caspian . d4m . 5th hunger games

Do you know what it feels like to have your whole world swept away by the ocean? Dragged into the crashing waves and carried away by the tide, cast into its angry surging depths? Disappearing under the surface, lost forever?

I did.

I do.

My world thrown into chaos, a consequence of the war. 

You see, my mother was my world. Born a bastard in a world that preyed on those who had less, she put me in the center of her universe. She was a mother and a father, a title that proved to be a challenge that she worked hard at with each passing day. The most inspiring woman I had ever known, slowly fades from my memory as the time slips by, taking a piece of her with each strike of its finger. I never thought that I would forget the sound of her voice. Of her laughter.

I also never thought that a bomb, misplaced, would be the reason my world was swallowed by the ocean. Until it did.

And I was drowning.

I was ten, fighting against the waves.

I had thought that I would drown. Just ten years old and alone. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to survive. Mum had done everything for me, you know? They wouldn't feed me down at the market, demanding money every time I stumbled over to them, stomach growling, begging for just a piece of fruit, anything to try and soothe the pangs. But they would chase me from the shop, growling that I do not return unless my pockets were full with coins.

And just when I thought the waves would claim me for good a hand reached out, grabbing my own and pulling me from its depths. It was a boy, someone that I would come to call my brother in the coming years. His name was Bear. He had found me one night, shivering and starving at the markets edge.

One piece of bread and a slice of cheese later and I was telling him about how I had ended up on this corner, begging pass buyers for a coin. He had looked at me with eyes that were shadowed with memories similar to my own. He told me about how he had lost his family to the war. How he too had been left alone, trying to figure out how to survive when the world seemed to determined to let him drown.

He told me about the kids that had saved him. There were five of them: Killian, Amara, Elena, Jasper and Narwhal. He told me how they had found him, how they had taken him under their wings and invited him into their family. He told me how they were always watching out for each other. How Killian had taught him how to fish. How Amara had taught him how to charm and manipulate. How Jasper and Narwhal taught him the secrets to the perfect petty crime without being caught. They taught him how to survive.

Then he was on his feet, offering me his hand, "you're going to be okay now, Cas." He had smiled down at me, a grin that showed all teeth. "We take care of each other," and in that moment I knew that he was offering me more than the chance at survival. He was offering me a family.  

So I took his hand, and he pulls me to my feet. and I can breathe again. "Lets go home."

You see, I knew what it was like to have my world swept away into the ocean. And it was fucking terrifying. I had been washed up onto the rocks, bleeding and broken. I was going to die. No one would have cared, no one had cared until Bear. He had brought be home, to the place under the docks were I found my brothers and sisters.

Killian and Amara had been weary at first, looking at me with untrusting eyes. But Narwhal, Jasper and Elena had welcomed me instantly, putting all their trust into Bear and his judgement. Elena had wrapped an arm around my shoulders, brushing blonde hair from her eyes, "welcome home, Caspian was it? I'm Elena and I can tell that you and I are going to have a hell a lot of fun. Maybe once we get some muscle and fat onto those bones."

Welcome home. 

Those words had been the ones to break me. And for the first time since my world had been tossed into the ocean tears slipped from my eyes. "Yeah, Caspian," I say through tears. There was not much in the way of materials. A few mattresses scattered beneath the docks, hidden from the weather...

But... But it felt like a home.

My home.