019: Slaves

Five hundred and ten years after Helena

The summer heat was perfect for resting on the grass of the academy, young Asterion was always sleeping under an old willow tree in the school yard, skipping all gymnastike and mousike classes; physical and mental training, both dedicated to mastering combat with weapons and with favors. Not that any of the teachers were bothered by it, practically all of Helena already knew about the child born without any blessing, so resting without disturbing anyone was the boy's first priority. A repetitive sound interrupted the boy sleep, as if someone was eating hard bread that left hundreds of crumbs, Asterion slowly got up to look for the source of the noise, behind the huge willow a minotaur slave was eating some poorly baked cookies, they were probably thrown away because of his malformed shape and he picked them up, he had the mark of the two-headed horse on his forehead and both of his pinkies were missing.

-Mmh!

The bull with his mouth full of cookies was scared when he saw how the other child watched him eat, if they discovered a slave eating the heleny cookies they would punish him and when Asterion saw him there was no option but to try to convince the boy not to give him away. Asterion on his side only observed the small mountain of cookies.

-…

The bull gave him one of the amorphous cookies, offering his resources, Asterion did not even hesitate to take one. Laziness and gluttony would be the perfect descriptions for the child during this time, he ate one cookie after another with the little bull until they were both full and lay down on the grass.

-Come on, come on!

Asterion immediately stood up upon hearing that sound and grabbed the bull by the arm.

-Run!

Small embers and sparks were thrown at Asterion and the bull, the strong abuse the weak, time, race or age do not matter, the boy ran with all his strength through the academy, but one of the projectiles hit his heel, he fell hard against the ground and could not get up quickly, seeing this the bull grabbed him and ran while carrying the boy, the bull was barely five years old, but he was already faster than the two heleny who were chasing them, he entered the library; the enormous room had ten huge bookshelves next to dozens of tables spread between each wall of scrolls, the group hid in the corner furthest from the entrance, hidden by a bookshelf to their right and tables in front.

-Hee hee hee.

Asterion tried to laugh without making noise; It wasn't like there was anything to worry about, the place was empty at this hour, his companion was a bundle of nerves, he tried to shut the other boy mouth but without touching him, since any harm or struggle could lead to punishment. The pursuers entered the place and searched everywhere, they had not yet received any favors, but the basic control of their blessings was enough to be far stronger than a heleny without a star to bless him and a cut-off minotaur.

-Your hands…

Asterion saw the bull hands, with his pinkies cut off, both of them were at the same level, both were scared, they were hiding behind tables and shelves, but as soon as they were found their only destiny would be to suffer a shower of embers and sparks.

-Hey, do you trust me?

The minotaur looked at him confused.

-I have a plan.

Asterion smiled as he thought about his strategy, but he was also shaking, both were afraid of being beaten and mistreated again for no reason, but if their options were to receive the beating quietly or try to do something, fighting was a better option.

The pursuers were slowly searching under each table and behind each shelf, ironically it was their caution that gave Asterion more time to prepare to face them for the first time.

-HERE IT IS!

The minotaur was on one side of one of the giant bookshelves, one bully was running towards him while his companion who found him formed a fireball in his hand, the bull was terrified, he already had the mark of the two-headed horse and if one of the blessings of the heleny hit the mark, no matter how weak or powerful, he would die. When the running boy entered the range of the bookshelf and the other was moving to launch his attack, a single word was heard.

-NOW!

Asterion was on behind the bookshelf and had positioned himself on the opposite side of the bull, both of them pushed the piece of enormous furniture with all their strength, although it was the minotaur who did most of the work, the hundreds of scrolls quickly fell on top of the bullies and both immediately extinguished their blessings, but a few papers caught the fire and while they extinguished the flames, the wooden wall was falling on them, both of them crouched down and put their arms over their faces to receive the impact, but a miscalculation saved them from being crushed, the bookshelf collided with the one in front of it and like dominoes the other bookshelf hit the wall and the first of these was trapped against the other.

-RUN!

Asterion, seeing the failure of his plan, ran against the others to fight hand to hand against them while shouting to his partner to escape, he knew that only one badly thrown blessing was enough to kill his new friend. The pursuers punched and kicked Asterion over and over again, the boy didn't have even half the strength the bullies had and when one of them was preparing a lightning bolt in his hand the minotaur charged at both of them, one with his head and the other with his arm, the impact threw them several feet away from Asterion, the young strategist was badly injured, but could still get up.

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-Your forehead.

“It doesn’t matter” That was the look in the minotaur face.

The thrown children slowly got up, the next assault would soon come, sweat and fear filled the mind and body of the minotaur until he received a light blow on the forehead from Asterion.

-I hope this works.

They were both on a huge pile of scrolls and the child had stuck a thick paper on his forehead with saliva as a kind of shield, the nervousness and fear of the minotaur had vanished with that silly gesture, first because theoretically it should work, it should resist even a spark or an ember, but what calmed the mind of the bull the most, was the silly thought that it was the first time he was happy to have the saliva of a heleny on his forehead.

The bullies pointed with their hands, they were in pain, but furious and would stop charging their attacks, if only one hit the minotaur forehead they would win and the kid without blessing was no threat, seeing how the hands of both lit up red and yellow, Asterion had to think as fast as he could.

-Lift them up!

Asterion had scrolls almost reaching his knees, he began to throw as many into the air as he could, the bull followed immediately, there were hundreds of papers in the air as they retreated and dozens of sparks and embers were launched at them like tiny arrows, most were intercepted by the walls of paper, but those that hit hurt like wasp stings.

-Lower your head.

The minotaur head was hiding behind Asterion body and when they reached the end of the bookshelf they hid once again, this time in the bookshelf that had prevented the one they had pushed from falling, the pursuers quickly ran to their left, the other bookshelf had also fallen and all its scrolls were scattered on the floor, but at the end of the sea of scrolls their prey could not be seen, the boy with sparks in his hands ran through the tunnel, hoping to find his prey at the end of the library, but when he was halfway down the road from the scrolls Asterion emerged, he had hidden himself among the papers and from there he just waited for one of them to run to find them, "They will not burn the scrolls for fear of being punished, I just have to ambush them" was what he thought while he covered himself with the scrolls, when he got up he immediately grabbed both of his opponent's wrists to move his hands away and gave him a strong headbutt, trying to imitate the attack of his new friend.

-NO!

The boy with embers in his hands immediately ran to help his friend, his fist was engulfed in fire and Asterion couldn't take a single more hit, but he wasn't expecting any more.

-NOW!

The bookshelf above them that covered their entire vision was destroyed, the minotaur broke the wood right above the children and fell with all his weight on the boy in the embers, the boy lost his air from the impact and fell against the scrolls, extinguishing their flames immediately, they had been defeated.

-We... We did it, hahahaha!

-Hu... Huhuhu.

Asterion and the minotaur laughed with the little energy they had left and finally relaxed their bodies, even though the boy under the minotaur was still conscious.

- Σφυρί -

Hephaestus first favor, like a cruel joke from the god had just been granted to the boy under the minotaur, this miracle was a tower of fire born from the ground where the blessed one was, he no longer cared about the punishment for burning the scrolls, he only wanted to win, the bull could only look at Asterion, with a sad look in his eyes, if only he had more time he would have managed to cry for the foresight of his own death. Before the end the minotaur looking at Asterion, pointed at himself and said his first and last words.

-Bran.

Five hundred and twenty-four years after Helena (Present)

Asterion was walking down the stairs of the Parthenon plateau while remembering his first friend, Lita was behind him and gave him small hits to make him speed up his pace.

-Are we going down until tomorrow?

-It wouldn't be a bad idea.

-I don't even know where we're going now, the other guy stayed up there.

-We're going to the entrance to look for Laconia, then we'll rest, tomorrow I'll meet you with the slaves who are going to escape and we'll execute the plan.

-Tomorrow? But you told Niko to rest for two days.

-As much as he trusted me, we'll fight against an archon, I don't want to risk his life.

Both reached the base of the plateau, the entrance still had a few bodies of heleny and minotaurs that the hoplites were removing, apparently the attack of the mycenaeans was of a force similar to the one that attacked Skiathos, but they did not even manage to reach the civilians, the ones who actually ended up massacred were the cynocephali that were forced to fight, the dioscuroi always occupy them as the first line of defense, today was no exception.

-Asterion!

Laconia approached the group while Lita covered her nose while looking at the ground, no normal person likes to see corpses, much less if it is of their species.

-The attack force was fifty minotaurs, just like in Skiathos, however they were not accompanied by any Minoan hero like Theseus, this time I am sure, they were sent to die, for some reason the mycenaeans are sending some of their troops to their death, surely one of their tribes rebelled against their queen.

-I understand.

Asterion and Laconia noticed that many slaves around; in charge of cleaning the bodies and blood, many were looking at Lita, a deep color of despair was noticeable in their eyes, they thought that she had been captured, until they saw Asterion face.

-Let's help them, we are going to the usual place.

A few hoplites watched that the slaves did their work, they had some carts where they loaded the bodies to take them to the graves, slaves and enemies did not deserve to be buried with dignity, Laconia quickly filled two carts and carried both with her hands, Asterion directed the course and with a gesture called all the slaves working at the entrance, Lita looked up to watch confused as the group followed the carts, the mass graves were outside Helena to the south, but for some reason the doe knew they were going somewhere else.

-Where are we going?

-There is one last thing I have to show you today.

…

The caravan left through the east gate, to their left the sun was on its way to setting in the sea and at the end of the plain were several ditches used to defend the city, traps that were easy to build and useful for burning bodies, the bottom was full of ashes.

-Is this what you had to show me?

-Miss, trust him.

A cynocephalus slave with the symbol on his cheek and his canine face, took Lita shoulder, it seems that they thought she was a new and personal slave of the polemarch.

There was a path to go down, it seemed quite used and Laconia carried the carts over the ashes, below there was a hidden tunnel.

-What is all this?

-It's not a big deal, it's just a cemetery that we built.

-You?

-Me and a few slaves, a catacomb for minotaurs and cynocephali to rest in.

The catacomb was ridiculously large, whenever they built this, it must have been years of work.

-Why?

Laconia left the wagons in the middle and the cynocephali began digging the graves, not only for their brothers but also for the fallen minotaurs.

-This plan, it's been a project of several years. You know? You don't know how hard I've worked and how happy I am to finally finish this story.

…

A sharp strike from the bull against the boy under his feet managed to knock him out, but the flames covered him completely, Asterion fell on his knees against the scrolls which were slowly burning, he lost his first friend just minutes after meeting him, that's what he thought until he saw surprised how the minotaur grabbed his face and arms, he ran through his body totally confused that he was still alive, whether it was because of something in the scroll or by pure luck, it didn't matter for the moment, Asterion ran to hug his friend, both immediately burst into tears.

-You're alive, Bran, you're alive!

The bull stood up and helped Asterion up.

-You...

-Me?

-Name.

A smile from ear to ear, probably the biggest he had ever created in his life, filled the face of the future polemarch, his first "victory." He only needed luck, something the boy had lacked all his life, and his first friend, something he needed all his life.