Horned woman by Klawddie on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

(Sorry for the poor quality, but I am dealing with a lot and I just can't write as well I would otherwise do.)

She was cornered now.
Trapped in a room from which there was no other escape.
She could hear him coming, slowly, at a steady almost agonizingly deliberate pace.
If put up to it, if her hand was forced "Taurus" knew that she could subdue the mortal.
Kill him if necessary...
...but doing that, taking a life would kill the only thing that she had left to her in the whole world...
...her humanity. She saw, in the distance the glint and the glimmer of the torch light as it was reflected off of the steel
blade that he held in his hand.
Now she knew what she had only feared: this youth, this stranger was different from the others.
He was the only who was not afraid of her because he was the only one willing to kill her.
She curled up into a ball as he entered the room.

He was around eighteen years of age with wavy, short cinnamon brown curly hair. He was fit but not overly muscular and he stared at her with a set of pale, piercing sky blue eyes. He wore a simple tunic, the white toga of a sacrificial slave…

…but his sandals riveted with golden spikes were far from those worn by the lower classes.

His blade was raised over his left shoulder, poised and ready to strike…

…but his face bore the mark of a soul that was torn, confused...

“Where…” he slowly began as his eyes darted about the room. “…where is…where is the bull of Minos?

Where is the monster?”

“Taurus looked from the blade, to the youth, and back to the blade again.

“It is I.” she solemnly replied as she lowered her head on to her chest. “I am the beast that you seek.”

The stranger blinked…

…and blinked again. He stared at her with great and even pain incredulity.

His mouth opened…

…but not a word came out.

“It’s true.” She continued as she folded her hands over her knees. “My father insulted Poseidon. Refused to sacrifice his beloved great white bull to the Olympian. And for that…” she gestured to the ram’s horns on either side of her face. “I was made to carry the price of his sins.”

The youth lowered the blade as he shook his head as he spoke:

“I, like my kin was taken from my Father’s kingdom, taken to be a war tribute, a sacrifice to the beast. A beast I swore to kill. For my people, for my kingdom, and for my father…”

“Then strike,” Taurus quietly pleaded with an uneasy voice. “Strike easy and true…but know this,” she added with courage and grave dignity. “…I would never have harmed a single hair on your head, or on those of your people.” She raised her head high, so high that her crown touched the ceiling above. “I may be cursed, hated and despised…but I am no monster. I am no man’s beast.”

She sat there, as motionless as a mountain, as proud as a statue, as fearless as a lion…

…as he approached slowly her.

He had come within striking distance of her, within a simple swing and swoosh of her exposed neck…

…when with a loud “CLANG!” he dropped his sword onto the floor below.

“I want my freedom and my people’s.” he sternly began. “Desperately. More than anything. But like you, I am not a monster either.” He placed a small hand upon her much larger knee as a warm smile graced his youthful face. “We will both be free of this place, of this prison. But we will do that together and not by shedding innocent blood.”

Though the story would be rewritten, and in time become legend, not a one of the other thirteen “sacrificial victims” could give any…consistent or believable answer as to how they had all escaped. Escaped not only from the Labyrinth, but from the Island of Crete itself. It was suggested that the “beasts” sister, a young Lady named Ariadne, had released the survivors from their prison.

Once they were free the Athenians burned the ships of the Cretan king, a king who could no longer wage war on Athena. Peace in the region at last.

As for “Taurus”? What became of her?

She vanished from the pages of history and all accounts.

Odd, since a woman of her size can not easily conceal herself…

The Athenian prince did return home and took the throne upon his fathers death. He ruled well and wisely along with his beloved, if not aloof and mysterious Queen…