Are You Coming To The Tree? (OPEN)

A voice made the berries fall from her hands, and one berry which she hadn't chewed fell from her lips. "You know that those aren't edible and they'll kill you right?" Marianne spun around and saw a girl there. "Well, excuse me for trying to stay alive!" she snapped, then immediately regretted it. She snatched her bow and shot a bird quickly. "Soon you'll be telling me this-" she held up the bird- "is inedible." Then the girl spoke again.

"Sorry, don't shoot please."

When Marianne's face relaxed, she turned from a menacing girl who shouted at you to someone you'd want to know. "I suppose I was a little harsh there." She shrugged. "So, do you know how to hunt? Or do you just come here to gather edible berries?" Her voice wasn't as harsh as last time, but there was a bitter edge to it, a flame that couldn't be extinguished, a tiger who couldn't be tamed. "Because I've never seen you here before. Oh, and what district are you from, and what's your name?" She dropped her bow to show she didn't mean any harm.

"I'm Marianne. District 10."

"I'm Haysel, District 5. And yes I do hunt, I'm actually very good with snares and setting traps. I've been a wanderer for a few years now so of course I know how to hunt. I wouldn't be alive if I didn't know how to hunt."

"District 5, huh? Betcha woulda had to be really careful when ya went under that fence, huh? Electricity in the higher districts is better, right? In Ten, it's barely ever on. But I can barely imagine what it's like in District Twelve." She was rambling a little. She picked her bow up again but then the girl seemed to clearly not be done with her questions.

"So, how long have you been a wanderer, Marianne?"

Marianne squashed the tip of her bow up against her chin. "Well, I'm usually at home, t'be honest, but on Sundays I like to come and hunt t'get some food for me family. Or gather some berries. Me family doesn't like t'hunt cos they're bigger and if the electricity was actually on, they wouldn' be able to slip down as easily as me." She rubbed her nose a little and then saw a deer in the distance. But one little snap of a twig on the ground and the deer ran off. "Darn it, lost me kill again. Ignore me, I like to catch rare stuff. Sorry I'm ramblin' a bit, but I rarely ever meet wanderers in t'woods." She shrugged and smiled.

Haysel was talking about how electricity went off when they were working on it. "Oh, o'course, nobody wants t'get an electric shock when they're workin' on an electric fence. Why did they have t'work on it?" After saying this, she shrugged. "Ya don't really have to answer tha' question, y'know. I always get a bit t'nosy sometimes." She wished she didn't ramble on all the time...It really had a price. She was always talking about this and that in her silly accent. But luckily the girl didn't know that it was just her own accent. She probably thought everyone in District 10 had that accent.

"I ain't a traitor, I wouldn' report ya to the Peacekeepers, ya seem nice anyway, I wouldn' want ya being caught and turned 'nto an Avox." That was true. Marianne would never tell a Peacekeeper...unless she absolutely had to. She smiled at the girl to show that she wasn't joking. "I 'ad a friend who 'ad another friend, and they both went out huntin' together. And they swore t'each other that they'd never tell a Peacekeeper 'bout each other. Then ma friend went and sneaked t'a Peacekeeper and 'er friend got arrested and ma friend got a crap ton o'money." Marianne scowled at the thought of her old friend. "As soon as I heard t'news I told ma friend tha' I never wanted t'see her again. And I haven' so far."

She remembered her friend. Her name was Mildred, Marianne recalled. Mildred's friend was called Sybil and they both hunted together. Mildred caught one squirrel but Sybil caught a lot of game and gave Mildred half. But Mildred had been plotting earlier on, so she didn't accept the game and handed it back to Sybil. Then Mildred told her that she should trade some, and Sybil walked off. Then Mildred ran towards a Peacekeeper and explained how she had seen Sybil coming back under the fence with a load of game which could only have been caught in the forest. The Peacekeeper followed Mildred towards where Sybil was passing some turkey over to a shopkeeper. Both the shopkeeper and Sybil were arrested before they could complain. And Sybil had shot Mildred a pained look, then was carried out. She was either dead or an Avox, for Sybil had never been seen wandering around the district again.