homemade cards with it's own special set of rules. Not only did this make the experience more refreshing and exciting for whoever played, but it also saved them money, which they could spend on the gambling instead of ridiculously expensive card games. Sometimes the win of a person was based on pure luck, other times it was their skills.
A member was required to bring money, of course. If not money, then something worthy you could sell later on. The exact amount of money was up to yourself. Some decided to bring their entire salary, others brought less than a coin's worth. Not everyone from the group was a gambler, though. You had bystanders who would cheer you on or were sometimes simply looked for an entertaining show.
The rules were simple. Everyone sat in a circle, a box filled with money in the middle. They played the game, and whoever won got to take the box back home.
So, there she sat. The war had just ended, yet people were still gambling. That just proved how addicting it could really get. This had been one of the first times Lahar played. One of the girls, same age as herself, brought the cards. Fortuna was her name.
The cards Fortuna had brought fit the vibe of their district well. Each card had a livestock animal drawn on it. Sheep, cows, pigs, donkeys, horses and so on and so on.
This game was incredibly simple. Each person got ten cards. Their job was to complete their collection of animals. For example, if Lahar had a card with a cow drawn on it, she'd have to collect all the cow cards in order to complete her stack. How they did this was by simply asking other players for cards. Whoever had your desired card was required to give this to you. Very easy, but this was also good for other players, since they knew what cards you had and they could use that to their own advantage.
