Chapter Text
She is barely older than a toddler when her mother holds her close, her father kneeling down to speak softly to her. “Our little songbird.”
She frowns at him, at her, the idea of it stale and unappealing in her mind. Why would she want to be something like a tiny bird? “I don't want to be a songbird.” She feels disgusted. “They're so small, they break so much.”
And her mother laughs. It's not the gentle, kind laugh she is used to, no. It feels real, genuine, and Lucy Gray looks at her mother, sees her clearly for the first time. “Would you like to know a secret?”
Lucy Gray nods rapidly, waits for her parents to speak, waits to hear the words that will be burned into her soul for the rest of eternity.
Her mother smiles, a sharp little thing. Her father leans closer, voice a whisper on the wind. “We have never been songbirds.” He says, a secret Lucy Gray will take to her grave, just as her parents did before her. “We're snakes, Lucy Gray, snakes pretending to be harmless little birds. Because birds get away with things a snake never could.”
Lucy Gray was only twelve years old when Phlox settled.
Young, she's the only one her age with a settled daemon. It is not celebrated, she is barely even congratulated. The reaping was a few days ago, Phlox had settled while they were watching the Games. She had not even noticed until they were over.
She is not surprised with the form he chose. And yet, at the same time, she sees an opportunity with his form, knowledge that only she has in the entire district, a parting gift from her ma long ago.
Phlox was a snake, a beautiful tiny thing with black and red stripes, orange blending them together. He was a coral snake, she's seen one once before, when they had traveled so very far. Her ma had warned her, told her to stay away.
Because coral snakes were venomous, dangerously so, and at her age, if she was bit, there would be no chance of survival.
She's unsure exactly why she remembers this, but it must have a reason. No one else in mountainous district 12 knows of coral snakes - if they did she'd be put on a registrar. Those with venomous daemons must be listed, are always suspected of wrongdoings.
But no one knows of coral snakes. They're not native here, not native anywhere anymore, not really. Her ma told her that the tides had crept in one day, took land and never planned on giving it back. When they saw that coral snake her ma said it was a dying breed, lost with no home to go back to, no place to call its own. She's almost sure that even if she did go back to that place, asked the locals around, they would not recognize her daemon as anything more than a pretty snake.
Lucy Gray's daemon settled when she was twelve years old. At twelve years old she was given an opportunity, though at the time she had no clue of its possibility.
Then she turned thirteen. She turned thirteen and one of the older kids had attacked Billy Taupe, had tried to stomp his head in, jeering and mocking him for being an outsider, for being Covey. Lucy Gray had seen it start, ran over to stop them from hurting him any more. It wasn't like she could do much, but she felt the need to try.
She was thrown to the side, rolling over leaves and litter as she went. Phlox hisses from her pocket, aggravated, angry. She knew why - they were always too weak to protect themselves, to protect the others. She was worthless, pathetic, when all she really wanted to do was teach those older kids a lesson. Stop them from targeting the Covey just because they had no one else to pick on.
She wanted them dead.
Her fingers scrapped against the ground. Her hands curled around a stick, pulled it close as she hauled herself back up. She'll swing it at them a few times, that was usually enough to get them to back up a little.
But then Phlox speaks, a soft, gravely thing, a whisper like a far away hum. “Wait.” He says, peers out of her pocket, towards the stick. “Bring it here.”
She did, knowing she didn't really have time to waste but curious either way. She could still hear Billy Taupe crying out, they were still harassing him, what was Phlox doing?
Her daemon slithers out to the edge of the stick, where it had broken off into something sharp, pointed. He hisses once more, bares his fangs. Something leaks from his mouth, saliva maybe, venom most likely. It soaks the edge of the stick, turns it into a threat instead of a warning.
Phlox slithers back into her pocket, silent. Letting her decide what to do next.
Lucy Gray wards off the children with her venom infused weapon. It is the leader that she is most aggressive with, swinging her branch until it nicks his skin, cuts deep enough to draw blood. Then she grabs Billy Taupe and they run, and the children laugh as they go.
Those kids never bother her again. She never sees the one who led them again, either. He vanished after that day, like he had never existed. Lucy Gray asks about the kid, a month or so later. Billy Taupe doesn't look at her when he tells her that he had died a few hours after they had finished beating him up, and no one knew why.
She sits on that information, thinks about her actions while she lies awake that night. She had killed someone, had purposefully done so. She should feel remorse, she should feel guilt. She should repent.
That is what she should do, if she regrets her actions. She does not.
That is the first time Phlox uses his venom. It is not the last.