The Taur
Thought it was time to put up another story...
*smiles...
enjoy...
V.
The Taur
by
Vixyy Fox
"Oh coooolllll... where did you get him?"
The beast snorted and looked away. He'd been stuffed into the closet as if he were nothing more than a discarded child's toy; though unlike a toy he wore a loin cloth and for good reason.
"Grandpa was reading me this ancient Geek fable, and I thought it would be really neat to find one... so I did. His name is Arius."
"Greek," the Minotaur muttered to himself, "And it was history not a fable. How I hate children."
"Just like that?" the little girl asked her brother. Hands upon hips she gave her brother the 'Medusa's stare' which all women are born knowing how to give. "Bobbyyyyy..."
"It's true," he swore, "I did like that King Minos in the Geek story and petitioned Poison for a bull guy. He showed me what to do in a dream."
"It was the god Poseidon not Poison, and the bull presented to Minos was my father; not me. Are we done here?" The beast asked this softly fixing the children in front of him with a heartfelt 'game face'. "Now that I am back, I have enemies to kill, cities to raze, an entire world to get even with; I am a Taur warrior, not a plaything."
Cara drew in a breath, stuffing her small hands in her mouth. "He talks?" she whispered in true wonderment.
"Of course he talks. If he couldn't talk how would I know his name?"
"She's going to call you 'Smarty Pants'," the Bull told him. His shoulders were wedged tight against the drywall of the closet, his axe upright between his legs. Flexing his muscles, his right elbow pushed through the flimsy material with a dry crunching sound.
"You're such a smarty pants!" Cara hissed. Then she looked at the Bull man. "How'd you know that?"
"I too have a sister, but she has huge utters, unlike you..."
He stopped when she came forward and kicked him in the shin. "That's not nice!" she yelled at him.
With a slight 'mumph', the huge Minotaur held back his surprise and any expression of pain.
Looking sideways at her brother, Cara asked, "What are utters?"
"Search me. Long hair maybe?"
Cara kicked Arius again in the other shin. "I can't help it if my hair is short!"
With another 'mumph' the Bull's body tightened even more and the other side of the closet crumpled. Reaching out one massive hand he made to grab the little girl by the head but was stopped by the sound of thunder outside the house.
Arius looked skyward and bellowed, "THAT'S NOT FAIR!"
"Who's he talking to?" Cara whispered to her brother.
"Grandpa said the Big Guy Upstairs controls things... maybe that's who it is."
"It is Poseidon," the Bull answered, "I am commanded to be nice. I am to stay for but a short time and then I can go back to the pages of history."
"Be nice?" Bobby asked.
"I used to eat children like you, and I was about to... well... to eat your sister."
"Ewwweeee..." both children cried out in unison.
"It's all right," the Bull man told them. "As much as I might like to do what I used to do, I am not allowed. I have been informed it would be bad form to do again what finalized my death so long ago."
"Bobby, Cara," called a voice from downstairs, "Time for lunch. Wash up and come down."
"Oh great," Bobby whispered, "What are we going to do with..." he nodded to his new friend.
"I too am hungry," Arius rumbled. "Since I am your guest you are required to feed me. I wonder what she serves."
"Peanut butter sandwiches and tomato soup," their mother called to them as if hearig the conversation.
Cara shrugged her shoulders. "Mom usually makes more than enough but I think he'd better leave his axe here."
Bobby poked his head around the corner from the dining room. "Mom?"
"Yes?"
Her back was to him so he didn't have to maintain his innocent look and that was just fine. "Can I have a friend over for lunch?"
"I suppose so. Is it someone I know?" She said this bending over and looking into the oven.
"Wondrous Deianira's backside!" Arius exclaimed as he peeked around the corner too. Where Bobby and Cara's heads were below his own and close to the floor, his nearly hit the ceiling and he had to be very careful with his horns. He blinked and then said, "I am still in love with the woman I lost eons and eons ago. Such round perfection is so... so... moo-ving."
Cara looked upwards and gave him 'the look', where upon he smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "I'm sorry little Miss Rug Muncher but I was compelled," he explained.
Reaching up she gripped the end of his loin cloth. "Don't make me be mean," she hiss whispered at him.
Hearing a full grown man's voice, Darla stood and turned. She blinked and then giggled, thinking her children had dragged the old moose head from the attic. Giving a curtsy, and remembering her father's lessons in Greek Mythology 101 she told him, "Why my love Achelous, I only bath in the river hoping for your affections. Would you like some tomato soup?"
Stepping full into the room, Arius responded, "I would love some tomato soup. That is sex is it not?"
Cara, stepped forward, grabbed onto his loincloth and then gave it a forceful yank downwards, where upon her mother's eyes rolled up into her head and she fainted dead away.
"Oh great," Bobby managed as he rounded the corner; moving to his mother's side. "You can bet we're going to get a bad spanking for this one."
"And rightfully so," the Bull man said, snatching back his loin cloth. Tying it back around his waist, he stuck his tongue out at the little girl.
She in turn did the same.
Arias made a horrible child eating face at her.
She stuck her fingers in her mouth pulling her lips wide while sticking her tongue out and waggling it all around at him.
Placing a finger on her forehead, he pushed her backwards. "Face freeze!"
Instantly Cara's features froze in the hideous manner they were in and she squealed and stomped her foot, saying something that sounded a bit like 'not fair'. She repeated this several times over but the Bull ignored her, turning instead to their mother. Brushing Bobby aside, he easily picked her up from the floor and moved her to the couch in the family room which adjoined the kitchen. Kissing her lightly on the cheek, he stood and promptly had his horns plugged deep into the ceiling.
"It would seem your dwelling is not made for my size," he muttered.
Having followed him into the family room after snagging two peanut butter sandwiches, Bobby handed one to Arias and then sat on the couch next to his mother. "This is a peanut butter sandwich," he said, taking a bite. "It's good, you should try it."
The Bull did so and nodded his head as he chewed. "It is good."
"So this happens to you often?" the boy asked nodding to his mother.
The Bull sighed. "Yes. It got so bad when I was alive that I was banished to a huge maze and was killed there by a lad about your age."
"Ahg u gig ack," Cara managed, kicking him again in the shin.
"And it will stay like that until you learn to behave yourself," Arias told her, "I might not be able to eat you, but I still have a few tricks learned over the eons in Hades' realm. So just you keep kicking me and see how long you look like a troll."
Bobby laughed and her eyes told him what she would do to him if he laughed again.
"You can't tell Mom on me cuz she's asleep," he told her around a mouthful of sandwich.
"Fainted," the Bull told him, "There is a difference. I'm guessing from the smell of things tomato soup is not sex and you'd better take it off of the fire."
With a concerted effort, he pulled his head down and his horns out of the ceiling. A large chunk of plaster came with the effort and made a mess on the floor, which he seemed not to notice. With a little difficulty he sat on the edge of the sofa while Bobby was away to the kitchen taking care of the soup.
"Ahg u gig gack guk?"
"Oh yes, she will awake in due course. It does seem to be the bane of my existence. Do you know how hard it is to woo a female when they always seem to faint away at the mere sight of you? Of course you don't. Rest assured it's much easier to charge an enemy hoard with an axe. Some of them swoon too, but for different reasons."
Bobby came back with more sandwiches and handed one to his sister as well as the Minotaur.
"Thank you... these are quite good."
"Ug gucka bluck!" Cara complained, holding up the sandwich.
Bobby looked at the Bull man who relented and touched the little girl on the forehead again; where upon her face unfroze. "Learn a lesson," he told her, "And be grateful. Many just like you were readily eaten much like this sandwich. You do remind me much of mu half sister Ariadne. She helped young Theseus slay me."
"You're not nice!" she yelled as soon as her face was back to normal.
"And neither are you," the Bull countered.
"They had funny names," she countered.
"And by their standards, so do you," her Grandfather told her with a thump of the book he'd been reading from. "Now I am tired, and must retire to my bedroom for a nap. I believe your mother will be calling you shortly for lunch. If you wish, we can continue the story this afternoon."
Both children nodded their heads in agreement. The way Grandpa told a story was much better than watching some lame cartoon on television.
As soon as the old man had left the room, Bobby held his finger up to his lips and quietly crept to the closet. Opening the door, he looked up at the huge Bull man stuffed into its smallness. His shoulders were wedged tight against the clapboard walls.
"Is it clear to come out now?" he whispered. "It is very uncomfortable in here."
"Not yet," Bobby whispered back, "Gramps isn't asleep yet. I'll let you know." With that he closed the door again.
The Bull's eyes had just adjusted again to the darkness when the door was yanked open and he was looking down at the small form of a little girl. "What?" he asked.
"Keep your filthy hands off my mother... or else..." she told him. The door was then slammed quite forcefully.
"Oh father Poseidon," the Bull man muttered, "Is it any wonder that I ate children?"
Outside there came a distant rumble of thunder that sounded very much like laughter.