Chapter 2
Enid Sinclair wanted nothing less than to be Goddess of Spring. It had nothing to do with her domain; even as a young pup her favourite memories were filled with new life and nature.
She would roll down hills with her brothers laughing and cheering her on, then would chase them for hours to force them to wear the intricate flower crowns she wove in the meadows. As Enid grew older, she found she had much more in common with the more chaotic aspects of nature - thick vines crawling up willow trees that twisted and turned to bask in an extra inch of sunlight, nettles that caught on her hair and held on for dear life as she swung from branches too high into the canopy to be considered safe. Enid embraced the warmth of sunlight and, on days too sweltering for her fur coat, the cool shade of caves and shallow caverns, though she never found the courage to explore further in.
Enid loved the light and the dark, but she had learned to fear the twilight between. Her mother was as cruel and cold as the moon she personified, content to pit her children against each other over the supposed honour of the family name. As they grew up, her brothers treasured the sharing approval that came from winning one of Esther Sinclair's ridiculous challenges, and the small stream between the girl and her sibling splintered into miles of crisscrossed chasms she had no hope of jumping. Her father could do nothing to dissuade his wife, not that he ever tried. He even sealed aways the gift he gave his daughter at her command, trapping the pitiful puppy deep within her own soul.
When Esther nominated Enid for the coveted position of godess, it wasn't out of the pride for her family she preached about to any olympian who would listen; it was the perfect way to keep her unruliest child under her crooked thumb. She still wasn't sure how her mother persuaded Zeus, but the blonde soon found the flowers she braided as a child weaving themselves into carpet beneath her feet, roots she should have tripped over in her haste slithering aside to allow her safe passage within her domain.
Her domain. Her season of new life that would be watched forever like a hawk by her mother every night for any flaw, any imperfection that somehow reflected onto her and her alone. In silent protest Enid began to fill fields with growths lf unpredictable size and strengths, forests with various new species of trees that each had their own specific rules to follow. If Esther couldn't follow Enid's work, then she would have no reason to try to ruin what the girl held so much pride in.
At least, she had hoped. If Esther couldn't find flaw she would instead invent one, and Enid, in her rush to please her mother so maybe she'd finally be truly seen was once again dancing to the tune of the moon she felt so distant from, yet so integrally connected.
At least Eugene was nice, as she sat on a bush that had twisted itself into a bench for her to sit as another meaningless party buzzed from the pavilions not far behind her. Eugene was possibly the first person who had been both genuinely kind to her and genuinely interested in what she proudly grew, although the eternal summer child was more interested in the bugs she preffered to ignore. She would rather roam the earth far below instead of attend the event she had forgotten the purpose of, but the moon was as whole as every night. Esther would see if she tried to leave, tried to wear a dress more colorful than fucking silver.
Rustled leaves and brisk steps snapped Enid out of her own mind, and turning to who she assumed was Eugene she saw instead a woman that caused her to remember why she loved shadow as much as sunlight. She was stunning, black lace patterns of swords and pomegranates swirling around a corset that was best described as midnight - dark swirls of galaxies with glimmering stars hat highlighted modest curves, causing the wolf locked behind Enid's eyes to howl.
The gothic mystery had stolen Enid's breath with a stormy expression, claws tapping against wood as the girl absorbed the colour Enid proudly emitted.
And she was so so pretty!