Legend XXXVIII – The Legend of the Minotaur

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Deep in the heart of the Labyrinth of Oramar, where the air tasted of ancient dust and forgotten prayers, lived a creature that people spoke of only in whispered half-sentences: the Minotaur. But the truth was older than their fear, older than the stones of the Labyrinth itself. It was said that he was not born a monster, but a child who received the curse summoned by a king who believed that power could cheat fate. This child, named Arinthus, was once a quiet boy with wide, dark eyes that reflected the world like a still lake. But when he reached the age of twelve, everything changed: horns sprouted from his forehead, his arms grew wider, and his heart beat to the rhythm of an alien destiny. People feared him even before they understood what he had lost. They hunted him with torches and iron-tipped sticks, and Arinthos, desperate, trapped between the mind of a boy and the body of a beast, fled into the labyrinth the king had built—a structure of endless passages that never knew sleep. Years passed. People called him the Minotaur and told their stories of him, each more gruesome than the last. But no one saw Arinthos step out of the shadows at night to touch the cracks in the ancient walls, as if clinging to the pain of the stones, for it made him feel less alone than the silence of his own thoughts. He rarely spoke anymore, yet his heart spoke words with every breath that no one heard. One evening, as the moon hung like a silver crescent over the entrance to the labyrinth, a girl named Selene entered the tangled structure. She sought not fame, nor treasure—she sought her sister, who had vanished within its passages. And as her footsteps echoed like gentle chimes, Arinthos heard them. He followed the sound, not as a hunter, but like someone yearning for a voice that wouldn't curse him. When Selene finally saw him, she paused, but she didn't back down. Her eyes were like sparkling shards of moonlight, free from fear, as if they could see through his form the truth he himself barely knew anymore. "Will you kill me?" she asked. Arinthos slowly shook his head. "No," he answered in a voice that sounded more like wind through ancient passages than words. "I don't kill." "Then help me find her," Selene begged. And Arinthos, who had never been asked for anything before, wanted to give something to someone for the first time. Together they wandered through the labyrinth, past stone pillars that jutted from the darkness like broken shoulders, and up staircases that led into forgotten depths. Arinthos led them safely, as if the labyrinth itself were following him. At last they found Selene's sister, exhausted but alive, at a crossroads that looked like an open mouth. Selene took her hand, and for a moment a quiet peace settled over the three of them, like a gentle breeze touching time itself. "Come with us," Selene said.