Theseus and the Minotaur: A Novel

Hey!  This is a novel I am currently writing.  We all know about the Greek tale of Theseus and the Minotaur where a prince goes on an island as a tribute (Suzanne Collins was very clever with this and the gladiators!) to be sacrificed to a wretched creature: the Minotaur.  Theseus ends up killing the beast, and going home wit Ariadne.  In History, I learned more about this and the island it takes place on: Crete.

In Crete they did something called bull jumping, and with this I created a story about a young girl named Thaleia who becomes a bull jumper and when she is older falls in love with Theseus and helps him out of the maze.

It's unedited and it was very hard to write the beginning and might not make to much sense, but enjoy!  

-Madeline

The

Minotaur

A Novel of Theseus and the Minotaur

Chapter One

I couldn’t show my fear.  I couldn’t show how my legs were shaking, how the sweat was pouring down my face.  It would be shameful to do so.  But I was nervous.  This wasn’t a bad thing; if you were completely confident Master Cleon would slap you on the head with his palm and tell you you would die the moment you entered the arena.

But even though I was nervous, I was also leaping for joy.  After years of training to flip and twirl off small animals and doing complicated twists in the air, I was ready for what every child in Crete dreamed of: to be a bull jumper.

Two other youths were waiting to go into the arena with me.  Adelphe was standing tall but was clutching her stomach; Aetios was crouching down low, his dark hair falling in his eyes.  Like me they were both dressed in loose tunics, with nothing on our feet.

Adelphe glanced my way and gave me a tight smile.  “You’ll be fine, Thaleia.  You’re first bull jumping is always the scariest, but nothing will happen to you.”

I gave a slight nod.  This was my first bull jumping.  I had practiced on sheep when I was a child and for the past year off of gentle cows, but this was different.  Not only was I coming a few months earlier into the arena for one my age, this was the ceremony of the gods; the beginning of the new year.  We were one of the first acts, followed by more advanced jumpers, but it was still an honor.  But I had seen the beast we would be jumping off of.  A huge bull with long ivory horns and huge muscles rippling under shiny black hair.

In the arena, three children were currently leaping off gentle cows, twirling in the air.  That was what I was doing last year.  Then they finished, and all

too soon it was our turn.  “You’ll do fine,” whispered Adelphe, giving me a hug.

Aetios smiled up at me from where he was drawing in the dirt with his finger.  “If you do half as well as you did last night during practice, you should be great.”

Then the conch horn blew, and they were shouting our names.  I was sure my stomach was full of butterflies, and I whispered a hurried prayer to the gods to protect me and keep me safe while still giving a splendid performance.

We all ran into the huge arena.  It was in a huge circle, and my fellow Cretans were in the stand, cheering and shouting.  They wore brilliant colors that dazzled the eyes, and their dark eyes shone with delight.

While Adelphe and Aetios cartwheeled off to the side, I took a running leap.  I twirled twice through the air like I did so many times and then landed on my hands, using my weight to pull me back on my feet.  The crowd roared with approval.  I smiled and then did two more of these.  My last twirl was a giant running start and the doing a flip in the air and landing on Aetios‘ back, holding myself up with my arms.  Everyone screamed, and I beamed.  If this was what a bull jumper did, I loved shining in the spotlight!

I jumped off his back and we ran to our correct positions in the arena.  Then, the crowd screamed as one.  The huge wooden gate where the animal was kept was suddenly thrown open.  The bull stumbled into the clearing, and my stomach knotted in fear once more.  He was bigger than I remembered.  There was nothing to stop him from him killing me.  His huge ivory horns were covered in gold bracelets, his cloven hooves raked up the dust of the arena.  His eyes were dark and angry, and then he snorted and charged toward Aetios.  I wanted to scream, but restrained myself.  My friend would be torn to shreds with those horns!

This was every bull jumpers fear, the moment when the bull you were jumping could kill you or you could jump and break your neck or bone, or worse.  But that was the dangerous thrill of the sport.

Aetios stood his ground as the bull charged toward him, and at the last second he took a leap.  The horns almost caught his tunic but Aetios safely landed behind the creature, rolling skillfully to the ground.  The crowd cheered.

The beast wheeled around to try and chase Aetios, but Adelphe began to do cartwheels while shouting, to get the beasts attention.  She did the same thing that Aetios did, and the crowd roared again.

Then it was my turn.  The beast charged toward me, and I stood my ground.  And then at the last second I jumped into the air.  I clenched my hands around the ivory horns, pulling my body up into the air.  The crowd screamed and whistled.  The bull then threw his head and I let go, landing behind him on my feet.  Sweat poured down my body, but I was grinning.  That was amazing!  My first bull jump ever!  I bowed and waved cheekily to the crowd, and they laughed.

I then turned around.  The bull was chasing Aetios again, who was sprinting.  Adelphe and I made our way toward him.  As Aetios ran right in front of the bull, she and I cartwheeled in front of him as well.  The creature was confused who to chase!

He chose me again, and I sprinted along the wall as the crowd laughed.  I stayed right in front of him to cause the crowd to laugh in fear, but far away so I wouldn’t be killed.  Aetios joined me and we danced to the side.  We did flips again and my stomach tightened again, but I landed safely.

For the last act I grabbed the bull’s horns again but landed on his back, standing.  It reeled to the side and I almost lost my footing, but I grabbed onto his horns.  He charged madly around, but then here it was: in a split second Aetios and Adelphe did a handstand on the bull before falling off.  I did as well, and as the crowd madly cheered the three of us raced toward the safety of the wall.

I jumped up with Adelphe, and with her help pulled Aetios safely, his legs narrowly missing the bull’s horns.  In a sweaty heap we all cheered and laughed and hugged each other.  We had all survived!

Our trainer appeared out of nowhere, beaming.  Grabbing our hands we danced in a silly circle and Master Cleon gave us all firm hugs.  We had done it!  We were now true bull jumpers.  In the few moments it took for some workers to get the bull out of the arena, we ran back out.

The crowd madly cheered, and I bowed.  They then began to throw roses and necklaces of seashells, and I smiled as I picked them up.  To please them again, in unison we took a running start once more, did a flip, landed on our hands at the same time, before finally landing on our feet.

And then we bowed low to our king.  He was an older man, but still was strong and lean.  His pepper-gray hair was streaked with white, and he had cold eyes.  He was dressed in finery as he sat on his bejeweled throne, eating fine treats and sipping from golden cups.  Beside him was his daughter.  She was dressed in the finest clothing, golden bracelets and precious stones on her arms.  She was so beautiful, with her thick brown curls and beautiful green eyes, and a flawless expression.  Aridane was three years older than I was, reaching the end of her childhood at twelve.  She smiled at me, and King Minos nodded.  Adelphe and I smiled, and I noticed that Princess Aridane eyes lingered on Aetios.  

We then walked respectfully away, waving and smiling at the crowds.  In the darkness of the tunnel we laughed.  “We did it!  We did it!” cheered Aetios.

“You did amazing!” said Adelphe, giving me a hug.

I sighed, happy to be out of the arena, but waiting excitedly for the day I would go and jump over a bull again.

Was it good, bad? Leave it in the comments! If I get one, I shall dedicated the next part to that commenter! :)

-Madeline

Popstar Love 2

Oh my goodness! I'm so evil. I haven't posted in forever! Grr!! Well, here is more of Popstar Love. I have been writing a TON but not on this. :)

Anyway, enjoy! :)

And any band names would be awesome! Thanks!

-Madeline

As Taylor told me about Cash, I glared at the road.  How dare he do that to my best friend!  Looking at my face, Taylor laughed as she usually did when she was nervous.  “Alright Dani, let’s turn on the radio again.”

She turned it on, and we sang to the familiar lyrics, until a new song came up.  It was the huge one, the one that kids would sing all the time and drive everyone crazy.  The lyrics were amazing and the voices were great at singing.  When the song ended I stared at Taylor in shock.  “They...they sounded better than Tyler Rush!” I cried.

She laughed.  “I know!”

“They were boys, right?”

“Oh yeah.  And they are so cute!” squealed Taylor excitedly.  “They’re called One Direction, and there are five boys that are the cutest!”

I grinned.  “Lemme look them up!” I dug into my purse and grabbed my iPhone.  I tried to look them up on Safari, but sadly there was no internet.  “Dang!  There’s no internet,” I said, putting it back.

“Oh, well.  They are super cute.  Ooh!  Look!  There’s the airport!” said Taylor.  She suddenly got off the highway and we went to the airport, trying to find a parking spot.  But there was no need.  Standing in front of the airport with all her bags and boxes was Evangeline Jones.

We both squealed and I jumped out of the car giving her a huge hug.  “Evangeline!” I cried.  

“Hey, Dani!” said Evangeline, putting her back on the ground.

I stood back and looked at her.  She was dressed stylishly as always, probably even wearing one of her own clothing.  Out of us all, Evangeline was the one that loved to shop for clothing and would wear fancy stuff, wearing the best clothes.  She had been working in Chicago for a year now with a fashion designer, and she loved her job designing clothes.  Out of the three of us, Evangeline was the shortest and the most delicate looking.  She had beautiful dark hair and big soulful hazel eyes and perfect skin.  But when I looked into her face, I saw weariness and bags, and her eyes looked a little red.  Taylor wasn’t joking, she was still sobbing over the loss of her boyfriend of three years.

“Evie!!” squealed Taylor.  She jumped out of the car and tackled Evangeline, giving her a huge hug.

“Hey Taylor!” said Evangeline with a laugh.  I began to pick up all of Eve’s bags and put it in the trunk.  While the other girls helped.  In no time we were once more on the road.  Evangeline sat in the back as we all laughed and talked about all the things we were going to do.

After a few hours of singing ourselves hoarse and running low on water and chips and other snacks faithful Evangeline bought, we pulled over at a gas station.  We raced each other to the restroom, and I was grateful after the long car ride.

While Evangeline bought some more snacks, I went over by Taylor, who was filling up the gas tank.  As we chit-chatted, a pickup truck with a huge trailer and an awesome Suburban pulled in, followed by an awesome motorcycle.  “Gosh, are they moving?” I joked.

Taylor shrugged.  The doors opened, and out came the passengers, the motorcycle squealing up to fill up.  There were five boys, and they were all very handsome--the kind of kids you find at the jock’s table or those ‘boy-bands’ they talk about on tv.  They all joked and laughed and nudged each other excitedly, the one with the dark hair that had rode the motorcycle went inside, followed by one with curly hair.

The other three boys were filling up their tanks, and Taylor and I stared transfixed.

“Are they cuter than Tyler Rush?” I whispered.

Taylor shrugged.  “I dunno, but I wanna meet them!” she said.  I grabbed her arm and rolled my eyes with a laugh.  

“Ah, Taylor, a little too boy crazy are we?” I said.

Taylor blushed.  She suddenly took a step toward me and whispered in my ear.  “The super cute blonde one is watching you.”

I turned around and saw indeed one of them was watching me.  He had thick, wavy sandy blonde hair and a perfect athletic build, and I blushed.  He, too, looked away quickly when he saw I noticed.

Just then Evangeline came out, her arms full of goodies.  I immediately went to help her, and then we all got in the car.  Taylor blared on the radio, and my favorite song came up by Tyler Rush.

We all began to scream the lyrics, and I laughed as we pulled out.  I stuck my head out the window, and the three boys were staring at me.  I grinned, and waved at them cheekily, and they laughed and waved back.

“I want, I want, I want, but that’s crazy!  I want, I want, I wanted to be loved by you!” we sang.

After a few more songs came on, the same song that was sung by One Direction came on, and Taylor and I laughed as we tried to sing the lyrics.  “Oh!  Hey, Evie, do you have internet?” I asked.  “I wanna see a picture of them!”

Evangeline was silent, and Taylor was focused on the road, trying to figure out where we were.  I turned around, and looked at the back seat.  Evangeline was holding her iPhone.  She was trying to breathe, and her mascara was running down her face with tears.

“Evangeline?” I whispered, touching her arm.

She looked up, her hazel eyes full of sadness.  “Evie, what’s wrong?” I asked.

She sniffed.  “I...I...Cash...Cash want’s me back,” she whispered.

I stared at her, and glanced at Taylor.  For once, Taylor looked angry as she gripped the steering wheel.  “What?  Why?”

She shrugged.  “He...he just texted me and…”

I snatched the phone away though she tried to take it back, but I ignored her.  The jerk had indeed text her, and it wasn’t a long one:

Ev, i wantcha back. luv ya, babe. xoxo

He could at least learn grammar and how to spell, I thought darkly.

“Danielle!  Give it back!” cried Evangeline.

I ignored her, and quickly texted him back.  It wasn’t a nice one, and I gave him a good yelling, but I was proud.  He wouldn’t dare text her back.

“What did you do?” moaned Evangeline as I handed it back to her.

“I told him that he is the biggest jerk for dumping the sweetest girl ever, and that she is partying at the Sand Dune Beaches having the time of her life with her best friends and if he texts you again I am going to come and personally hunt him down,” I said.

Evangeline laughed through her tears.  “Thanks, Dani.  And Taylor.  This vacation is just what we need--free of boys and nights of constant partying.”

“That’s right!” I said, and Taylor rolled down the windows, the wind blowing back our hair.