They went through one room, and found the next one was the same barren stone, a dim torch, and now there were two archways.
"Okay, so...north, or east?" Han asked.
Chewbacca snorted.
"Yeah, we'll try that one first," he said.
They went through one archway, and found the next room looked exactly the same.
"Oh boy, we're going to go around in circles until we die at this rate," Han said, "there's got to be a way to mark where we've been."
He'd blast the wall if he thought it wouldn't bring the whole ceiling down on them. He looked up at the archway and asked, "Hey Chewie, can you pull any of the rocks up there loose?"
Chewbacca examined the smaller stones on top of the archway and found one that wasn't as tight as the others and pulled it out.
"That's a start anyway," Han said as he took the stone and decided to hold onto it for the time being.
A sudden noise first made him think the archway was caving in, but then he felt his stomach lurch as he realized it sounded like hoof beats, and they sounded like they were coming from somewhere above them.
Han turned to Chewbacca and asked, "Are those hooves?"
Chewbacca snorted and nodded.
"They said the Minotaur has hooves?" Han asked.
Chewie nodded again.
Han nodded in response, and asked, "You think there's an upstairs to this place?"
Chewbacca grunted and shrugged his massive shoulders.
The sound wasn't right on top of them so he guessed it wasn't an imminent threat, still, he'd like it better if he actually knew what they were dealing with, what to expect when they finally found the Minotaur.
They worked their way from one room to another, the sound grew fainter and then ended.
"Say, Chewie," Han thought of something, "Did those guys back there...did they say the chess queens from the Isle of Wonder, stole the golden fleece from this island?"
Chewbacca thought back and snorted in answer with a small nod.
"And the chess horses said that the beast had stolen their island's singing stone?" Han asked. "You think they meant the Minotaur here?"
The wookiee grunted and shrugged.
"How do you like that? Everybody around these parts is a thief," Han commented, and added, "It's too bad everybody's so weird here, I could blend in perfectly."
The wookiee made a snorted laugh in reply.
"Uh oh," Han said when they entered a dead end room and found several skeletons scattered on the floor. Some were still fairly intact, others were just piles of random bones by now.
"Um...uh...Chewie," Han thought of something and it made him feel a little sick, but he knew it was still worth doing, "I've got an idea...let's get some of these bones, grab the skulls."
They went back the way they came and dropped a bone on the floor of each room they passed through, so they'd know where they'd already been, assuming the Minotaur didn't come behind them and collect them all. Han fought a bout of nausea as he tried very hard not to think about why those skeletons were there, what it meant, and what it might mean for them if they didn't succeed in this.
They disposed of all the bones they'd taken out of the room, and crossed through another threshold to see where it led to now, and both stopped in the doorway.
"Somehow I don't think this is for decoration," Han said as he looked at the tiled floor, which had various symbols etched into each stone. Roses, scythes, birds, skulls and crossbones.
Chewbacca rumbled in question.
"I don't know...you stay back, I'll see what happens," Han told him and inched his way out to the first tile on the floor.
He heard something, and saw just in time as a huge spike came flying out of the doorway on the other side of the room. Chewie howled and grabbed Han back, a split second before the spike would've impaled him.
"I'm okay, I'm okay," Han insisted a little too quickly as he pulled away from the wookiee. "Okay...so, the floor's a booby trap...but there's got to be a right way to get across...how?"
There were four tiles along the floor, and five across. Han looked at them, instinctively knowing there had to be an exact pattern that wouldn't trip any booby traps, but also knowing there was no way in hell they could figure it out and didn't have the time to try.
"Okay," he told Chewie, "I'm going to try and get to the one on the end, the spike would have to come through the wall to get to me and that can't possibly happen."
Chewbacca grunted a warning to Han, who decided they had to try something. He swung one leg as far over as he could reach to try and step on the crown tile in the corner. He'd just put his weight on it when he heard something else fly through the air, and he crouched down as another spike just missed him.
"This is getting ridiculous," he said, then thought of something. "Chewie, get down."
Chewbacca crouched down but Han told him, "Lower than that, crawl, I'm going to try something."
He waited until he saw Chewbacca down on the ground, and slowly pulled himself along on his hands and stomach. He heard spikes cutting through the air and saw them go flying overhead, but none of them went down to the ground. This looked like their best bet to get across the floor.
"Come on, Chewie, follow me," he said, "Stay low."
The stone tiles were cold and hard against his stomach but he pulled himself along, hearing one spike fly through the air after another, heard them strike the wall behind him, heard some of them clatter to the floor, he reached the other end of the floor and slowly stood up.
"Whew, coast's clear, Chewie," he turned to the wookiee. "Let's see if we can find the traps and dismantle them."
Chewie howled in agreement. They went into the next room but were stunned to find it looked just like all the others, just bare stone walls and an archway, there weren't any visible traps anywhere.
"I don't get this," Han told his friend. "There has to be some-"
Somewhere above or around them they heard the echoing sounds of hoof steps again.
"Okay, that's going to get old after a while," Han observed.
They cautiously made their way through a couple more rooms, in one there was a niche in the wall and something sparkled in the dim light. Han couldn't believe his luck, two coins, in excellent condition. He picked them up and held them up to the light for a better look. Not credits, he wasn't sure what they were, but he didn't care, they had to be worth something somewhere, once they got out of here maybe he could convert them to something he could use. In the meantime, it was nice to have something shiny to hold onto again and know he actually had it and could later trade it for actual money. Chewbacca's nagging howl interrupted his thoughts and he shrugged, "Everybody here is dead, nobody's going to notice they're missing. Come on."
They moved to the next room, and then heard someone coming their way. They were ready for whatever the Minotaur might be, but instead a tall dark haired woman in a gold and white gown and large wings entered through the archway.
"Ah, you're the human and not the monster," she said in awe, "I heard you coming and thought you were the beast himself. Did my father send you to save me?"
"I guess you could say that," Han said, feeling rather in awe himself, "but how did-"
She raised a finger, "Hush, there is no time, I believe I've found the Minotaur's secret exit from the catacombs, follow me and we'll be saved."
Her eyes sparkled gold for a brief second, and with that she turned and disappeared back in the archway.
Han turned to Chewie and said, "Exactly how's this Minotaur thing supposed to be so dangerous if she managed to find a way out herself?"
Chewbacca snorted in response.
"Hey lady!" Han called after her.
But there was no response and she didn't reappear in the doorway.
"Lady?" Han repeated, feeling that something was wrong but not sure what. Could the Minotaur have...but they could hear his hooves through the walls, or the ceiling...so he couldn't have...Han went over to the archway and looked for her, but didn't see her. The wall ahead was just stone but he stepped in to see if there was another archway on the side.
Instead he heard a loud rumble as he felt the floor open beneath him and he let out a terrified scream as he felt himself falling. But instead of falling down and plummeting to his death, he fell back when Chewie grabbed him by the arm and yanked him back through the archway.
Han hugged Chewbacca and let out a series of frantic, terrified sounds as he realized what just about happened.
"Thanks, Chewie, I owe you one," he said as he caught his breath and finally let go of his furry friend. He inched back towards the doorway, looking at the open floor, and asked, "Did they say anything about this Minotaur...shapeshifting, or anything like that?"
Chewbacca made a noise like a sneeze and shook his head.
"I didn't think so," Han said. "So either they left that little detail out, or...there's someone else in this catacomb."
As they headed back, Han turned and looked back at the entryway, and this one he decided the ceiling would mostly hold. He took out his blaster and fired off a bolt, knocking several pieces of stone out of the top arch, leaving a mess of stones and dust and debris on the floor.
"That way we'll know we've been here," he advised Chewie, who rumbled in agreement.
Even doing everything they could to mark where they'd already been, Han still felt like they were walking in circles. Every single room looked exactly the same, the only thing that differed was the number of doors to pick from, someones one, often two, sometimes three.
They walked east through two rooms, then came to another where as soon as they entered, both doors slammed down, locking off the room, and a horrible grinding noise about deafened them both as they saw two huge gears turning against each other and realized the stone ceiling was coming down on them and would crush them in a short amount of time.
Han drew his blaster and fired at the mechanism, it slightly damaged one of the gears but the damn thing kept turning. Chewbacca howled as he grabbed one of the massive gears and pulled on it with enough force to bend the bottom half of it clear out of alignment, the other gear continued to spin briefly before the whole mechanism malfunctioned from the damage and grinded to a smoking halt. The ceiling had just started to touch the top of Chewbacca's head when it finally quit, and after a few seconds the doors rose up again and they were free to leave.
"Good work, Chewie, let's go," Han said.
They crossed through two more rooms and came to another dead end room and this time they both fell through a trap floor and yelled as they plunged somewhere down below to presumable death.
Han landed hard on a stone floor and found himself in pitch blackness, but he didn't feel like he was dead.
"Chewie?" he asked, "you still here?"
The wookie's rumbling echoed in the room and about made the Corellian pirate deaf.
"Good," Han said as he pushed on his hands and slowly got up, "What happened?"
Chewie growled as they got up.
"What's going on here?" Han asked as he felt along blindly, he ran his hand across something other than the stone wall. "Chewie, I think I got it, the torch is out."
Luckily he knew his blaster like he did the back of his hand. Working from pure memory, he adjusted it to the lowest setting possible, aimed at the wick of the torch and fired. The spark from the bolt was enough to ignite it and in a fairly short amount of time the room was cast in the same dim light the rest of the rooms were.
Han looked up and realized, "So we were already upstairs, we fell through to the downstairs...this better mean we're getting closer, I'm getting tired of this."
They made their way through a maze of more rooms leading every which way, so far nothing else happened. But they came to one room where the hoof beats seemed particularly loud, like they were right in the next room. Here they lucked out because Han noticed a small chink in the stones, a tiny hole in the wall. He stepped lightly and held his breath as he peered through it. He couldn't see much, something on the wall that moving his eye to every angle possible, realized it was a large tapestry, and then...he saw part of a furry beast's head with large horns on top. He heard a sound like a latch being pulled, and heard a larger sound of stone scraping against stone and realized a hidden door had opened behind the tapestry.
"Chewie," Han whispered as he stepped back, "I got it...the other side of this room, that's where he is."
He'd had enough wandering around and decided to cut to the quick. He took his blaster out, returned the setting to normal, and shot at the wall a couple times, it was a deafening ruckus and for a minute they thought the whole room might cave in on them, but he made a hole large enough for them to step through into the next room, and then, they saw it. The tapestry hanging on the wall was over 10 feet long, Han couldn't make out what the picture on it was but he knew the Minotaur, whatever it was, was on the other side of it.
"Stand back, pal, we're going with the direct approach," Han said as he raised his blaster.
Switching the settings to maximum, Han fired and one bolt took out a whole chunk of the wall big enough for them to step through, paying little mind to the flames and smoke it had created.
Most of the catacombs had all looked the same from room to room, but this one took the cake. Han's senses were divided simultaneously by the sound of a woman screaming and pleading for her life, the roar of a beast, the deafening crackles of a large fire on the other side of the room in some kind of pit that had eaten through several of the stones, the sight of a winged woman in a short white gown tied down on a sacrificial altar, over which seemed to preside two tall skeletal figures in robes, one clutching a set of bones fashioned into some kind of amulet, and the other dangling from its bony hand something that looked like a blue apple. Standing over the young woman was something Han had never seen the likes of before anywhere in the galaxy. He had the muscular torso and arms of a man, but he had the legs, hoofed feet, tail, and head of a vicious bull, steam actually seemed to curl out of his snout as he looked upon the intruders and turned his attention away from the young sacrificial maiden.
"Who dares enter my lair?" the creature hissed and set his sights on Han, "You die human!"
Han drew his blaster and fired but to his immense horror and confusion he missed and merely hit the wall behind the Minotaur, who was unfazed by the explosion. The Minotaur scraped one hoof against the floor and charged at the smuggler. Chewbacca howled and grabbed the Minotaur before it could reach Han, and the two fought with one another. Chewie was taller but the Minotaur didn't seem to be at a disadvantage from it, they were evenly pitted and Han honestly couldn't tell who was going to win, but he couldn't risk firing off another bolt and blasting Chewie in the process.
Chewbacca let out an even more deafening howl as he grabbed the Minotaur around the waist and charged headlong to the fire pit.
"CHEWIE!" Han couldn't believe what he was seeing, in a few seconds they'd both fall in.
Chewbacca used his massive strength to hurl the Minotaur into the fire pit at the last second, the momentum knocked him off balance but he fell against an archway on the other side of the room, just a few feet from the fire pit but far enough to be safe from the flames. The Minotaur dropped from sight in the flames, a terrifying scream of pain filled the room but shortly after also disappeared.
"Chewie, you alright?" Han asked, a little bit in shock that it was all over.
Chewbacca rumbled in answer as he got to his feet again.
"You there, human!" the winged woman on the altar said in a self righteous tone, "Get over here and untie me!"
Han did a double take and murmured to Chewie, "Fine way to talk to the guy who just saved you."
The wookiee rumbled low in agreement.
"You must be Lady Celeste," Han said as he approached the young woman in the short white gown, with long black hair and what looked like a golden tiara molded to her forehead.
"Of course I am," she snapped at him, "Now would you mind getting me off of this monstrosity?"
"A simple thank you would do, you know," Han sarcastically remarked.
"Never mind about that, I have a small dagger inside my belt, it should be enough to cut the ropes."
"It'd be quicker to just let Chewie here rip them apart," Han nodded towards his friend.
"Don't let that hairy beast anywhere near me!" she sniped.
Chewbacca snarled in response.
"Suit yourself," Han said as he fished through her belt for her dagger.
"Don't touch me!" she yelled at him.
"Make up your mind," he said, feeling very close to smacking her.
He found the dagger and cut the ropes. Once that was done, she hopped off of the altar, and certainly didn't look any the worse for wear.
"Are you alright?" Han asked.
"No I am not alright," she replied, "do you mind if we just get out of here now?"
She led the way through the archway Chewie had fallen against, which for some reason had a strange horned beast's skull mounted over it.
Han watched her walk out, and leaned over to his friend and murmured, "Chewie, give me the strength not to choke her to death."
Chewbacca howled something to the smuggler, and as they followed the way she went, Han replied, "Princesses are the same the whole galaxy over, every last one of them is just a spoiled brat who needs to be taken over someone's knee and get their hide tanned bright red."