The young man carrying the fresh batch of bread to the counter was Bell’s apprentice, Cody. A slightly shy young man, but Bell knew he had a passion for bread like no other, aside from himself of course.
Bell took the batch from Cody and arranged the pieces of bread neatly on the counter. He scratched his rough brown hair and adjusted his glasses, pondering his next move.
“Cody… We’re definitely gonna need some more bread.” He finally said. “Fire up the oven again boy!”
“Yes Sirius!” Cody replied and jogged back to the oven to fire up another load.
Suddenly there was a ring from the bell above the door as a customer came in.
“Goddamn that smells so ****ing good Sirius!” Came the exclamation.
“Well it is Draw Day Charon!” Sirius replied buoyantly. “This could be the last time two sorry ass people get to taste my bread, so I gotta make it as good as possible.
“True that.” Charon replied, a large bald man who chopped wood in the forests surrounding the districts. “I’m going to have to buy a loaf, it’ll hopefully make my family a little bit calmer and happier about the impending Draw.”
“It would be my pleasure to serve you my friend, take your pick!”
Charon bought his loaf and walked back out in to the sunshine. “Yes”. He said to himself. “The wife will love this I’m sure!”
As he walked back through the square with his bread in hand, he passed a group of people praying to the stage in the middle of the square. Surely praying that they wouldn’t get picked. Charon didn’t believe in all that God nonsense, but each to their own he thought.
Squirrel raised his head from his prayer position and faced the stage. He had believed in God from an early age, as his parents had both been extremely religious. His praying had survived him the first ten years of Draws, and he believed it would save him again.
As he looked around he saw a few people mocking him and his friends for praying, but he pitied them. They were probably just heading to the nearest pub and getting drunk, like many 4sies did on Draw Day. They were almost as bad and unruly as District 5 in that respect, he thought to himself.
“What do those ****ing idiots think they’re doing?!” Smurf, a small ginger haired man with a slightly strange accent exclaimed.
“Praying…” His tall, muscly friend, called Junk, replied. “I’d prefer to do my praying over a pint of ale.”
“Damn straight!” Smurf said.
They both laughed as they made their way over to the pub down one of the alleyways leading off from the cobbled town square.
They were still laughing as they pushed open the door to the pub, aptly named “Oblivion”. It was one of the usually quieter pubs in town, but on Draw Day the pub was always packed to the rafters, as many chose it for its likeness to what they would feel they are heading in to if they were picked as a District 4 tribute.
In fact it was called Oblivion after its owner, Daniel Pietro Oblivion, known as just DP to his friends. DP was of average height, but enjoyed working out a lot and had a very good physique. The one perks of looking good and owning a pub, was of course the women. In fact as Junk and Smurf walked through the door they noticed DP behind the bar chatting up one of the local girls, who everyone knew became a lot looser in the days leading up to Draw Day…
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~C~ - NIO BUNNY - http://img.imgcake.com/nio/76ayvpngam.png
A Hot Dog will make you a fatty, a SuperNiceDog will make you a GURU!