The Setting: District 2
Age: 16 years old
Plot: Clove wakes up to prepare for her first day of school
Waking up was always the worst part of the day for Clove. It wasn’t the classic problem that girls her age had, her hair wasn’t standing up the right way or that she had developed a pimple overnight. The problem was that she would wake up every day into the same nightmare, but just another date on her calendar.
She tugged free one of her knives from under her pillow and sent it hurtling with precision to the wall where it pierced August 22nd perfectly on her hand-made calendar that she and Nolan had taken such care into crafting, only to have it be stabbed every morning.
Nolan would always say that Clove would throw the knives at the wall every morning because she was never a morning person, but she knew her excuse was to make sure that given the circumstances that she would have to throw a knife, she would never miss. Not ever.
Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, she got down on all fours on the ground and began digging and rooting through the piles and piles of discarded clothing that had begun to collect on the ground like autumn leaves in the fall afternoon. Once her hands located a pant leg that only seemed somewhat wrinkled, she tugged it free from the bottom of a stack of clothing and pulled them on over her underwear. She located her newly ironed career uniform shirt from her closet, the number ‘2’ ironed on the back with somewhat perfect precision. She never was a good seamstress, and that was made evident by the splotch of blood that had now become a stain on the white number, right at the base of the 2. She smiled slightly to herself and tugged the shirt over her head, slipping on her combat boots and tugging her fingers through her hair a few times to make sure it looked at least somewhat presentable before she grabbed her bag from beside her bed and made the bed as best she could. Then, hopping onto the mattress with both feet, she bounced up and down until she had enough momentum to grab onto the window ledge and hoist herself through and out onto the grass of the backyard.
She closed her window and moved the cardboard box in front of her window so no one could get into her room if they were dumb enough to come into her backyard.
The ravine had become somewhat of a second home to Clove over these past years of calmly sliding between the trees that would spike up and down randomly in the soil, twisting and turning amongst themselves to the tallest of heights.
Clove would often wonder what it would be like to climb to the very top of those trees and to perch herself on the branches, make herself a home with the birds and creatures that would live in the wild. But of course, District 2 was definitely no fairy tale place like she pictured it to be, and the hollow sound of metal against metal pulled her back into her destination that she had learned off by heart by now.
She leaned against the tree trunk to balance herself as her feet danced carefully from stone to stone, leading a delicate path to the side of the ravine where she took her knives from the small of her back and used them as tools to help her climb up the steep ridge.
By the time she emerged on the other side, the grass began to thicken the farther you looked into the distance and she spotted a small brick house with a large grey chimney that was puffing up smoke in tendrils and mushroom shaped clouds like no tomorrow. It figures that Nolan would be awake this early, too.
She still remembered when a young Aeliana Mars had asked her why she carried so many knives, and as she arrived at the Blacksmith’s cabin, she waited patiently for Nolan to arrive from the back room. He was probably finishing up a sword or two…
She began pulling her knives out so that they could be re-sharpened before the beginning of training this year again like every other year. Pride and Greed… she thought to herself, tugging free her two knives from the holsters that were built into her leather jacket and set them both on the table.Gluttony and Envy… She pulled the next two from her hip holsters. Lust and Sloth… She pulled the last two from her ankle holsters, and let her fingers trace the ghost of the crease in the leather by her left breast.
Just to make sure that it was still there, she unzipped her jacket slowly and pulled the fabric back, her heartbeat relaxing when it spotted the final knife tucked away safely in its secure pocket so that when the jacket was closed, it would rest safely next to her heart.
Wrath… Those initials, M.A.F were forever engraved on not only that blade but her mind as well. That blade that she had long ago promised would pierce her father’s heart for what he did to her mother….
“The usual today, Clove?” Nolan’s voice broke her free from her train of thought, and she gave him a small half smile. “Yeah, you know the drill” she responded, delicately pulling Wrath free from her jacket. She never let anyone touch this knife, not even Nolan to sharpen it. She would always sharpen this one by hand, by herself, every year.
“Was your Uncle awake?” Nolan asked, taking a bucket and collecting the six knives that Clove had left on the table with his dirt stained and callused hands, headed to the fire.
“Is he ever? Who knows what he does in that study…” she responded, following right behind him. Since her release from the mental ward nearly four years ago, all he would do was leave food for her on the table and hide in his study. Not that she was complaining, that was far better treatment than her father had ever given her, but she was still curious as to what he did behind closed doors.
“Was just trying to make conversation, Knives.” Nolan said, putting on his leather gloves and his eye goggles. Even without being able to see his piercing green eyes, she knew that those familiar laugh lines would be creasing around his eyes. He was the only one that ever called her Knives, and even though she pretended to detest it, she had quite gotten used to it by now.
“Just shut up and do your work” she mocked, locating the smaller leather gloves that were stashed away in a drawer near the back of the shop and she borrowed one of Nolan’s goggles.
“Yes ma’am” he responded sarcastically, rolling his eyes and turning his back to her.
So began yet another day.
