Anthízo, Percy Jackson

VIII. the beginning of a book that'll last a lifetime

KARINA WAS THE FIRST PERSON AWAKE THAT MORNING, she usually always is. but that's because she always watches the sun rise every morning from the edge of the tiber river.

karina thinks of sunrises as the beginning of a book. that book being the rest of the day and night. in the beginning of a book, it's always like the good before the bad. you hear about all the happy things that are happening in a certain persons life-their lifestyle, their friends, their significant other, all of the nice and happy things that have happened. it's the build up of joyful experiences the author gives you before you get into the action, the bad and sometimes scary stuff.

she also correlates it to life. as a child, you're grown up in this pure and exciting world that's full of sunshine and rainbows and everything so new that you never notice the cruel and harsh reality until you're older. when you're older, life seems to drag on more, losing it's bright colors that you used to see from it. you start experiencing the horrible and painful reality of life, and you just wish you could be in the beginning of the book again, where everything was different.

so, the sunrise is sort of the nice, soft build up to all of the surprises and bad things the rest of the day might give you, and karina wants to enjoy that good part of the day just in case she might to be able to experience any more for the rest of it.

karina watched as the different shades of orange, red, and yellow tinted the sky, causing her face to have a warm glow to it. she admired how to beams of light casted an orange hue onto the blue water of the river, making it look like a tie-dye mixture of blue, orange, and red.

as the sun reached higher over the horizon, she reached her hand out in front of her, lifting it in the direct path of the sun, letting the orange streams of light pass through her fingers and onto her face. she smiled at the warm heat from the sun, and put her hand down, letting it run through her honey-brown hair.

karina never keeps track of time when watching the sunrise, she knows when it's time to go when the sun no longer tints the sky with its beautiful shades of orange, and instead rising higher into sky, causing the atmosphere to turn to its normal blue.

she must've been there for about an hour, when hazel came walking up to her, standing beside her.

"i knew i'd find you here." hazel said, looking down at her. karina looked up at her and smiled, patting the grass next to her.

hazel complied and took a seat next to her, watching the last bit of the sunrise fade away into the sky.

"there's going to be a senate meeting soon, you should probably get changed." hazel spoke softly, knowing this is a time where karina is most at peace with herself.

karina smiled slightly and chuckled. "yeah, i don't think they want me showing up in my scooby-doo pajama pants." she said, looking down at her outfit.

hazel giggled and looked to her and patted her knee. "come on, go get changed so we can get to breakfast early and get those mini pancakes."

karina looked to her with excited eyes. "i forgot about those! okay, okay, let's go!" she scrambled to her feet, grabbing hazel's hand as well, pulling her up hastily.

they jogged back to the barracks quickly, so karina could get on her proper praetor attire.

she slipped on some black mom jeans that were ripped on the knees, her usual camp shirt, and some old white converse that she had painted sunflowers on. she quickly put her hair into a ponytail, with a small braid going around one side her head and tying it in the back. and finally she grabbed her normal praetorian robes and slid it on with ease, letting the smooth fabric sit on her shoulders, and walked out the door to find hazel, who was standing with her arms crossed right outside the barracks.