One

I sat at on the floor in front of my father's throne, listening to him tell the story about the gods again.

"In the beginning, there was an empty darkness. The only thing in the void was a bird with black wings called Nyx. With the wind, she laid a golden egg. For ages and ages she sat upon that egg, until finally, life began to stir. Out of the egg came Eros, the god of Love. One half of the shell rose into the air and the other half became the Earth. Eros named the air Uranus and the Earth Gaia, and then he made them fall in love.

Uranus and Gaia had many children together, and those children gave them grandchildren. One of Uranus and Gaia's children, Kronos, became afraid of his own children's power. He swallowed all of them while they were infants to protect himself. All but one.

Rhea, his wife, swaddled a rock in a blanket in an effort to protect her youngest child. It worked, and she saved her youngest child, who was named Zeus.

Once Zeus was an adult, Rhea taught him how to trick Kronos into giving up all the children he had swallowed. Zeus succeeded, and a great war was fought between the children and Kronos. The children won, and Zeus became their leader. Together, they furnished Gaia with life and Uranus with stars.

Soon, there were only two things left to put on Earth, animals and people. So Zeus told his sons Prometheus and Epimetheus to go to Earth and create animals and people, and give them each a gift. Prometheus began to form the men in the image of the gods, and Epimetheus took to work on the animals. Epimetheus gave each of the animals a gift as he made them, and when he was complete, Prometheus had finished making the men.

Prometheus looked for a gift to give to the men, but Epimetheus admitted that he used them all on the animals. Distressed and unsure of what to do, Prometheus gave the men fire.

When Zeus learned what Prometheus had done, he was furious, because fire was meant only for the gods. As a punishment, he chained Prometheus to a mountain and made a vulture peck out his liver for the rest of eternity.

As he thought of a punishment for mankind, one of his other sons created a beautiful woman named Pandora. Each of the gods gave her a gift. Zeus gave her two; one being curiosity and the second being a box that she was never allowed to open. Then, he presented her to Epimetheus as a wife.

Pandora was happy, except for her burning curiosity to open the box. She had received wonderful gifts from all the other gods, so this one would be wonderful too...or so she thought.

One day, when Epimetheus was gone, she opened the box. Out from the box came every evil in the world, greed, pain, sickness, envy. Epimetheus came home and shut the box, but all the evils had already escaped. Later that night, they heard a voice coming from the box that said, 'Let me out. I am hope.'

So they opened the box again and gave hope to humankind."

"Yaaay!" I screeched.

Eos, my eldest sister sighed. She loved that story as much as I did, but Miracle, my sister younger than Eos, grew tired of it.
"Why do you sit and listen to it if you don't like it?" Miracle asked.

"Because I'm waiting for you two to be done listening so that we can play again!"

My father laughed.

"I like this story, but my favorites are the ones that have humans and gods in them."

"Maybe you'll be apart of one someday my dear Psyche," my father said.

I giggled at the thought, and it was time for dinner.

Ten Years Later

It was my 18th birthday yesterday. Still, no one seems to want to get to know me. I appreciate that they think I'm beautiful, but I just see my face. I don't like how they worship me though, I fear it will anger the gods, Aphrodite in particular. Eos was already getting married soon, and Miracle was going steady with the boy she met about four years ago.

But I'm still here. Still just as lonely.

Every time I tried to talk to someone, it seemed like they wanted nothing to do with me. They'd always make some kind of excuse as to why they had to leave or something else, and they'd go.

They'd still bring me gifts as though I was some kind of god. They'd still spread rumors that I was the love child of Aphrodite and some mortal, or that I was the second coming of the goddess. Pretty hurts.

The worst part is that there's no way I can complain about this to anyone. They'd just point out how ungrateful I sounded.

"Ohh poor girl, so beautiful everyone worships her, god what a difficult life you lead!"

I've heard it all before. But, just because someone else has worse problems than I do, does that mean that I don't get to have any? I didn't think so.

My father knocking on my bedroom door ripped me from my thoughts.

"Yes Papa?" I asked, opening the door.

"I was wondering if you could pick up a few things from the store for me?"
"Sure," I said, before he could give an excuse as to why he couldn't do it.

I knew he just didn't want to, and I couldn't blame him. Being the king probably wasn't easy. That's not something you can easily complain about to someone either.

So I went to the store, ignoring the looks I got. It happened every day. Part of me wondered if any of these people had actually even seen Aphrodite. I'm guessing most of them haven't, so how on Earth would they know what she looked like? We had no idea, she might not even be pretty for all we know!

I shook the thoughts out of my head, worried that one of the gods could see into my thoughts and that they would tell Aphrodite and then I'd be in big trouble.

I walked into the store and bought what my father needed, which was just olive oil and grains.

"Good morning, Psyche," said Argus, the owner of the store.

"Good morning."

"Buying things for your father again?"

I nodded. I really liked Argus, he was one of the few people outside of my family that was willing to talk to me. It didn't help that he was already married, however.

"You know why he asks you to do that right?"

"It's because he doesn't want to. He's too recognizable as king, people would swarm him."

"And you're not recognizable?" He challenged.

I was silent. He had me there.

"Well-people generally stay away from me, it's easy to get my stuff done."

"Sure, if that's what you want to believe."

"What do you mean, Argus?"

"I mean he sends you out here so often to try and see if you'll find love."

I rolled my eyes.

"Every single person in this entire city has seen me and had the opportunity to approach me but it never happens. I don't think it ever will."
"Hey, don't get yourself down. You never know what'll happen. All these guys are intimidated by you, and you don't want to be with someone who's so easily spooked do you?"

I laughed.

"I guess not."

That really did make me feel better, but I knew it wouldn't last for long. Another two months of being lonely would push me right back down again, and this conversation would be totally forgotten, or, disregarded.

"Well, I should be heading back," I said. "I didn't get these for nothing."
He laughed.

"See you around, Psyche."

"Bye!"

I left the apothecary and made my way back home. I walked into the door, silently greeting my mother. She was sitting in a chair doing some embroidery. I walked into the throne room, where, no doubt, my father would be.

"Papa, I got the things you needed."

"Oh thank you my dear," he said, taking them from me.

I thought about what Argus said, but decided not to mention it. I didn't want to accuse him of something that probably wasn't true. I left the throne room to find my sisters.

"Eos, Miracle? How did you find love?"

"What?" Eos asked.

"Love. How did you find it?"

"It found us," Miracle said.

"Well I think it stopped looking."

"Don't fret. With someone so beautiful as you, you're sure to find love sooner or later."

I halfheartedly smiled.

"But you all found it so young…."

"Psyche, don't worry about it. I was just as nervous as you when everyone around me was getting hitched. I feared there would be no men left. But they are irrational fears, and you will find someone."

I smiled, more of a real smile this time.

"Thanks," I said.

"Let's go to the garden," Eos suggested.

I thought that was a great idea, so we all walked together to the garden.

Eros

"Eros!" My mother yelled.

"Yes mother?"

I came before her in creation, but that didn't mean I was not her son. She took care of me like one.

"Look at this girl."

"Which one, there's three of them."

"The most beautiful one! With the brown hair and eyes."

"Alright I'm looking."

"You must know what is happening?"

"I'm afraid I do not."

She yelled in frustration.

"Those filthy mortals are worshipping her instead of me."

"So...what do you want me to do?"

"I want you to make it so no men want to wed her at all! And also make her fall in love with an ugly beast, you know, for good measure! An ugly beast that will not fall in love with her back!"

"Yeesh, um okay, right on that."

My mother could be a little melodramatic sometimes, and this was one of them. She was especially cruel when dealing with prettier women. Part of me couldn't blame her, she was supposed to be the god of beauty, so wouldn't it make sense that she's the most beautiful? Either way, I wasn't about to make her even more upset by not doing what she asked, so I made my way to the three women in their garden.

I was hiding behind some rocks when I saw the girl up close. Even I was enamored with her beauty. She had this flowing, thick hair that was the color of the bark on the trees, or the soft ground beneath the grass. An earthly brown, reminding me of cinnamon sticks and those rocks you see by the shore, turned dark on account of the liquid.

I longed for her to turn around, just to face me so I could see the rest of her face. I could make out delicate features, freckles and these big brown eyes. They were captivating. When she turned to the sun, brown couldn't even describe them anymore. They were copper against honey, and the sun turned them into golden rays around an eclipse. They were the color of the earth after it rains, hazelnuts, chocolate treats, coffee and tea, the dust in the air, the light in the world.

I never thought much of brown before, but it just became my favorite color.

I couldn't bring myself to do this to her. However, I was so entranced with her face that I dropped one of my arrows and scratched myself with it. Fantastic, now I was in love with her for sure.

Feeling bad, I left. I'm not quite sure why I felt so bad, but I did. And the only solution at the time seemed to be to run away. I just worried about what my mother would say.

Author's Note:

Soooo this is the first chapter of my new story, I hope you guys like it and review, there will definitely be more to come! Also, if I got any of the mythology wrong please let me know! Thanks! 3