Everthorne -Run

Part 14

Katniss pov

I woke up later that usual. I looked up at Gale. He was just waking up to. "Hey" he said. I smiled back. But the pain in my head was almost blinding. He must have seen it in my face, because he ran his thumb around the cut on my forhead.

We walked to the campfire where our mothers were cooking. The other kids were still sleeping. We both sat on a mat layed out in front of the campfire. "Want some food dears?" Hazel asked softly. "Ok. Thank you" says Katniss. They hand us two metal bowls of what looks like turkey soup. I warmth of the bowl warmed my icy fingers. I was freezing all over. I had my fathers hunting jacket on and another jacket over that, yet I was still cold. I held the bowl tightly, trying to soak up every drop of its warmth.

Once we finished, mom asked what we should do. "I'm not really sure. We're defiantly running low on fire wood, but we can't do anything about that because everything is still wet and it will just send smoke into the air." I say. "We are going to make a permentant shelter once we walk a little while more. We could walk today I guess." Gale says. "Ok. I'll start packing up" said my mother. "Let's go hunt. We're running out of food" I say to Gale. "Ok let's go" Gale answers. I'm glad we are going hunting. I just want to be with him. We haven't hunted together just the two ok us and nobody else since we left district 12.
I breathed in the sweet cold air of the pine forest. I smiled. "I love it when you smile."
Gale says to me. "What?" I say with a giggle. "I love your smile." Gale says, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. "Thanks I guess" I laugh a little this time. We walk along for a few miles. Suddenly, my fingers feel like lead. There is a fat turkey walking in front of us. I feel like I was in the games. "Gale....um...you can shoot this one" I said I'm a strained voice. I looked over my should and all around to make sure nobody was watching me. Gale shot the turkey and I cringed. "You ok?" Gale said worriedly walking twords me. I started to breath hard. I looked around again to make sure nobody was watching me. Trying to kill me. "no no your ok!" Gale said in panic. "Look see? We're in our woods. We're home. Your with me. Your safe." He soothed. I nodded. We were home. Nothing was going to hurt us. We were home. "We're home. We're home." I whispered. "I'm sorry" I whispered. "No you have nothing to be sorry about. Katniss you have been so brave. I would be broken down right now so much you couldn't pick me up if I had to go through what you did." He said. "Come here" he said. I walked in to his arms without hesitation. "Thank you. For everything." I say. "No problem catnip". And thank you for everything." I say. We stop hugging. The fear has left me. Look up at Gale and smile. He smiles back "that's better" he whispers. I stand on my tiptoes and kiss his forhead. "Let's get hunting then." I say. We walk along and I pick off squirrels and turkeys and rabbits like nothing happened. We now had 12 turkeys, 8 squirrels, and 11 rabbits. "This should be enough for a while." Gale says. "Yeah" I say. We begin the trek back to our camp. It starts to snow a little bit. The flakes fall all around us in a soft sheet, not like the blinding waves that fell the other night. Gale wraps his arm around my shoulder and kisses my temple. I smile. I love him. Should I say something? Later. I though. Later.

We walked back to camp, gales arm still tight around my shoulders. "We got dinner" Gale said with a smile as he held up the game bag. I smiled.

We all sat down around the campfire. Everyone was talking and eating. Everyone's faces were lit up by the fire. It was a perfect night. No worries about the hunger games. No worries of starvation. Execution. Murder. Was this how other people far away from here felt like. I would give almost anything for us all to go there, wherever "there" is.

We built a canopy up in the trees to shield is from the snow and rain. It covered a huge chunk of land that couldn't get drowned by snow. Although it was still cold, we were all a bit warmer from the canopy, the campfire, and our full bellies. I lay down next to Gale and my mother. Posy held tightly to Vick and hazel to Rory. Just like the first nigh we were out in the woods. Gales arms were wrapped around me. I pretended I was asleep. Just to enjoy the night. I guess he really thought I was asleep. Because the next thing you know, he delicately kisses my forehead and whispers quietly "I love you catnip. I know you can't hear me. But I love you." What should I do. Should I pretend to sleep? Or should I confess I love him to. I do love him. This might be the only chance. So I slowly life my head up and kiss the tip of his nose. "I love you to" I say. A big smile forms over gales face. "You do?" He says. "Yes Gale I love you so much. I don't know what I would do without you" I say as I stare into his eyes. "I love you" I repeat. He kisses my forehead again. "I love you to" we look at eachother for a few more seconds, just taking in the moment. Then out of nowhere Gale leans in and plants a gentile kiss on my lips. We disconnect. I look up and smile really big. "I love you" i say as I curl up even closer to him. "I love you to catnip. I love you to"