Isn't It Poetic How The Sky Is Always The Same Shade Of Blue?

I settled back down onto the branch. Too young to help, apparently. Too old to stay in the house with everyone else, apparently. So that's how I found myself sitting high up on an apple tree, watching the sky.
Song padded along to me, and mewed daintily.
'Who's a good pussy?' I asked, reaching out. But she hissed and her back arched.
Then quick as a flash, she darted from me, and I was left wondering what was wrong. But the answer became apparent soon enough.
A few bushes rustled underneath my tree, and I pulled out the silver knife that I had trained with for so long. Slowly, I moved to a crouch on the tree, and watched for what was down there.

Arisu skipped around the orchards, tossing an apple up into the air a few times. She snuck the apple away from their orchard during her break and came near the edge. She hoped her mother doesn't find out! Ryuu snuck one out yesterday too, so why couldn't she? Arisu was about to take a contented bite out of the apple before noticing a cat hissing and running away. She cocked her head to the side, what was a cat doing here? It better not be chasing her little door mouse. As she heard the leaves rustle from the nearest tree above, she looked up to see a girl, crouching up on a branch. Arisu grinned, "Ahh, hello!" She noticed that in the girl's hand was a knife; she wasn't trying to steal apples was she? Ironically, Arisu did just that.

I tilted my head to the side, examining the girl. She seemed okay. Slowly, I slipped the knife back into the little holder on my calf, but where I would have easy access to it. Then I turned to the side of the big branch, and jumped to the moss covered ground.
I landed in a crouch, and quickly straightened.
'Hello,' I said, nodding my head to her, then looking at the apple in her hand.
'I hope you aren't taking the apples. Their strict about that here,' I said in my soprano voice, smiling at the girl.
At the back of my mind, I wondered where Song had got to. And why she had run away. She never usually did.
But maybe it was something else that had worried her. I remembered the time that she had gotten a thorn stuck in her paw when she was climbing the trees with me. Mama had to get "tweezers" and pull it out, and Song had yowled for days. She had given Mama a wide berth after that.

Arisu gave her a cheeky smile and put a finger on her lips, "As long as my mum doesn't find out! She hasn't been so strict for the past few days." It was probably due to the ongoing games and her mum has occasionally watch the games, looking out for the District 11 tribute. Arisu didn't want to watch the games, she'd rather be out here by the orchards!

"The Games season is usually when she doesn't pay attention," she stuck her tongue out in guilt, holding on to the apple first, deciding to eat it a little while later. "I'm Arisu! or.. well.. you could just call me Alice," Arisu introduced herself to the girl. She looked a lot younger than Arisu, no a lot younger than Arisu's real age.

I smiled and walked closer to the girl.
'Hi Alice. I'm Aoide Lyric. Everyone just calls me Sky though, cause I like to climb trees,' I chuckled, and thought about the Hunger Games.
Watching them with my sisters and brothers. Mama crying every time a tribute died. And the horrible things that happened in them.
'I don't like the games. But I have to watch them with everyone else,' I said, thoughtfully.
Then I grinned at the girl.
'So you did take the apple! But I suppose, when no-ones around, there's no reason to not.'
Of course, I had been told never to take one. It was dangerous. But it's not like I listened. Sometimes, I could take the occasional one, and no-one was any the wiser.

"Well nice to meet you Sky!" Alice laughed, "trees are fun to climb on aren't they?"The little door mouse scurried towards them and climbed onto Arisu's shoulder. Arisu gave it a little scratch under the neck, happy that it's still safe. "I usually volunteer to take charge of the apple orchard here so that I don't have to watch it," Arisu said, not really finding any fun in watching them at all.

Arisu giggled as Sky accused her, "It's okay, I'll just pay back by taking extra care for the apples!" Arisu does feel guilty whenever she sneaked out an apple so she'll usually work especially hard in the orchards till it feeds and contents in the guilt in her. "Do you work around the orchards too, Sky?"

I smiled, and kicked at the ground slightly.
'Nope. I get to sometimes, but my Mom says I'm to small to. She doesn't want me to fall out of a tree,' I laughed at that thought. Me, falling out of a tree. No. More like me, jumping out of a tree.
I loved it. Jumping from each tree to another one. Climbing to the top. I didn't like the tracker-jackers that I sometimes found, but I had long since learned how to treat them stings.
'Do you climb a lot? Can you jump from really high ones? Have you ever seen a tracker-jacker?' I asked really fast, before smiling again.

"Then she would've gotten a shock if it was her seeing you up there!" Arisu teased, "Sooner or later she'll have to let you work around the orchard!" Arisu remember starting out at 9 when they had to start their apple orchard from scratch and her family needed all the help they could get.

Arisu laughed a little hearing Sky ask a few questions at once and she answered them one by one, "Yeah! I climb a lot! Especially during inspection and harvesting season. My brothers are all too heavy, so I usually climb all the higher places. So I guess I do jump from high ones! It makes harvesting faster." Her brothers would usually be below her while she pluck them off the trees and drop them down, jumping on to the next tree once one is cleared. She thought back about tracker-jackers and shook her head, "Nope, I haven't really seen one before, guess the tracker-jackers don't like apples! Have you seen some before?"

My eyes widened. Mostly cause she hadn't seen one before. I thought everyone had.
'I've seen some. They like to nest near the top of trees, and the top of trees is where I like to go the most,' I smiled.
'My brother isn't allowed to climb trees. He's sixteen. And my sisters are both too old and to young. Millie is two, and Joan is eighteen. I'm the only one,' I laughed, and bent to pick up a small yellow flower peeping through the grass and moss.
Song came back tentavily, and I grinned at the white puss. She rubbed against my leg, and looked curiously at the little dormouse on Alice's shoulder.
'Tut tut Song,' I muttered to her.
She gave me a wide eyed, innocent look, and walked away.
'Is that your pet?' I asked her, nodding to the little mouse.
I had had a mouse before we got Song. But Mama had found her, and screaming, put it outside. I'd only had it a few days though, so not long enough to get attached.

"Ahh, I see! I usually like to hang round the middle sections of the trees. Good height plus good shade!" Arisu grinned, maybe that's why she rarely spotted any tracker-jackers. If there were, her brothers would take care of the problem. Arisu giggled to herself, since ironically she was around Sky's older siblings' ages, "Looks like they'll be missing out on all the fun! My brothers are much older! Kei is 24 and Ryu is.. 19!" Arisu almost forgot her second brother's age, he never seem to be his age at all.

She noticed a cat came around and purred towards Sky, rubbing against her leg. Arisu would pet it but she remembered that the little creature was on her shoulders. "Is that your pet?" Sky asked as she gestured towards the little doormouse. Arisu chuckled, "Well kinda, it just follows me once in awhile. So I guess it is!" The mouse squeaked and nudged into Arisu's neck lovingly. "Is that lovely cat yours too?" Arisu asked, looking towards the direction where the cat left again.

I laughed at the idea of Song ever being my pet.
'I suppose. But really, I'm more like her pet,' I smiled, watching the little mouse.
I tried to think of something to say, and came to the perfect solution. With a sly smile, I said suppressing a laugh.
'I know. How about we see just how good you are at climbing trees?' Then, without waiting for an answer, I ran to the tree I had jumped out of, and grabbed the lowest branch. The bark was rough under my small hands, and I pulled myself up to crouch on a higher one.

Arisu laughed, thinking how cats were all like that, "oh cats." The doormouse stretched out a little to take a sniff at the new person it wasn't familiar with. She was staring at it and it stared back at her. And it squeaked a little again. Arisu laughed at that and soon Sky suggested something interesting. Before she could reply, Sky was climbing up the nearest tree that she came down from just now. "Oh, sounds like fun!" Arisu clapped her hands and began climbing up the same tree, catching up to Sky quickly as they climbed up the sturdy tree together. Arisu then found a fairly wide branch and made herself comfortable on it, smiling to Sky, "the view is always so great from here!"

I sat on a branch beside Alice, and smiled, looking out over the many trees.
'Yeah. Isn't it poetic how the sky is always the same shade of blue? It's only the clouds that change,' I chuckled.
People sometimes said that I should be much older. But I liked to read. I liked to run and play too.
'Alice? Whats your story? You don't seem like other people you're age,' I asked, smiling at the girl.

Arisu looked up at the sky, she didn't know much about poems, but she remembered a haiku her older brother said and she casually repeated it out loud,

"Why is the sky blue?
What if it changed to purple?
Let's leave the clouds white."

Arisu liked Haikus better than poems; they were much shorter, so short and sweet was nice. "Alice? Whats your story? You don't seem like other people you're age," Sky asked and Arisu teased, "How would you know how old I am? Making a guess?" Arisu gets that a lot but she doesn't mind, as long as they don't mention anything about the H word or the S word.

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