Tau the Legend

by Christiaan Bann

one day.

  Hera knew that Zeus placed gifts on earth for all his mortal children, he scattered it al over the earth, even he did not know where they ended up, but it was destined to be found by each and every one of his mortal children, each one of them receiving a gift to compliment their unique power given to them by Zeus, their Immortal father. Tau’s gift was the Eternal Sword of Light from Zeus, the blade was sharper than the sharpest blade, it was indestructible and was as light as air. Tau’s name was stretched all over the cities, by the people; they soon got to know the warrior called Tau. His journeys was soon called “the adventures of Tau”, corrupt cities feared him and the people suffering prayed to the gods to send him to save them. It was not long when the stories of Tau reached Greece. Hera did not confront Amphitryon when she heard of Tau’s survival. Electra could not believe it, her son was still alive and he was making his way back to Greece moving through cities creating adventures becoming a legend and saviour to the people. She now feared for her life as Amphitryon thought he was dead, he would surely kill her now. King Amphitryon send Promus and his troops to fetch Electra, he was going to kill her for lying to him about Tau’s death. He called all the people in the kingdom to witness what he would do when someone would dare to lie to him, he would make an example out of her. Promus brought Electra to him, he took her to the centre of the city where he would behead her, but Promus did not think that this would be a good idea and brought it to Amphitryon’s attention, “my lord, maybe we should spare her life, she can come in handy one day”, Amphitryon was outraged at the suggestion, he wanted to know how Promus came to this conclusion as he was seeking justice, but Promus knew that Tau would find his way to Greece, it was only a matter of time, he did not want to loose the king as he was good to him, he had all the riches and woman he desired, “we could use her to prevent Tau from killing us all” he insisted, that made Amphitryon think, “yes Promus wise choice, lock her up in the dungeons” was the order to Promus.

  Tau left Belverus to continue with his journey, he developed a great talent of how to survive in the wild as he travelled between cities and towns, he travelled another 15 days before reaching a city called Argos, the ships carrying cargos containing beads, silks, sugar for the close by cities and brass-hilted swords of the king Kush. It was said that Kush ruled all of Argos and its ports, Jhandar the evil sorcerer was also in his circle, no one would dare to take him on as he ruled what ever he wanted. The Argos port was his, he threatened anyone who dared to take Argos ports that he would instruct Jhandar to raise an army of deathless slaves to kill them. On Tau’s arrival at Argos he noticed that the port was guarded by armed guards Tau walked up to them and asked for passage but the guards refused, Tau made several threats but the guards just laughed at him, the one saying “you look strong, but can you count?” as the guard mocked him king Kush arrived to see one of the shipments carrying brass-hilted swords arrive at the port. Kush noticed the massively muscular man standing in front of his guards. “Can I help you?” Kush asked, but Tau did not respond as he stared at the guards in front of him with his volcanic blue eyes showing signs of inner fire. Kush touched Tau on the shoulder but out of instinct Tau grabbed Kush’s wrist almost breaking it, as Tau did this the guards jumped on top of him trying to free their King from this man. But they were no match for Tau; he threw them of as if they were flies. Kush was amazed by the strength of this man, “who are you?” he asked. Tau only staring at Kush did not answer him; Kush wanted to know if he was interested in working for him on the ships, that would help Kush by ensuring that his shipments would be safe from being robbed by pirates at sea and at other ports. Tau did not have any money left and also wanted to cross the ocean by using the ship, so he accepted the job offered to him. Tau worked at the harbour guarding the shipments being loaded and offloaded, in return he was paid 10 cold coins per week, enough to get buy. Tau was not very popular among the other guards; Kush treated him different to the rest of the other guards. Kush did not swear at Tau, Tau worked at the harbour for 20 days and no one knew or ever heard his name nor asked him his name, everyone including Kush called him “Barbarian”, mainly due to the barbaric look he had. On the 21st day Tau was instructed by Kush to go with one of the ships to Zamora, Tau remembered that Bêlit was from Zamora and planned that he would look for her once the ship stopped at the port of Zamora. The ship set sail and Tau was on his way to Zamora to deliver cargo containing weapons made by Kush, Tau was at sea for 14 days when Hera confronted with Poseidon to send the deadliest sea monster he can find to kill everyone on the ship, Poseidon did as his sister asked, he waited until the ship was in the deepest part of the ocean when he sent the Atlantic Hydra, the creature was bread in the deepest part of the Atlantic ocean, it had a huge body with three heads two of them mortal but the middle one was immortal. Tau was busy with rowing when the Hydra struck he boat with its heads, causing the boat to tilt sideways in a rocking motion, some of the men on the boat saw the monster as it emerged out of the water, it was grey green and very large, large enough to swallow the whole boat. The rocking of the boat caused Tau’s sword to go overboard the ship, as this happened Tau dived after his sword into the ocean to retrieve it, but the Hydra saw Tau going under the water and followed, some of the men saw this unfold, then out of the water Tau appeared clutched in the claws of the Hydra, it had a firm grip on Tau, but Tau managed to retrieve his sword before the Hydra got to him. Tau shouted out of pain caused by the claws of the monster’s perching into his ribs, Tau swung his sword cutting off one of the mortal heads of the Hydra, but this did not help as the Hydra did not lose its grip on Tau. The rest of the men on the ship stared at the fight between man and beast; they were helpless and could only stare at the scene in front of them. The remaining mortal head went for Tau’s arm and wounded itself by biting the arm of Tau holding the sword, Tau acted quickly and sliced the head from the inside with his sword freeing his arm, then the Hydra lost grip on Tau, dropping him into the water. Tau tried to swim away from the Hydra but it swallowed Tau whole and dived under water going deeper and deeper below the ocean with Tau inside its belly. The men on the ship did not see Tau nor the monster again from that day, they send word to Kush saying that the barbarian was killed by a sea monster. They called that part of the ocean where it all happened “belly of the beast”.

  Hera was pleased at the death of Tau. Poseidon went to Zeus and told him of Hera’s plans and how she manipulated him into helping her to kill Tau.

  But Tau was not killed, he was surviving inside the belly of the Hydra, fortunate for him the Hydra never chewed its food or anything it swallowed; there was a boat inside the belly still in one piece a large air pocket and fish swimming in some water trapped inside the belly, although it was a bit smelly he could survive for 7 days. On the 5 day Tau knew he had to make a plan to escape the belly of the Hydra so he made a fire with pieces of wood from the swallowed ship. This caused the Hydra to swim up to surface as its stomach was burning, it did not know what was wrong, smoke came out of its mouth and nose, the Hydra opened its mouth when it reached the surface, Tau saw this and ran up the throat of the Hydra, it was in the middle of nowhere in the ocean, so Tau made a deal with the Hydra, he would make the burning stop if it took him to dry land, so the deal was made between the two, Tau promised the Hydra that he would send him a meal to thank him for bargaining with him.

  They were at sea for 4 days when he saw land, as the deal was made the Hydra dropped Tau at land and disappeared into the ocean. Tau did not know where he was, he set camp out on the beach where he would rest till the next day when he would continue with his journey. During his journey Tau turned 21 years old when he met a woman by the name Karela in the city Timnah, they stayed there for many years they later got married and had two boys called: Samson and Hercules his life was good, they had a little farm where they stayed providing for themselves, Tau settled down, the anger and rage was gone, he was happy. Hera found out about Tau’s survival and could not believe it, he would
simply not stop living. She went to Poseidon and blamed him that Tau was still alive, she was full of rage so she went straight to Hades the god of the underworld and pleaded for his help, she lied to him telling him that Zeus and Poseidon was planning for Tau to take his place as the ruler of the underworld, this made Hades so mad that he decided he would help her kill Tau no matter what.

  Hades created the “Cerberus of Hades” the three headed dog with the tail of a dragon, breathing flames out of its nose. Hades would plan his creatures attack carefully.

  It was late and Tau’s family was at home, waiting for him to return after leaving early the morning to take care of the cattle and crop. Hades wanted to send his Cerberus into the fields where Tau was so that it could kill tau, but Hera had other ideas, she told Hades to send his Cerberus to the house where Tau’s family was, she wanted him to suffer in pain. So Hades did so, he send his Cerberus to their house awaiting Tau over the hill, the Cerberus saw him