Before the Ember

Chapter 1 The new era

It's a chilly November morning, the sun just rose and I'm bundled in my covers. I look to the clock at the entrance of my room. It reads 8:00. I sigh and roll over fluttering my eyes shut. Jut as I'm about to drift off to sleep again a piercing scream fills my ears. I jump out of bed and run down the stairs.

I see my dad walk out of his room and looks at me with pity. "She's alright Ember, she just had another nightmare." He said while kissing me on top of my head. He was talking about my mother. My father Peeta and my mother Katniss were in the Hunger Games and she still has nightmares about it but lately they've been about the war and Prim and Finnick.

I sit down on the couch a curl up in a soft blanket and sip hot chocolate that my father gave me. "So your mom has an old friend coming to visit..." My father states to end our silence. "Annie?" I ask.
"No" he responds.
"Her son Fin?"
"Nope"
"Johanna and her family?"
"Try again"
"Effie?"
"No....."
"Haymitch?"
"Nada."
"I give up." I exhale.
"Gale Hawthorne." he answers.
"Hawthorne..... as in Coal Hawthorne?From District 2?" I ask full of Hope.
"You bet." he smiles.
"So...so.... COAL'S COMING?!?!" I squeal.
"I knew you would do that. Now go get ready, their coming tomorrow so we have a lot to do today." he laughs.

Coal Hawthorne is Gale Hawthorne's son. He's also my best friend. We visited him a lot when I was younger but it got harder with both my brother and I in school. The last time I saw him was when I was 10. I'm 15 now.

I run upstairs to my room and I take a bath. Once I get out I put on an over sized sweater, black leggings, a red scarf, and brown combat boots. I braid 1my brown hair to the side and I apply a light coat of mascara to accent my blue eyes.

I head down stairs to see my father writing on a pad of paper.
"So where we going?" I ask
"The black market and then later I need you and your mother to go hunting." he says not taking his focus off of his paper.
"What would you like us to hunt?" I ask.
"I would like you guys to try and hunt a turkey and then maybe some squirrels and quails."
"Wait... how long are they staying?"
"Two weeks."
"Yeah!"
"Go get your brother, we're leaving."

I run up the stairs and into Kale's room to find him flexing in the mirror.
"C'mon weirdo we're leaving." I laugh. Kale rolls his eyes at me and follows me out of his room." I hurry and grab my money from selling game before going down stairs. Once I get down stairs we leave.

"Oh Ember, I need you to help me work at the bakery tonight to make some extra bread for while they're here. You too Kale I need you to work the register while I'll be in the back." My dad says.
"But dad!" Kale groans.
"Will you pay us?" I ask while I smile my innocent smile.
"Fine." My dad groans
"Thank you!" I squeal. "and Kale, you never know, you might see Pansy!" Kale blushes madly," shut up!" I snicker in response.
"Who's this Pansy you speak of?" My dad questions in teasingly matter.
"Only the girl of his dreams!" I tease. Kale's face grows a deeper red.
"Hmmm well I'll have to meet her. You know, to see if she's good enough for the Mellark title." My dad jokes.
"Well I'm just gonna state the truth. She's WAY out of his league!" I laugh.
"Hey! He may be a lover boy but an Mellark man can get any girl he wants!" My dad states.
"Oh really." I roll my eyes.
"Yup! Cuz I got your mother..... I nearly choked her to death in the process, but I got her!" My dad smiles.
"Well... we'll see, he's only 12." I point out.
"I fell in love with your mom at age 5." My dad rubs in my face.
"But we're talking about Kale here. El high pitched squeaky voice Kale, and anyway you might have fell in love with mom at age 5 but she didn't know you even existed till she was 16!" I snicker.
"You know Ember, sometimes you can be a real smart ass!" My father jokes, flicking me in the head.
"Yeah!" Kale adds obviously still upset about the Pansy situation.
"I know. It's one of my talents." I smirk. My dad rolls his eyes while chuckling.

We arrive at the black market and Kale and I grin at each other.
"Dad?!" We shout together.
"Fine, go look at your crap but stay together and be back before 12:00." My dad says. I grab Kale's wrist and look at his watch. It reads 10:45. That's an hour and 15 minutes. I look to Kale and he smiles. We head inside the rusty building and are instantly bombarded with the smell of coffee beans and oil.

Kale agrees to let me look at the little trinkets and threads near the far back corner first as long as we go to the candy spot after. I look through the different chains, pins, medal bracelets, thread bracelets, and much more things when I come across a beautiful ring. The part that goes around your finger was pitch black and the stone l
he middle was a ruby. It was a beautiful red with a mixture of orange. It was like the color of fire.

"That looks stupid." Kale says blankly.
"You look stupid!" I say disgusted. Kale sticks his tongue out at me.
"What are you, five?" I roll my eyes. Kale glares at me.
"Can we just go get candy now!?" He whines very impatiently. I nod my head and we find the candy area. We find are favorite kind, chocolate covered marshmallows, and hurry to the pay spot. We split the price of the candies and I push the ring in front of the cashier.
"Where did you find that?" The lady asks.
"In the back." I say while biting my lip. "Well it must have been left in here, you just take it darling." she smiles.
"Thank you" I smile back. Kale and I go outside and sit eating our treats.

~~~~~~Authors note~~~~~~~
That's my first update for Before the Ember! I know it might have been slightly boring but I didn't want to introduce the other characters yet and I also don't want to add the real juicy parts till a bit later. I hope you like it! Also this was not updated on a Saturday like all my other updates will so their will be another update this Saturday. Plz vote and comment. I'd love to hear your input!