Flying Letters (Ami)
Aug 8, 2011 9:47:53 GMT -5
Post by Artemis on Aug 8, 2011 9:47:53 GMT -5
Anastasia Drake
It is getting warmer in the woods. It is now time for me roll up my pants again and turn down my boots. I can feel a bead of sweat run down the side of my face. Even with the leaves overhead acting as a roof to keep the sun out from the underbrush isn't enough. The little stream that I usually stop to drink from is dry. Only the main river about a mile north west of were I am still has water. I hear a rustle and turn to see a baby deer come out of a bush and start to graze on a knoll of grass that is about twenty feet away from me. I could kill it if I wanted to. But I am on a different mission than that. I am here to send my homing pigeon, Peak, to deliver a letter for me. Where, I don't know. Why would I be risking everything including my life and everyone I care for just to do this? I have thought this question over in my head many times. The answer is 100% set on me sending the letter. Risk it all. I have to do it not just for me to keep sane, but also because I have to know something else about the other districts. More than just how they can fight in the Hunger Games, what they give to the Capitol, and what some of them look like. I study the bird that is now perched on my right arm that is bent in a right angle, and hovering far from my body. I move my arm to bring the bird closer to my body, so that it is now directly in front of me. As I stare into those wise, vigilant eyes, I feel like she is looking into me, reading my thoughts, and knowing how I feel.
[/font] "Go to a district, get somebody's attention, and make sure that they look close to my age. Come back in a week's time with or without a letter."
After I finish speaking she moves her eyes up and down as if looking over me and evaluating me.
As if she could understand me. Maybe I am becoming crazy! Yet, it always seemed that the blasted bird can realize what I am saying.
Here is a little back story to my feathered friend.
The wind and storm the day before I had found her had been horrible, so I couldn't go out into the woods. Thus, the next day I set out early in the morning. That is when I happened to see Peak in the woods. She was lying on the ground with a broken wing near the underbrush. She was a tiny thing. Too small for eating. I came to a conclusion that the only way she could have gotten there was to be blown off her course. The sorrow in her eyes was too much for me. I took her home. After I fixed her wing she took a liking to me. When I sent her off a few days after she was well again, at the spot where I had first found her, she lifted off of my arm and flew off, only to return the next day at the spot where I had found her. I tried again and again, but to no avail. She just kept coming back! I laughed every time because I was so perplexed and mystified at how this strange bird had been acting.
Peak is very smart for a bird with a... well... birdbrain. She knows how to find her own food and the brownish hint to her feathers helps her stay hidden and camouflaged in the dense forest. Being small helps as well.
On either side of her two legs I have put a little capsule about two and a half inches long and half an inch wide. It is made of a plastic that is almost as light as paper, so that she is able to fly and not be weighted down too much. I know that homing pigeons are to carry small notes, but since I am from District 7, and we make paper, my father’s friend can spare some of the lightest kind that they make here. It is only meant for the Capitol’s residents and some of the people in District 1 and maybe even 2. However, our people can sometimes snag some at the factory. The paper is lighter than one of Peak’s feathers, so the letter is easy for her to carry. I just half roll, half crumble it up, and shove it into the little cases. Her right leg's capsule will carry the letter that I have written for whomever gets it. In the left leg's capsule I have neatly rolled a few pieces of parchment paper, the exact same as my letter, for whomever gets it to write on.
Then I give her a kiss.
"Be safe. Don't die," I say with a playful little grin that disappears quickly as I gaze over her body, trying to read her expression.
There are so many dangers out there that I always worry, today in particular. Before this moment, she was just a pet to me. I trained her to find her own food, send notes or letters, and she would almost always go on trips with me to the woods. Now she has to fly through the forest without getting lost, eaten, or being spotted by hovercrafts, Peacekeepers or other people when she nears one of the districts (if she makes it of course.)
I quickly stop myself.
"No Ana, you have to look on the bright side of this. She is what is going to help you get an insight to at least one of the other districts! She can do this. You have taught her well." I felt like a mother having to finally let go of her child as their child goes out into the real world.
As I put my arm back out to its position like I had it before, and all of what I am feeling vanishes. I move my arm up and she lifts off into the air. As I watch her fly out into the immense forest, I can’t help to get a little excited. This is the beginning of something. What it might be, I have not a clue. But it will be something.
“Goodbye” I whisper.
I close my eyes for a few seconds and then open them again as the rest of Peak's body fades away through the intense green leaves of the trees in the fading summer light.
Then I turn and run like a deer through the forest back towards District 7. The sun is setting and the smell of freshly cooked deer from the fire is in the air. Halfway from where I started running and where the fence is that is electrified, I recite the first set of lines that I had written beforehand in my brief letter almost a million times trying to make them sound sophisticated and smart…[/justify]
“Dear Reader,
I know this might sound odd, but I am out to know something about another person in this world that lives outside of my area. I am sorry if I cause you any trouble or harm comes to you, but I am a curious person and this time the curiosity got the best of me. I have sent a page of thin paper that if rolled, will be able to fit in the small capsule that is attached to the bird’s leg. If you have this type of paper, please tell me. It would save me a great deal, but if you don’t, it is fine. To get the bird’s affection, feed her some seeds. I have plenty that I can send with her for you. That is, if you reply to me and want to pigeon mail me, or p-mail for short. I am sorry that I have not told you much about me, including my name. Just please... ”
I know this might sound odd, but I am out to know something about another person in this world that lives outside of my area. I am sorry if I cause you any trouble or harm comes to you, but I am a curious person and this time the curiosity got the best of me. I have sent a page of thin paper that if rolled, will be able to fit in the small capsule that is attached to the bird’s leg. If you have this type of paper, please tell me. It would save me a great deal, but if you don’t, it is fine. To get the bird’s affection, feed her some seeds. I have plenty that I can send with her for you. That is, if you reply to me and want to pigeon mail me, or p-mail for short. I am sorry that I have not told you much about me, including my name. Just please... ”
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