The minotaur' nostrils flared. Sweat turned his skin sticky, making the leather axe-harness he wore uncomfortable. He clutched his battleaxe in his right hand, and a curved dagger in the left.
The ghost was out there. He could feel it. He rotated in place among the trees, his squinted eyes lingering on every shadow. Every time the wind bullied the leaves, the shadows shifted, and the minotaur lost his focus. Everything was moving. It was impossible to keep track of anything here!
Moving forward slowly, knees bent and horned head swiveling, the minotaur headed in what he thought was a northeastern direction. A shadow behind him, then above, to his left, kept its position near him, not his, but never leaving him. The minotaur knew it was close. It could sense the heat of the shadow, as if the thing radiated life.
The shadow encircled the minotaur, and instantly moved sideways. The thrown dagger was heard to fly, and then it flew no longer. It clattered somewhere among the leaves, no light reflecting off it for recovery. With both hands the minotaur now gripped the axe. He backed himself to a wide tree. And waited. This chasing game was no longer to his liking. Let the chasing be done with and the shadow come straight at him. His ears picked up a sound to his right, turned to face it, and immediately pulled his axe into the path of his returning dagger. The dagger rang off the axe blade and lodged in the tree. He left it there, as he stared to where it had come from.
While so engaged, a tall figure emerged from left of the tree. Stepping on the tree roots, making no sound, it walked calmly to the minotaur's back. Taking its time, but not delaying, the figure withdrew a thin, stiletto-like knife, and then lodged it at the base of the minotaur's cranium, severing his spine and piercing the brain. The minotaur's last vision was of the shifting shadows between the forest trees. The battleaxe was dropped, only to be caught before it hit the floor by the cloaked figure. Removing the axe-harness, and then retrieving the knife from the minotaur's skull, the figure walked off into the forest, direction aimless. The minotaur's dead eyes watched as his assassin walked away, eventually fading into the shifting shadows of the forest's afternoon.