-Dryad-Distict 7

Well I guess I’m tall enough, not a skyscraper or anything but I am one of the tallest in my class. Sprang up rather quick too, and my childhood chubbiness seems to have melted away, thanks to school and work I stay on the move so I don’t have much of anything on me, makes it easy to climb up and clip the top of the trees. I keep my hair long, when your forty feet in the air it serves as a good wind finder, it murder to clean though, nothing a dip in the creek can’t fix. My legs are longer than my torso which gives me a decent stride, that’s where my nicknames comes from, as I’m good at getting around on the forest floor. From what my grandfather tells me, my family has lived here for hundreds of years, from times long forgotten or erased, he says that’s where I get my olive skin tone, my grey eyes I get from my mother, my smile is from my aunt.

I have quite a few scars, both from accidents that involved logging; the first is a scar a gash from my hairline down my cheek and chin to my shoulder blade, never stand under a falling lumberjack holding an axe…lesson learned. The last is the entrance scar of the surgery around my neck after the first accident, the axe missed my vein by a hair, but it did a number on my vocal cords, makes it painful to talk louder than a whisper, I’m also partially blind in my left eye, something that I keep to myself since, I need to work to help my family, nine brothers and sisters are a lot of mouths to feed. I was blessed with long arms, makes it easy to chop wood, this is a really good thing because in D7 your not really supposed to train for the hunger games, my father never been to the games himself did the best he could, he forced me and my siblings to cut endless amounts of wood, that has given me considerable upper body strength. I’ve been told I have a sweet smile, this may or may not be people trying to find something to compliment other than my scar, but I hope there right, I do smile a lot.

I’m not a bossy person but I am about business, my father taught me there was always a place for everyone, it’s what he said to me when I was worried I’d never work again after my date with the axe, as such I’m not too keen on picking one people weaker than me, but I will push them to get better, we all have to put are part in right? At school I have a small group or friends, grandpa says ‘if you have one friend in this world you’re lucky’, considering I have two I must be really lucky right? I’m very analytical which on one hands helps me too look past the obvious, and on the other hand I could drag down a free spirit, grandfather calls it patience, and I think he’s right, I never jump into anything headlong, come to think of it I never jump into anything, better safe than sorry. In the past I have has issues with anger, but working in the lumber yard has helped me find a good outlet, If I lost that I know I would be much more abrasive, if I get that angry I may do or say something that I will regret for a long time, I guess if I get picked the people in the capitol will love that.

Since I have not love of speaking I have become quite the listener, my little siblings and friends always bombard me with their problems and stories, I think it’s because I’d have a hell of a time trying to repeat it to someone. The funny thing is most times I reply to their inquiries with a single word, just enough to get my point across without collapsing in pain, but that’s never enough for them, they accuse me of speaking in riddles, this get frustrating after awhile so I just avoid talking if I can. I don’t see myself as the best leader, they have to talk right? That just a car I wasn’t dealt, I rather help the younger ones who are willing to listen and take my help, by siblings are really good at this, and then again they have lived with me for years. I can get very frustrated when someone puts words in my mouth or misinterprets what I’m saying, it’s not easy being basically mute, and we all have our off days. I really hate when people talk louder when I’m around like…really? I’m mute not deaf dumb*ass….
Since my sight is off my hearing begun to compensate, I can hear footsteps through the noise of a swaying forest, or someone breathing down my neck, not the best idea to sneak up on me, unless you take me by my left side, wait I shouldn’t have told you that…what weakness? Though it’s hard to express myself to everyone, I don’t have a sense of humor, you can guess that laughing hurts so it translates to numerous grins and silent laughing, now that I’m on it my face says a lot about my current mood or thought, a skill most people over look, even though most of them posses it.

In the female department I do well enough I suppose, sadly I have the propensity to get caught in the friend zone, you would think being a lumber worker id be a shoe in, but in a district full of them you kind of fade to black when you can’t talk, I’m not bitter or anything, I rather have less emotional baggage in a place like this..You know…just in case I have to say goodbye. I have had some issue in my older years of jerks making fun of the fact that I can’t talk, I don’t know what’s sp funny about it, so most times I ignore them, they tried their hand at messing with my little brothers and sisters next, let’s just say that didn’t end well for them, no one hurts my brothers and sisters…no one.
All in all I’m a nice guy once you learn how to listen, that harder that it seems for most people.

Kapok Devilwood is the second eldest child of Ashley and Hollis Devilwood. At a young age Kapok was very hyper kid, always getting away from his parents when he could, climbing high into the tree before he realized that he had not learned how to get down, his father climbing up to get him every time, being the second eldest of nine brothers and sisters forced him to straighten up as he got older, mainly because they all had to work to feed each other, by the age of ten kapok had begun to work with wood, making small figurines to be sold at the capital though he always wanted to work with lumber like his father he did not see the real point in figurines, this was mainly because he was so bad at them. Kapok craved figurines until he was old enough in his father’s eyes to carry an axe, and it was then when his dream of being a lumber worker like his father and older brother was fulfilled. The work days were long, and the fact that he had to do it after school everyday made them longer, but each hour he worked made things that much easier on his family, they were by no means rich but they were feed, and they were happy.

By age fourteen, Kapok had around eight brothers and sisters, some had already begun the slow crawl to becoming lumber farmers. Kapok at the tail end of a growth spurt had finally earned the trust of his father and the other lumber workers. Since he was smaller and more nimble than the rest of the burly workers he was tasked with climbing the larger trees and cutting them down so that they would be easier to manage, it was dangerous work but Kapok was confident in his teachers, it also paid a lot more than other jobs, and since his family need every cent they could get he did into hesitate in doing his part. Kapok grades did suffer as a result of his job, but since school was pretty much nothing but propaganda anyway he was perfectly fine with a C average. A year later on a normal day Kapok was under the forest canopy chopping wood with a few other workers, his younger sister Dafne came to him to collect more would for the sculptures his mother was creating, a during a freak accident with one of the tree above, a vicious crack echoed off the tree, one of the taller older trees was buckling under the pressure of one of the lumber workers cinched to the top of it, everyone tired to help the man the best they could, but gravity was working too quickly, as the tree came down the man was crushed between two trees as a death reflex he let go if his axe which fell into the crowd below, the blade cut through Kapok’s neck and land square In the chest of his younger sister.

Kapok too injured to even attend his sister’s funeral was left to mentally suffer for almost two months in his bed, the doctors were able to close the gash on his face, but the damage to his vocal cords was permanent, they did not know if he would be able to breathe let alone speak again. Eventually he was cleared to walk again, but not to work, life seemed to pass him by as he went to school and just went home, everyone know what happened, but still people looked at him like he was a freak, it was around this time Kapok realized that the world was more mutilated than he was. Kapok began to pull away from his family and the community; as soon as he worked up the courage to climb again he made his way to Drusus the Father tree the oldest and tallest tree in district seven. The only person who had the heart to follow him was Selby his nine year old sister, everyday for a week she would follow him to the father tree and scream up at him to come down and carry her up, and for weeks he ignored her, fed up Selby used all her strength to climb up and get him, day after day she got closer and closer, until she almost fell to her death, alerted by her scream Kopak descended to the rescue, after he had her safe in her arms, she let him know how much the rest of the family needed him and that it was killing them to see him change so much, Kopak could think of only one word to say as he came to tear, “Family…” Kapok made his way to the gravesite of his sister Dafne for the first time, they did not have much to offer in the area of tombstones but his mother sculpted a beautiful buff of Dafne climbing a tree, with the words ‘One branch at a Time’ carved into the base.

Kapok could no longer shun the world, that’s what he learned from Selby, and in a way Dafne, someone needs to protect his brothers and sisters. Kopak returned to work, and life seemed that much better as soon as he began to make money. His natural sweetness did return over time, reconnecting with his friends and family, still there is a part of him that bleeds for the memory of his sister.