ᴾʰᵒᵇᵒᵖʰᵒᵇⁱᵃ [ᴶᵃˢᵒⁿ ᴳʳᵃᶜᵉ]

viii.

The nymphs squealed and clapped in agreement. The young man didn't glance up, and he dreamily murmured, "I am - I am so gorgeous." One of the nymphs reached over Aza's shoulder and held out her phone screen, "His latest Youtube video got a million hits in like, an hour. I think I was half of those!"

The others tittered and giggled, but all Aza saw on the phone screen was the exact same thing - Narcissus staring at himself in the pond, examining every possible angle of his face.

"He is so hot," A nymph giggled - Aza glanced up at her, nose wrinkling at the pink paint on her shirt that read: Mrs. Narcissus. Leo looked, too, and frowned, "Narcissus?"

"Narcissus," Echo agreed sadly. Aza glanced back - she had almost forgotten the nymph was there. The others, too, hadn't noticed her presence; when Mrs. Narcissus recognized the girl she tried to push her away, but accidentally misjudged and ended up shoving several others onto the grass, "Oh, not you again!"

The nymph who had shown them her iPhone rolled her eyes, smoothing the skirt of her dress, "You had your chance, Echo. He dumped you four thousand years ago! You are so not good enough for him."

Aza's head began to ache from their chittering voices, and she raised a hand to rub her head when Hazel tore her eyes away from Narcissus for the first time, though she peeked over at the nymph's phone screen as she asked, "Wait - what's going on here? Why did Echo bring us here?"

A nymph holding a crumpled poster of Narcissus scoffed, and she clicked her tongue slightly. The glower she sent Echo made Aza want to push her into the pond, but the daughter of Phobos resisted the urge as the nymph leaned in closely to Hazel, as though she were telling a secret (though she projected her voice clearly enough for Echo to hear), "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," Mrs. Narcissus titterd, "Like, who could stand it? Just the other day, I told Cleopeia - you know she lives in the boulder next to me," Aza made eye contact with Leo, and the two silently asked if the other knew just what in Hades was going on before the nymph continued, "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?"

"Oh, absolutely," Aza said with a roll of her eyes, "but please, explain it in the most long-winded way you can." The nymph glared at her and huffed.

The poster-carrying nymph leaned closer to Hazel, shooting Aza a narrow-eyed glance, "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," half a dozen nymphs echoed, and Aza quirked an eyebrow. Mrs. Narcissus continued, "Now she's got some weird idea he needs saving. She should just go away."

"Alright, Ladies," Leo crept closer to the edge of the pond, elbowing his way between a couple of nymphs, "Make way for the second most handsome guy in this meadow," Aza gave a bark of laughter, and she smiled fondly at the younger boy's back. She watched as Leo knelt down beside Narcissus, "So, man. What's up?"

"Can you move," Narcissus asked softly, and he continued to stare at the water as though Leo weren't there, "You're ruining the view."

"Yeah, Leo," Aza called, and she pushed a few nymphs violently out of her way, crouching just behind the boy and peeking over his head, meeting his eyes in the water's reflection, "How dare you." The son of Hephaestus rolled his eyes, though he cracked a cheeky smile and winked at her in the water, "Right - great view. Happy to move, but if you're not using it, could I just take that sheet of bronze?"