THE MAN IN THE HANGING TREE | Gale Hawthorne

SEVEN - Singing in the Meadow

YOUR POINT OF VIEW

Today is the day.

The 74th annual Hunger Games will start today at noon, just as the sun reaches optimal position in the sky.

As time slowly creeps by, and the sun ascends to it's highest peak, it's almost time but I can't seem to find Gale anywhere.

We were supposed to meet to watch the games, but it's seems he's changed his enigma of a mind.

So, I go and find Hazelle at her work to ask her if she knows where her mysterious son might be.

"The only other place I can think of is the forest outside the district." Hazelle tells me, wiping her sudsy hands on her apron

I thank her before leaving, practically dashing across town. That really should have been the first place I went, how stupid of me to assume the hunter would be anywhere on this stressful day but his safe spot.

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I've never been outside District Twelve before, not in my entire seventeen years on this miserable planet. But I have watched Katniss and Gale leave hundreds of times, so I know exactly what to do.

The supposedly electric fence surrounding the district has been shut off for years, since they built it it seems. I don't think it's ever been on in my seventeen years of life.

I duck under the barbed wire after looking to make sure no one is watching, not that the people or peacekeepers of District Twelve actually care. We get away with a lot of things here because we have yet to cause trouble, but that could all change.

There's a path worn into the ground of the forest, probably from Katniss and Gale's years of hunting. So I follow it, making my life easier, listening carefully for any sign of the mysterious boy in the woods.

I come into a clearing after walking a few minutes, right to a meadow of a sorts. Forest surrounds the side closest to District Twelve, thick, dense, like a natural barrier for what lays outside. Out the other side lies this beyond, and  you can see miles and miles, just trees stretching out over the rolling land.

If I were to run from this place, from the Capitol, that is the direction I would head.

Sitting on the ground, in the tall grass overlooking the sprawling forest, is tired looking Gale. Exactly where I should have looked in the first place.

"There you are." I say walking towards him, slowly like one would approach a wild animal.

He looks over at me, a small melancholy smile on his face as he twists his fingers in the grass that surrounds him. "Hey." He says, voice soft as silk.

"It's almost time, we should head back." I tell him, putting a tentative hand on his shoulder, squeezing ever so gently.

Gale takes a deep breath, closing his eyes, turning back towards the stretching trees. "I don't want to watch it." He says, voice sill uttered quietly. "I don't want to watch my best die." He slumps back in the grass abruptly.

I sit down beside him, and he looks and me quizzically, as if he was expecting me to leave him all alone at a time like this. "I'm staying here with you then." I tell him, laying down on my stomach and propping myself up on one elbow right beside my new friend.

"Thank you." Gale whispers, closing his brilliant grey eyes once more. Trying to find peace in this very moment, place, and time. Trying to find comfort in my presence, in the warm breeze that ruffles his brown hair, in the sunlight that warms his olivey skin, in the rustle of the leaves around us.