by Samuel J Fox
“We hope you don’t do that to us,” he whispers.
“Don’t touch him!” Sparky spits out and lunges at the Minotaur currently holding me, but before he can reach him a curved scythe, no bigger than my arm, is held at his throat by the Minotaur standing behind. My heart rate increases as I realise this could go worse than I thought, it occurs to me this Minotaur gang could kill us right now, ending our life in an instant.
The lead Minotaur starts to laugh, releasing me as he begins to approach Sparky.
“Awh isn’t that sweet boys,” his mouth curls up towards his short snouted nose. “I think we got a couple of brothers here, makes killing you even more precious.”
Killing us. The thought makes me want to scream at the top of my lungs, but I hold it together since we may be able to get out of it.
“Kill us?” I say. “We have no quarrel with the Minotaur’s, besides you’re in our homeland, in our territory, one shout and you’ll be captured.” Relying on others to help isn’t probably the best option right now.
“One shout, and you’ll be dead kid,” he pulls out a long-sharpened knife, which seems to have rusted on the handle, blood stains cover the blade. “Innocent mums and children of the Minotaur race had no quarrel either, grandmas had no reason to despise Centaurs. But that didn’t stop them from being slaughtered in their own homes, you Centaurs make me sick and I will have no mercy with any of you!” His voice rages as he speaks, since the start he has not yet stood still.
Times running out and I see no chance of this Minotaur letting us walk free, I try to think what my mum would do in this situation, she was always clever enough to get out of anything difficult.
A minotaur from the back speaks up,
“I think we should let one brother watch the other die, slowly,” his voice so animalistic it makes me want to run as fast as I can, away from these creatures.
“Why are you here?” Sparky says. “Why Barndale? We only farm and teach. Unless, you’re here to attack the King?”
The Minotaur points in the direction of the town.
“That coward you call a King? We don’t want your King dead,” he spits on the wooden floor, just in front of my hoofs. “Fear, is what we want, I want every last one of you puny un-loyal centaurs to run scared when you see us coming. I will bury fear into your lands and make you pay the price for what you did to our people!”
“If you touch me or my brother, it will be the last thing you ever do!” Sparky shouts back.
The minotaur smiles and points his blade towards him, “Is that so?” He points his knife at Sparky and gently runs it along his cheek. “Let’s put that to the test!”
The Minotaur grips his knife and pulls it back into the air, the light shining of the edge of the knife he prepares to lunge at Sparky.
“Olark!”
A loud booming shout appears from behind the Minotaur standing in front our path.
A Minotaur wearing a black leather tunic appears from the darkness. A golden headband holds back his dark hair, with one part of his hair platted that hangs down the left side of his head.
“What have I told you about killing the weak?” The large Minotaur speaks, he too has large muscles popping from his sleeves. His nose is slightly larger than most, and I begin to stare at it for too long.
“We’re not weak!” Sparky shouts.
“Oh, forgive me,” he turns to me. “I don’t like Centaurs staring at me, it’s irritating.” He speaks in a rusty low tone.
“What is this then? Who are you and why are we involved in your weekly Minotaur meetings?” Sparky asks, stupidly of course.
The newest Minotaur continues to stare at me before he replies. His yellow eyes seem to stick to me, making me feel uneasy.
“I am Zarkoff, leader of the Taurs!” the Minotaur’s around us roar in unison as he announces his status. “I do not answer to the likes of you, do not question me or my fellow brothers, or you will both die where you stand. My reasons for us being in your homeland is not a concern to you, you have simply crossed our paths at the wrong time, which is unlucky for you.”
His manner of voice is so well spoken it’s surprising that he is a Minotaur. No matter the fact, we are in danger right now and I can’t see us getting out of it so easily.
Zarkoff points at Sparky and smirks.
“Olark, show this one what happens to Centaurs who talk back to us.”
The Minotaur with the scar who I presume is Olark, pulls out his rusty knife and holds it with the blade facing the floor. He viciously grabs Sparky by the throat and holds his blade in the air.
“No!” I shout. Slowly edging forward with both my hands spread in the air. “Please, please don’t hurt him. He’s my brother!”
Zarkoff quickly raises one arm and holds it in midair.
“And why should I listen to a puny centaur like you?” he asks.
I can feel my heart pounding against my chest, I’ve never felt so much pressure in my life.
“Because,” I hesitate, there is no reason to why he cannot kill us both right now and walk freely afterwards. I say the only thing that comes to mind. “Because, we’re the Kings nephews! Yeah, yeah we’re family to the King!” My eyes dot around, searching in panic for something to back up my alibi. “And if he knew you harmed us, he would not stop until he finds you.”
I stop and stare at Zarkoff. I have the urge to instantly look away but if I do he’ll know I’m lying.
“Olark,” Zarkoff says bluntly. “Let the boy go.”
Almost instantly Olark releases Sparky. He falls to the floor gasping for air and I run over to help him get to his feet.
“Felix,” Sparky mutters, still struggling for breath.
But before I can answer, Zarkoff is in my face. I can feel his warm breath covering me, a smell of nutty meat lingers in the air between us. A shiny object catches my eyes, a dagger head hangs around his broad neck, hung up by a frail piece of string. The dagger looks freshly cut from the clean silver and sharp edges. I notice a single star engraved into the middle of the knife, which surprisingly fits well.
“I don’t like it when people lie to me,” he tucks the dagger back into his tunic. “Felix.”
He raises his hand and clicks, so loud it almost sounds like a slap.
Olark swiftly walks towards me with his knife at the ready, his eyes locked onto me like a lion.
What would mum do, think Felix!
I grab the glass bottle from the Sparkys pocket and hurl it towards the Olarks face, colliding directly at his snout causing him to drop the knife and scream in pain.
“Run Sparky!” I shout at my brother as we both sprint past Zarkoff, who does nothing to prevent us from getting through.
We sprint as fast as we can, causing me to nearly fall as we finally reach the end of the bridge. We gallop directly into the forest, destroying mushroom stalks as we do. I hear shouting and bushes being trampled on from behind us. I start to gain speed and overtake Sparky, leading the way further into the Mushwood, the moonlight surprisingly lights up the forest a lot more than the bridge. I lead the way in any direction away from the raging Minotaur’s behind. We launch ourselves over a large fallen mushroom tree, which has already begun to rot, as we do we come to a halt as we notice a deep chasm that stands in front of us. It seems to stretch for miles along, and what looks like miles down. I pick up a heavy rock and toss it over, waiting to hear it hit a surface. A faint collision erupts from far below.
“It’s too dangerous to jump Felix,” Sparky says, struggling to breath as he does.
I then notice another fallen mushroom tree stretching over from our side to the other. Without saying a word, I gallop towards it, Sparky following behind. I hear the roars grow louder in the distance, reminding me what we’ve been galloping away from.
I apply pressure from my front leg onto the tree to see if it’s steady enough for us to walk over, but in this instance, we don’t have much choice other than to risk it. I step onto the mushroom stalk
with my front two legs, and then follow through with the back. I steadily walk along the stalk to the middle holding both arms out to keep my balance, Sparky waits for me to reach the other side before he crosses.
“Don’t step on until I’m over Sparky,” I hear a crack within the stalk as I speak. “It won’t hold us both!”
The shouting approaches and I can see the bushes begin to rustle as the fuming Minotaur’s.
“Well hurry up Felix!” Sparky shouts back.
Meters away from the end I hear the Minotaur’s come crashing out from the bushes further down from where we appeared from. I see the fear flood Sparkys eyes as he gallops across the stalk, with me still standing on it.
“Sparky!” I shout, before I realise it’s too late to say he must turn back. But it’s too dangerous, so I continue.
I reach the other side of the chasm and turn to see Sparky halfway across, swiftly, but steadily making his way across the narrow stalk. The Minotaur’s stand in a huddle on the other side, however they haven’t decided to cross the chasm along with us. Olark appears from the crowd holding his eye with the palm of his hand, blood pouring down his face onto his chest. He approaches the end of the stalk and roars at the top of his lungs, Sparky stops in his tracks to turn and see the crowd of animalistic Minotaur’s preying on him.
“Keep running Sparky!” I scream. “Don’t stop and turn!”
Olark begins to lift the end of the mushroom stalk and starts to drag it towards the edge of the chasm.
“Run Sparky, run!” I shout louder than I did before, my heart pounds in fear that Sparky might not make it. I reach out to Sparky who is only meters away from me. “You’re almost here bro just keep running!”
Sparky stretches his hand out for me to grab hold of, but he’s too far away.
It’s too late.
8
‘He’s a Minotaur, they are a lot more passionate about blood.’
Olark releases the stalk, letting it fall into the depths of the chasm. I scream at the top of my lungs and leap towards Sparky with my hand stretched as far as possible. The brother who taught me how to speak to girls, how to deal with bully’s. The brother who took the blame for the empty beer bottles my dad found in the garbage. I couldn’t lose him, especially not after we lost mum.
At first I don’t realise, but his hand wraps around mine. He made it.
I grip hold so tight I feel my hand going numb, my brother’s life hangs helplessly over the edge. The mushroom tree falls deep into the pit of darkness, a loud thump erupts as it hits the bottom.
Using all my strength I pull Sparky up and over the edge, we collapse to the floor, struggling next breath. I look back over the chasm to see that the Minotaur’s have disappeared back into the thick Mushwood.
“Thank you,” Sparky says whilst struggling to get his words out. “Thank you, brother, you saved me.” He gently rests his head on my shoulder.
“Nah, thank you.” I reply.
Sparky looks up at me in confusion.
“For what, I didn’t do anything?”
I begin to laugh to myself, “Thank you for helping me get out of washing Peach tonight.”
We both start laughing with one another. This may not be the right time to laugh, but I haven’t laughed this much in a long time.
+++
We decide to ditch Sparkys friends, which were most likely still at the lake drinking, and begin to walk into town to look for an outpost to alert the guards of what just happened. The thought of those vicious Minotaur’s still lurking in the woodlands sends a chilling sensation through my body, I can feel the hairs on my arm and neck stand up. Sparky usually paces in wide strides, like a giraffe would as it walks, but now I notice he walks in short bursts, one leg in front of the other so quick I can hardly see the outline of the hoofs. His expression so delicate, one gush of wind and his face would drift off into the sky like a pile of autumn leaves being whisked up into the air.
“You feel okay Sparky?” I watch as he bites hard into his lip, causing them to turn white. He hesitates when I ask, but then turns to me and smiles.
“Yeah, thanks bro,” he replies in a quiet tone, still smiling. “I’m just a bit shaken up. First Minotaur’s appear from out of the blue and then I nearly fall to my death into a bloody chasm which I never knew was there!”
I can’t help but laugh at the last part.
“You should have listened in geography then!”
Sparkys smirks at me with his eyebrows raise, “I’m being serious Felix,” he says, the adrenaline still raging inside me I can’t take the situation serious yet. I feel like we conquered a city, achieved another day of living. “I never thought off it like this, but life can be taken away in an instance. One mistake, one accident, one wrong encounter and it can all end,” he stops and rests his sweaty palm on my shoulder. “If you didn’t reach my hand Felix, I wouldn’t be here, and the thought of that frightens me. We need to be more careful in these situations.”
We continue walking through a field which I’ve never seen before, back towards the way we think home is.
“It scares me too Sparky,” I say. “The Minotaur, he spoke about how he only killed Centaurs because he wanted to inject fear into our lives because of what we did to them?”
“He’s a Minotaur, they are a lot more passionate about blood,” Sparky starts to fiddle with a hole which must have been torn whilst we were running through the Mushwood. “Anyway, he’s probably exaggerating, unlike them we are not blood thirsty savages. Dying is just another part of war, Centaurs and Minotaur’s both lost loved ones, they’re a lot more hung up on it than we are.”
I scratch my head in confusion to why they would still do such sinful acts, terrorizing innocent people in revenge from what was a result from a bloody battle.
“Nice shot by the way,” Sparky interrupts my trail of thought.
“What do you mean?” I reply.
“Throwing the rum at the Minotaur!” he punches his fist into the palm of the other hand. “Hopefully it hurt him more than we expect, could have used something other than my rum though.”
I turn to see him grinning at me.
“Shut up,” I begin laughing.
Then I begin to wonder how I did throw so well.
“Next time I’ll throw- “
Suddenly I start to feel dizzy, my vision begins to blur and I fall into Sparky to gain some sort of balance. I can see Sparky shouting at me but I can’t understand what he’s saying, my ears erupt into a high pitch sound, deafening me, as if someone shot a cannon right next to my head. I force my eyes to stay open but darkness creeps into my peripheral vision. I try to keep my eyes on Sparky but I can’t hold it any longer and I fall into darkness.
+++
I lay in the middle of a moist wet field, the grass so tall if I lay flat I’ll be covered almost fully. My eyes feel heavy and sore, like I’ve woken up from a long sleep. My legs are weak and my arms feel like jelly as I stagger towards a dark tree, infested by rotten bark and dark green moss. The forest is murky and engulfed by foggy mist, tree’s stand as tall as mountains, with huge jagged spikes running up the trunk, just like a cactus.
A dark bottle with a pale white cork stuck in the top lays on the base of the tree just in front of me. As I pull the cork from the bottle an aroma of dark rum instantly hits me. I manage to hold the bottle for a few seconds only to drop it on the ground as the smell makes my stomach uneasy.
Suddenly the bushes behind me start to rustle, branches snap as whatever is behind it approaches me. The thought of something lurking in the bush sends a rush of adrenaline through my veins, like white water rushing down a stretched lake.
Instead of backing away to hide behind a tree I scream, “Come on then, show yourself!”
I prepare for the worst, unable to control the energy brewing inside me.
The snapping and crackling coming from inside the bush grows louder. A black wolf appears from the undergrowth, its tangy yellow eyes shine bright
in the dark. The wolf stands firmly, not making any sound.
“H-Hello there,” I say, slightly confused and scared. I wasn’t expecting a wolf.
I kneel on one knee, and hold out my arm in hope the wolf will warm towards me. It begins to approach me, a lot more comfortably than I expected. The small wolf winces back as I stretch open my hand to let it smell me. The sensation of the wolf smelling with its whiskers dragging across my palm tingles. As I reach out to stroke its head, a howl from another wolf appears in the distance. The wolf I kneel to suddenly turns its head and runs into the darkness towards the sound.
I chase the wolf into the murky forest in hope to figure out where I am. Forced to turn into a sprint, ducking under fallen trees and weaving in and out thick branches, narrowly missing the spikes as I do. I catch my breath as the wolf ahead of me finally stops in its tracks and jogs towards another pack of wolves standing in front of two pillars, which stand a few meters across from each other. Instead of walking into the pack I decide to hang back, hiding most of my body behind one of the narrow trees.
I watch as the wolves form a line, standing one behind each other, like an obedient group of guards. My head is filled with confusion, unable to tell where I am and why.
A warping sensation appears from between the two pillars, a green glow flashes across the gap, causing the wolf at the front of the que to glow a mossy tone in reflection.
As I stand there, I wonder how everything feels so real, I know it’s not real life because a minute ago I was with Sparky. It’s hard to tell the reality when everything feels so physical. The fatigue after running so fast, the smell of the rum, and the sensation of the wolf sniffing my hand. It feels like wherever I walk and whatever I touch, the senses around me burst into life.
The grey wolf that stands at the front of the line walks through the pillars, limping as it walks, like it’s recently been injured.