Echo: The Girl That Time Forgot

Blood Runs Thicker Than Water

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.