A Moment in the Woods [aries] -closed-

That morning had been especially drafty as Fall was slowly dying down and Winter was quickly approaching. Elm wore his gray hoodie, worn down worker gloves that his father gave him and his navy blue plaid jacket as he exited his house. His father accompanied him as he made his way through the woods wielding a freshly sharpened axe. Elm resembled his dad very much. In fact, the only major difference his dad posed were the crow’s feet that came with age, the larger and overall more solid build, and the full and thick facial hair. Typically his two younger brothers and cousins would help with collecting lumber but this day was different. Instead they were off helping his mother with preparations for the victor’s tour that were quickly approaching.

Elm refused to help with the preparations and instead felt his services were needed with his father instead. He was repulsed by the idea of having a victor march through the districts after slaughtering people he knew and somewhat cared for. His opinion on the matter of course was deeply tied to a particular past experience. Several years back he was forced to experience the celebration for the killer of his older cousin. Since then, each celebration brought back horrible memories of his cousin's pain and suffering and Elm always did his best to hide it well. The thoughts haunted him occasionally but luckily grew easier to deal with passing time. Helping plan another celebration however would be too much to handle so he often attempted to avoid anything that had to do with the ceremony all together. Being out in the woods taking out his aggression on trees was much more therapeutic for him.

Elm and his father walked about a mile into the woods until they finally decided on a tree that was thick enough and was light enough for the two of them to drag back home. After two or three hours of chopping down a few trees and lugging them back to his home, Elm decided to take a stroll through the woods alone to clear his mind from the games. There was only a few months left until the new games began and Elm got into the habit of trying to expect the worse. He often woke to nightmares themed after himself or someone he cares for being chosen. Even though he never signed up for a tesserae, his odds for someone he didn’t know or cared for hardly ever went in his favor. Someone he always knew each tribute that was chosen each year.

As he walked deeper into the woods something about the forest always seemed so peaceful for him and made him forget his troubles. It was as if all the bad in the world disappeared once he smelled pine and heard the sound of birds in the distance. He occasionally marked a tree he passed with his axe so that he wouldn’t get turned around on the way back. After about thirty minutes into the woods, Elm came to an abrupt stop. Off in the distance Elm saw a figure in a red cloak that sat on a freshly created stump he and his father left behind. He knew it could only be one person and a small grin grew across his face. As he attempted to sneak over to the cloaked figure he realized the leaves crunching bellow his feet provided no aid to his stealth attempt. Realizing the figure perked up and was now aware of his presence Elm forfeited with a sigh. “Damn it. I was trying to sneak up on you. Stupid leaves” he said with a small laugh as he made his way over to him. “So, what brings you to my neck of the woods red? Shouldn’t you and your family be carving something for the victor’s tour?” he asked curiously with a small hint of disdain for the event.

Elm examined the boy as he spoke. While he didn’t know him too well, he did notice that he always spoke very softly and seemed kind of unsure of what he said half of the time. Maybe it was the trailing off at the end of sentences that made Elm assume he lacked confidence. Ether way Elm’s personality only helped to highlighted how strong the contrast was between the two of them. While Elm realized that not everyone could be a social butterfly, he wanted to sometimes shake introverts like Val just to get them to speak up and command their presence.

“You come here a lot? Funny I’ve never seen you out here before. Typically my family and I collect lumber a mile or two East from of here. ” he said as he spun his axe a few times in his hand. Maybe he only stays around this area he thought to himself.

When the boy began talking about the special throne he had crafted for the winner of this year’s game, Elm instantly tried to sensor himself. The mentioning of the throne made him think of how horrible the deaths of the tributes in district 7 were and how much he hated the victors march. The topic of celebrating a victor always brought forth the grimmest jokes from Elm. He knew that his typical default for negative feelings was humor and not everyone understood that. He didn’t want to make any jokes that could offend the boy and he knew his humor could only truly be understood by those closer to him. While his filter was a rear occurrence, that didn’t stop his face from flashing another small smile. Elm knew his true hatred was aimed at the capitol but also knew he couldn’t mention that as freely as he liked. As he stood there listening, he wondered to himself for a moment if the boy in red knew ether of the tributes.


“You know… you’re lucky I’m not a peace keeper” he said with a humorous tone. While being out in the woods was typically forbidden for some residents in district 7, individuals like Elm were given special identification cards that allowed them to collect wood farther away from the district. The benefits of this often allowed Elm to get a nice change of environment anytime things became too difficult to handle. The drawback however being that he was required to gather a specific amount of wood collected for the capital on a monthly base.

Suddenly the Idea of intruding on Val while he was attempting to have some time to himself entered his thoughts. While it was a rare occurrence, he hated it when people ripped him out of his isolation.“What are you doing out here anyway all by yourself?” he asked to get a sense of whether or not his presence was unwanted.