'River Anise was like the morning sun. Her rays were gentle and calm, accompanied by a light breeze. Her light painted the skies with a beautiful array of colors that Percy thought no painter could ever truly capture.'
-
(Percy Jackson)
(The Lightn...
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chapter four: the sins of the gods
~
River neatly folded up a change of clothes and shoved it in her bright yellow backpack along with some toiletries. She had thought to bring her sketchbook, but something told her that it wouldn't be wise to bring anything she could consider valuable with her on this journey.
Chiron had given Percy, Annabeth, and herself each a canteen of nectar and a bag of ambrosia squares for the journey. Annabeth brought her magical Yankees cap. River only brought her keychain, which never left her side anyway, and a book on local birds to read if she got bored.
Clarisse had spent the better half of the morning watching her pack and switching between complaining about River going on a quest and giving her advice.
"I'll miss you too, Clar," River grinned, reaching out to give her friend a tight squeeze before she could refuse it.
"Ugh, get off me," Clarisse leaned away from her, "Just get out of here already. You better come back so I can hear all about how that idiot failed and you guys had to do everything for him."
River laughed before grabbing her pack, "I will. Guard my stuff for me!"
"No way," Clarisse said, giving a half-hearted wave as River ran off towards Half-Blood Hill.
River nearly crashed into Grover as she skidded to a stop, "I'm here!"
Annabeth looked back at her, "You're late."
"Not really," Percy muttered, "We weren't even ready to leave yet."
"This is a quest, and we're on a time limit, which means we need to be punctual," Annabeth argued.
"Sorry, Annabeth. I got a little distracted," River admitted as she shouldered her backpack higher.
Annabeth sighed and reached over to peel a small heart sticker off of River's cheek, "We can't draw any attention. It's bad enough you look like a Van Gogh painting."
Percy looked down at River's choice of clothes and couldn't help but agree. She did look like a painting. Her braided hair was interwoven with small flowers with a hyacinth tucked behind her ear. She wore a mustard yellow sweater that had a small sunflower design embroidered on its front, denim shorts that had crusted paintings on them and a gold sharpie sticking out of one pocket, and her usual yellow shoes. There was a large painting of the sun on her left calf, along with a few sharpie writings of congratulations and good luck from her siblings.
River pouted at the loss of her face sticker, "But that one was small and super subtle."
Annabeth sighed loudly before reaching forward to place the sticker back on River's cheek, "Fine, but no more, sun girl."
