Chapter One

I doubt many will ever care to read this. I doubt many will believe my story let alone that I wrote it with my hand. But all you are about to read is true. This is the story of my life. I am a bastard, a monster, a deity, and the first of my kind. I am Asterion of Crete. You may know me better as Minotaur.

I was born at sunset of the summer solstice to Queen Pasiphaë. Before my birth, King Minos and everyone in Crete thought I would be their ninth child and heir to the throne. However, at my birth, it became very apparent my mother had been unfaithful. 

When I was born with the head of a pure white calf, white hairs across my body, a tail, and animal-like legs with hooves, there was no doubt that I was no Prince of Crete. My mother tearfully confessed to her illicit affair as I was ripped from her breast. She'd been disguising herself as a cow to fulfill her cursed lust for the prized white bull Poseidon had given Minos with the decree Minos would sacrifice the bull to him. 

Apparently, as retribution for Minos not sacrificing the bull, Poseidon cursed my mother with an unnatural lust for the bull. I was the 'unholy' product of her desire. Minos was outraged that his wife was unfaithful, laughable, given he was unfaithful to her many times over. As punishment, I was taken from her, and the bull was first castrated then slaughtered. 

I spent my early years raised in a dank dungeon of the palace cared for by a blind servant. Unknown to Minos, my mother would sneak to visit me. It is because of her I learned to speak, read, write, and even count. However, things changed when I was eight. Minos had started to limit my meals. Driven by hunger… I ate my caregiver. After that, I was moved to a new location. Minos had an intricate labyrinth constructed and had me placed at the center. 

Having realized that since tasting human flesh, I had developed a taste for it, my caregiver was only the first servant I devoured. Minos decided to make me a weapon, as it were, or I suppose a punishment. He would send those sentenced to death to my labyrinth. I grew strong off their flesh. 

My mother still secretly visited me, having had the designer of the labyrinth construct a secret passage from the palace to the center of the maze. The tunnel was made too small for me ever to escape through. I'm not sure if that was how she wanted it or if that was the contingency for the designer to build it and not tell Minos. I had accepted my lot in life, so I wasn't looking to escape anyways. 

During my fifteen years, a war had broken out with Athens after my brother Androgeos was murdered. When the war ended a year later, and Minos was victorious, he sought what he felt was retribution for the death of a Prince of Crete. Minos decided that the Athenas would select fourteen young nobles every eight years, seven men, and seven maidens to be sent as a sacrifice. 

Minos made it into a whole event. From my home at the center of the labyrinth, I could hear that aggravating voice of Minos speaking to a crowd just beyond the entrance to my maze. "Welcome to the first Androgeos Festival! Today we commence a two-week-long event of festivities to celebrate the life of my youngest son, Prince Androgeos." Minos declared to the cheers of many. 

"Great. They're going to be posted up out here for two weeks." I grumbled. "Each day, an Athenian tribute will enter the Minotaur's labyrinth! If they can kill the Minotaur, they will win their freedom!" Minos announced to more cheers. I sighed, rolling my eyes. Fantastic, he's going to not only send them in here but send them with the intent to kill me. This won't end well for anyone.

I listened as Minos randomly selected the unfortunate tribute. I don't have anything against these people. They've committed no crimes either. But as the loud rumble of my stomach reminded me, Minos hasn't fed me in over a week, and my mother hasn't been able to bring me any food through the tunnel. 

Turning my head, I look around the space I call home to the bones piled up—nothing left on them to tide me over either. So guess I'll have to kill whoever is sent in if I want to keep living. "Hippophorbas! You shall be the first to brave the Minotaur's labyrinth!" Minos called out the name. Hippophorbas? I've never really known the names of my previous meals. They’ve always been nameless criminals. 

With a grunt, I rose to my hooves and picked up the stone ax I had honed and crafted over the years, the handle made from the femur of a past kill. "May the Goddess Athena protect you!" I heard some citizens shout encouragement. I snorted because the Olympians don't care. Least of all, for the life of some insignificant tribute. Poseidon didn't care about what his curse on my mother would do. He just probably thought it was funny to make her fuck a bull. He probably didn't foresee I would be born. And he certainly has taken no responsibility for it. 

As Hippophorbas stumbled around the maze of my home, my prison, I was closing in on him. I knew every twist and every turn. I even knew where the entrance was. But like the secret tunnel my mother uses, the opening is too small for me, and as an added precaution, a boulder is put to block the way. It didn't take me long to find him. I could smell his fear.

As I turned the corner, ax resting on my shoulder, he screamed. "AHHHH, THE MINOTAUR!!" I stopped myself from rolling my eyes. He looked about my age, though I was already seven feet tall and over three hundred pounds, unlike a human my age. Playing up the monster role I've been given, I let out a loud, angry bellow. Hippophorbas went wide-eyed and tried to scramble back. 

I swung the ax to block him, leaving him only the option to go down a dead-end path. I held back a smile at the irony and predictability. For being from the patron city of the Goddess Athena, goddess of war and knowledge, this twerp isn't very smart or combat-ready. I followed him into the darkened path, ax-grinding along the ground for dramatic effect. I found him quivering in fear against the stone wall. "P...please…please don't kill me…" he stammered. I grunted and swung the ax removing his head. "That's a no." I muttered, heaving his corpse over one shoulder. Lifting my ax in one hand, I grabbed his head with the other and returned to my room at the center of the maze.

Tossing his body onto the stone table, I set to work cleaning and prepping the body. Sure, I could probably eat him clean to the bones right now. But even knowing more fresh meat would be sent my way over the next couple of weeks, I knew better. I need to be innovative. I should preserve and store as much I can for the next time Minos decides to starve me. I had till tomorrow to do this anyways. Then they would send another meal to me. Fourteen meals, if preserved right, would last me quite some time. That is if I kill them all.