Nicotine Oberland // [District Ten]

Nicotine has earned her reputation as an expert with large animals and a complete idiot when it comes to all sizes of humans. As a Large Animal Vet, Nico has spent her life traveling around District Ten, caring for its secondary citizens. She primarily treats cattle, but also is called to treat horses, pigs, sheep and goats. Her skin had been weathered by the sun, her hands dried from working with antibacterial chemicals. It has been many years since she has called any one place home, preferring to spend her time making the rounds through the ranches.

She has always loved her district, loved the outdoors. As a little girl, she used to sleep in the weedy patch of grass behind their District Center tract house. Her brown hair streaked blonde by the sun, her nose freckled by the same light. She was all knobby knees and sharp elbows for most of her youth. Perhaps a more nutritious diet would have added curves, but it's unlikely. Almost all of her family is tall and lanky.

She always shared her meager meals and water not with the neighborhood kids, but with the roaming cats and complacent birds. She'd never given much thought to being a veterinarian; it was always assumed she would take over her mother's washing business.

She was only fourteen when the boy down the lane caught her eye. He was a rancher, gone long stretches while he herded cattle. One spring he was just a freckled boy, and by the fall, he came back a man. Her love for him was desperate, all consuming. For sixteenth birthday, he asked her to marry him. She said yes, and he tied a daisy around her fourth finger. They had to wait until she turned eighteen, but that didn't seem so long. For months they plucked and re-tied daises, declaring their love to each other every week.

At first, it was the pinnacle of romance. The girls at school would check her finger and ooh over the yellow petals. After a month, it was routine. After two months of seeing him and the daisy every day, she began to wonder if a lifetime of a freckled boy would be too much. After three months, she made excuses to avoid the fields. She had a washing business to learn, after all. After four months, he planted daises in her backyard. She'd planned to tell him that they had moved too fast, that she hadn't really understood that being with him meant being with him every day, and she didn't even like daisies, and she wanted to see more of the District and not stay at home to raise children and -

Then the reaping came, and there were no more daises.

She moved to her Aunt and Uncle's house at the far reaches of the district, studying under her Aunt to become a veterinarian. If her mother was disappointed that she didn't claim the washing business, she has never mentioned it. They see each other only at midwinter, because Nico's work keeps her occupied year round. After years of apprenticeship, she finally got her wish: to see the entire district. She has roamed the perimeter, scoured every piece of the interior. She can name neighbors, direct you to the tiniest farmhouse on the farthest flung lane.

She cares for the largest animals, the cattle and horses and pigs. From a gawky, love-sick teenager, she has finally grown into her tall frame, her upswept eyes and mahogany hair. In the last year she has found a few grey strands and thought nothing of them, until the news of her mother's decline came.

Now, in her mid-40s, her mother is dying. Nico has given up her wandering days and come back to the city center, to help her mother pass more comfortably. It's hard work, even for a doctor, and she doesn't want to do it alone. For the first time in decades, she wonders if there might be a flower more suited to her than a daisy.