Tau the Legend

by Christiaan Bann

ball where the celebration of 20 years of peace would be celebrated. Tau was seated at the king’s table next to Helen. Everyone had a good time drinking and dancing; although Tau did not dance he ate and drank. Helen offered Tau another drink and he accepted, but what he did not know was that Helen had drugged his drink. Tau took a big sip and continued with the festivity. It took almost 30 min for the potion to kick in, he started to feel groggy, his vision started to blur and his body felt numb. He realised that he was poisoned and out of rage flew up and started to create chaos picking up tables and throwing them around, he felt as if he was under attack and started to defend himself by killing anyone close to him, Helen saw rage in his blurry eyes and ran away towards the guards, his reputation of him killing his wife and children was known by the people of Troy. Everyone was afraid of him they had to stop him before he killed more men and woman, so the king ordered his guards to arrest him. Tau out of panic ran towards the closest wall of Troy and started to push against it, the guards stopped and laughed at Tau trying to push down the indestructible walls build by Apollo the sun god, then a loud cracking sound could be heard, his feet firmly planted into the ground and veins becoming visible on his arms and legs Tau started to break the wall, the sound of the wall breaking was louder than the sound of thunder, the guards retreated refusing to follow their king’s order to capture the mighty Tau. Helen came running towards the wall trying to stop Tau but she did not calm him down instead she made him more angry, he pushed the left flank of the wall down and out of anger grabbed Helen and ran away with her, no one dared to take after him as they were afraid. The king called his two brothers to help him in killing Tau, his brothers were Kush from Argos and Melius from Belverus. It took his brothers 30 days to arrive at Athens, they were both told of what happened and who they needed to kill, they realised that the man their brother is seeking for was Tau, they both had encountered him before and knew of his inhuman strength and ability. Laomedon aked Kush to instruct Jhandar to raise an army of deathless slaves to kill Tau and bring back his bride to him. Kush was mad at Tau that he disappeared without telling him, Kush was under the impression that Tau planned an escape when the Hydra smashed the ship. So he instructed Jhandar to raise the army of deathless slaves to go and kill Tau. Tau reached the city of Eleusis where he left Helen he realised that he had kidnapped the Queen of Troy, he went to the king Albanus of Eleusis and explained to him of what happened and that he had to leave Helen of Troy with him so that she could get back to Troy before there would be more blood spilt on his hands. But Albanus saw a war coming and knew if he let Tau go the king of Athens and Troy would demolish his city, so he gently asked Tau and Helen to hide in the dungeon below so that no one could find them, but not knowing Tau was tricked into getting caught. He was locked up in the dungeon and with no way out, his sword was taken by the king as a price to himself for catching the criminal and murderer. Albanus send word to Athens that he captured the runaway Tau, but what he did not know was Jhandar already sent his army of deathless slaves to kill Tau and anyone standing in their way of doing so. Over the horizon and army appeared and they were on their way to Eleusis to kill Tau and anyone that stood in their way, as the army approached closer Albanus send his soldiers to tell the army that he had their runaway prisoner, but the army was deaf and fearless, they slaughtered all the soldiers as they passed through them cutting and slicing, they could not be stopped and now they were on their way to the city getting closer and closer, Albanus could see that this army could not be bargained with and decided to run away, abandoning his people to face this monsters alone. With Tau and Helen trapped in the dungeon they were powerless and could not get out. The deathless slaves passed through the city killing every last person in it. They moved on going to the next city looking for Tau as they could not find him in Eleusis. Tau and Helen was stuck inside the dungeon with no where to go. Helen confessed to Tau of what she done and the potion that she gave him at the feast.

  She knew that she had to tell him, they were locked up, Tau started to dig in the wall, he removed the bricks and Helen talked, being a queen she refused to get her hands dirty, “so Tau tell me why did you kill your family?” Tau stopped for a second and then continued to dig removing brick for brick. It took Tau 8 hours to dig through the wall, working until the brood came out of his hands, Helen could feel the anger Tau had inside him, although he came forth as the dangerous Barbarian she felt safe with him, she knew he would never kill his own family, there was something else haunting him. Tau breached the wall of the dungeon and they were free, but the bodies were lying all over the place blood was flowing like a river in the city. This was no ordinary army this was the doing of a sorcerer of which darkness was providing for him. Helen fell to the ground praying to Apollo for help but he did not answer, Tau laughed and said “Apollo looked after my father when he was growing up on earth, he must be dead by now” saying it sarcastic, Helen stood up and said “you do not talk like that to my father”. Tau stood still looking at Helen, he discovered that she was the daughter of Apollo, the beauty she had upon her was a gift from the gods. Tau was pleased to hear that he was not the only demigod on the earth left. He felt protective towards her, was this the path he had to find, a person like him on earth someone one half mortal and the other half immortal. He wanted to know how old she was how long have she been living but she was only 28 years old, one year older than Tau. As they were talking Tau could feel a warm burning feeling in his neck and then it was pitch black.

  Tau woke up to find himself in a dark place with blue/red flames burning, you could hear the screaming of people being burned over and over nowhere to go and not knowing where he was, the place he had found himself was unknown and under the ground. Then Hades appeared in front of him with his creation the Cerberus. “Welcome to the Underworld, do you recognise them, because they remember you?” Hades said, holding his Cerberus by the chock chain. Hera entered next to Hades introduced herself and Hades to him, “why did you not protect your family Tau?” she asked him with a slight grin on her face. “Zeus abandoned you, he watched as your family was killed”. She made Tau so mad taunting him, she told him how his family died the day his wife and children were killed. It was the creature, the creature being held back by the chock chain it was the Cerberus of Hades. Tau wanted to kill the three headed dog with the tail of a dragon, breathing flames out of its nose, it was not going to feast on Tau’s bones today, Tau shouted at Hades to release the Cerberus he wanted to kill it, he wanted revenge. Hera and Hades laughed at him pointing at him, they mocked him by saying “Tau, the so called protector of the people but he couldn’t even protect the ones he loved, his mother and father and not even his own wife and children”

  Tau was so furious but could not get to them as if there was a force field preventing him from getting to them. Then Hera said to Hades: “let your creation finish its job” Hades let go of the chock chain of his Cerberus. It was Man versus Beast and only one would leave the underworld alive. The beast grabbed hold of Tau’s leg and the other heads biting on his right shoulder with the middle head going for Tau’s face, but Tau grabbed the one biting onto his leg and kicked it until its scull cracked, only left with two heads to fight, then the one head started to breath fire and with its dragon tail it started to whip at Tau cutting him deep. Tau was bleeding profusely, with his energy draining rapidly becoming weaker and weaker, Tau could feel himself loosing the fight, then Zeus with Poseidon appeared, Hera and Hades disappeared and then it was pitch black again.

  Tau woke up seeing covered in bandages lying flat on his back in a bed. “Helen where are you?” he shouted out load, gently squeezing his hand next to him was Helen, she was safe and alive. Tau looked at her wanting to know how he got here and where was the beast. But she knew of nothing, she said that she found him lying in the streets covered in blood with deep lacerations over his body. She helped him up as he did not want to lie down anymore, he wanted to move and get out of the city before the beast returned. She said to
him that she would take him to someone who would heal him but he must trust her. So he did. They travelled for days Tau was getting weaker but he held on trying to survive, he admired her courage and willingness to help him, she could kill him but preferred to save him. Then they reached a cave with no entrance, but then the large stone covering the entrance started to roll away exposing a path inside the cave. There they found an old man with a long grey beard, he was blind. As Tau and Helen entered the cave he greeted them by their names. He never met Tau but knew his name, before Tau could ask him how he answered “Your father said you will be coming” so Tau looked at Helen and asked pointing to the old man “Apollo?” Helen acknowledged by only a shake of her head. Apollo knew what Tau would encounter in his journey ahead, but did not share a great deal, Helen would not continue with him as her journey alongside Tau stopped at the cave. Apollo healed Tau fully leaving only scars where the beast cut him. He stayed at the cave