A mistake is what she was.
 
She had been born from an abomination—a creature not even from this world truly. It had been her mother though (strange, adorned in purple armor) in some sort of way that allowed nature to birth her. Her mother had shown nothing towards her when she had been born. It didn’t even seem like compassion or love was capable for such a being like her mother. Her mother’s specie had only seemed to want one purpose—more of them.
 
It had left her there in the pouring rain on a spring morning. She was left with no guidance in the world, not a hand to hold or a comfort in her times of need. But her abandonment did not stop her from living. It perhaps had been her biological nature that kicked in, instinct pushed her to survive, and live through this terrible turmoil.
 
Erinys—that is what she called herself. It was a name from some story she had heard a mother tell her twin children one day in the meadow. She never knew what it meant truly, but she had liked the sound of it. The name rolled off easily and yet had a sense of ruggedness ringing when spoken. It gave her a sense of identity, feeling like she was someone when she felt like a nobody.
 
The black filly eventually grew into an adult. She could’ve been a pretty thing with her darkened skin and bright amber eyes but she was not. She was not perfect—if that was the nicest way to put it. She has an ewe-neck, slab-sided body, and is missing her left ear. Erinys was defective—not perfect or really pretty.
 
Company is what she craves most right now. The darkness of living the past years of her life alone have left an empty void within her. She sometimes wonders how she even is still alive, breathing and accepting who and what she is. It was a mystery to her, but somehow and someday she is still here.
 
Erinys slowly makes her way across the meadow. Her amber eyes pay no attention to the others. If she is caught looking at another she acts like she never saw them there. She had no one—no friends, no family. it’s not like she had never wanted someone; it’s just that she never had found someone to accept her for who she was. She had never found someone like her—not until they had come into her life, but simply put it did not last long.
 
Her bright, amber colored eyes light up at the memory of them. it overplays a million times somedays. She wonders where the four have gone after their meeting together to what only seemed like yesterday. It’s been more than a couple years now, but Erinys has lost track of time as she always has. However, she is back here in the meadow—hoping, waiting for them to come back.
 
She is waiting for anyone, truly.

It is the small strength and hope within her that carries her through the sea of grass. This place knows her all to well—a child returning home. They welcome her with open arms, reaching up and brushing against her darken colored bodice. Her strength and hope continue to carry her now, just as it did before in the first experiences of misery she had felt from this world.

Somewhere though, there is beauty.

Erinys’ amber stained eyes scout the edges of the forest that interlock with the meadow. The shadows conceal that hidden creatures that linger in there. She cannot quiet make out the lining of the trees deep within the forest, but the emerging of a shadow is something she does notice.

Her attention is drawn to the beast—some would call him a monster, but he is entirely something else to her. There is strength in the way he holds himself. His muscular figure draws power and prestige instantly from her. However, when her eyes meet his own a sense of shock overwhelms her.

It is not that she is scared by the hideous marks and scars that cover his face. The initial shock is that she is surprised to see another one like her has made themselves known to her. Her heart quickens a bit, a sense of relief fills her stomach and makes her feel warm.

The beast does not say anything, so she decides she must.

“Well,” it is a soft whisper, “I was not expecting you.”

It was not often you meet someone face to face and feel an instant kinship with them. There was a strange anomaly here—two strangers feeling something of a bound instantly. Erinys has felt that kindship once. It had been lost though, the years between their separation made it evident, just as she loses many of the good things she counts to be small blessings in her life.

He doesn’t hide from her when she looks at him. For a moment, she feels like she is looking at something else entirely than his physical features. It almost feels like she could reach out to him and find the very essence of his soul. She wonders what it is like, beyond the hidden scars and deep muscles that shape and mold who he is—this stranger.

The openness, displaying his vulnerability to her is something she admires already about him. It leaves a soft smile on her thin lips. Erinys is instantly curious about the shadowy stranger. She does not pull away from the moment they share. She embraces this sentimental moment presently (it is something knows will soon be lost, just as all things good in her life have faded away).

“I don’t know what I was expecting,” she says with a smile. Her voice is stronger this time. It is not a soft mouse-like tone she is used to when speaking to others that do not share the kinship her and this fellow have in this moment. “It’s just been a long time since I’ve found someone like me.” She lets out a soft sigh then. The pain of the lonely days catches up to her in just that moment. Erinys had not realized how alone she had really been. “I’m sorry,” she says weakly knowing she has been caught up in a moment of exposing herself to someone who might not care to see her vulnerable side—it was not often someone did.

“I’m Erinys by the way.”

He steps away suddenly.

She feels her heart drop to the pit of her stomach. It beats abruptly; the pace of her heart beating is strong and quick. She finds it hard to breath in the moment she realizes he might just be leaving her.

They always leave, she tells herself. She doesn't want to believe it, but she finds herself all ready heading towards that direction.

She doesn't know what went wrong so fast. Maybe she should not have spoken so suddenly. Maybe she should have kept her feelings and thoughts to herself—buried away like everything else.

Buried deep within her thoughts, lost away from the world for a moment, she wasn’t sure she had heard him correctly. “What?” She asks suddenly, a puzzled look crosses over her face. Then it suddenly registers to her what he said.

He called me beautiful, she thinks. Me beautiful? No. He is lying. It has to be a lie. She is certain it is to make up for a fool she has been. She cannot help but feel that he feels sorry for her and what the fool she has made herself to be.

“You’re joking, right?” She wants to laugh at him. His words sound all wrong, a complete lie. A stranger telling her she was BEAUTIFUL! That has never happened to her, and likely will not EVER.

Erinys searches his face for the answers to her question. She needs confirmation that this is only just pure humor. A stranger giving her a compliment—something she dreamt of hearing from someone. Anyone really.

But she could find nothing but truth all over his deformed face. It was not a monster she saw though, like before she finds a gentle being. There beyond his physical features is someone with a gentle heart, a caring soul. He poured something out that he truly believed to be true. The monster had called her beautiful—she was beautiful to him.

And she accepts it.

She accepts it because she believes him. She cannot help but smile now. Her belly feels warm and for a moment she feels like she might be floating. Is this what it felt like to be admired? It was the first time she was feeling it (and she would cherish that feeling for a lifetime).

“I believe you,” she says softly.

Her amber eyes lock onto his face, as much as she can see the way he hides himself from her. She wishes he didn't hide himself from her. There wasn't anything for him to be ashamed of—there was never anything for him to hide from her.

“Please don’t go,” she asks. “Please,” she begs this time.

She cannot have someone leave her again. Not like this. Not him.

It was strange the way these feelings had been formed and so suddenly consuming her every being. Hephaestus was a stranger to her, a complete nobody just only moments ago to her. She knew nothing of his existence, and here she is now begging for him to stay. She is pleading with every ounce of her strength and pouring all her hope into him to not go.

Her pleading, her pleases are ignored though.

“I’m afraid I do not make for good company,” is all he says, but she doesn’t believe it. Erinys found something more than the feelings of isolation and loneliness. She felt a sense of warmth and craved knowing more about him in the moment their worlds collided together. There has never been a moment in her life where she has wanted something so badly.

Why did she want him so much though?

She doesn’t know. Maybe she will never know. The only thing she knows is that he cannot let her go. She won’t let him slip away into the darkness he had come from.

Erinys would not have to say goodbye to him so easily.

However, something changed in the black giant that stood what felt like a mile away from her.
He began to close in the distance between them. Every step he took mindlessly made her heart quicken even more. She even finds herself mindlessly moving towards them, their two worlds coming together and becoming one.

Erinys can feel herself shaking, not in a scared and fearful way. It is a feeling she isn’t quite sure how to describe, but she more than ever craves the physical touch of him on her. Perhaps it was all these lonely years that made her want him so close.

She watches with amber eyes as he hesitates to move any closer to her. The black mare offers him a soft smile, indicting she is not scared of him. She has never been scared of him since they first saw each other. if anything she found herself in awe of the way the world had shaped and formed him.

He reaches out her, Erinys can feel herself shaking still. It is once his lips touches her own that her body comes to a standstill. She feels an overwhelming feeling of serenity within her, as if the world held nothing but beauty and goodness.

Erinys realizes now it wasn’t the feelings of lust, but something companionship she so desperately had needed all these years. And here for the first time she was finally feeling what it meant to be close to another, to feel the world without them might be terrible and maybe even unbearable.

The mare smiles at his words, feeling his hot breath so close to her own lips. “I’m glad you didn’t go,” she whispers softly. In truth, she would have found herself in a terrible predicament if he had. “I am glad we have met too,” she says honestly back in agreement with him.

And in that moment she realizes, she doesn’t even know his name yet. He was simply a stranger to her still, but truly she felt something more than needing to know his name. It didn’t matter if she didn’t have his name ever, she would always know it was him (in some way or form she would).

“Do I get to know your name now?” She says with a soft smile, her voice still low and quiet.