Cupid Collections

3. Eros and Psyche - 1: The Start Part 3

Aphrodite smirked and paced through her Earth temple. It was well stocked with many items that people had given her as payment for her power. She waved her hand through the pile and two large baskets of grain slid forward. They appeared to be of two different types. The grains suddenly flew into the air, easily a number uncountable by any human, and mixed together before carefully settling into one of the baskets.

“Divide these two separate grains from one another before nightfall.”

Psyche opened her mouth to protest but fell silent as the goddess snapped her fingers and she disappeared into a cloud of white smoke.

Staring ahead at the task at hand, Psyche sighed deeply but sat and began her work. She was halfway through the day with only one-eighth of the grains separated. She began to feel dizzy from her lack of food and water. She stood and searched for some. Plenty of people had provided Aphrodite with different delicacies and wines. Psyche ate her fill knowing that the goddess already disliked her and that things couldn’t get much worse.

Aphrodite watched her enemy work from above in her Olympian temple. Eros was still in his own prison chambers and was being locked inside until Aphrodite was sure of the girl’s demise. She would not let her son become distracted by this devil woman. She would get rid of her once and for all by breaking her spirit. All she had to do was fail! Aphrodite decided that after Psyche enjoyed her good food, a deep sleep would overtake the girl.

“You can’t get too relaxed now, my dear,” she whispered menacingly.

Psyche sighed as she retook her seat by the grains once again. She spotted a lowly ant scurrying nearby looking for scraps of food. Psyche found a bread crumb left on her clothes from her makeshift meal and offered it to the small bug. It eagerly took it and ran off but stayed close by.

Suddenly the air seemed very warm and comforting and Psyche was overcome with the strong urge to rest. Her eyes began to droop even as she continued to sort. She yawned multiple times until finally she could no longer stand her exhaustion. She lay down, only for a moment, she told herself.  Her eyes closed and immediately fell into a deep sleep.

The stay ant inspected the poor girl who had given him food. She wouldn’t get her task done because of the goddess. His home was nearby and he and his brothers had often seen the strange magic and evil that occurred in this place. This girl seemed too good to be in the hands of such a wicked maker.

He scurried along to his home and shared the food he had collected and the story of the girl. His brothers willing to help defeat the vile woman whose building had disrupted their home. The many people who came through her temple a day must have resulting in countless of casualties for them.

They ran along and sorted the grains for Psyche as she rested in a deep sleep. She didn’t even register the movement before her.

The ants finished just before nightfall and hide away as Psyche awoke with a start.

“No,” she bellowed realizing her lost chance at seeing her love. Then she noticed the two neat piles of grains before her and she stared. How had they appeared?

She didn’t have time to wonder as Aphrodite appeared in another puff of white smoke.

“You did not do as I asked,” she yelled as soon as she saw the girl in question. “Convincing those lowly creatures to do your bidding for you! That was not what I said to do!”

“You said to divide the grain and I did so. You did not say to do it myself.”

Aphrodite narrowed her eyes once again knowing that what Psyche said was true. She hated her own words suddenly.