Dark Everglades: The Rising Sun [BOOK ONE] {BEING RE-WRITTEN}

Arina

Arina's POV

The night in the skies is why I even come up here this late. The wind blowing in my face, with no trace of pollution or foul smelling food. It's worth it. The stars that mix in with the gray clouds make things eerie... Calm. This hour is filled with complete silence, and I love it.

Being a Demlion... You don't get that often.

I sigh lightly, brushing my hair back and wrapping my arms around my knees.

"Arina?!" My stepmother squawks from the window of our apartment, and I cringe. "What are you doing up there this late?!" She continues and I roll my eyes.

"I'm just looking..." I mumble after her, hearing her hesitate.

"Well alright! Come down soon!"

I scowl lightly, shaking my head.
She yells. Everything.

I set my knees down, swinging my legs in the air as a bird screeches above me. I look up, watching it soar as I pick at the old meat in my fang with my finger. That bird comes around everyday at this time and I keep thinking it's my mother.

I wish it would land so I can ask why she died. Why she left me with this old hag.

I hear a light whistle from down bellow, and I turn lightly. I sigh, watching as my father unlocks the gates to the complex, walking in with his brief case and sweeping away the crumpled piece of newspaper stuck to his shoe.

I grimace, watching silently as he climbs up the stairs towards our apartment. He's only here this late, and other then this, this is the only time I truly see him. Where does he go?! Ruskya doesn't have much to offer.

I watch as he opens the door and disappears inside.

I wonder how he manages that hag. How he's able to keep her yapping out of his head. My father is many things, and patient is sadly one of them. He usually shifts into a different human face when he's tired, or annoyed. But he never does in front of her.

I look back up to the stars, the bird circling around me and I smile. I chuckle lightly, waving my hand at it and watching it squawk and fly away.

I watch it fly into the distance where the sun begins to rise, and disappears behind a low cloud. I take in a breath, turning around again. I would shift into a eagle or something else to soothe me, but what's the rush? I wouldn't want to waste my energy anyway.

I turn towards the east, looking upon the vast lands of Ruskya. My home. My state filled with Demlion's. Rascals they are, and so am I. I love it though, but something always feels off.

Looking upon a country map of Theroza, we're split so unequally it almost seems... Unfair.

And it's not right either. Theroza's government loves to watch people suffer. Ruskya has the most hobo's the state's ever seen.

I cross my arms, staring at the littered floor as the breeze whips my hair again. My loose black curls. My mother's curls.

I shake my head, looking away from the street and back to the air, where the stars begin to disappear, and a single Demlion begins to shift into a bird to soar again.

And this happens everyday. All day. A single pattern. Me sitting here, the bird coming around, my stepmother yelling at me, and then the easy morning where I go into the markets to grab and steal essentials, come back, learn from my stepmother, and then come back up here. I never sleep.

I sigh again, standing and dusting off my jacket. I tuck my hands through my pockets, turn on my heels and begin to walk towards the open window on the left hand side of the apartment.

Let's start this pattern again...