Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind

Love looks not with eyes, but with the mind

Lysander slowly woke up and rubbed his tired eyes. He was currently in the middle of the woods—why would he be in such a place? Then he seemed to remember something about a promise made to a short, tanned girl, and about fleeing from Athens.

"Oh, fair Hermia, my love, there you are!" a male voice suddenly emerged from the nearby bushes.

"Demetrius, please, come back!" another one said.

Lysander frowned and painfully sat up. As he was about to glance at a still, dark silhouette near him, now starting moving as if awakening from a tormented sleep, someone hushed out of the thick woods.

"Hermia, Hermia!" the young man was calling.

Lysander got up, a bit puzzled at the sight of Demetrius. It was as if he saw him for the first time—why hadn't he noticed his beautiful brown eyes before? Or his nice, well-groomed chestnut hair? His fine fleshy lips? And why was this perfect mouth calling the name of another?

"Demetrius?" Hermia moaned, now awoken. She got up to stand next to Lysander, firmly taking his hand. "What are you doing here?"

"I've come for you, my dear princess. What a horrible idea to run away from me with that stupid boy! I could give you so much more than him."

"Do not insult Lysander. I chose him, not you. Please get over it, and let us love each other."

As her legal fiancé was about to answer, another figure emerged from the bushes. Helena burst in the clearing, her head full of sticks and her Athenian clothes completely ruined. "O, Demetrius, pray me, wait for your loyal Helena!"

Lysander, who had now seemingly recovered from his first shock and paralysis, shook his head and made a step forward, dropping Hermia's sweaty hand.

"Approach no more," he threatened. "I will protect my loved one, even it means losing my life."

"Thanks for defending me, my sweet lover," Hermia replied in a blush. "Let's go, then."

"I'm not afraid of you, man," Demetrius chuckled. "I'll have you any time."

The other man frowned in misunderstanding. "Demetrius, my precious friend, I would never fight you. I am to you too deeply attached."

"Lys, what is all this about?" Hermia intervened. She caught up on them and tried to pull on his sleeve, but Lysander wouldn't move. "Come on, baby. We will never get to your aunt's on time, otherwise."

"Just leave me alone!" Lysander spoke up. "I'm not going with you."

In the meantime, Demetrius was trying to get rid of Helena's advances. "Please go away! I've told you time and time again that I couldn't care less about you! You are nothing to me, alright? You can simply vanish or die, for all I care. Just as long as you leave me in peace."

Helena gasped and looked down, her feelings immediately hurt by her lover's harsh words. She didn't dare to answer and made a few steps backwards, without even a look for Hermia and Lysander, who had threatened her earlier. She left in a burst of tears, penetrating deeply in the enchanted forest.

Hermia was now trying to sort things out with a careless Lysander, whose eyes couldn't stop staring at Demetrius in amazement.