Catching Fire: The New Story

Chapter 49

 

Part Two - The Quell

Katniss's POV


I gasped as a shot was fired but it did not hit us, the trees above us cracked and branches fell. The woman had moved the gun in the man’s hand away and had shot upward. Peeta went full panic mood, he grabbed me, covering me with his body. I almost dropped my weapons, his knife fell to the floor in a rush to shield me. Peeta turned me around to check on me, see if I got hit, I didn’t. He signed and turned back to the two mystery people standing before us. I could see the anger in Peeta’s eyes at the man, he hides it surprisingly well.

"Who are you?" the woman calls, or shall I say girl. Her small figure makes her look as young as me, and features look like a child’s.

"I'm Katniss. Katniss Everdeen. And who might you be?" I say. The girl gasps, then pulls the man close and whispers in his ear. They are too far to hear even with my hearing. Peeta's hand is secure around my arm, ready to fling me back to Twelve where it's safe, or as far as we can from these two. With that limb on the man, I don't think he can run for his life.

"And your friend?" the man asks. He nods to Peeta. I look back to him in a sweet way.

"Peeta Mellark," I say. I gulp loudly, hoping he recognizes our names from the Games.

"I'm Bonnie,” the man says. I nod. Bonnie, strange name, especially for a man. He isn’t from Twelve at all.

"I'm Twill,” the young girl says. She hides behind Bonnie’s body. Twill seems shy, and very small compared to Bonnie's size. Her suit twice as big as Bonnie's, looking pretty heavy for her small figure to carry around.

The gun drops to the floor making a loud smack against the snow and I lightly flinch. I wrap my jacket tighter around me to keep the cold out and come inside with them as they wave for me and Peeta to enter the secure cement house. “I’m sorry for startling you, we thought you were Peacekeepers.”

“That’s all right. We though the same thing,” I assure Bonnie.

I focus on Twill. Her face is bright pink from the cold, especially the tip of her nose, and a strawberry birth mark sits right above one of her chocolate brown eyes. Her lips are as blue as the sky. I worry she's freezing and would grow pneumonia is she doesn’t get warm enough soon. I am sounding more like my mother and Prim the more I am around them being healers.

The small fire burned with pine flickers into view as we enter the one roomed house. It was so small, I didn't notice it at first until I looked around the room. I don't think I would have noticed it with all the panic growing in my heart when Bonnie had aimed the gun at my heart. The cold would have made my tears freeze to my face if Peeta had moved a bit more to my left and Bonnie pulled the trigger. If Twill hadn’t arrived when she did, I couldn’t even begin to imagine the look on Peeta’s face.

I slip off my heavy game bag and we all sit by the flames. The reds and oranges and yellows mix with gold and brown in big waves until they reach the tip and the smoke is visible and flies in through the chimney and is released into the afternoon sky. Peeta adds a few more logs, bring the fire up and warming the room around us.

"Where are you two from?" I finally ask after a few minutes of quietness, trying to warm up by the open fire. Bonnie looks towards me, his light brown eyes and light lips make him look older. His skin is tinted from the sun, darker than Twill's light color of peach that is pinched with freckles. His eyes focus back to Twill, tears reach her eyes.

"District Eight," Bonnie responds.

District Eight! Maybe they know something about the uprising I saw before on Mayor Underseen’s television? About the possible war that is about to begin. About anything, anything that could help me understand at the moment.