The 55th Hunger Games

Chapter 23

        "We will be safe here," I tell Aponi who is sceptically eyeing the bushes around the place in which Kedeth died. The bushes are thick and come in great numbers in this part of the forest and so will be our best chance for a peaceful night if we conceal ourselves within them.

        "Yes, I'm sure we will," Aponi agrees.

        It is now nightfall and the walk back to this place was difficult. My throat ached and the anti-inflammation drug I took scarcely made an impact on it. I knew that Aponi's arm must have been giving her great pain as we walked, but she did not utter a single complaint, which I couldn't help but admire.

        We cannot see Kedeth's grave from the bushes where we are concealed, but even if neither of us knew we were at the place of the death spot, the forest around us would surely give us a hint. It is strange, but it feels as though the trees around us are mourning the death also. They are thick and concealing but there is a rather distinct feeling of sadness among them. I had not felt it before when we slept close by to this place right after I met Aponi, but I do now, and I'm not sure I have felt anything like it before.

        "Do you feel it too?" Aponi asks me.

        I look at her and realise I had zoned out for a time. Her eyes shine strangely, and I know she is feeling the same thing that I am.

        "Yes, it is as though the forest is grieving. I didn't feel it before, but I do now."

        "I felt it when I returned here with you before, but I could tell you did not."

        "It is very strange, certainly, but perhaps it is only in our minds." But when I say this, I don't think it's true and neither, it seems, does Aponi.

        "I do not think so Taslim. I am not nearly as familiar with trees as you are, but I can feel their sadness just as much, I am sure, as you can."

        I look at her unflinchingly then up at the leafy canopy above us and then down at the tree's strangely smooth looking bark.

        "I have never seen their likes before," I reply. "These trees don't grow in District seven, and I have heard nothing about them in our classes at school. I don't think I can even relate them to a tree I know. They may well be a Capitol creation."

        "If that is so, then maybe we should give them a name which we can know them by."

        "Yes, that's a good idea." I reply. "I think these trees are our friends too, so we should make it a nice one."

        "How about Heart trees?" Aponi suggests, "For they seem to feel as we do."

        I smile "That's good, but we should make it only one word- Heartrees. That way, it could have a strange name like other trees, like Catclaw and Blackbead."

        Aponi laughs and I feel my heart expand.

        "Cat-claw and Black-bead? What strange names!"

        "And now we have Heart-tree, but we know exactly why these trees received that name."

        "So we do!" Aponi says, eyes sparkling.

        That familiar-unfamiliar sensation sweeps through me again and I find myself forgetting for that moment what I'd promised myself I wouldn't do.

        I dig my fingernails into my palms again and thank the gamemakers for their timing when the anthem plays and the sky lights up revealing that nobody has died today. I take that minute to breathe and remind myself exactly what presenting my love to her would mean, and I suddenly both feel very foolish and very angry with myself.