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Cupid's Malice

ljv

Prologue

I met a young man who was wounded in love, I met another man who was wounded in hatred.

- Bob Dylan

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As it is to be understood, this is cupid's malice, Apollo's foolish mistake, and Daphne's innocent misfortune.

All of this over the slaying of a beast.

Cupid's aim was fine enough, but hardly greater than Apollo's pride.

Apollo laughed. "Stupid child, perhaps you should not play with weapons meant for men."

Cupid was hardly amused. Cupid was insulted. If anything, though, and perhaps most dangerously, Cupid was patient. He lowered his bow and arrow slowly, so slowly it looked like force.

The child turned his head to gaze upon Apollo with disapproval in his young eyes with the faintest gleam triumph. His voice was high and sweet like a heaven's melody. "My aim is fine enough, Apollo."

Apollo found this even funnier. He tried so very hard to laugh. He took pleasure in his failure nonetheless. His jaw was strong and set. His teeth gleamed as his laughter was set loose. "Your aim!"

Cupid lightly stroked his bow. His soft, child hands enjoyed the smoothness of it. His small arms itched at the chance to use it. Cupid watched Apollo through long feather like lashes. He made to aim his arrow. This set Apollo laughing even harder than before.

"You silly fool. Put down that weapon before you hurt yourself. Do not mettle with honors that belong to men. You play your game with your small arrows and bow. Find some fair maiden to set her loins afire." Apollo could barely control his words he as laughing so heartily. "Then find her some fine hunter." He was on a roll now, "Use your arrows for the meekness of love, small child. Practice on that."

Cupid gazed upon Apollo carefully, ruefully. "Your bow shoots everything. Your aim, as you claim, being superior to mine. But my aim – my aim will fix you."

Apollo watched the child in his attempt to make threats. If Apollo were not so amused, he would have taken shock from the angry glint in Cupid's eye and perhaps a second longer to consider the steely shean in that gaze. Instead, he took perverse elation in it. He felt the urge to call the child out.

"You will fix me?" Apollo's jaw muscles ached from his wide grin. "I hope your aim improves a great deal then, small child."

Cupid smiled. It was strange because the smile on his face matched the one in his heart. His voice became harder than before and even more beautiful. "You are far above all creatures living, Apollo, and by just that distance your glory is less than mine."

"My glory less than yours!" Laughter cascading from Apollo's lips. "Little Cupid, your glory shall be greater than mine then, hmm?"

Cupid became more and more insulted. his patience giving way into amusement. "All the greater still."

Apollo could not believe in Cupid's words. His laughter sobered up but he was no less amused. "Leave now, little Cupid. Take practice with your small quiver and bow. You'll need it."

Cupid gazed upon Apollo one last time. He studied the broad line of Apollo's shoulders that lent themselves gracefully into the strong line of his neck and arms. Upon Apollo's cruel face was a broad grin stretched from ear to ear. Cupid appreciated looking at his arrogance because he knew just how easily it could be broken.

Cupid fluttered his wings lightly. He was gone quickly. He flied higher and higher until the world seemed so small it would be too easy to grasp. At this height he could still see Apollo; laughing and unsuspecting. He could see the entirety of Greece and all of the people in it. From this perspective he began his search. It did not take him long to find what he sought.

She was the maiden Daphne. He knew her only by name and lineage. Her father, Cupid amused himself with a grin, was the river-god Peneus. Cupid chuckled lightly to himself. She was the virgin daughter of the proud Peneus. Even to his young eyes, Cupid could appreciate the beauty, he marveled at the cruelty of her face and of the innocence of her eyes. He knew enough to understand that softness of her skin would be comparable to his own mother's; the goddess Aphrodite herself.

With an arrow of bronze he aimed the arrow into the depths of Daphne's heart. The part of her heart that could hold love, the part of her heart where Apollo could fit. The part of her heart that only Apollo could break was hardened so that no weapon, even held in the hands of a god, no matter its power, could ever harm her heart. As the seed was planted into the grace of her chest, it began to weave through her soul like binding ropes of unrelenting, illogical hate. With every singular beat of her lovely heart, the strength of the poison increased and infused itself deeper becoming just as much a part of her as the skin of her own body.

She crumpled, pain devouring her body.

With another arrow, of pure beautiful gold, Cupid aimed directly into Apollo's strong heart. As the arrow hit its target, the powerful beating of Apollo's heat became suddenly stronger; more demanding as if it were a slave following an inescapable master's whim. The hot blood that poured to every inch of his body knew and wanted only one thing. His heart beat for her now. His body ached for her now. She was all that mattered, all that had ever mattered, all that would matter.

Daphne.

She was all that ever could be – all that it ever would be.

Daphne.

On the other side of Greece, the maiden stood, her heart racing painfully within her chest. With each painful beat, she ran.

A/N: Wrote this a while ago when I was completely bored. Looked at it and thought 'why the hell not?' What else am I going to do with this writing? Let it hang around on my jump drive? A Greek Mythology piece. This type of fanfiction is completely knew to me. I have no idea the kind of traffic Greek Mythology gets. As any author pleas: please read and review.