"In the Spring a livelier iris changes on the burnish'd dove;
In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love."
-"Locksley Hall", Alfred Lord Tennyson
*
It was springtime; flowers were blooming, birds were chirping, and love was in the air. The cherubic Greek god Eros flew over Athens, observing the humans. Many young Athenian men were chasing the Athenian girls, flirting and courting in preparation for the Spring Festival. Eros smiled approvingly. Nothing made him happier than to than witness the lust of mortals. However, the mortals didn't always fall for each other on their own. That's when Eros intervened.
Eros perched on a tree branch to rest. He had been flying around, matchmaking and shooting his magical arrows since morning. At sundown, he would end his day. However, the orange sun was still a short distance away from the horizon, so he scanned the forest for any would-be lovers.
The Love God saw a couple in the distance, a blonde boy and a buxom lady. The young man was flirting and touching the woman, trying to get her to disrobe. She kept pushing him away, smiling. Eros smirked, pulling one of his arrows from his back quiver.
Much of Eros's work didn't involve shooting arrows. Often, all that he needed to do was slightly influence possible couples' decisions by getting them to be in the right place at the right time, or by whispering suggestions into a receptive ear. Occasionally, he would ask Apollo to make the sunset come a little earlier or last a bit longer to set the mood. When all else failed, or he was feeling lazy, he would use his magical arrows.
Eros first made his arrow invisible. The sight of an arrow sticking out of the object of this boy's affection would have the opposite of Eros's intended effect. The God then laid an arrow across his bow, aimed and shot. The golden arrowhead sank into the woman's shoulder. There was no blood. All the young man knew was that the lovely lady before him had for some reason ceased resisting. Eros stuck around long enough to make sure his plan had worked, leaving the two lovers alone when the boy inserted his erection into the young woman.
It was getting dark in the east side of the sky, and Eros decided the day's work was done. However, as he prepared to fly back to Olympus, he noticed a young woman collecting firewood in the forest. He was awestruck by her subtle beauty. She had such fair skin and petite yet perky bosoms, but with buoyant buttocks that rounded out her physical character. Her brown hair was plain, but her porcelain face with pink pursing lips reminded him of Aphrodite herself. He immediately fell in love.
Eros descended to the ground, taking the form of a human teenager, appearing roughly the same age as the young woman. His wings were absorbed into his body, giving him the appearance of a mortal man. He watched the young lady casually go about her evening task, until he felt it was time to make his entrance.
"Sweet-faced beauty! Are you not the daughter of Zeus, or perhaps of Hermes? Surely, you must be some demigod, else your features betray you as at least half divine!"