"What the… You've got to be kidding me… EROS!"

Eros, afraid he had accidentally shot the arrow at his father, instinctively ducked back into the canoe.

"Eros! You did NOT just try to shoot me with an arrow… AGAIN! What is your problem?"

That wasn't his father…

Suddenly, a shadow fell over Eros's head. He sheepishly twisted himself around and tried to think of something to say.

"Apollo… What a pleasant-"

Apollo glared down at Eros and snapped the arrow in two, glaring down at Eros as he did so.

"Did you think that was for you?" Eros emitted a nervous chuckle. "Why would I-"

"That is precisely what I would like to know. Why would you?" Apollo loomed over Eros like a predator about the deal its final blow, his every muscle accentuated by the sunlight behind him.

"Even the gods make mistakes, Apollo… I swear I didn't know you were there…"

"Then why were ready to shoot me?" Apollo still had not blinked, and his eyes bore down on Eros as if they were shooting arrows of their own. "Are you bored?"

"I-I… I grabbed the wrong arrow," he admitted.

"What, so you wanted to kill me?" roared Apollo.

"No… not you… I thought you were… something else," Eros stammered, hoping Ares would bound toward them any second.

Apollo was enjoying seeing Eros squirm. Planning to make his prey's anxiety worse, he shifted his tone shifted from a roar to a low rumble. "What did you think I was?"

Eros threw his hands into the air in desperation. "I don't know, Apollo! I don't know! I'm sorry! Please, just leave me alone!"

At these last three words, Apollo's face lit up with inspiration. "Leave… you… alone? That's a funny thing for you to ask someone to do… Leave… you… alone…"

"Apollo," interrupted Eros, who could see where this was going, "please, I didn't-"

"Oh, yes you did. You shot a golden arrow at me. You shot a leaden arrow at Daphne. You watched as she ran away from me." Apollo pointed his finger into Eros's face. "You."

"Apollo, I'm-"

"You made her rather turn into a tree than be with me. A tree, Eros!" he shouted, taking the laurel wreath off his head and shaking it for emphasis. "You!"

"Really, Apollo, I can-"

"And you want ME to leave YOU alone?" Apollo's attention turned to the wreath in his hand, regretting the possible damage he may have caused the branches, and he began gingerly smoothing over the leaves with his fingertips. "You've got a lot of nerve," he added finally, his voice hushed by his own pain.

"Apollo, I really don't know what to say. I'm sorry."

"I don't care," he replied, and he turned to walk away.

"I believe my son just apologized to you," said Ares, now standing a short distance away.

"This is none of your business, Ares," Apollo murmured without flinching from his course.

No one dismisses Ares, he thought, especially after speaking that way to his son. He rushed toward Apollo and grabbed him by his tunic. "Guess again. My son is my business, and I don't like you talking to him that way."

"I see," said Apollo, yanking himself from Ares's grasp and straightening his tunic. "Butting yourselves into everyone else's lives just to get what you want. Like father, like son, I suppose."

"What is that supposed to mean?" sneered Ares.

"It's just you both interject yourselves into the lives of others so much… you violate the natural beauty of human relationships with your petty grievances and desires… warping their minds with your own obsessions… and the sorrows you both unleash…" His voice trailed off, as if lost in his own imaginings. "…You all unleash…"

Ares rolled his eyes and groaned. "I don't have time for this – she's probably on her way now. Come on, Eros - let's go."

"On her way? On her way where?"

"I'm not talking about it in front of Shiny over here," he said, gesturing toward Apollo as he headed for the boat. "Now hand me that oar."