We fell into a hole by the courtesy of Ijan. We crashed on something hard like concrete, unlike the soil of the forest floor. Ijan got up, rubbing his head from the fall, and I followed him. I was so mad at him, but I wasn’t about to lose my cool in the middle of nowhere.
He took out a flashlight from his bag and tried to turn it on, just to see its batteries had died. Sadly, he did not have another one. I then tried my holo-com, but its battery was also dead. “Urgh, my holo-com just died. Ijan, could you try your Lunar-staff?” She asked. “I am incapable of illuminating my Lunar-staff for its works by the virtue of reflection, not radiation.” He responded, leaving me confused and angrier. Can he even speak normally?
But then Ijan seemed to have got a crafty idea. He pulled out a bunch of dried sticks he’d collected, tied them with some twine and intertwined some dried leaves into it like how people do it in those DIY videos- oh, I love them. Then he took out some matches and burned it, making a makeshift torch, and if he decides to post videos of him doing crafty things, I would definitely watch them, that is if he knows how to post a video. The flame illuminated the area to reveal a long passageway with some sculpted designs on the walls. I looked carefully at the walls, and I knew exactly where we were. We were in the Labyrinth built by the ancient Fýsik master builder Daedalus. It was once used to contain the Minotaur, which was killed by Theseus, a Fýsik demigod (yes, we have the same things on earth too). “I think the centre of the Labyrinth could lead us back into the wood.” I assumed. Ijan just nodded in response, a classic Ijanian response, which made me madder at him.
We followed the path until we came up to a cross section. I was trying to guess which one they must use while Ijan said, “I know a spell which could help us.” “Then use it,” I responded, annoyed at his lack of common sense. So, he gave the torch to me and took out his lunar staff. Then I the light of the flame, he chanted, “Iizhar-alhaqiqa”, and the flame's light reflected from the staff and shone on the left passage. He did that at every fork in the Labyrinth as they came closer and closer to the centre. The Labyrinth was humid and wet. The ceiling was just compressed mud, allowing water to seep in. It had multiple twisting passages that led to more twisting passages. At every twist, there was a skeleton or two showing some people did not escape, which creeped me out. It had a faint smell of rotting flesh in the atmosphere, which also felt suffocating. As we reached the centre, we saw it was a huge chamber and to the side lay the corpse of the Minotaur. The walls depicted the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur.
The Minotaur was born from a curse when King Minos refused to sacrifice the bull that the god of the seas, Poseidon, gave him, so Poseidon cursed Minos with some weird stuff and the Minotaur was born. To confine it, Daedalus built the Labyrinth. Later on, Theseus went along with the seven young men and women who were to be sacrificed to the Minotaur. However, he slew the Minotaur and escaped the Labyrinth with the help of the magical ball of yarn Ariadne gave him; he found his way out. (Note from the author: This story took place before the destruction and then revival of magic, basically before the Migican era that is B.M.E like how we have B.C.E. This was a time when magic was primitive and very unorganised, so usually the names of the people won’t mean something related to the magical source.)
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Ok, back to the present. The chamber's floors had ancient Fýsik ruins. I knelt to read them, “Mmmh, I think this is a spell one could use to summon the portal which would take us out of here. I think they would have made this later on as many people would get trapped here.” I said as I looked at them. As I was about to read it, a dark red light emitted from behind. As we turned to look, we saw the Minotaur alive! Crud, this day couldn’t get worse.
The Minotaur, with its head of a bull and the body of a human, stood up. It was huge, imposing over us. Its eyes glowed red. Puffs of steam came out of its nose as it looked down at us with rage. It looked as if it could smash us without breaking a sweat.
For a few seconds there was silence, then the Minotaur lifted its leg over us, and it was about to step over us. Oh, I am too young to die, but I thought just then Ijan created a shield over us with the help of his lunar staff, which pushed the Minotaur back with the same force it used on the shield. Ijan turned to me and said, “Evanthia, we are in an immediate exigency for a force to vanquish this monstrous being. Discover such a force in an immediate effect, for I am incapable of sustaining this forcefield for long.” Kill this monster; that’s what Ijan thinks about that poor being. I got angrier and angrier at him by the second today. So I said, “No, we cannot possibly kill it. It's also a thing with feelings.” Ijan stared at her and said, “Evanthia, this is a deceased being deficient of a soul.” Everything has a soul, and if Ijan wants to kill everything and everyone, then let him, but I won’t like it.
As this was happening, the Minotaur got up and was going to hit the shield for the second time and was pushed back again; however, the shield cracked and shifted slightly as Ijan tried to push back. As the Minotaur got up again, Ijan had an idea. “Evanthia, employ the brushwood from my satchel and weave them to the form of a copious twine.” I, confused, asked, “What do you mean by satchel?” The Minotaur came closer and closer. Ijan, frustrated, said, “In lea-human’s term bag.” “Ohhh,” I responded sarcastically, for he could have avoided repeating what he said by speaking normally. But I did as he said. As the Minotaur hit the shield again, it broke as it fell back.
Ijan hooked his staff to his back and took the rope and torch from me. He then covered one end of it with a piece of the hide of the deer, which I don’t know where he got that from, and then burnt the other tip of it with the torch. He held the covered end, and as the Minotaur charged at him, he used the burning rope and whipped it, entangling the Minotaur with it. As the flames weakened its skin, Ijan took his handgun and rapidly shot at it, and in some time the same red light shone, and what was left were its corpses.
I stood numb with fear at all of this. I was angry at Ijan for what he did; how could a person murder something without grimacing? Ijan placed his gun back into his pocket and turned back to me. I then read out the ruins, “Dóste mia diafygí apó aftón ton Lavýrintho”, and suddenly the ground shook beneath them, and a staircase emerged from the walls. We took it, and they reached the surface, which revealed a less dense part of the woods. We came to know it was nighttime as they could now see the sky. Out of relief, Ijan knelt on the grass and said something in Qamariyyah, which I did not understand.
(Ijan said that he was never so relieved to see the moon in his life before (in Qamariyyah, this is not a direct translation))