Ashes and Tesserae | Peeta Mellark

Sixteen-year-old Fleur Harlow has never fit neatly into District 12's merchant class.

Her father, Derrick Harlow, owns the butcher shop in town, but that doesn't mean the Harlows live comfortably. Most of the meat sold behind the counter is far too valuable to keep for themselves, and unless Fleur brings something home from the woods, dinner is often as thin as anyone else's in District 12.

So at twelve years old, Fleur learned to hunt.

Now she slips through the trees beside Katniss Everdeen and Gale Hawthorne as naturally as breathing, bow in hand and boots coated in forest mud. In the woods, titles like merchant and Seam stop mattering. Out there, survival is the only thing that counts.

Still, Fleur walks between two different worlds.

Her mother, Charlotte Auburn Baird, was born among the Covey - a once-travelling group known for music, storytelling, and wandering from place to place before the Peacekeepers forced them to settle in District 12. Raised in the Seam, Charlotte carried those songs and stories with her even after marrying Derrick and moving to the merchant side of town.

Fleur inherited pieces of both her parents: the merchant name, the Seam instincts, and the restless Covey spirit that never quite learned how to stay still.

But none of that matters on Reaping Day.

Not when her little sister Etta stands trembling with the twelve-year-olds for the very first time.

Not when Fleur's own name sits in the reaping bowl twenty times after years of taking tesserae to help feed her family.

And not when the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games are about to begin.

Disclaimer:
This is a fan-made story inspired by the world and characters of The Hunger Games.
It is written purely for creative and entertainment purposes.
No copyright infringement is intended.