The Overlooked

Chapter 14: First taste

I stretch my arms and yawn. Light peeks in through my eyelids. I rub my eyes. I feel like I've fallen out of a tree, but I haven't. I look down to see Fern still sleeping. I gently lean down and shake her

"Fern, wake up." 

She moves and slowly starts to stretch also "Morning already?"

I nod. then check to make sure my backpack is still here and find it right where I left it. I look around, judging by the sun it looks to be about seven in the morning, but the Capitol could be manipulating even that.

The birds are chirping and squirrels are scouring. If I wasn't thinking I could be tricked into enjoying this, but sadly I can't forget where I am, and that is definitely not going to happen. This peace in itself is a trick, I'm probably on screen right now, not constantly, but on and off. Just enough to show people I'm alive, that I'm fine and with Fern.  So me and Fern must look on top of things.

"Hey let's get some food." I say casually

Ever so slowly she gets down and looks around. When I get down I stretch my back, I'm not used to sleeping in tree's, I usually get out before dark at home. I start to walk around with Fern trailing behind me. I show her some roots to dig. I don't have a weapon yet so I can't get meat. I have the sharp rock and that's all, not enough to kill something.

I've never actually killed something before, we just scared the animals away when we needed to protect the fruit back home. I don't know if I really could, I would feel awful. I don't think I have the stomach for that. Plus my vow last night comes back to me and I know I won't kill anything.

Me and Fern dig roots for a while then go to collect more berries. I find some berries that I know and start to pick them. I steer clear from any poisonous ones. The trainer was right when they said that its very easy to mistake them if you don't know them. Fern doesn't really know much about them, and I don't know what most of them do to you if inhaled. 

After a while we have enough for a meal.  We sit down behind some rocks and eat the roots raw. Their starchy and hard to choke down after a week of the best food you've ever had, but now isn't the time to be picky. We finish the roots

"What now?" I ask

Fern shrugs "Go hiking, move spots, I don't know. . . .but we can't stay here forever."

"You're probably right, anyway, today is a lovely day to take a stroll through the woods." I say, mocking the Capitol accent on the last part.

Fern laughs "Why of course it is!" She mocks the accent too

We walk silently around tree's and bushes, no talking just walking. We stop for a while to fill the water bottle. Since we only have one water bottle and there's two of us the water is gone fast. I take the time to unwrap the moss around her arm and reassess her injury. It's swollen and oozing pretty bad. I take some cool water from the bottle and pour it over her arm. She winces

"It looks bad." She says

I look away deciding what to do "I can fix it if I can find the plant I'm looking for." I lie

I wrap it in some clean, rinsed out, moss and we keep going.  We just walk and walk and walk.

"Break time?" I ask while turning around

We decide to break into our stash of berries and eat half of the loaf of bread. We sip slowly and breath heavily.

"I need to make a slingshot." I say suddenly

Fern looks over confused "Why?"

"It might be the best way to get something to eat unless someone decides to send us something!"