"I don't want anything, Eponine, except an ally," Katniss says. "Knowing someone will have my back here when I don't know how things work is more valuable than anything else you could give me. Besides, you need boots and clothes to just survive. If I've got something I can share with someone else, I'm going to do it."

Katniss has always been fiercely protective of the poor in District 12 and Eponine reminds her of so many people back home, people who only scraped by on meager supplies from the Capitol and whatever they could find to trade or beg for.

"I can't survive if I can't go hunting. It's what makes me happy. Why would I waste what I get in return for it?"