Chapter 1
The Beast
O-O-O-O-O
The small man had horns. He smelt of nature, and of beasts. That small man, was he like him?
…
Was he a beast?
A fog clouded his thoughts. He did not know. He was hungry, so hungry. The beasts before all turned to dust before he could feed on them. Deer and squirrels bolted at the sight of his imposing silhouette in the darkness. He was so hungry. Could the man… Could the small man be eaten?
"▂▂▂▃▃▃▅▅▅▃▂"
If any words had truly been spoken, it would have mattered not. The cries reverberated in the enchanted celestial bronze mask, distorting into an unintelligible bellow, ringing painfully in his mask.
The rain that fell around him and the small man was a small mercy. The pouring rain that drenched his skin and soaked into his mane felt cool and refreshing, in contrast to… to…
Fire burned around him. The toxic miasma that seemed to both stagnate still in the air yet blow as a vile wind choked him, the mask doing nothing to ease his burden.
As far as he could see, there was only darkness. Shattered stone and the fragments of beasts long-dead cut and bit into his skin. An eternal abyss composed of pure suffering.
Suffering. Suffering. Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain pain painpainpainburningpainhatredguiltmiserycursesErebuspainpainpainpainPAINPAIN-
Loss. Sorrow. Pain. Fire. Death.
"▂▂▃▃▅▅▅▅▅▅!"
The memories of that vile pit snapped away as the small man bolted, roused from his own paralytic fear by the bellows of pain brought about by the images of the burning abyss. He was fast, sprinting away with a sort of spring in his step, carried by legs that were very clearly not the legs of a man.
He followed in haste. Though he did not have the legs of a beast as some believed, his sheer strength served him well in regards to speed. It would not be inaccurate to say he was leaping rather than running, with each step he took propelling him through the air and cratering earth and stone wherever he landed.
Yet zig-zagging through the wilderness, the small man evaded him. In time, the small man was out of sight completely. Only through his scent, which was quickly fading in the downpour, could he track the man at all, relentlessly pursuing. He was hungry, so hungry.
He followed through the woods, leaping through the thicket where he could and shredding and uprooting bush and tree alike where they blocked his path. He needed to eat. He needed to eat. The small man had left the woods now, leading him out onto the structures of man, the long stretch of bizarre stone. The roads.
Yet…
The small man's scent was joined by two others. The scent… the scent of man. Humans.
No, that was not entirely true. There was one human, and one whose humanity was dwindling. Something was slowly but surely overtaking it, merging and melding to become something greater. It smelled… like the sea?
The confident grin of a young man lit by the torches of an endless prison.
Ferocious blows far stronger than anything he had ever felt.
The pity in the hero's eyes as he impaled his heart.
The last gift of an older sister he never knew, the release from that prison he so desperately yearned for.
The sea. The sea! He remembered the scent of the sea, the last thing he smelt before waking in that hell!
He renewed his efforts in chasing the trio. He would find them. He would catch them. And then he would… would…
He would what?
Eat them?
The boy's body was brittle, emaciated from a lack of food. He had starved in the prison, unable to find his way out. He was already dead. In that case, would it really be wrong to…?
The thought of eating them vanished as quickly as it came. Yet the unquenchable need to catch up to them remained, and he continued charging forwards.
A flash of light illuminated the road, followed by the crack of thunder, forcing him to halt in his tracks as the wrath of a God exploded before him. He was stunned, but it only took him moments to shake off the daze.
The trio's scent lay in a metal box, a chariot of the new age. He sniffed at the contraption, and he affirmed that their scent was strongest within it. Yet, he heard no sound from within. Had the lightning killed them? Was it the decision of the Gods to smite the three? There was an odd feeling of tightness within him. What was that feeling? Perhaps rage, or disappointment that he would not get to do the deed himself?
"...Pasiphae…"
He bolted up immediately. The three were not in the contraption at all. He must have been smelling a bloodstain, and they had gotten far enough to lose him by scent.
"...he's the Mino-"
Mino.
Minos.
The monster of Minos.
The starry one.
The Bull of Heaven.
Taurus.
The Bull of Minos.
Minos Taurus.
Minotaur.
A woman of unfathomable beauty gazed down as she cradled him in her arms. Though she was worn, with dark circles under her eyes from what must have seemed like an eternity of pain, she still managed a smile.
"A**e***s. After my husband's father, and the great Titan of the star signs. My son…" she murmured as she held him close.
It felt… warm. Not like a fire, but… well it was warm in the same way a fire was not warm like anything else. Unique. It felt…
He felt the bronze mask clamp around his head like a vice. He cried and cried, cried for his mother, cried for his sister, cried for his brother, cried for his mother's husband. His father. Yet, all the same, those cries warbled and distorted through the enchanted mask, emitting a sound not unlike a trumpet.
"Yeah, why don't you moo some more, you demon?" A man jeered.
"What are you doing?!" Another voice hissed, before lowering into a whisper. "That maze may not have any way to escape, but you shouldn't be giving that thing any motivation to try!"
He stood taller now. His horns had grown long and punctured the top of his mask, yet the curse of sound remained.
The young man was easily half his size, yet his roguish grin remained unwavering, giving off the faint scent of saltwater.
"So, you're A*t*****, huh? I don't see why Ariadne kicked up such a fuss."
Steel clashed, a sword against axes as the maze lit up with sparks. A battle cry, not one fueled by rage or desperation, but by excitement, tore from the young man's throat. In return, he offered a bellow of his own.
Yet, the joy of combat did not last. One cut became two, then two became three. Blood splattered on the stone floor, belonging mostly to one. He dropped to a knee. One half of Labrys clattered to the ground.
No excitement remained in the young hero's gaze. Only the solemn gaze one might find in a soldier looking upon the ruined city of his enemy. The hero raised his weapon, yet hesitated.
Stepping forward, the hero steeled himself as he drove the severed horn into his heart.
"I want to save you."
"▂▂▃▃▅▅▅▅▅▅!"
The Monster of the Labyrinth let out a roar that resounded across Long Island, and the mortal and demigod carrying a satyr froze in terror.
The Minotaur charged.
Author's note or something like that: Wooo, first story on this site! Or just published in general, really. So uh, apparently the Minotaur has no character tag. Too much of a non-entity I guess, he got jobbed twice in a few pages. So, I had to use the OC tag instead. That'll come in handy for Pasiphae and many other Greek mythological figures I intend on using. Just wanted to clear that up.
(And before you ask, yes, the Minotaur looks like Asterios from Fate now.)