Helia Lecroy ; District 9 — fin

It was in her youth that the young Lecroy girl found a love for the earth and all things that grew from it. Laughter would spew from her lips as she danced around the district’s fields with little guidance on what she needed to do. While others found the work on the fields to be within the category of chores, Helia found them to become her hobbies for the rest of her life as dirt consistently stayed buried beneath her nails and the smell of herbs in her hair became permanent. Her mother and father admired the love their daughter had for the world around her and often wished it would get her further than the annual reaping.

 

They prayed that someone would notice her talent from the rest and whisk her away before her name was drawn, but every year that passed only proved that talent would get you as far as the district fence and not a foot further. Helia was fortunate though for her parents’ dedication to get save her for it provided her with the drive to do the same for them in the process, but it would only be a year later that her father’s life would pass by a wound that did not heal properly. From that moment forward, the life within the Lecroy household shifted.

 

Laughter that once flooded every space within the small home of the Lecroy’s was no more and reality became so heavy that a smile was no more for Helia. Instead of laughing with the other girls and boys from the district, she found herself testing the limits of the unknown with a desire to keep her passion alive; though, she had to admit that her own skill had been lacking since her father’s death. Still, she explored the edges of the field where there were whispers of herbs that could heal the sick or laid upon a wound to heal, which was enough of a mystery for her to dive into.

 

Her mind became a gift on its own as her hands wielded the magic she had learned on her own. Many from around the district had heard of her skill before she was even old enough to truly understand the power it gave her. It was upon her thirteenth birthday when she first came across a need she didn’t know before — saving. It was when the sun was settling in right above her head when a scream echoed across the field as everyone turned to see someone holding their leg. Her instinct to be the person everyone could turn to had already gotten to her head as this job was not meant for it.

 

With bundled hair bouncing as she sprinted across to the injured, Helia’s thought were elsewhere on how to save the person when they should have been focused on her as workers went back to their jobs, barely taken notice of the wild haired girl. It was the lack of notice that caused her own scream to be heard next as a warmth she had never felt before ran down her leg then darkness followed. The darkness lasted a week before she came to with her mother grasping her hand in desperation as something was off; rather missing in her case.

 

It was haunting how Helia could still feel the lower half of her right leg as it was no longer there; haunting how when her eyes closed she could swear her toes were wiggling. An adjustment was obvious as her life was different so suddenly that everything she had done before was no longer a quick step away. Her bed became her sanctuary in her mother’s words, but it felt more of an asylum by the end of the first month as her mind and body ached for the fields again. Time seemed to purposely move slowly as if it was trying to draw her past the point of return.

 

Another month would pass until her mother could afford to buy some makeshift crutches to take Helia through the district. The way eyes fell on her as though her life ended the day of the accident made what little temper she had boil to the point where proving everyone wrong was necessary; almost an obsession. Instead of struggling to the edges of the field where she once spent all of her free time, she began to take on odd jobs here and there until she was able to afford something a bit more permanent for her situation; getting a wooden prosthetic made to set her free a bit.

 

While life still held its complications, Helia found that there was a gifted freedom with having her hands loose from the constant gripping to the crutches she was so used to and discovered her love for the dirt beneath her feet return. She was reignited into the girl her father had raised and felt as though it was through her own loss that she could be reborn into the girl she was always meant to be. Her passion and connection to the district grew through this, and she found that when the time came to finally fight back that she would be ready to do so.