by TC Calligari
Chapter 3
With a start, Calathena awoke, realizing she had drifted. Her arms were stiff and when she moved them, nothing restrained them. She opened her eyes; her bonds had been loosened. Still naked, she raised herself to one elbow in the growing gloom. It was past the evening meal then, but the overhanging grate subdued the light.
Trying to avert her eyes from the gore that still splattered the floor and platform, she looked around for her clothes or anything with which she could cover herself. She moved past bones in shadow, bits of torn leather armor, a broken spear and found her chiton against a wall. A bit more searching and an unfortunate plucking from bloody shards but she found the pins. Something rasped over the grate far above and Calathena pushed into the wall, moving away from the opening. Somehow she knew it wouldn’t do for those who had condemned her here to find out she was still alive.
She pulled herself around a corner, away from the grate and dressed, first wiping her hands on the wall. The bigger question, besides why the Minotaur had left her alive, was what she would find for food and drink in his lair. Yet not wishing to stay any longer near the carnage of the dais, she moved, trembling into the gloom.
Afraid to sleep, for the Minotaur might return, and growing ever more thirsty and hungry, Calathena explored the twisting corridors. Some dead-ended but all were not dark. Daedalus, when he had designed the maze to imprison the god-sent Minotaur, must have had a moment’s compassion. There were oil braziers set high on the walls, which never emptied of oil. There must be a way to fill them from outside the labyrinth. The lit corridors led to another chamber, similarly sized to where she had first arrived. It was devoid of platform but held a long trough of water. Calathena slaked her thirst and then moved off down another hall, always remembering which way she turned and where the water was.
Eventually though, the events caught up to her and she could go on no longer. She curled up in a passage with a brazier at each end, and fell asleep, knowing the Minotaur could find her whenever he wanted.
***
She awoke slowly, becoming aware of distant sounds; a thump, a muffled flute, somewhere a bird chirping, but she lay with her eyes closed, trying to remember all that had happened. And it came back to her in a rush that had her heart beating loudly in her ears. The king, the guards, the maze and the Minotaur. The maze. Calathena knew she was laying in it, but her head was cushioned. Her eyes sprang open and she sat up.
Squatting a mere four feet or so away was the Minotaur, watching her, his large hand resting open on his solid thighs. He wore the short belted kilt that many soldiers wore and his great broad chest was bare. He pointed beside her and slowly, reluctantly, she tore her gaze away and looked down. She saw first the square of folded fabric that had been under her head. Then she saw the long wooden bowl that held fruit and some slightly stale cheese. Glancing up at the Minotaur, he nodded his head at the food. Confused, Calathena took a piece of fruit and ate, watching him as he watched her. Surely, he wouldn’t feed her if he was going to eat her. And he was intelligent. She hadn’t been sure, but he’d given her a head rest. Animal he might look but he was kinder than the guards had been.
She ate some cheese and found a few withered olives. Finally, sated, she wiped her mouth on her arm and said, “Thank you.” She stood then, not sure what else to say.
He stood slowly, at ease in his tawny coated body. He cocked his head to one side, perhaps to see her better and moved closer, one hand held out. Calathena found she was holding her breath but let it out, telling herself that she had nothing to fear. He wasn’t going to kill her.
The Minotaur moved closer and touched her face, then her shoulder, letting his hand trail down her arm. She shivered slightly but didn’t move as he moved in close so she could smell his soft animal musk. Hesitantly, she reached out and touched the downy softness of his muscled chest. The warm velvet of his muzzle brushed the side of her neck and his breath rustled in her hair. She shivered again, feeling a flush of warmth travel out from the pit of her belly. Her legs felt numb and dampness gathered in the cleft between her legs. The Minotaur put his great arms gently about her and pulled her to his chest as his hands pulled hot trails down her back to her buttocks. He clasped them, pulling her to him, and the hardness beneath his kilt pressed firmly against her.
Her breath catching, Calathena gently pushed away from him. “I… I’m sorry,” she said, not even knowing why she said it. She yearned for the fires he had lit the day before but she was afraid. Turning from him, she kneeled to pick up the folded cloth and the bowl. But then his warm arms wrapped around her again and a hand reached up to softly cup her breast. His tongue languorously licked up her shoulder to her ear and she groaned. His hot breath made her shiver and she melted back into him, just a bit. The other hand found its way between her legs and a large finger slid, probing ever so slowly through the curtain of her sex.
Her breath caught as he gently moved his finger at a teasing pace, easing in to her wetness. Calathena trembled, realizing her robes had slipped from her shoulders, and that his hand had bared her dancer’s legs. Heat poured off of her in waves and her hardened nipples ached until his long tongue snaked over her shoulder and down, bringing fire to her breasts. Fire burned in her, causing liquid to melt out through her vulvic cavern. The mounting pleasure rocked her and she fell forward onto her hands and knees to steady herself. Her breath came in gasps.
The Minotaur moved behind her, her chiton, now bunched at her waist as he tilted slowly back and forth, his hard, fleshy cock rubbing her until the wetness of her sex trickled down her thighs. Calathena moaned and convulsed slightly, feeling her virginal cavern melting, opening. And then the Minotaur pushed gently at her cave of molten flesh, his helmeted penis parting the folds and sliding slowly in. Calathena gasped, sweat trickling between her breasts as she cautiously pushed back, helping him slide in. She felt the slight resistance, the last vestiges of her virginity and pushed back onto him as his heat filled her.
So great was this initial penetration that she quivered from head to foot and drew in great deep breaths. And then he was moving in and out unhurriedly, building momentum in the swirling pool of their lust. He held her hips and guided her backward and forward onto his hot cock and each time, he went deeper. Volcanoes flashed inside Calathena’s vision, the magma, boiling, moving closer to the surface. He filled her, finally, and she wanted more, pushing back to him until her sweaty thighs stuck to his loins. He moved excruciatingly slow, His thighs melding to her buttocks, pressing her to her elbows, her butt arching high in the air. The intensity made her moan in abandon, begging for more. She felt him surge into her, stroking quivers through her; a low bellow escaped him and her womb spasmed around his cock, drawing him deeper. She cried out and shook as if all of Vesuvius had erupted in her, as if she were the volcano, tremors pulling her, successively vibrating her very being.
They lay on their sides, the Minotaur curled around her, for a very long time. Their hands, like gentle blind creatures, slowly explored the contours of their flesh. Calathena thought as she absorbed the sensations, and knew she had no horror of what had happened. Her life had irrevocably changed but perhaps she and the Minotaur had been set on each other’s paths by the gods.
Eventually they parted. Calathena ran her fingers through her hair and stood. But as she turned she saw the Minotaur on his knees picking up his kilt. He was still erect, with a slight upward curve to his thick penis. She had no idea if it was larger than a normal man’s for she had never seen one unencumbered by cloth before. But the sight of him there, naked with his soft tawny coat and his well-defined pectoral muscles flexing as he moved, caused a new flush to creep over her. It was as if she were newly hatched into a world of sensation, and she was wet again but not with the Minotaur’s seed.
She walked over to him and as he looked up she fondled one of his soft, light brown ears and kissed him on the wide brow between the eyes. Then straddling him, she lowered herself, taking a moment to hover, just
touching the purplish head of his cock. With muscles born of many dances she barely let her vulva swallow the tip and then pulled back. The sensation thrilled her and she wanted to hold onto this moment forever. Several times she barely swallowed the tip into her vaginal tunnel, eventually hanging on to his curving horns for balance as she slowly slid down his thick spear of flesh.
This time there was no gasp but a small purring, and a feeling of rightness. And she did not slow, after that initial languid tease, but gradually sped up, bucking and thrusting herself down to the shaft of his cock. She hung on his horns and twisted and thrashed on him, the heat building in her, her sweat coating her flesh in a sheen and it was as if she danced, the dance of lovers, the great bull dance, sliding down his shaft, gliding up, her taut breasts glancing over his nipples, the friction and heat and touching, bringing them to a crescendo. She arced back, taut as a bowstring and he lowed a groan of pleasure. Calathena felt as if she melted onto him, molding into one, joined forever. Just as his mother Pasiphae had once joined with a bull, a coming together that had brought the Minotaur into the world, a curse on Minos for his greed and sacrilegious ways.
Calathena fell against the Minotaur, their sweat gluing them for a bit. She realized they had not spoken yet, that he most likely could not but she said, “You have shown me paths in this labyrinth already. Perhaps we can find new corridors and discover a way to the world outside.”
He stilled beneath her and tilted his head so one liquid brown eye could look directly at her. Then he pointed at his heart and held both hands open to her. It was obvious what he meant.
Chapter 4
Over the next couple of weeks Calathena explored the labyrinthine passages as much as they explored each other’s bodies. She talked to the Minotaur and sometimes he would answer with a grunt, but slowly they began to work out a simple language using their hands. One night they sat together, Calathena resting her head against his warm chest, and she talked of the night sky, the stars and the constellations that rode through it every night.
The Minotaur looked up, lowing ever so softly, then tapped her shoulder. When she looked at him he pointed to his eye, then clasped his hands over his heart. Then he brought them to either side of his eyes, moved them forward, and up, with a grand flourish above their heads.
She smiled at him. “You would like to see everything?” He waved one hand. “Oh, you would, but you would like to see the sky! You’ve never seen it, have you?”
He shook his great bovine head and she trailed a hand along his jaw. “We shall, my dear. We shall. We’ll find a way out of the labyrinth, for it does not go on forever.” But they both knew it was large and that there were ways of getting lost where there was no food or water. They were always careful when they explored.
There were days where Calathena practiced her bull dancing. Running naked toward the Minotaur’s bowed back she would leap high, and do a handstand over his head, twisting to come down caught in his hands, to wrap her legs around his waist and slowly draw his cock into her. Supported by his strong arms, she would move up and down on his cock, his hands clutching her buttocks. Sometimes one of his fingers probing her other hole as they stood locked together.
And there were days, when he would chase her through the maze and catch her, bellowing, eventually pushing her against the wall and thrusting up into her from behind, drawing the amorous liquid from her as she quaked with one of many orgasms. Their dances were many and varied and she loved them all.
It turned out that human sacrifices were rare and in between guards left fresh food and water for the Minotaur. Sometimes Calathena sat quietly beneath the grate at night and listened to the talk that drifted down. The Minotaur did not like going into the room with the platform, even less than she did, but she was determined to find a way out.
It was on one night several months after she’d been lost to the world above that she heard the news. Voices drifted down.
“When do the Athenians arrive?”
“The night after tomorrow.”
“At night?” asked the deeper voice, with authority. “Since when do ships dock at night?”
“I’m sorry, my lord. I did not mean that the ship docks then, but that the Athenians will arrive at the palace. They will dock around noon, freshen themselves and change for your court, then make the journey to the palace. It will be early evening when they finally arrive here.”
There was a pause and Calathena knew it was Minos talking to a servant. “Nine years. She was just a child last time. Does Ariadne know why they are here?”
“Uh, she might, but we have not told her. The Athenians themselves know they go as a sacrifice to the Minotaur.”
“As is right. There are seven young men and seven women?”
“Yes, sire, from the ages of fifteen to twenty as has been requested. Poseidon should be pleased with the sacrifice being made to his son.” There was a pause, a yelp and some scuffling. “I’m sorry, my lord. I did not mean to call the beast that. I’m sorry.”
“Do not mention the beast again. Poseidon gets his due but that is all. If all is in order, remember we will host the Athenians for three nights, with food and wine and song. Then on the third night, they’ll be lead to the labyrinth to fulfill their honor.”
The voices drifted off and Calathena did not realize she had been biting her knuckles. She went to find the Minotaur who was down his favorite passage, where a brick had fallen out of the ceiling leaving a narrow slit through which he could sometimes see the moon. It was half full this night and he sat with his arms wrapped around his knees, staring up.
Calathena imparted the news. All the Minotaur did was look at her briefly, snort and go back to looking at the moon. She wasn’t sure what to make of this. He was a gentle creature, powerful and could be commanding in their lovemaking, as could she. But he was still an enigma. Would he eat the fourteen Athenians or just kill them? She did not know and was too afraid to ask, but she spent each night as near to the grate as possible to catch any news.
Three nights lingered on the heat of early fall, then slithered into day. The clamor of celebration and music, laughter and conversation floated down to where Calathena hid in the shadows. It was on the next night, when much the same activities had happened that she dozed off from boredom. When she awoke it was to a hurried whisper and a gasp. For a moment she thought someone was with her in the chamber.
She peered up through the grate, then stood on the dais and circled to the left. If she looked across to the far side of where the king usually sat she could see the large potted shrubs and the palm trees of the courtyard. Against them moved shadows that slowly defined themselves as a man and a woman. It was so quiet, and much later than normal, that even the night creatures had stilled. The couple’s words came clearly on the cool air.
“Theseus, you don’t understand. The Minotaur cannot be beaten. No one has escaped the Minotaur and the labyrinth, ever.”
“Don’t worry, lovely Ariadne. I am god blessed. I can conquer anything I choose.”
“But so is the Minotaur. Or god cursed, but still he is stronger than any man.”
Theseus leaned into her and pulled her chiton down. His lips buried in her hair and Calathena could only hear part of what he said. “—you will and I will marry you. Let me—you now.”
“Yes, I want you, I want you. But…but here?
Theseus put his hand over her mouth. “Shh, you don’t want to be the death of me, my beloved. You will come with me and I will marry you once we escape the labyrinth. But I need your help… Will you help me?” He kissed her.
Then she nodded as he pulled away. “Yes, my love. Yes.” Calathena heard the rending of fabric and Ariadne’s cry as he kissed her. Her muffled cry was lost in Theseus’s moan of delight as he pushed between her legs. Ariadne was caught between his muscled thighs and the hard bark of the tree. He thrust against her, taking no time nor care. There was no love in this making and Calathena bit her knuckles, afraid for the naïve Ariadne wh
ose world was changing as fast as hers had. Theseus thrust faster and faster, smashing her against the tree, his hand covering Ariadne’s mouth. In all too short a time for love, he growled into her shoulder, making short sharp thrusts until he stopped, panting.
Ariadne cried softly, feebly trying to pull her chiton up to her shoulder. Theseus came to himself and touched her cheek. “Oh my love, I’m sorry. I didn’t know. It was your first time? Ah, it always hurts the first time. Next time will be better. I promise.”
Calathena glared from the shadows knowing that it didn’t always hurt the first time and that he’d taken no care. He was an animal, such as the guards, and even the king had been. She turned to leave and heard Ariadne say, “I—I’ll bring you a skein of wool. Unravel it as you go, after the Minotaur is vanquished, and it will help you find your way out. Try always to stay to the left and the maze will open its pathways for you. I’ll wait for you at the end with the key that unlocks the maze.”
Chapter 5
Golden curls framed Theseus’s head as he strode confidently into the chamber. Calathena watched from the shadows, the Minotaur nowhere around. They had carefully planned what would happen. The other men and women followed his confident footsteps, but though they didn’t cower, their gazes darted nervously about and they walked in stiffly. The guards put down several large baskets of fruit and bread, and a couple of urns of water and wine. Then they bowed and left.
Theseus ordered people to move down the four corridors that branched from the room, and to watch. Night approached. “You four will take the first watch. If you see the beast, do not engage it but fall back and let us know immediately so that we will be awake and armed.”
“Armed,” one girl of Spartan dress, said. “Armed with what?”