Daughter of Wine

Leo

Below us, aa voice says, "Cursed boy she mentioned."

"Gah!" Calli screams and jumps back, landing on her backside very comically. 

At first, I don't see anyone. Then my eyes adjust. I realize a young woman is standing right next to where Calli had been, only ten feet from the base of the boulder. Her dress is a Greek style tunic the same color as the rocks. Her wispy hair is somewhere between brown and blond and gray, so it blends with the dry grass. She isn't invisible, exactly, but she's almost perfectly camouflaged until she moves. Even then, I have trouble focusing on her. Her face is pretty but not memorable. In fact, every time I blink, I can't remember what she looks like, and I have to concentrate to find her again. No wonder she was able to sneak up on Calli so easily. 

"Hello." Hazel says. "Who are you?"

"Who are you?" The girl answers. Her voice sounds weary, like she's tired of answering that question. 

Calli brushes lime off of herself and examines the girl closely. 

Hazel and I exchange looks. With this demigod gig, you never know what you'll run into. Nine times out of ten, it's not good. A ninja girl camouflaged in earth tones doesn't strike me as something I want to deal with right now. 

"Are you the cursed kid Nemesis mentioned?" I ask. "But you're a girl." 

"You're a girl." says the girl. 

"Excuse me?" I ask. 

"Excuse me." The girl says miserably. 

"You're repeating..." I stop. "Oh, hold it. Wasn't there some myth about a girl who repeated everything-?

"Echo." Calli says, her voice softening immediately. 

"Echo." The girl agrees. She shifts, her dress changing color with the landscape. Her eyes are the color of the salt water. I try to home in on her features, but I can't. 

"I don't remember the myth." I admit. "You were cursed to repeat the last thing you heard?"

"You heard." Echo says. 

"Poor thing." Hazel says. 

Calli scratches her head. "A goddess did this, if I remember right." 

"Remember right." Echo confirms. 

"But wasn't that thousands of years...oh. You're one of the mortals who came back through the Doors of Death." I realize. "I really wish we could stop running into dead people." 

"Dead people." Echo says it like she's chastising me. 

I realize Hazel is staring at her feet. 

"Uh, sorry." I mutter. "I didn't mean it that way." 

"That way." Echo points toward the far shore of the island. 

"You want to show us something?" Calli asks. 

Hazel and I climb down from the boulder. 

Even up close, Echo is hard to see. In fact, she seems to get more invisible the longer I look at her. 

"You sure you're real?" I ask her. "I mean... flesh and blood?"

"Flesh and blood." She touches my face and makes me flinch. Her fingers are warm. 

"So... you have to repeat everything?" I ask. 

"Everything." 

I can't help smiling. "That could be fun." 

"Fun." She says unhappily. 

"Blue elephants." 

"Blue elephants."