~ { Shadow and Beauty } ~

Narcissus

{Leo}

"YouTube video?" Leo asked. "What does he do in the video, sing?"

   "No, silly!" the nymph chided. "He used to be a prince, and a wonderful hunter and stuff. But that doesn't matter. Now he just... well, look!" She showed Leo the video. It was exactly what they were seeing in real life—the guy staring at himself in the pond.

   "He is sooooo hot!" said another girl. Her T-shirt read: MRS. NARCISSUS.

   "Narcissus?" Leo asked.

   "Narcissus," Echo agreed sadly.

   "Narcissus!" Kiara exclaimed. "I remember his story."

   Leo had forgotten Echo was there. Apparently none of the nymphs had noticed her either.

   "Oh, not you again!" Mrs. Narcissus tried to push Echo away, but she misjudged where the camouflaged girl was and ended up shoving several other nymphs.

   "You had your chance, Echo!" said the nymph with the iPhone. "He dumped you four thousand years ago! You are so not good enough for him."

   "For him," Echo said bitterly.

   "Wait." Hazel clearly had trouble tearing her eyes away from the handsome guy, but she managed it. "What's going on here? Why did Echo bring us here?"

   One nymph rolled her eyes. She was holding an autograph pen and a crumpled poster of Narcissus. "Echo was a nymph like us, a long time ago, but she was a total chatterbox! Gossiping, blah, blah, blah, all the time."

   "I know!" another nymph shrieked. "Like, who could stand that? Just the other day, I told Cleopeia—you know she lives in the boulder next to me?—I said: Stop gossiping or you'll end up like Echo. Cleopeia is such a big mouth! Did you hear what she said about that cloud nymph and the satyr?"

   "Totally!" said the nymph with the poster. "So anyway, as punishment for blabbing, Hera cursed Echo so she could only repeat things, which was fine with us. But then Echo fell in love with our gorgeous guy, Narcissus—as if he would ever notice her."

   "As if!" said half a dozen others.

   "That's rude," Kiara mumbled.

   "Rude," Echo agreed.

   "Now she's got some weird idea he needs saving," said Mrs. Narcissus. "She should just go away."

   "Go away," Echo growled back.

   "I'm so glad Narcissus is alive again," said another nymph in a gray dress. She had the words NARCISSUS + LAIEA written up and down her arms in black marker. "He's like the best! And he's in my territory."

   "Oh, stop it, Laiea," her friend said. "I'm the pond nymph. You're just the rock nymph."

   "Well, I'm the grass nymph," another protested.

   "No, he obviously came here because he likes the wildflowers!" another said. "Those are mine!"

   The whole mob began arguing while Narcissus stared at the lake, ignoring them.

   "Hold it!" Leo yelled. "Ladies, hold it! I need to ask Narcissus something."

   Slowly the nymphs settled down and went back to taking pictures.

   Leo knelt next to the handsome dude. "So, Narcissus. What's up?"

   "Could you move?" Narcissus asked distractedly. "You're ruining the view."