𝓤𝓷𝓮𝓪𝓼𝔂 𝓵𝓲𝓮𝓼 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓱𝓮𝓪𝓭 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝔀𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓼 𝓪 𝓬𝓻𝓸𝔀𝓷
Their family was destined for greatness, her father would say. How could they not when they had the legacy of the almighty Zeus from his side and of Helios from her mother’s? Looking at her father, she could very well see how he was the son of Zeus. It is unfortunate, though, that her father had inherited the less than desirable traits from Zeus. Maybe she was asking for a little too much. After all: Zeus was never known for his intelligence, was he? Nor was he any decent to begin with. The way she sees it, the universe had to make do with what they can salvage to create a man far more dignified and refined. To that, she thinks that the universe was hoping for a little too much as the end result is utterly disappointing.
For starters, they could have given her father more wits than her grandfather ever possessed. Anybody in their right minds would know better than to play a gamble with the gods. You would think being the son of Zeus, her father would be aware of the power the brothers of Zeus wields. How he has everything to lose challenging or testing a god while a god has everything to gain from anyone who dares defy them. Clearly, her father thought that being the son of Zeus would have been enough to overcome whatever consequence when he made that deal with Poseidon: make him the king of Crete by sending a bull from the depths of the sea and in return, it is promised that the bull would be sacrificed to the sea god.
Her father did not twice to go back on his word with Poseidon as soon as the creature emerges on the shore, keeping the bull and sending a different one instead as a sacrifice once he was crowned king. The punishment of her father’s actions were immediate once Poseidon realises he was taken for a fool. Before she knew it, there was a raging bull running loose on their land, refusing to be tamed by anyone as it went on its rampage with the wranglers following closely to bring it into its pen. Watching a wild animal kicking and ramming its head into those who dare approach it was still an easy sight for her to digest, even with the occasional bruising and blood she sees the wranglers suffer from their attempts of caging the animal in.
What was difficult for her, however, was to witness how her mother fell into a deep, insatiable lust for the bull. Whatever concoctions or rituals that were done in hopes of releasing her mother from the spell she was in proved pointless. Ariadne knew her mother was too far gone to be rescued when it reached to the unthinkable: an architect being brought in to design something that would allow her mother to have intercourse with the bull. It is not an image she would like to imagine her mother in but she has to admit that she was impressed by the mechanics of the contraception once it was done and even more at the fact that it actually works when she sees the loopy smile her mother would wear everytime she would peddle back from the pen.
She knows the lust was caused by Poseidon but sometimes, she wonders if there would come a point either way in the future that her mother would have resorted to extreme lengths such as this one in order to grant herself the pleasure she has been seeking but was never fulfilled despite having the status most women would have dreamed for. It must bruise her father’s pride a little to know that even an animal can make his wife feel more pleasure and joy than he ever could.
So she finds it a perfect insult to the injury when her mother became pregnant by the bull and would later on give birth to a son. A son with a human body and a bull’s head, who would later be well known by the name Minotaur. Her father may have called him an atrocity but to the rest of the family, he was Asterion, the newest son in the family and her half-brother.
“I do not think the people here like me very much.”
Well, the better question would be, is there ever a time where the people in the castle ever approved or liked anyone? Not counting the times they are sucking up to her father and nodding to his every word in hopes of rising the ranks and getting better living conditions, of course. However, she hears the clear resignation in her brother’s voice and knows that this was one of those times where it would be better for her to be serious than to be a jokester.
“People will love you. People will hate you. And none of it will have anything to do with you.”
“Do you not dislike me in the slightest bit?”
“I have no reason to.”
“But I am different.”
“Certainly. It is not every day that you see a boy with an animal’s head and a human’s body. Though, that is still not enough reason for me to find faults with you. The people who do mess with you for being different, they are fools. Cowards. For they are afraid to accept that there is still more about the world that they do not know of or understand, they resort to violence and vulgarities to deal with their insecurities instead of seeing it as opportunities to better understand and connect with the world.”
“Are you not ashamed of me?”
She lets out a snort at that, something she was sure that her etiquette teacher would be lecturing her about for being so unladylike. She could not help it. She thinks it is cute that he would think that she would be ashamed of him when their father exists.
“No. If anyone brings shame to the family, it would be father above anyone else. You are going to have to do a lot, and I do mean a lot, to have me be embarrassed by you. Father has set a high standard for his incompetency. I assure you, you or anyone else would not be dethroning him anytime soon for that.”
She turns her head to see a smile on Asterion’s face. Or at least, what she thinks is a smile. It is rather hard to tell what expressions Asterion has, what with his animal head.
“Thank you.”
“If anyone dares to lay a hand on you or treats you roughly, do let me know. You may have the head of a bull but I am the one who possesses the strength and the stubborness of a bull. It is advisable that people do not mess with you.”
Most especially, their father.
