The Hunger Games : The Songbird's Legacy

Chapter VIII

     "Lucy?" I awake to Maude Ivory gently nudging me and whispering my name. I sit up, still tired from the adventures of last night. But throughout the entire Hunger Games, I barely slept a wink. I could get up now. I sat up and stretched. "Lucy," Maude repeated. "Where'd all this stuff come from?" She asks, gesturing toward the bundled up tent and two backpacks. I simply smile. 

"It's a long story."

"Well, I want to hear it." Maude demands. I simply smile and ruffle her hair.

"Well, I was out looking for water..." I tell Maude everything about my encounter with the Peacekeepers, and how I managed to escape with lots of their supplies. Her eyes widened as I finished the story, and she eventually said, "Won't they be searching for us now that it's morning?" The thought had never occurred to me. If they were out here in the woods, it probably was because they were looking for runaways. And they had certainly found me. I had their supplies, of course they would be coming after me. I was too tired to worry about anything other than getting back to camp last night. But that brought up a more pressing question. What were the Peacekeepers doing here? If they were looking for runaways, that means that they knew Maude and I escaped, or maybe Teresa and her daughters. But what if they weren't out here to find people who escaped the district? Then what was their goal? I pushed my thoughts aside and turned to Maude Ivory. "You're right, we need to get going."

After a quick breakfast of roots, in which I don't eat quite enough so Maude can have her fill, we're packing up. I take some time to roll up the tent, which was designed to be portable. In fact, it even had straps on it so someone could carry it like a backpack. I wrapped our remaining food (which was just the ration packs and a handful of nuts) in a tablecloth and put it in a backpack. Maude, Alma, and Aria tidy up the camp, making sure that we don't leave anything behind that would show we had camped here. I fill one backpack with our food, the tablecloth and sheet, one of the large blankets, the canteens, the fire tray, and the can of coals. I fill the other one with the fire spit, pan, pitcher, my knife, our extra clothes, and the other blanket. Aria offers to wear the tent backpack, which isn't very heavy. As for the backpacks, I have Maude wear the lighter one and I wear the heavier one. We all grab our walking sticks and continue Northward.

As we walk, I carry the extra tablecloth, picking up the food I see. Some nuts scattered on the ground here. Wildflowers here. Since I know the wildflowers don't keep long, we snack on some while we walk. The rest we eat for lunch, along with a handful of nuts. Eventually, I come across a patch of berry bushes, and we rush over to them. "Let me make sure they aren't poisonous." I say. They have a purplish-blue outside, and I break one open. The inside is the same color, and I recognize these berries as safe to eat. Just to be sure, I eat a handful and refuse to let Maude, Alma and Aria even touch them for five minutes until it's clear that I'm safe. Then, we stuff ourselves with as many of the sweet berries as we can, our faces and hands stained an indigo color from the juice.

That night, as we're setting up our tent, I find some bright yellow mushrooms growing by a tree, almost the shape of a funnel. On rare occasions, the Covey and I had spotted some of these mushrooms in the woods, and they tasted fine when cooked up. In fact, they were very filling. This patch could make a meal for all four of us. I start a fire and put the mushrooms in the pan, lowering the spit until the mushroom pan is only a few inches from the fire. I sprinkle some water on them so they don't dry out as I cut a pine branch. As I had hoped, it is dripping with sap. Not the best flavor to go with mushrooms, but maybe it would taste a bit better. After the mushrooms are cooked, we all eat our fill, followed by a few berries and some bittersweet sap for dessert. Covered in sap and berry juice, we all curl up in the tent and quickly fall asleep.