by Lexi Lane
“They found Minoa already,” somebody pointed out. “On the isle of Crete.”
“Yes, but like I said it’s a rough translation of a language that seems to have influenced the later Greek languages.”
Another ship sailed in close to them. Two older men with faces seamed from long days of sea and sun began to shout at them and wave their arms. Frightened Maya looked over at Gabriel. “What are they saying?”
“That this is a sacred place and that we can’t go there.”
“Yeah well we are!” Higgins yelled. “Fuck off you scurvy old bastards!”
There was another burst of words from the boat and Gabriel, his face pale, said, “They’re saying we could be killed if we go onto the island, that it’s the place where gods play and to disturb them is to bring down their wrath.”
“They’re just silly superstitious old fools!” Higgins snorted. “Or, and far more likely, they want a crack at the place themselves.”
The men gave up and their boat slid away toward the mainland. Maya watched them go, uneasiness rising in her belly.
“Maybe they know something we don’t.” Gabriel said quietly. Looking at him Maya saw his face had grown very pale. “Perhaps we should go in small parties of three and then report back, make sure it’s safe before we unload everything.”
“I say it’s safe.” Higgins snapped. “We’ve done topographical studies on the pictures taken by plane, we’ve sent down the drones to make sure it is stable and it is. It is not going to float away or sink as far as we can tell.”
A small argument ensued and Maya quit listening after it was finally agreed that a smaller party than originally planned would go ashore. She would be among the first to set foot on the strange island. Her heart beat more quickly as she took in the fresh green grass growing in the lands above the salt scoured gray boulders that lined the shore.
There were magnificent stands of thin trees with what looked like fruit hanging from their frail limbs and patches of color among the grass that she could only assume from the distance were flowers of some type.
Excitement washed over her. She had never left her small city until four days ago. Higgins had gotten her passport expedited so that it only took two days to have it in her hand and she had sat rigidly upright in the airplane’s seat, her eyes scanning the clouds and terrain below with avid interest. For the life of her she could not imagine why the other people onboard all seemed so bored.
The boat drew closer to the island and she looked up, a sudden frown wrinkling her brow. There were no seabirds, she realized. A few miles away they wheeled against the sky, she could hear, faintly, their caws but they did not seem inclined to go near the island.
Before she could voice that the ship began to weigh anchor and everyone began to gather things up and chatter loudly. She shouldered her backpack and went to the railing, sea salt sprayed up and she slipped on the wet deck. For a moment she was frightened, sure she was going to go right over the side but she held on and regained her footing.
They disembarked. Higgins tossed his cigar stub into the sea, coughed and flapped a hand at a long spur of land that was covered by tall hedges. “I think you should start over there,” he told Maya. “I need samples of the soil and plants. I need to know how long they have been growing; if this island has just surfaced they shouldn’t be so tall…” he wandered off, his face already turning scarlet under the sun.
Maya set off. The sun struck down even hotter and brighter as the day wore on. Even with her face and head covered she could feel sunburn blooming on the exposed parts of her arms. She moved into the welcome shade offered by the foliage.
She was hungry and thirsty and the privets opened up just a few feet ahead. She duck walked to that opened area and found she could stand so she did. The hedges grew in long lanes, she walked down them, going deeper and deeper until she stopped at a tiny little circle that was wide enough for her to sit down, open her pack and spread out her lunch.
Privacy had been is short supply the past few days, she dug the sandwich and chips and bottle of soda out of her bag and began to munch while reading a novel she had tucked into the front flap. Totally engrossed in the book she never noticed the shadow that fell over her until it was too late.
Her skin prickled with awareness and she looked up, her mouth opening to utter a polite excuse for her laying down on the job but all the words died on her lips and tongue. It was not one of the members of her party looking down at her but a creature.
She screamed and tried to scramble away but she was grabbed by her upper arms and lifted first to her feet and then an inch off the ground. Fear surged through her and she opened her mouth to scream again but fear squeezed her vocal cords down so that only a tiny dusty croak came out of her wide open mouth.
The thing…her eyes scanned its features in disbelief. Two horns curved up from the forehead and a face, human in its symmetry and shape looked back at her but the horns curved back from a head that was covered not with human hair but with coarse black hair that was oddly reminiscent of the hair of a bull.
It was hands that held her arms. She looked down at the muscular chest, also covered in the hair, and the broad shoulders, wondering if this were all a joke. The arms that held her were bulged with muscle and she found herself staring at it in an odd mixture of revulsion and enthrallment. Below the flat abdomen that rippled with muscle lay lean hips, and long legs but that was not what fascinated her and almost stopped her heart.
The half-man, half-bull thing was totally nude and its penis was huge. It jutted out, throbbing and full, in a large curve that made her feel faint. Her eyes yanked away in desperation only to land at the ground below them. That was when she saw that while the upper limbs had human hands the lower limbs ended quite decisively in hoofs.
She began to fight, her feet connected with the hard as oak shins and she twisted frantically in the creatures grasp. She managed to tear herself free and she fell to the ground. Sobbing she made it to her feet and began to run, heedless of direction.
The hedges closed in over her head and she fought against them. Every time she turned a corner she found herself faced with a choice in which way to turn. Confusion fogged out coherent thought, she ran into blind corners and abruptly ended lanes, turned around and ran back to the nearest intersection only to find herself lost again.
Tears flew down her face. Dust spurted out from under her feet and her heart pounded against her ribs, a stitch worked its way into her side. Fatigue settled over her and she became desperate. She shoved at the thorny hedges, hoping to bypass the constant running back and forth but the stickers scratched her arms badly, pain and blood both shocking her back to her senses.
She took a deep breath and stood still, surveying the footprints on the earth. She could see three sets of her own footsteps, which meant she had been running blindly along the same lane for quite some time. She lifted her watch, the hands had stopped and she felt an irrational irritation at that.
She found her cell phone in her pocket but there was no signal or even a time available on its face. A growl of frustration rose in her throat. She walked back to the intersection and saw, unbelievably enough, her backpack lying in the dust. She started toward it then stopped, suddenly wary. She could tell that was not where she had left it.
The sun sparked off her water bottle and thirst bit into her, her mouth was precipitously dry. She licked her lips and took a cautious step forward, then a second one.
Higgins appeared, his hair stuck up on his head and his glasses pushed low on his nose.
“There you are!” he shouted. “Where have you been?”
Relief filled her. If someone had told her that she would be glad to see the insufferable man she would have said they were a liar but she was. She took a few more steps and then a few more. She picked up her bag and walked out of the maze, trying not to look behind her.
***
She lay in her narrow bunk, trying to figure out what had happened to her on t
he island? Had she simply become sun struck? Had it all been a dream? Had she seen an imaginary shape in the foliage and panicked? She wasn’t sure.
Her mind kept returning to the bulging muscles and stiff prick she had seen. No way did I imagine that, she thought. She closed her eyes and tried to recall it: the thick vein coursing down the side, the stretched shiny helmet and the long hard length of the shaft.
Her eyes yanked open as wetness flooded her panties. She rolled over on her stomach, trying to ignore the aching in her pelvis. That ache was not unfamiliar, she was twenty one and because she had sworn not to have sex with anyone she had learned how to masturbate, that most certainly proved effective most nights but she doubted it would help right then, there was a feeling of actual emptiness inside her that she yearned to fill, she just wasn’t sure how she could.
She gave up and rolled back over on her belly, staring at the ceiling. The waves rocked the small boat and she fell asleep, still thinking about the feel of those muscles beneath her fingertips. She could not have imagined that.
The next morning she looked carefully at the bruises on her upper arms. They were small and faint but there. Fear and something else, something primitive and desperate surfaced and warred with each other. She wondered if she should plead illness and stay on the boat or if she should just ask to be taken back to the mainland. She couldn’t go back on the island, that thing had been real and the bruises on her arms proved it.
Or did they? She had been running and bumping into things, she rationalized. Perhaps it had all just been a fevered dream. Maybe she had fallen asleep reading and, when she woke up she had been confused and gone staggering through the maze.
Her brow furrowed. It had been a maze, she was sure of it. If she could prove that, there was an actual maze on the eerie little island she would certainly have earned her way there and Higgins could stew all he liked he would not be able to say anything untoward about her. A large weight she had not known was there rolled off of her shoulders. Higgins was holding her grade over her head and had been since the trip started, what a perfect way to get him off of her back!
She dressed, putting aside the whole incident yesterday, dismissing it. She went up on the deck and stood still, her eyes going to the island and its greenery. The place seemed more verdant, she was sure it was and she strained her eyes toward the trees, positive that the limbs were thicker and the fruit was growing heavier.
They went ashore and she headed for the hedges without a word. Higgins gave her back a glare that was not missed by the other members of the party. Maya simply walked into the hedges, found her way to the entrance point and began to roll out the tape she had brought along. She taped a piece of the shrubbery with every corner she took. If it ended in a dead end she went back, removed the tape and went in the other direction. Eventually she made her way deeper into the heart of the maze.
Time passed but since the maze protected her from the worst of the sun she didn’t notice how many hours she had been walking. She ate her lunch and drank lots of water and when she stumbled into the heart of the maze she stood stock still in utter shock.
A white marble house sat there. It was small but complete with long graceful stairs and columns. Looking at it she guessed that the bulk of it was below ground. In front of it grew fig trees and dates, there was statues half buried in the ground, passing one she thought she recognized it as being of Greek origin but she wasn’t sure.
The grass was thick and shaggy and small animals that looked something like goats munched their way across that lawn. The whole scene was so bucolic that hysterical laughter welled up behind her lips. That laughter died almost instantly when the man beast she had seen the day before appeared on the stairs and looked right at her.
She turned to flee but was she was grabbed from behind. Her feet still scrabbled, marionette-like, across the ground and she felt her brain grapple with trying to understand how the creature could have reached her so quickly.
That answer came to her as soon as she was spun around and she wished it had not. A hard cock twitched against the back if her thighs and she was clutched to a broad chest even as she was propelled forward to the house and the man beast standing on its stairs.
There were two of them! Her mind fought to understand but fear wouldn’t let thought coalesce beyond that rudimentary knowledge. A third man beast stepped out onto the stairs and she began to scream in earnest.
She was tossed up onto the wide verandah and she stared up at them. They all looked vaguely alike: they all had the large and curved horns, the same fine but coarse hair covering their heads and chests and arms, the same hooves. But one of them had black eyes while one had blue eyes and the third had muddy brown eyes. The blue eyed one had wide generous lips and a stronger jaw than the other two.
Her belly trembled as she took in the scenery closest to her. She had never seen a cock that close up before, much less three of them. A sensation she had never felt before slammed into her and she had the craziest urge to stick her tongue out and swipe it across the swollen purple head of the nearest man beast.
Minotaur, she thought. A wave of dizziness went through her as she was picked up and dragged inside the cool and dim house. The front hall was long and wide. No doors sat off of it, there were stairs but they all went down. She could smell flowers and see a courtyard at the end of the hall where it opened up once more. Strangled cries broke from her lips as she was carried to the stairs and then down them.
She shivered. The air was noticeably cooler and there was the sound of splashing water. She was taken to a fountain that stood in the center of the lower hall and she fought as hands seized her clothes and began to tear them off.
She twisted and writhed, her feet kicking out at the legs of the Minotaur’s. Her toes ached with every kick but she kept landing them, her mind was racing at a frantic pace and her nails left long furrows down the arm of the blue eyed one. They kept talking in some language she could not identify but she could tell that her efforts to escape were not bothering them in the slightest.
When her clothes were all gone they let her go and stepped back, talking to one another in that language she didn’t understand. What she did understand was the way they were looking at her. She instinctively covered her breasts and crotch with her hands, they laughed and turned to each other; one of them pointed to her hips and made a very pleased sound that she was sure did not bode well for her.
Maya wasn’t prepared for what happened next. They hoisted her up in the air and stuffed her under the sluicing down water of the fountain. The cool water hit her skin and she shrieked in dismay, it was so cold her nipples tightened painfully and her ass cheeks clenched. That drew more laughter and one of the Minotaur’s actually pawed the ground.
She spat a mouthful of the water at him, which drew more of that raucous laughter form the others. She drank a lot of it too, as they began rubbing some sort of fragrant soap into her skin and hair. The cold became numbing and when they finally let her out she was shaking all over and her teeth were chattering. They wrapped her in some sort of thick cloth and dragged her to a small corner where they began to rub sweet smelling oil all over her body. She was literally petrified with fear, unable to think what it was that they were doing to her and why.
Then her eyes caught sight of the murals painted on the walls. In each one a gorgeous woman was coupling with a Minotaur, the panels ran on and on. The last panel depicted the woman growing larger as pregnancy swelled her belly, then the woman kneeling at the feet of the grown Minotaur with children running all around them.
A finger slid into her ass cleft, rubbing the thick oil into her skin firmly while the blue eyed one greased up his own fingers and began to rub the area right above her crotch. Sensation exploded into her, she whimpered and thrust her hips out in an involuntary movement that shocked her silly but that they didn’t seem to find unusual at all.
Blue eyes knelt at her feet and looked up, “Asterion.”
She blinked. H
e said it again and pointed at his face. “Asterion.” He pointed at the black eyed Minotaur, “Minos.”
Was that their names? She blinked and stared at the one with the brown eyes, he turned around and she saw his tail, a long thin thing, hanging from his ass to the ground. Terror broke through her core and she shouted, “Let me go you freaks!”
The brown eyed one shrugged at the others. Minos stood and began to paw at the ground, his horns gleaming in the light. Asterion also stood and the two of them ran at each other. Their muscular bodies were works of art; they glowed with strength and power as they hit each other full on. Maya almost fainted at the almost sonic boom of their collision.
They fought for long minutes. Their muscles stood out in sharp relief, their breath came in snorts and gasps. They pawed the floor and rushed at each other, often interlocking horns and finally Asterion gave up.
Minos let out a loud bellow that made Maya squeak with dismay. It suddenly occurred to her that she should have run away instead of just standing there while they fought over her but it was too late. Minos grabbed her up and hauled her to a small room on the other side of the lower hall. There was no furniture save for a rough pallet on the floor that had been covered in some sort of soft wool.
Minos tossed her down and she stared up at him, fear in her eyes. He knelt beside her, his tanned hand holding the belly of his prick, his fingers stroking across the head. She wasn’t sure what he wanted but when he tapped the cock against her lips she got it.
She opened her mouth, there didn’t seem to be anything else to do. Her throat was filled with hard hot flesh, she fought to breathe, to not gag as he moved his hips back and then thrust forward. The first few seconds were a study in serious effort then it got easier. Her instincts kicked in and she began to suckle him, to cradle the heavy sac of his balls in her hands. He made a low sound that let her know he was appreciative and she grew bolder, swirling her tongue around the tip of his cock.