Chapter 17

Eurydice started running as fast as her legs could carry her; her feet practically flying over the ground as she sped off towards the forests. The trees were calling to her, ringing out in the clear night sky, beckoning for their daughter to return to them. As she ran, Eurydice ripped off the expensive brooch that was tied to her shoulder, pulling off the jewelry Orpheus had given her. It scattered on the ground like remnants of a lifetime she didn”t remember and no longer cared to. Her only focus was on getting her feet away from the overly lined and paved streets from Orpheus”s neighborhood and towards the wilderness of the Underworld.

As she got closer, the houses started becoming further and further apart. Selene”s song grew longer, and the moon shined brighter above Eurydice. It was a long shot that Pan would be celebrating in the Underworld this full moon, but he regularly took time to visit the forests of Asphodel since Eurydice”s death. There was a chance he was there. It was the only thing she needed. Eurydice was abandoning her marriage and the legacy of her relationship with Orpheus for the mere chance that Pan was somewhere in the Underworld.

Eurydice didn”t know how long it had been since she started running, but she didn”t care. It was like a heady aphrodisiac, being able to run as fast as she could, and it made her feel like a young maiden again. The wind whipped past her hair, and there was a pleasant burn in her legs from the sudden exertion; she reveled in it.

The ground seemed to move of its own accord under Eurydice”s feet, pushing her further, getting her to the forest. She didn”t question it when the Underworld”s magic rose up to greet her, spinning the dirt beneath her feet to get her to her destination faster. She let her head fall back, her red hair shining in the light like a torch, and howled. It was an ancient sound, deep from within the core of her, her wildness calling back to her. That part of Eurydice had been abandoned these past few weeks, and it was furious at her for it. Eurydice was a creature of the open sky, the dirt, the leaves, the tallest trees. To pretend anything else would be a farce; she was no poet”s wife. She was no muse. She was nature incarnate, and all of Gaia”s ancient rage now simmered in her bones that she had been pushing back against her truest self all for the opinions of a man.

When the forest appeared on the horizon, Eurydice howled again before she started laughing freely. She didn”t even think about how unhinged she might appear; she was only thinking about how good it felt to be unchained.

As she skipped past the trees and made her way towards one of her favorite clearings, she could hear the sounds of a full moon feast. It was a familiar scene but one that she never grew tired of. Every nymph, dryad, and creature of the forest was gathered around a long, low table made of a tree trunk. Some of the creatures were sitting at the table, dining on meats and fruits and drinking heavily from overflowing amphoras of wine.

Other party guests were in various stages of undress, touching, groping, fucking, and dancing under the shining light of the moon. In the very center of the clearing, there was a massive bonfire, stretching up to the skies. It was taller than a human man, and the smoke was heavily perfumed; cinnamon and myrrh were constantly being thrown into the flames to create a heavy incense that hung in the air long after the smoke cleared.

Decorations made from flowers hung from the trees, stretching out from branch to branch. Petals were strewn about on the fresh grass floor, adding to the incense burning away in the fire. The clearing was alive, and Eurydice could”ve sworn that even the gardens of Olympus themselves wouldn”t look as beautiful. Although she was not alone in the sentiment that many elements of the Underworld were far superior to their Olympian counterparts.

”Eurydice?” An excited voice called out from the melee of bodies. ”I didn”t think you would join us this evening!” Telodice appeared as naked as the day she was born, her golden hair tastefully arranged over her breasts. She looked like liquid in motion in the fire light, her body shining with fragranced oil that smelled like lilies.

”My friend,” Eurydice practically breathed in relief, ”I couldn”t do it anymore.” Eurydice started talking faster and faster. ”I couldn”t stay with Orpheus for one more second. That vile house, so far removed from the woods...”

”Whoa, Eurydice!” Telodice grabbed Eurydice”s arm and pulled her towards the edge of the clearing, where it was only marginally quieter. ”What are you talking about? Are you leaving Orpheus? That man loves you. I”m sure you can work it out. Whatever it is.”

”He”s not like us, Telodice,” Eurydice grabbed her friend”s shoulders and shook her gently. Eurydice”s eyes were wild; her expression was crazed as her heart beat rapidly in her chest. ”Do you understand? Can you try to understand? He wants to keep me like some garden flower, but he doesn”t realize flowers are alive...”

Telodice looked startled, suddenly very worried about her friend. She said nothing as Eurydice went on, waxing lyric about the call of the wild and her need for freedom. Luckily, Telodice was a nymph, too, and at the end of the day, she would always understand the importance of being connected to nature.

”Stop now, Eurydice. Breathe.” Telodice finally placed her finger gently over Eurydice”s mouth to get her to stop talking. She smirked playfully, nodding towards the party that was descending further and further into Dionysian debauchery behind them. She grabbed Eurydice”s hand and tugged her towards the beautiful chaos.

”Don”t worry about that right now. You know what they say—party by moonlight, make decisions by sunlight.” Telodice winked and ran right back towards a group of dryads on the edge of the clearing, sliding into one”s lap without a second thought. Eurydice breathed a sigh of relief. This was the kind of wildness she craved.

Her heart faltered for a brief moment when the realization settled in that Pan was indeed not in the Underworld; he had chosen somewhere in Greece to spend the full moon. Eurydice walked towards the banquet table and poured herself a goblet of wine. She downed the entire glass without taking a breath and helped herself to a second. She let the wine trail down her chin and drip onto her short tunic, staining her skin and the fabric. Eurydice”s head fell back, and she laughed again, pouring a third glass.

This was so much better than any of the dinner parties that Perseus or Orpheus would ever throw. Here, there was no one who would criticize her for spilling wine all down her body; Eurydice embraced it.

She waited until the wine started to pulse through her veins, making her pleasantly buzzed but with her wits about her. There was one way that she knew to channel Pan, to call out to him. He was a deity, after all, and every god had a way for worshippers to contact their gods.

Eurydice walked towards the edge of the clearing and began rummaging around in the grass. It only took her a few minutes to salvage what she needed—a dandelion, two mushrooms, and the bones of a hare. As she turned around and headed towards the fire, her tunic snagged on a low tree branch and ripped a tear through the fine fabric. Eurydice barely noticed, letting the tunic hang haphazardly from her shoulder.

She squeezed in between two dryads making out at the banquet table and grabbed an amphora. The wine never ran out, which was a benefit for all the creatures of the forest who were blessed by Dionysus and Pan. Eurydice carefully approached the fire, closing her eyes as she dug her feet into the sandy soil that surrounded the blaze.

Eurydice started chanting, a low, rhythmic sound that could hardly be heard above the raucous party happening all around her. She tuned it out, focusing all her senses on the heavy smoke of the incense and the beat of the drums. It was a steady cadence that mimicked her racing heart, making Eurydice feel like the drums were keeping her alive. She started to sweat from her close proximity to the fire, the cloying scent and wine mixing in her veins until she wasn”t sure what was reality anymore. As soon as she crossed that threshold into the unknown, when her mind began to slip, she tossed everything she was holding into the fire.

The small bones crackled instantly from the heat as the dandelions and mushrooms charred; the wine caused the flames to stretch even higher in the night sky as they burned off the alcohol. As the wilderness accepted her offering, Eurydice”s voice became clearer.

”Pan, god of the wilderness, purveyor of the forests, father of the trees. Pan Aegocerus, Pan Lyterius, Pan Maenalius...” Eurydice started to sway back and forth as she called out each of his epithets.

Pan was not a god of temples and ceremony; he was a god of edifices and altars, the cruder the better. Pan was a wild thing, rustic and unpredictable, and while his devotion to Eurydice had never been questioned, she knew that a traditional prayer would never get the satyr”s attention. The only way to do it was to toss offerings into a burning fire and call out his many names—the wilder the setting, the better. The offerings could be any number of things, but they always had to include wine, at the very least.

Eurydice was lost to the rhythm of the drums, which picked up their tempo. She didn”t know if it was all in her head or if the drummers realized that she was moving to the beat, but she didn”t care. She swayed more drastically, her shoulders moving back and forth while her hips shimmied in an alternating rhythm. As if she had no control over her body, Eurydice started to pick up her feet. Before she knew it, she started to dance.

Eurydice began moving in a circle, embracing the warmth and smell of the flames. She moved like wind and water over the earth, weaving her hands together and tossing them up towards the sky in offering to Selene. Her hair was as bright as bronze in the glow of the raging fire, whipping around her face as though it had a mind of its own. Eurydice picked up her pace to match the escalating drums, closing her eyes as she began to spin in circles while she kept moving around the fire. All of her senses started to blur together until her consciousness slipped further and further away, leaving her with only the mind of a nymph. She was only preoccupied with what was in front of her, dancing and offering herself up to the wilderness in tribute. There was nothing else that mattered to her in that moment, besides her rhythmic movements around the flames.

Eurydice didn”t notice that she had garnered the attention of the entire party, which had all but completely turned into an orgy. Several other nymphs and dryads got up and began to dance around the flames, following Eurydice”s every movement. She was a painfully beautiful creature when she danced, every twist of her body carefully crafted, simultaneously effortlessly and unbelievably technical in every way. Eurydice was the physical embodiment of everything that was beautiful and wild about nature, as if Gaia carved Eurydice from her own breast.

The screams and shouts of the party continued to get louder and louder, and the drumbeat had reached an impossibly fast tempo. Eurydice didn”t stop. She spun and spun, beginning to howl to the moon, revealing the most feral parts of herself that had been locked away for far too long. Even before Orpheus had arrived in the Underworld, Eurydice had lost this part of herself. Her only cognizant thought as she danced was the realization that there were parts of her that had been chained up since she met Orpheus—not even since their reunion.

Eurydice”s body came alive in another burst of movement, and the strength of it shocked her. She kept dancing as the wine in her veins turned to arousal. There was a steady pulse between her legs that Eurydice hadn”t felt in a long time. She had assumed that infallible lust and animalistic craving to touch and fuck had long ebbed away from her. At one point, she assumed it might have been a factor of simply getting older, even if she was immortal.

But another surge of arousal warmed Eurydice”s body all over, hotter than even the fire could manage, and her eyes flew open with a gasp.

There, standing in front her, in the middle of the chaos and the reckless party happening in the woods...was Pan.

Eurydice didn”t think; she acted. Without a moment”s hesitation, Eurydice leaned forward, grabbed Pan by the face, and kissed him.