if melodies could change the world

• chapter one •

Eurydice was a hungry young girl.
A runaway, from everything that's ever been.
She was no stranger to the world.
No stranger to the wind.

She was no stranger to the voices in her head.
Three old women,
Always singing in the back of her mind.
They called them the Fates, the Sisters Three.
And wherever it was this young girl went,
The Fates were close behind.

Always whispering in the young girl's ear,
To sway her to and fro.
She'd hurry up and hit the road
Any way the wind would blow.

And that's how it had always been.
All she'd ever known.
Until one day, a poor boy came,
And asked to take her home.

She was no stranger to the wind,
Always singing in the back of her mind.
No stranger, certainly, to the world.
No stranger to hard times.

For Eurydice was a young girl,
But she'd seen the way things were.
If the world could ever change,
It wouldn't be up to her.

These were the words that echoed in Eurydice's mind one morning, as she roamed the fields of flowers near the makeshift shanty she was currently calling home. Eurydice had moved around her whole life, picking her life up and setting it down where she thought she'd be safe for the moment, where she'd be able to find food and firewood. When the food supply ran out, she picked up her life again, and put it back down somewhere else, grabbing what few belongings she had and constructing a new shanty to keep them safe from vagabonds and shelter her from the wind. Never trusting anyone who walked her way, for people turn on you just like the wind. Everybody for themselves, as it was in this world. She couldn't worry about anyone else or allow herself to trust anyone who would end up taking advantage of her. She would do whatever it took to survive, picking her life up and putting it back down again any way the wind would take her. Listening to the voices of the three old women always singing in the back of her mind. All she'd ever known was how to hold her own, how to fend for herself in the cruel world that she lived in.

But she wasn't always this cynical. Eurydice had hope once, and it had been sucked right out of her. She was a young girl then, with stars in her eyes and a dream of how the world could be. She was still a young girl, but not quite as young, no longer the naive dreamer she once had been. Once, Eurydice had dreams of changing the world. She'd wanted to be a singer, dressed in a fine fur coat, singing in some bar or jazz club for all the world to see. Or perhaps an actress, a star of the silver screen. But she was a poor and hungry young girl. As a child, her family wasn't rich, but they'd had enough to get by. She'd been too young to worry about money, and for a moment, she'd been happy. But then her mother died, and her father took to drinking, and it tore the family apart. She'd run away from home at sixteen, and there she was, a hungry young girl with stars in her eyes, and a whole world of hardship ahead of her. She'd been taking care of herself for most of her life now, but now she no longer had a roof over her head, or a family to come home to. She was but a hungry young girl against the world, against the wind.

And thus, the girl with stars in her eyes quickly abandoned her big dreams of being a singer or an actress. She couldn't dream of being rich and famous and successful when she could hardly feed herself. It didn't take long before the starry eyed girl grew cynical and weary of the world, and gave up trying to change it, or dreaming that she could. And thus, the hungry young girl who stands before us grew somewhat tough yet vulnerable. The stars in her eyes had long since faded and turned to dust. This was how the world was. No use trying to change it. This was how things were, how they'd always been. Times were hard and they were only getting harder. This was the world. It would always be like this. There was no other way it could be.