"I should have stayed out of your way," The kind man says picking up the now half empty sacks of flour. "It's as much my fault as yours." I look at the hard work dusted over the both of us and on the ground.

"Look, I don't have any money on me but I'm here to trade, so I can pay for your wares after my coal has been sold," He shakes his head and looks up at me. 

"Oh, don't worry about it, it was only about an hour's work," He says. "Flour doesn't bring too much anyway. I'm sure your coal wares are much more valuable." 

"Are you sure?" I ask and he nods. 

"Yeah, seriously, It isn't a big deal," He twists the bags shut and knots them shut. "I'm Peeta by the way."

"Katniss," I say quietly and he blinks at me smirking. "What is so funny?"

"A Hestian named after a water dwelling plant," He says and I tilt my head.

"Not many people even know what a katniss is seeing as they only grow in the wood, near the river, so you must be a Demet, which is odd since all the plant workers I know have green eyes, not blue," I say and he chuckles. 

"Well, I guess we are both unique, not taking the typical form of one of our kind, eh?" Peeta says holding out his hand to me. I tentatively take it and he shakes my hand. 

"Catnip," Gale says walking up. "There you are. Greasy Sae wanted to talk to you about an order for some new hickory coals. What happened?" 

"Just a little accident," I say. Gale glares at Peeta.

"Just because she's a fire bringer living in the Broken Wood doesn't mean that you can just dump your freaking powdered plants on her!" Gale says and I look at him. He's shaking with that stupid rage he gets when someone offends the Hestians. His fists clench and a few sparks glow between his fingers. "We aren't just the lowly freaks who destroy everything, and if you think that, let me prove you right." I step between them and lay my hand on Gale's chest. I look at him and he looks back at me for a bit. 

"Gale, leave him alone," I say. "I ran into him. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. It's over now " Gale looks at me and then back at Peeta. "He isn't worth losing your trading rights here. Let's go arrange any orders you got. A little flour on my dress isn't worth getting us arrested, Gale." He shoots a last look at Peeta and then grabs my hand.

"Just, leave us alone, Demet dirt wallerer," he says and I shoot Peeta an apologetic look as I pass with him. I wave and follow Gale and he huffs as he comes back to where is cart is tied.  "Are you really okay, Katniss?"

He asks and I look at back where we came from and then back at Gale. "Why wouldn't I be? Getting covered in flour isn't much different. It wasn't that hard of a fall. He apologized."

"But the embers," he said. "There were embers falling from your hair, like when you get upset and your heart starts beating to hard." I scoff and roll my eyes. 

"Well, obviously getting knocked over and covered in flour surprised me, so my heart probably was beating," I say. He grips my hand and I look up at him.

"The way he way looking at you, that can't happen," I glare at him and grab the list from the coal cart. 

"He wasn't looking at me in a way, Gale," I say. "And even if he was, I can defend myself from potential suitors and lovestruck little boys just fine without you, because in case you didn't know, I'm just as strong as any of the rest of us. I can and will defend myself. I don't need you to do it." I hand him back the list. "I can get the Cherry and Hickory done in two days time. The walnut will need to be hunted down. deeper in the woods. You can worry about that and not about who cares to look at me. He was just a nice kid who bumped into me and lost hsi day's wages for it. So leave it be." He nods and grabs his ram's lead, untying him from the rail.

"Sorry, you're right," He says. "Come on. We've got work to do back in the woods." I playfully hit his arm and he chuckles. 

"See, there you go," I say. "Like you've said before, the Hestains are the only ones we need to work about having opinions of. Let's get out of here." He grabs my arm and I shoot him a look. He lets go and sighs. 

"Just, don't stray off again, okay, Katniss," he says. "People get the wrong idea, a lone Hestian without a cart wondering around. They don't like us being here, period." 

"I know," I say. "But he seemed nice. He helped me up Gale." He shakes his head as we start out of the Hob. 

"Give him a year or two when he has a family, a soulbound girl of his own to protect from us. He'd of left you in the dust same as any of the rest of them," Gale says and I nod, knowing he's right as we walk back through the small pile of  four still on the ground. People of the village, of the other clans, they don't trust us. Far too many incidences of people of the Hestian clan losing control like Gale almost did and injuring someone of the Demet clan that runs the village. We are frowned upon by many and only looked to for the coals needed for their forges. Being exiled to the forest just only installed the feeling  of being separate from these people and the colorful lives they live here. We pass back by the gate and the Areian guard lets us through, me slipping him a coin from my newly filled purse for his troubles. 

"Really, you don't think he makes enough keeping us out?" Gale asks as we walk out of earshot and I sigh.

"You know the Capital doesn't pay well," I say. "Not when we aren't at war. At least we can make a stable living here." 

"You're awfully kind to people who aren't kind to us," Gale says and I look at him. "You almost act like a sympathizer."

"I'm not but he does provide a service in making sure that people don't get through into the Broken Forest," I say. "Thats less incidents of people getting injured during our work and less hate coming down upon us. it makes life easier for all of us, Gale." 

"Yeah, sure, whatever," he says as we walk up on my house. He pulls a bag of coins from the wagon and throws it at me. "Same time Wednesday?" 

"Sure," I say taking them and walking into my house. I hang up  my jacket and listen to the [creak of the old floorboards under my feet. I set down the coins and my empty coal bucket near the stove and light the stove with a flick of my finger to begin warming up the small shack I live in for when my mother and sister get home. I quickly scrawl a note about going out hunting and pick my bow and quiver from above the mantel. I carefully lock the door and walk away. I reach down and grab my skirt and tie it up so it sits just above my knees and wouldn't get tangled in the branches of the hunting trails. 

I walk down and carefully place my feet as I walk up the ridge, upwind of my prey. I can see and smell the fresh scent of a large deer along one of my doe scent trails. I smile at the thought of a fresh venison meal to be added to my mother's pantry as well as to be packed and taken into the Hob for the hefty trade. I walk along the ridge and just see him at the stream and I carefully pull an arrow from the quiver on my back. Pulling the string on my weapon, I take a deep breath aiming for the animal's heart. The string is let go and my arrow hits it's mark, the animal letting out a loud cry as he falls near the stream. I run down the hill and grip onto one of his horns before he can move. He lets out a cry and I give him a sympathetic look as I kneel down next to him. 

"Rest, my friend," I sa, pulling a knife from my boot. "I know it hurts. Know that I only do this to live, same as you devouring the grass beneath us. But you will mean something, allowing the circle of life to continue. May your spirit be released to grow the Forest of Broken Trees." I place my hand beneath the young buck's chin and pull his head back. Taking a deep breath, I lean my forehead against his and slit his throat, quick, deep and cleanly. I allow his head to gently fall to the ground and stand, moving to a tree to make a rope to hang him. I find a sturdy barked tree and make quick work of weaving together a rope, tying it to one of the animal's legs and pulling him up the tree to drain.

I carefully cut open his belly and eviscerate the carcass, my cuts clean and neat as when my father taught me. I pile his organs near a rock and carefully remove all non edible parts, placing them carefully among them. I finish the butchering of the animal, wrapping the cuts into the pelt and tying it shut with the rope. Standing, I begin piling wood upon the pile of deer parts, placing his head on last. I look at the animal place my hand upon the wood. A crackling starts and the small pyre ignites, surrounding the waste parts of the animal in a wall of warm orange waves. 

Looking up, I watch the smoke twisting and turning in its dance. I sing softly, guided by the crackling of the fire I tend. The fire tickles across my skin, seeming to dance to the song of the my own invention. A simple song of my goddess, Hestia, wishing my animal to find a home among the spirits of the wood. Eventually, the animal's glowing, orange, flaming, spirit rises and walks around me. He stops and sniffs at me, as though he remembers the moment we had together. The buck dips his head and I reach through it, my hand passing through the pale orange flaming form. 

"Thank you for giving me your life. Be free of pain and keep the Broken Woods safe for our kind," I whisper. "You may leave." My hand gently slashes though him, causing the visage to disappear. I smile and move my fingers through the smoldering  pyre, pulling forth the deer skull and the fire falls down, leaving me in the dark. Standing, I pull together the rest of my belongings and start heading home, following the trail from muscle memory more than sight and duck into the quiet house. 

"Katniss, you're back!" Prim says as I enter the house and my mother looks up. 

"Did you bring something?" My mother asks curiously. I nod, laying the pack of meat on the table which she slices open and begins to pick through for supper.  I look at the herbal remedy Prim is working on and sniff. 

"What is it?" I ask and she smirks. 

"Ironically enough, something for stinking breath," She says and I chuckle. I turn to my mother  and she selects a cut, covering the rest of the pile back up. 

"I'm going to go put the meat in the cold store," I say. "And find a resting place for my new friend." My mother rolls her eyes and shakes her head and she starts slicing up the meat. 

"Why you and your father insisted on completing that silly ritual, I'll never know," She says. "If you ask me, It just creates unnecessary clutter. But go ahead. Dinner will be ready by the time you return."  I grab my things and head back out, taking a deep breath of the herbless air as I open up the cover of my cold store and drop in the meat. Turning, I come to one of my trees and hang the skull on one of the knots next to a fox and a wolf. I rest my hand on his head, sighing. 

"It's best when we don't meet, but where would any of us be without each other?" I say softly before looking up. "If you have a real plan for me, for things coming into my life, I'd like one of you to maybe answer once in a while. I get it, there are signs everywhere but if I don't want to be a destructive firebringer who is feared whenever I'm not needed, that isn't necessarily what I want to be. Can I be more? Will other people look at me the way that boy looked at me today if I were to try to be more than what I am?" I look up at the unanswering stars and shake my head. "Yeah, I know talking to you guys does little, but with you guys being some of my only friends, I enjoy the vent that opens with you. See you guys later huh?" I pat the trees as I pass them and head back inside still wondering that unspoken question.

Can a Hestian be something more than someone who destroys?