Aspen Carpenter

Backstory
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Aspen was born in District 7 to Holly and Oaken Carpenter. Holly was a Lumberjack, and Oaken was a carpenter. She learned to wield an axe from the time she was very little, as soon as she could walk. At the age of ten, she started working with her mother in the woods. They were poor and only had what little salaries her parents earned, but they were happy.

That all changed when Aspen was 12 and her father and other rebels were accused of attacking peacekeepers at the Justice Hall. Oaken was hauled in for questioning, but they let him go. Aspen and her family thought they had put the past behind them, but one day while Aspen and her mother were working in the forest. A man who was a good friend of Oaken's ran up to them. He told them that peacekeepers had set fire to her fathers shop, which was made of wood. Aspen and her mother ran to the shop. Aspen watched as the flames consumed the wood and her father. Finally, people came with buckets of water to put out the fire, but when they went inside, they found her father's body, dead and blackened with soot. She and her mother went back to their house. They lay in bed together, and cried. Finally, they drifted off into a restless sleep.

Her mother was given a small pension from the Capitol, but without her father's salary, Aspen still had to take out tesserae. About a month after her father's death, Aspen and her mother awoke one night to flames consuming their wooden house. Aspen and her mother were trapped! She watched as the flames consumed all their worldly possessions, and she knew it was only a matter of minutes until her inevitable death. But, as though some godly being had rescued them, the other citizens of District 7 bust down the door and pulled Aspen and her mother from the flames.

Aspen and her mother both suffered terrible burns, and Aspen developed Claustrophobia and Pyrophobia. Even after her house was rebuilt, she could never sleep inside again. After her fathers death and the loss of their house, Aspen continued to work as a lumberjack in the forests, and became incredibly skilled with axes.

~ to be continued ~