A/N: I wrote this based on the Greek myth of Echo and Narcissus. Echo was cursed to only speak what others just spoke to her, and she fell in love with Narcissus. Narcissus, however, was madly in love with himself. That's basically the story. It is said that from this myth is where we get the term "narcissist" for an arrogant person, and also the flower "Narcissus." The whole story behind the lily I don't enter in this story, I just decided to play around with the myth itself, only slightly.
Echo, beautiful and cursed, was forced to be alone. Because of her tongue, a goddess of Olympus arranged that any future words attempting to escape her mouth might be only what were just previously spoken to her. Not knowing what to do, she escaped to live as a hermit in the forest on the edge of the city.
During her time of sorrow, the fair maiden had fallen in love with Narcissus, handsome and self-centered, a young man from a nearby village. She had yearned to express her love for him but could only watch from a distance as he rode his horse through the forest one morning.
He stopped by the riverbank, tied his horse, and sat by the edge. He gazed down into the pool, watching his reflection and smiling. After some time of self-admiration he gathered some water and took a drink and splashed his face.
That whole time Echo had been staring at him from behind a nearby tree. Finally she approached him, overcome with emotion. Surely he would listen to her words as she told him exactly how she felt. And surely, she hoped, he would feel the same way.
"Oh, who are you?" he asked, noticing her, as he stood up beside the stream.
"Are you?" she asked him in return. This annoyed him a little.
"Am I what?"
"What?" I love you. I love you! I love you and I want to be with you. Why were these words so difficult to say? Over and over in her head she had researched them, but now the phrase was lost to her; was now not the fated time?
"Fair maiden, do excuse me, but are you ill? Do you not feel well?" Narcissus now felt sincerely concerned for her.
"Feel well…" she sighed.
"Very well."
"Very well," she smiled. Even a slight grin escaped the barriers of his face, and a smirk emerged. She is cute, he thought, although I question her solitude.
"I had just stopped for water and so my horse could drink also. If you would trust me and be obliged by my hospitality, might I provide a way for you to return home?"
"Home," she replied simply.
"You do have a home, do you not?"
"Do you not?"
Narcissus began to lose his charm once more. "Miss, if you do not wish to accept, please merely admit this to me. I will not judge. Tell me."
"Tell me," she stated.
"Tell you? I am asking you. Now, yes or no."
Those last words crushed her heart like a broken arrow of Cupid, son of Aphrodite. With a gasp and soft whimper she let out, "no."
"Very well, then. Good day." He untied his steed.
"Good day." She sank to the ground as Narcissus climbed upon his horse and road away, quickly finding the path once more that led out of her home.
Echo tugged the ends of her damp hair. "Curse this curse," she muttered aloud as she picked a flower growing by the bank.