Into the Flames [Watty Awards 2012]

Chapter 20

“Fresh fish! Get your fresh fish!” Trout smiled and waved to the fish selling lady as we passed. The lady waved back, “You need any fish today Trout?”

“Not today Grace, sorry. Maybe next time.” The lady nodded and we continued on. Trout continued to greet almost every person we passed, some offered food or items and others didn’t. “This is my favorite stall,” said Trout pointing to a stall. Wooden figures covered the table. An old man sat behind the table, cutting a chunk of wood. I started to look at the little figures. Some were fish and other symbols of our district. There was some depicting the games as well. Tiny wooden people jabbed at each other near a little wooden cornucopia. A few bodies lay among the supplies. I picked it up and studied it. Would Waterlily become one of them dead at the bloodbath? Would she be the one killing the other innocent children? I knew she was the face of the rebellion and killing was part of her job, but these people were innocent, the Capitol wasn’t. There was a difference wasn’t there?

“Mist? You okay?”

I snapped out of my thoughts, “What? Oh, yeah, I’m fine.”

“Good, you just seemed to be a little worried.” She looked closer at me, probably noticing exactly what I was holding. “You’re worried about Waterlily aren’t you?” I nod slowly, feeling so pathetic. First I was comforting her, now she would have to comfort me. “She’s going to be fine. You even told me that. She knows how to fight. Maybe we can’t give her weapons or medicine, or even a sufficient amount of food, but she will make it. She seems to be getting a lot of good attention, so she’ll probably have a lot of sponsors.”

“True. I know she has the strength to make it; I’m just worried she’ll freak out and forget what to do. She’s a fast learner so she probably knows a ton already from the training sessions. I really wish I could be there with her.”

“To be killed? You know only one person comes out which means one of you would have to die!”

“I guess, but I want to be there to help her, to defend her.”

“Sorry to say, but you’re not so good with the fighting stuff. How would you defend her?”

“Oh,” I looked down. She was right. I wouldn’t be able to do it. If I was with her, she would win, I would be the dead one. I’d probably die in the bloodbath!

“I’m sorry Mist, I shouldn’t have said that.”

“No, it’s fine. You’re right. I probably wouldn’t make it far past he bloodbath, if even. Waterlily would be the one protecting me. I guess I’m glad I’m not there. I wouldn’t want to have to see her watch me die.

“Oh stop. You’re not that bad!”

The old man was watching us now. “You ladies buying something?”

“Oh sorry Mr. Henley, we’re not. I was just showing Waterlily your stuff.”

He nodded and I set down the figure. “That one is the 70th games. That is my daughter there,” He points to a small girl with an axe above her head. “She was really good with that axe. Everyone, including myself, was surprised since we never use them here.”

I nodded slowly, “Emily right?”

He nodded, “I wish someone would have taken her place. I thought they would since there are careers here, but they had none ready that year. She was so good at the whittling.” He stuck his hand under the table and pulled out a figure. It was a tall girl with long flowing hair. She wore a long thin dress. The thing that puzzled me the most was what was on her back. There were other weird things too, like the way she held her hands, palm against palm, right in front of her chest. But, on her back was a set of wings. They were big, probably to support her weight if she were to fly. “She named it Angel. She was the last thing Emily carved. She finished just a few days before the reaping. Angel reminds me of her so much, so I always keep her with me.”

“Angle is beautiful, the name and the figure. I have never heard the name before or seen a person with wings,” Trout looked at the figure curiously, trying to depict it.

“Neither had I. Angel is definitely one of a kind. But so was Emily. She made this too,” He pulled out another carving from under the table. This one looked sort of like a bird. It was sort of fat and short, but it had a long arching neck. It was beautiful.

“Does this one have a name?”

“No, she never named it. She said she couldn’t think of it. She said it started with an ‘s’ though.”

“She couldn’t think of its name? That’s weird.”

“Yeah, it always puzzled me.”

A felt someone touch my shoulder and I jumped. I turned to find Jared’s face in mine. I stepped back, “Jared! What are you doing here?”

“Just happened to see you two lovely young ladies over here. Let’s head over to my house I want to talk with you guys.”

“Okay,” I waved goodbye to Mr. Henley and followed Jared away to his house, Trout trailing behind.