Not My Pyre (A Pearl-Centric Double Life FanFic)

Chapter Nineteen: Ghost Town

Joel smiled as he looked out on the odd little village building up in the Border Woods. After visiting a second town and seeing how many people came - thirteen, seeing the other ten being fine after two weeks in the forest had really helped - they realised they should make some semi-permanent establishments.

That had been three months ago. They'd gotten to visit two more towns for a total of four, but would have to start sending out less people.

The former contestants were the most competent fighters and also the best for recruitment. They were thinking of sending a group of one or two contestants and a handful of fighter-ish people in a line through all the nearest towns.

But that might not be as necessary anymore, as people from towns would start just coming to the edge of the woods to join. There was a person there every day to greet them and show them the way in.

Speaking of, a new group was being brought in now, and Joel was on duty today to greet them - being greeted by one of the contestants was good for morale or something. Joel hadn't been paying attention when Pearl had brought it up.

"Hello! Welcome to our revolution..." He ran through the whole speech. He felt like he'd said it a million times, even though it had barely been three. "Accommodations will be acquired for you as soon as possible. Go find Pearl, she probably has something to say to you."

Admittedly, that last part was not something Pearl had told him to say. It was just something he'd figured out over the past few weeks.

He waved them forward, but one person stayed back. She was wearing a hooded cloak with the hood up and was a little shorter than him.

Joel gestured again. "Pearl's that way, and if you need anything else, she's probably the right person to ask, not me."

"Joel," she said. "It's really you."

That voice. He knew that voice.

She lifted the hood.

Pink hair, space buns, blue eyes.

"Lizzie," he said, breathless. "But- How?" he stepped forward, reaching towards her. "You disappeared! I thought the Lords killed you!"

"No..." she shook her head. "I knew I couldn't do it again. I couldn't be a part of the Games again. So... I left. I ran into Mumbo in the halls, so he joined me, and we were going to get you, and maybe Grian - actually, everyone if possible. But..." she glanced down. "The Lords' guards caught us. They killed Mumbo, and I ran. I got away, and to a town not far from here. I was trying to figure out a way to get back to you without being caught and probably killed for running, and then I saw what happened in the Games and knew that this was my chance. So I waited until I knew where you were and came as soon as I could."

Joel stepped forward and wrapped her up in his arms.

~*~

Last week, Pearl had returned from a trip out to the nearby villages. They'd gone straight from one village to the next, giving instructions to those who wished to join about where to go.

In the third village, they'd seen that the Lords had sent guards and mercenaries to hunt them down and were unable to continue. They'd turned back.

Today, she was supervising the building of a new home. It would be the last needed to house the people from her return last week.

They weren't the best of houses, and weren't super roomy, but honestly? They were barely worse than how most of these people usually lived.

The carpenter from the first village, Sausage, had been a huge help over the last few months.