Another Tree Falls (open)

[Abryl Simms]

Abryl awoke early to the deep chill of the fall. Her eyes remained firmly shut as she wiggled down deeper under the thin blanket. Just a moment more. Let her rest. The early morning chill bit at her face, worming its way through holes in her scrappy blanket and wrapping its cold tendrils around her body. She heard her brother awaking next to her. Both she and Mabry awoke early in the chilly fall. His gentle footsteps approached her bed, stopping before her. Abryl felt a strong hand come to rest slightly on her shoulder. "Abryl, wake up. Come on, work starts soon," He whispered soothingly. Had it been anyone but Mabry asking her, Abryl never would have moved. Only her older brother could get her to do things. Abryl's eyes cracked open, soft blue light spilling in through the dusty, cobwebbed window. She watched Mabry's receding figure as he walked down the hall and into the kitchen.

Abryl sat up slowly, throwing back the poor excuse of a blanket to meet the chilly autumn air. Her feet felt numb as the walked sorely across the frozen floor. She hadn't even bothered to take off her work clothes last night, and so this morning, she only had to pull on socks and her boots. Abryl then followed after Mabry into the kitchen. She didn't glance at what he was eating. Today was her day to go without breakfast. They all took turns, well, except for the twins. They were too young. Mabry seemed to notice her sullen expression, and ate hastily, careful not to smack. When he was done, they left the cabin silently, walking side by side into the forest. It was quiet this early in the morning with not a soul about. That would change soon when the sounds of axes and saws and "heads ho" filled the air. But for now, it was calm and Abryl relished in it.

They parted when the reached the new crop of trees. Mabry gave her a simple nod and headed towards the axemen. He was responsible for cutting down trees. Abryl grew them. She glanced after him for a moment, and then turned into the neat rows of young, sapling pines. As she walked, she reached out to touch their trunks. Here was Patrick, one of the first trees she had planted. Further along was Peppa and Padarn. She had named them, two for each hunger games. Each name started with a P because they were pine trees. It wasn't very original Abryl admitted, but it was the best she could do. This year, she had named the two trees of her choice Pandora and Pallas. They were in the last line of saplings, barely growing to her waist. It would be many many years before they were fully grown and cut down. Abryl prayed she wouldn't be there to see it. She kneeled and began to pull weeds from around the roots of the trees, taking special care not to upset the pines. As she glanced around her, she noticed some of the trees over near Patrick were beginning to fall. Abryl grinded her teeth together in frustration. The axemen cut down the trees to young, or so Abryl thought. If they would just wait, they would get much stronger trees.

Fuming, Abryl left and went to pick up the bag of seeds at the end of the row. It must contain at least two thousand, maybe more. Sighing inwardly, she took a rusted shovel and began to long grueling work of planting pine seeds. Her back began to ache, but at least there was no one here to see her work. To see her hunched over the ground. To see her where she was most vulnerable.

[Kelly]

"Wha'cha doing over here?" a girl's voice asked. It didn't sound hostile or scary, but it was more curious and friendly.

Standing not very far from Abryl, was a girl who couldn't be any older then 15 or 16. Her long, curly dark hair had tiny traces of pine needles stuck in, as the hair fell around her curious face. This girl didn't know Abryl too well, but she seemed friendly. The tanned girl gave Abryl and wide, somewhat mischievous grin that seemed to go ear-to-ear.

"I'm Angel." the girl chirped, holding out a hand. "And you?"

While offering the handshake, Angel was leaning up against an ax, the blade in the ground, Angel's elbow on top of the handle. It was clear she came from the area where they were chopping down trees. [/color]

[Abryl Simms]

Abryl was startled as the voice of another girl cut into the silence. Dabbing at the sweat on her brow, she glanced up and the girl standing just a few feet away from her. She was fairly familiar, maybe in the same school year as her? Her hair was a long, deep mahogany color that fell in neat, straight sheets over her shoulders. She had tan skin and dark, beautiful, deep eyes. Her voice was friendly, neither angry nor rude, only curious. Abryl found herself nodding when the girl announced that her name was Angel. Now she recalled seeing her with Mabry and the other lumberjacks in the mornings. Abryl wiped the dirt from her hands on her jeans and got to her feet, pulling the pine needles out of her hair.

“I’m Abryl. Abryl Simms,” She said, her voice sounding strong and confident. She grasped Angle’s outstretched hand and then let it drop, running her dirty hand through her hair. “And as for what I’m doing, I’m planting. You can’t just cut down trees you know, you got to replace too as I always say,” Abryl said, nodding her head in agreement with her own statement. “I can see that you’re a lumberjack,” She said in a matter of fact tone, eyeing the sharp, menacing axe. “Maybe you know my brother Mabry? He’s 19, tall, strong, brown hair kind of like mine?” Abryl asked, smiling for the first time since talking with Angle. Just thinking of her older brother brought a grin to her face.

As she waited for an answer, she glanced around the field at her handy work. She had already done one row of seeds. 100 yards long, two seeds in each hole with the holes spaced one yard apart. Most of the other planters said this was silly, but generally only one of the seeds ended up growing. Abryl had never planted a row that didn’t have 100 pine trees growing about a month later. She would need to water later, then clear away any debris, and finally take one final check to make sure that none of the axemen and smooshed anything while carrying a tree. With any luck, she might be able to get home in time for dinner, maybe see if the people from her district had survived another day? Was that possible? Abryl was ashamed to admit that she didn’t even know what was going on in these games. Only that it had something to do with Greece, which she knew plenty about. It was because of this knowledge that she had named her two trees this year Pallas and Pandora. Looking back over at Angle, she smiled and inhaled a deep breath of woody pine.

[Kelly]

(Ill fix the format in a bit--Im on my kindle. XD)

Angel grinned widely once again, her hand only dropping to her side for a moment as she waved her hand around as she spoke. Angel seemed happy as she thought she may have recognized Abryl, but wasn't a hundred percent sure. She glanced back toward where she was previously working, as if they might call her back any moment. Truth is, they may, Bering Angel snuck away due to boredom and curiousity of the girl working. She turned back to Abryl, still grinning, mischief in her eyes. She nodded her head. "Yup! Mabry 's good friends with Marcos." Angel States forgetting to mention Marcos was her older brother. She tilts her head at the fir. "I should've known you two were related! You guys kinds look alike, with the hair color and all."

Angel, like Abryl, did hold some resemblance to her family, mainly her trouble-making, gambling older brother Tulio who was, for all the not so good reasons, well known in this area. Angel did share the mischief filled grin, as well as skin, eyes, and hair color. Angel glanced at the spots that looked like they had had seeds planted in them. "Woah." She said. "That's a lot of pine. You plant all these yourself?" She asked, glancing at the girl, looking impressed.

[Abryl Simms]

Abryl nodded as Angle stated that Mabry and Marcos were good friends. She had forgotten that Angle had siblings, but now she recalled seeing a group of similar looking children walk into school together. Abryl assumed that Marcos was around Mabry’s age, so he must be out of school and the reapings. She wondered what it must be like to not have to worry about the reapings. Did you feel relief? Guilt? Happiness? Not to mention that you didn’t have to go to school anymore. That was one thing Abryl knew she wouldn’t miss. She hated the plain white walls, the boring lectures, the small spaces locked away from fresh air and her pines. Possible the most annoying thing about school was the lectures she received on the different trees the axemen cut down. Abryl probably knew more about the trees then all the teachers in the school combined. She was sure Angle did too. Most people that worked in the forest had an adept knowledge of nature.

Abryl smiled a bit at the compliment on her planting. Most people took her work for granted, cutting down what she had spent so long on in only mere seconds. To them, it was only another tree. It was money, it was life, it was food, but it was nothing more than a tree. To her, each tree was living and breathing. It was more than bark, needles, or firewood. A pine tree was a friend. “Yeah, I planted most of them; I had some help and all…” Abryl ended softly, all of a sudden feeling shy. She usually didn’t share her work with others, and felt a bit odd opening up to a girl with whom she had never even spoken with before. “I’m sure you a good lumberjack,” Abryl said with a lopsided smile, glancing at Angle’s toned muscles and casual stance. “I was never very good at it myself,” Abryl admitted. “It wasn’t that I wasn’t strong enough, I just could bring myself to kill anything,” She said a bit lamely. It sounded stupid now, coming out of her mouth, but it was the truth. Abryl tried to recall if she had ever told anyone besides Mabry or her Mother this. No one came to mind. Realizing she had spilled one of her deepest secrets, Abryl immediately wanted to suck the words back inside her, but they were already laid out for everyone to see.

As she talked, she noticed Angle kept staring behind her back at the woods were the calls of the lumberjacks and the thuds of the axes echoed. Her eyes were nervous, but also held a spark of defiance and excitement in them. Now that Abryl thought about it, she had never spoken to another lumberjack while she was working. They never ventured from the woods, sometimes there were even peacekeepers watching them, but usually they didn’t. Was Angle supposed to be here? Abryl felt a bit uncomfortable asking, but she didn’t want to get in trouble, so she plowed ahead. “Did you forget something back in those woods? Your awful intent on staring at them,” Abryl said with a slight smile in attempt to not sound to nosy.

[Kelly]

Angel tried not to laugh when Abryl said she must be a good lumberjack. "Nahhh..." she said, stifling a giggle. She only help with the cutting down trees because it was either that, or housework, which Angel couldn't stand the tiniest bit. It was boring and monotonous working outdoors was so much better than indoors. Marcos was the only kid in her family who was really good with the ax. Tulio was decent. Anita and Evita couldn't even lift one up. Aaron's even worse then Angel. Marcos has called Angel a little... Reckless when it comes to actually cutting the tree down. It wasn't she was rough with the tree or whatever, it's just that she can never cut the same exact place twice.

She grinned at the ground, examining the girl's work. "Dang, girl." she said. "You should get a lot more credit than 'ya do. Must be hard work" Angel said in awe. It was amazing this girl could plant so many seeds. Angel would get bored or tired after two seconds and find something else to do. She looked back to the other lumberjacks. Wasn't that what she was doing now? Oh well. as long as she was back for the final tree of the hour, she would get paid- They wouldn't even notice she was gone.

Angel smiled softy when she heard Abryl couldn't bring herself to kill anything. "That's cool." she said honestly. "With everyone jumping all over the Hunger Games, people from the Upper Districts, you almost forget their... Human. It's nice to still be like you. We should have more people like that." she said. She grinned again, her soft moment fading away. "Of course, thank god those Games only happen once a year. They get everyone all scared or hyped up or somethin'. After a while, it all brushes over." she said, looking on the bright side. To be honest, angel couldn't give a single damn about the Games- It's not like she'd ever get picked for them. What are the odds? Like, 4 or 5 out of a ka-billion other names?

Angel's grin grew mischievous as Abryl asked about her work. "I was just... Taking a break. Hoping they don't notice I'm gone." she giggled. Angel was going to go carve some more trees, on the side where they mostly don't cut. It was one of her two hobbies- Carving and running.

[Abryl Simms]

Abryl couldn't help smiling as Angle talked. She was such a kind person that it was hard for Abryl to keep up her hard outer shell that she often wore around other people. Most of the time, she could be distant and cold, sometimes even overpowering, but around Angle Abryl felt herself soften. She appreciated that Angle was honest about her work; she didn't brag and never boasted. She smiled a bit at Angle's compliment. "I guess it's hard work, I mean... definetly not as hard as cutting down a tree or anything. Honestly, the hardest part is probably that your out in the sun all day," Abryl said with a slight smile. It was true, the heat just took it out of you sometimes.

Abryl listened as Angle spoke about the games. Her voice began soft, but her words grew heated and angry. Of course, Abryl couldn't help but agree. After all, the games were a horrible torture device. "Yeah, I agree. I don't understand why anyone would ever volunteer, except for maybe if there was family on the line," Abryl said, thinking about past hunger games. An image flashed before her mind of her younger siblings Colton and Edward approaching the stage, names called. I would volunteer for them she thought. Abryl wished she could have such a posotive outlook on her chances of getting picked for the games, she was generally a wreck of fear on the day of the reaping. "I wish I could think like that. I'm just so afraid I'll get picked some day and then I won't be able to kill anyone. But I guess that's the way the games work, either kill or be killed. It's disgusting," Abryl said, contempt filling her voice.

Abryl laughed when Angle said she wasn't supposed to be over here. Although she didn't want to get in trouble, she was glad that Angle had come. She didn't get to meet many people while planting, and it was nice to talk to someone. "I'm sure they won't notice. The peacekeepers can't even tell the difference between a boy and a girl. I would be surprised if they even noticed you were gone," She said with an encouraging smile. "So what do you want to do after all this? I mean, if you don't get picked for the games and all, do you just want to keep on being a lumberjack?" She asked, curious about Angle.