I sat at the foot of a willow tree, one that had been a favorite of mine during my exile. I had chosen its roots as my final resting place. Slowly I stretched myself out so my head was resting on its trunk, facing the pool where my love still lay. I closed my eyes and I waited for it to end.
It didn't. I could feel my body getting weaker and weaker as the days and nights moved on, and soon I could barely even stir. Then I could start to feel it. I labored to draw breath, and then I knew the end would come soon. Then I heard the voice. Beautiful, yet malicious. Hera. "You're not getting out of this life so easily, nymph! As I have to live with my husband's unfaithfulness, so you will have to live with the death of your love!"
The sunset had begun. The shadows all around me had started to twist, moving far too much than was normal. Then one touched me. I screamed, somehow finding the energy. It hurts! It was deathly cold, sucking the warmth from my skin.
The night came, and the darkness clung to my hair, binding to it the night's color. My skin pulled the color from the ground and darkened. Every second was agony. I screamed and writhed, trying to escape, yet not being able to, trapped by the darkness and my own body's weakness. Then it stopped. I collapsed to the ground, pressing myself against it, sobbing.
The sun rose and a new form of torture began. I strained toward the sunlight, sure that it would cure me of this frigid cold that clung to every fiber of my being. But it didn't. The sunlight, my beloved sunlight… burned. I screamed one last time and scrambled backwards, hiding behind the tree, out of reach from the burning flames. I sobbed, curling into a ball, bemoaning that any of this could have happened to me.
After the day ended, more strength came with the night. I stood up, wobbling. It was clear that Hera was not going to allow me to die when I wished to, so there was no point in trying to end it, as much as I wanted to. I walked in the direction of a pool full of chill water that I knew of. There are also berries, and other edibles there, so I could quench my thirst and my hunger all in one place.
The pool is normally a short walk away, but with my malnourishment and the harm done to me by both the shadows and the sunlight, it took me hours to reach it. And once I had, I wished I had not come, for I could see what the shadows had done to me.
Reflected on the surface of the pool was a figure that could only be me, a changed me. My hair had gone from a gorgeous golden brown to a matte black, flowing in a shadowy wave down to my hips. My figure was still the same, tall and slim, but my skin had gone from a creamy pale to a dark olive. But my eyes, my eyes!, are what had changed the most. The soft chocolate brown color had gone, leaving an almost black color, interrupted only by small silver flecks. Dark, mysterious, and sad, no longer happy and bright. I moaned once, almost sobbing again. No! You have done enough crying! Do you want Hera to be happy? That is the only reason she's keeping you alive! To punish you for giving Zeus time to escape! I dry my tears and stand up straight. I am no longer a nymph of flowers and sunshine, now a nymph of darkness and shadows.
No more tears. If this is the one way I can keep Hera from being satisfied with what she has done to me, then I will pour my heart and soul into it. She will get no satisfaction from me.
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-Storm