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The Legend of the Golden Mockingjay
By Oriondruid
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Summary: Rue knew as soon as she met Katniss that she was special and that she was destined to lead everyone in Panem to freedom. This is why she had such faith.
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Disclaimer: As should be self-evident from my site profile I am not Suzanne Collins. Therefore I hold no claim to The Hunger Games, these characters or their situation. They are all inspired by the brilliant work of the author herself and I thank her for the opportunity to 'play' in her world for a while. This is an amateur work, not intended for profit.
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Authors Note: I realize I should be writing the next chapter of Grand Alliance at present but two 'one-shots' seized control of what passes for my brain. The first my recently posted HG/HP crossover called Woodland Dream and now this, the second, which insisted on being written immediately and wouldn't let go of my few remaining brain cells 'till it was. Hopefully I should have chapter four of Grand Alliance posted before the end of the weekend though.
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Rue's Tale.
Rue and Katniss were sat, talking happily in the wood as they ate some roasted grooslings Katniss had shot. Katniss had told her some things about District 12 and her life there and then Rue in return told her about how it was working in the orchards in District 11. The girls concluded that they would both have good lives indeed, surrounded by friends and fine people, were it not for the greed of the Capitol and it's tyrannical rule.
Rue then said, "Can I tell you a story Katniss, it's an old one from my District and it relates to this." As she said it she touched the gold mockingjay pin Katniss was wearing on the lapel of the inner fleece to her unzipped weatherproof jacket.
Rue went on, saying "There is a legend that we District 11 folk have about a Golden Mockingjay that saved all of her flock and lead them to freedom.
Rue began to tell her tale...
The story from the Dark Days and tells of the time when the first of the Mockingjay kind were created by the mating of escaped mutt Jabberjays and Mockingbirds. It came about that one particular egg that was laid was different to all the rest. It was the colour of purest gold and the mockingbird mother who had laid it was as proud as could be that she had created something so perfect and beautiful.
All the while her egg was incubating she faithfully never left the nest as she brooded it. Her Jabberjay mate bringing her food and devoting all his attention to her needs. When the time came for it to hatch the fellow members of her flock all gathered in the tree in which she'd made her nest to see what would emerge from the incredible egg. As it cracked open an amazing chick emerged, one that was unlike any that they had seen before.
Mockingjay chicks are normally born near naked, with just black prickly looking stubble that will one day become feathers, but the chick from the golden egg already had plumage, as bright as the sun and the same gold as the egg from which it had emerged. It's parents and all the flock thought it beautiful and that the chick must be destined for some great purpose.
The chick grew and as she did so she took on the form of a healthy adult Mockingjay, but she was slightly larger, and seemed somehow more regal than any other, her plumage remained unique, still a radiant gold that seemed to shine even in the darkness.
She learned to sing and her voice was the sweetest in all of the flock and as she grew she became their natural leader and teacher, inventing new songs for them all to sing. She excelled in everything, could sing the best, fly the highest and catch more food than her fellow flock members.
Then one day they came, the evil two legs, with their catch nets and electric stun guns. It was the escaped Jabberjays that they were after as they had value to them. They wanted them back, to force them to work for them again as spies. However, when the two legs saw the new type of bird their matings had produced they captured them too, to study and dissect them in case they could make use of them to create some new type of mutt. Soon all the escaped Jabberjays were re-captured, along with their sons and daughters, the Mockingjays.
All that is but the Golden Mockingjay, who was more cunning than her fellows and hid away in a hollow in a very tall tree, keeping watch on the two legs compound and the strange cages in which her fellows were kept by them. They had set up their camp in the woods and around it there was a glowing fence or wall which was obviously meant to keep out the bears and other dangerous animals of the forest, which came down from the Northern Wilds from time to time.
She watched in terrible grief as several of her kind were slaughtered on folding tables in the camp, then cut up for study by the evil two legs. When they could learn no more the poor mutilated bodies were brutally thrown out of the camp for the forest creatures to consume and she mourned at their passing. The cages the remaining captives were held in were strange, not wire as it would have been too hard to carry such cages through the forest. They were made of the same sort of glowing force as the 'wall' around the two legs camp. It was a force she did not understand, a force which made her brethren cry out in pain if they touched the sides. She knew she must help them escape or they would all meet the same fate as her poor murdered fellows. Even if she had to sacrifice herself she vowed she would help them.
So at dawn she flew silently over the force wall into the compound whilst the two legs slept and began to seek a weakness in the cages that kept her fellows imprisoned. She looked closely at the strange glowing cages holding her miserable fellows perched and huddled well away from the sides. She told them she'd come to help and said that if she could set them free then they must head North for safety, away from the land to the South which was where the two legs came from.
She studied the cages and saw that leading from them there were cables connected to a large box that seemed to pulsate and hum strangely, like it contained something alive. Other wires led towards the base of the wall of force surrounding the compound. This, she thought must be the key to how the two legs made their strange walls of light. Perhaps if she could break these cables she might be able to set the captives free?
She began to attack the cables coming out of the box with her strong sharp beak, biting and tearing at them and soon their covering of plastic began to break. Eventually she broke through the insulation inside and as she did there was a loud bang and a flash, then she knew no more.
The two legs awoke to the sound of their plasma generator exploding and catching fire as it shorted out. The forcefield wall around their encampment was gone and it was open to the forest, also the holding pens in which they had held captive the Jabberjays and Mockingjays likewise were breached. They emerged from their tents just in time to see the captive birds escaping and flying away into the dense trees towards the Northern Wilds.
Looking at the burning generator to try and find out what had caused the damage the two legs found the charred remains of a bird that appeared to have been tearing at the output cables. It's corpse had been reduced virtually to ashes, all that is but for one immaculate golden feather. The two legs cursed it for setting free the others and making their expedition useless. They packed up their equipment and set off to return to the Capitol, leaving the wrecked and burned out generator, as it was beyond repair.
Night fell and all was quiet in the clearing, the ashes of the dead bird and the wrecked machine all that remained to mark what had happened there. Then, inevitably, the sun rose on a bright new dawn.
As the first rays of the sun hit the small sad pile of ashes that marked the death of the heroic golden bird a miraculous thing happened. They began to reform, to reconstitute themselves back into the form of the Golden Mockingjay and once complete her body began to stir back into life. She stood, shook her wings, spread them and flapped them to test their strength, then she took to the sky with a joyous song, heading North towards the Wilds and her escaped fellows and to a place forever beyond the reach of the two legs and their machines. They would only return to the place of the two legs when they had learned to love them.
Rue concluded her story, and smiled, saying, "And my people do love them, so they live in our orchards and sing sweetly for us to this day."
Rue's story had held Katniss's rapt attention until the end and then Katniss said, "You know Rue, that the Golden Mockingjay of your legend has another name, it has been known throughout human history and many call it the Phoenix. I read about it in a book of myths and legends my friend Madge lent me a year or so back."
Rue replied, saying, "Yes Katniss, I know of that story too, it has long ago been known by our District's people, who could see the similarities. That is why I decided to trust you and wanted you as my ally, that pin you wear is a symbol of the Golden Mockingjay, the symbol of a yearning for freedom that can never be defeated and can never die. The belief that even in death there is hope and rebirth. I pray it can protect you and that you will survive to see that new and better world come to be.
Katniss smiled and replied, "I hope so too Rue, and also that this pin's protection can keep you safe too my dear, sheltered under it's golden wings.
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Afterword
Rue sat in the shade of a tall stately willow tree beside a crystal stream and smiled as she remembered that happy time with her friend. Sadly what Katniss had wished had not come true, and she had been killed by Marvel's spear shortly after their peaceful woodland talk.
But still Rue was not unhappy, the place she had come to was beautiful, a lot like the meadow in the song Katniss had sung for her as she died. She guessed that the 'magic' of the pin obviously only worked for one who wore it, but because Katniss did so Rue was certain that she would win the Games, and go on to do even greater things.
Rue whistled her four note tune and a glorious Golden Mockingjay almost as large as an eagle flew down from the treetop and alighted on her shoulder, it's plumage bright as the sun shining in the clear blue sky above. She stroked the magnificent bird's head then said to it, "Please keep her safe'.
The bird nodded silently, then took wing, singing it's joyous song and vanishing clean away as it mounted into the heavenly sky.
Rue knew all would be well.