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Back hurting from where the minotaur-creature’s horns had stabbed her, Lettie was thrown to the rocky wall of the tunnel. She bounced off the rocks and fell, grazing her hands on the stones below.
Wincing, she tried to jump up.
A hoof stomped on her back, right where she’d been stabbed. The minotaur is playing with me. How long before it tires and eats me alive? Lettie sucked in a breath—and the creature screamed. A harrowing cry that split the air above her head. It overpowered her own scream and echoed through the underground tunnel, terminating in a falling death squeal.
Lettie wiggled, half expecting the creature above her to be dead. No such luck.
Above, music struck up. The Queen’s entourage were dancing. The whirling and celebration that would follow banishment. No, they couldn’t be dancing again, Queen Persephone had said they were fighting for their lives and their forest. What court would be dancing during such a threat?
“Sorry about that.” The creature snuffled and removed its hoof from her shoulders. “I really should introduce myself. I’m Will, Will Burr.”
Lettie blinked into the dark. Pinpoints of light on the ceiling danced to life. Enough to show a vague outline of the creature standing on two legs. It didn’t have a bull’s head, but a pig’s snout with curled tusks on each side. And, if she wasn’t mistaken, it was covered in woolly fur.
“Who.... What....” Lettie stammered out before pointing a finger at the strange creature. “How dare you?”
The glow worms winked out, and they were thrown back into darkness. Suddenly, Lettie remembered she still had her fig-tree stick. She pulled it from her dress, summoning the green light.
“Come on,” Will Burr snorted. “That stick’s too bright. You’re upsetting the glow worms. They don’t like noise or light, but if we speak quietly and don’t move too fast, they should light the way.”
Lettie rolled her eyes, but she staunched the light from the stick and put it away. “You attacked me, and now you’re acting like you think you’re my friend?”
“Sorry,” the creature grunted, not managing to sound the least contrite. “Can’t have the queen think we’re letting people live, or she might stop sending us recruits.”
Maybe it’s concussion. Or I’m dreaming. “What?” Lettie asked, rubbing her head.
“What’s hardly a question. What-what?”
“Uh?”
“Wonders never cease to amaze... You see what I did there? Maze? Amaze?” He shook his head, his tusks scything from side to side. “Never mind. You’re just not ready for it yet. You see, I’m wasted in these tunnels—nobody gets my sense of humour.” Sniff. “I don’t suppose you thought to bring a match? I’ve rather run out. Also, the lack of hands, you see. Or rather you don’t, and I suspect that’s the problem.”
Lettie’s mind spun. She’d imagined all kinds of horrors festering in the dark, but a half-mad pig creature was not one of them. “Yes, that’s all very...funny, but I need to get back to the surface.”
“Everyone says that, at first. And they’re always wrong. Did you know that needing and wanting to go to the surface are two very different things? Unless you need your head removed from your shoulders, of course. You’re not suffering from stone-head or anything, are you?”
“No, what? Of course my head’s not infected with stone blight. Also, Queen Persephone isn’t into chopping off heads, so that would never happen.”
The pig-creature laughed. “That’s hilarious, that is.” He paused. “Oh, you’re not joking. What exactly do you think will happen if you go back?”
Lettie frowned. “I don’t know. Nobody has ever escaped.”
“Ugh, ugh,” little half-choked grunts echoed from the annoying creature. “Updweller nonsense. You run around with your eyes closed and don’t know what’s happening right in front of your noses.”
Lettie’s head was still spinning. Talking to this annoying creature wasn’t exactly what she’d been expecting. She reached out and touched its fur to check that she wasn’t imagining things. It was sparse and coarse. Definitely real.
“Do. You. Mind.” He snorted.
“Not at all,” Lettie smiled. “Um, if you’re all so very nice, how come nobody ever returns from the labyrinth?”
“How do you know they don’t? To be honest, most of us prefer it down here, anyway. It’s much safer, you know.”
“And what about the minotaur?”
“That big softie? A head like a bull. And what do bulls eat? Do you see bulls running about tearing people limb from limb unless they’re being run at with red capes? No, you do not.”
Lettie frowned. “Isn’t he a bit territorial? And isn’t this his territory?”
“That’s why it’s important that you’re introduced. Come on, let’s go find my dad. I think he’s going to like you. You’re funny.”
Lettie sighed and followed the trip trap of the creature’s hooves.
