Sunlight filtered through the trees, dancing on the forest floor as the young man pulled his horse to a stop beside the water's edge and dismounted.

He stood on the bank and stared down at his reflection, entranced by himself. He startled when another reflection appeared right beside him, it was a woman with coal black hair, blood red lips and amethyst purple robes.

He smiled to himself, even in the forest the women found him. He turned to face her, but before he could, he gasped, a sharp pain went through his back and he began breathing heavily.

The woman released the dagger she had buried between his shoulder blades and locked eyes with him. "It's fitting, you met her here, you should die here," and with those words she tapped his back with her hand and he lost his balance and plunged into the water.

He writhed in the water and clawed helplessly for the surface, but he just sunk deeper and deeper. As his eyes grew dark and he lost consciousness he realized who his murderess was.

Even in his final moments he struggled for air, but he died in the darkness, surrounded by his own blood.

****************
My vision was blurry and I felt a sensation like I was being lifted. I flinched as sunlight touched my skin and I slowly opened my eyes.

I stared up at a man with dark skin and curly black hair, he had a sharply defined nose and two horns spiraling up from his head. He looked at me quizzically and I felt we were both equally confused by each other.

"You good there sis?" He said looking down at me.

"Um, I'm not sure," I replied. And that's when it hit me, I was talking! I stood up quickly and joy flooded my body, "I can talk!" I screamed to the sky. "I can talk! I can talk!" I began chanting and I grabbed goat mans hands and danced around in a circle.

"Yay you can talk," he brayed nervously as he took a step back. "If you come with me I know a very nice mental institution that you—"

"Oh, I'm sorry," I said as reality hit me and I landed back on earth. "I'm not insane. It's just Hera put this curse on me that took away my voice and by some miracle I can talk again. I'm surprised you haven't heard yet, scandal travels fast on Olympus."

He still looked a little uncertain, but some of the tension left his face.

I smiled and held out my hand, "Let's start over. I'm Echo, what's your name?"

He shook my hand, "I'm Pan, minor deity and god of the wild."

"Nice to meet you Pan," I said warmly. "Thanks for pulling me up."

"Well it's not every day I pull a sleeping girl out of a lake, so I have to ask, what were you doing at the bottom of a river?"

"Wallowing in self doubt, having a pity party and sobbing pointlessly into oblivion," I responded candidly.

"Ahh, so I'm guessing you were pretty upset about the whole Hera stealing your voice thing."

"Upset is an understatement, oh also I just found out my boyfriend is a misogynistic asshole who's cheating on me, ex-boyfriend I should say."

Pan grunted in sympathy, "sounds like you had a pretty bad day, can I help you in anyway?"

"Well I need to find my friends, Aika and Ayana, we had an argument and I need to apologize. It's Tuesday, so that means they're probably in the mortal realm with Zeus, luckily I know a secret entrance, I wouldn't mind some company on the trip."

"Well I've got nothing better to do with my day, so what the hell."

"Great!"

We walked together and chatted on the way, he told me about his life as guardian of the wild and I told him about how Zeus and Hera screwed me over.

We walked several miles and we were nearing the pink mist orchards, but as we got closer I noticed the usual pink blossoms that should be floating over head aren't there.

"Are you sure this the right way?" He asked. "This whole area is deserted, no one ever comes here."

I glanced at him with an odd look in my eye, "What do you mean? There's parties here every Saturday night."

He looked back at me with the same expression, "What are you talking about?" Just at that moment we walked into what should've been the pink mist orchards, but it was desolate, the trees were cut to stumps and the ground was charred with ash.

"Wha-what happened here?" I gasped in horror.

"I don't know, it's been like this as long as I can remember. Are you sure we're in the right place?"

"Positive," I whispered, as I ran my hands over the stump of the great cherry tree. It was gone, cut up into pieces and hauled away. It's life giving water had dried up and the spring had run empty.

I bit my lip to keep it from trembling and tears welled in my eyes, it had been so beautiful, full of life and joy that it gave willingly to others, but now it was diminished to a few dead roots and a lifeless stump.

I looked back up at Pan, "I must have the wrong place," I said painfully. If I told him the truth he'd think I'm insane. I think I'm insane. "But this only leaves one option," I said cautiously, "the portal on Olympus."

He looked at me like I was crazy, but honestly at this point I might be crazy. "Weren't you banned from Olympus? If you go back they'll kill you!"

"I know, but I don't have much to live for right now other than my friends, so I figure they're worth the risk. You definitely don't have to come with me, I wouldn't put your life in danger like that."

"Oh anything for the random girl I met an hour ago."

My lips curved upwards and I laughed softly, "Really?"

"Well I don't have much else to do with my day and if we get caught I can always claim I don't know you."

"Tchh, who says chivalry is dead?" I said with a laugh, but I furrowed my brow, "in all seriousness, this is incredibly dangerous and I won't have you risking your life for the random girl you met an hour ago."

"I insist," he said. "Plus it's a long way back to Olympus and it's getting dark, I can't very well leave you alone in this dark, deserted area."

A real smile graced my face for the first time since I had been pulled out of the water, words couldn't say how grateful I was for this act of kindness.

Two hours later we stood staring up at the gates of Olympus. "So, how exactly do you propose getting inside the fortress of the gods," Pan quivered.

"I know a back entrance," I said as I dragged him along by his horn.

"Oh," he said forlornly, "we couldn't just wait for Aia and Anya to come back?"

"Aika and Ayana," I corrected, "and you literally signed up for this."

He brayed mournfully as he looked back into the woods at safety.

"Here it is," I said, as I let go of his ear.

"Umm, fascinating wall?"

I rolled my eyes at him as I put both my hands on the wall, and pushed. Slowly the wall swung in, to reveal an unlit passageway full of cobwebs and rodents, it looked like it hadn't been used in years.

"That's odd," I said, "I was here yesterday and it was well lit and sparkling clean. It's Hera's secret entrance and she is a neat freak."

Pan's eyes widened, "did you just call the Queen of Heaven a neat freak while standing on her property?"

"Oh that's right, we're not friends anymore," I sighed, "forget I said that."

I squinted into the tunnel nervously, "well here's to nothing," I muttered, and went blundering into the darkness.

We walked for several minutes, each with one hand on the wall, and one hand holding the others hand. We didn't speak as we walked, as if words would break the trance.  Eventually a door appeared at the end of the passage, and I took a deep breathe, before pushing it open.

The rusty hinges squeaked as the old door slowly swung open, to reveal one of Olympus' many hallways. I sighed in relief, it was empty.

"Quickly," I whispered. "The door to the mortal realm is near here."

"Oh my gods, we actually did this," he brayed nervously.

"Pussy," I muttered, grabbing his horn again and dragging him down the hall.

The sound of a door swinging open made my blood run cold. I whirled around to face the last person in the world I wanted to see, Zeus.

"You shouldn't be here," he said in a tone that sent shivers up my spine.

"You." Was all I could spit out.

"I see you're talking again, that's problematic. Sorry Echo, I really don't want to do this, but I can't let you leave."

My body went rigid, "Run!" I said as quietly and frantically as possible. We both turned and scrambled down the hallway.

"Guards!" Zeus screamed. "Catch the imposters!"

"Ohmygods, ohmygods, ohmygods," Pan hyperventilated.

We rushed out of the hallway with half the guards of Olympus pursuing us. But I stopped short, we were standing on the edge of a balcony, guards coming from every direction. The only way to go? Down.

I clutched Pan's hand and turned to look into his whimsical eyes. "Do you trust me?"

"No!!!!" He screamed and frantically tried to remove my hand from his wrist.

I rolled my eyes, "Oh shut up goat boy." And with that, I looked down, and threw myself of the terrace.

We were falling. Now we're dead. No we're not, I feel alive. I slowly open my eyes and glance down, then immediately shut them again. We're in the middle of the sky, about 500 meters up.

I work up the courage to open my eyes again, and I realize, that we're sitting on Constellation.

I sigh in relief, my plan worked. Although it wasn't much of a plan, it was more of a, jump off of a building and see who saves you situation.

I flick Pan in the forehead, "hey wake up goat boy."

He whimpers, but slowly opens his eyes. He looks down, and immediate looks back up and makes eye contact with me. "I'm in hell aren't I?"

I roll my eyes, and ignore him. I slowly steer Constellation to the ground. I realized quickly that he's telepathic and I can control him with my mind, so my first course of action was to steer him to Aika's meadow.

When we landed, I hopped off, Pan fell to the ground and started kissing it. I sat by against a tree until dusk, when Aika came walking home to her meadow.

She must not have noticed me in the shadows, but just as I was about to approach her, Ayana appeared.

"Hey babe," she giggled. Aika smiled and wrapped her arms around her, kissing her.

Now I'm really confused.

"Hey babe," Aika responded.

"How was work?" Ayana asked with a smile.

Aika laughed, "well I spent it with Zeus, so naturally it was horrible."

I couldn't do it anymore, I stepped out of the shadows. "Aika, Ayana, before we talk about what just happened, I want to say, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean any of what I said, I was just angry, and you were right about Narcissus. He was horrible!"

Aika stepped back and looked at me blankly, "I'm sorry, do I know you?"

[aaaaaaaaah!!!! Any guesses as to what the hell is happening?!?! Make sure to comment and vote!!