Becoming Immortal

"Your name is Minos?" I asked confused.

"It was. Before it, along with everything else in my life was stolen from me"

"Tell me how you came to be like this, I wish to understand"

The apparently real Minos stands there covered in chains in silent thought before he responds "If I tell you my story, I wish for you to grant me one request"

"What kind of request?" I question.

"An end to my suffering" Minos states seriously

"You wish to die?"

"Centuries of torture, after you know my tale you will understand why this is a mercy"

Looking down at his depressing figure I see no will left to live in him and so I nod in agreement "I will do it"

Hearing my consent Minos perks up. "Good then make your self comfortable"

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Centuries ago my people protected this land, our native home, from those who wished our people harm. Raiders, rival tribes, and the Cold Ones.

Oh yes, we had quite the amount of experience with your kind. And we destroyed them all.

Certain members of my tribe had been blessed with great power. We called it the Second Beast. The first beast is Man himself, the second was our ability to transform into a mountainous bull.

A colossal beast capable of trampling entire forests, leaving gigantic fissures in ground with every step. Horns able to ravage the Cold Ones and tear them limb from limb.

But the Cold Ones are fast, strong, cunning, their bite venomous, and some with strange and powerful abilities. And so with every battle we had with just a single Cold One, at least three of our own would perish.

Luckily your kind are quite solitary, and so we never encountered more than two at a time. Almost always they were mates, and always when we destroyed one the other would fly into a rage of vengeance. With no regard to their continued existence they would focus only on killing as many of the tribe as they could until we destroyed them.

We were a peaceful people, besides defending our lands we made no war, no reaching out for more territory. We were content with what we had.

We built a safe haven for our people here. A place where we could raise our families.

And then one day we caught the scent of a single Cold One entering our territory. A female. You must understand that every encounter my people have ever had with your kind was one of violence, only ever wanting to kill us and our children.

So when we located her we did not listen to her attempts at conversation, or her claims that she meant no harm to us. We assumed it was a trick, maybe it was.

We attacked and destroyed her, easily. Maybe the easiest we have ever defeated a Cold One with only one death on our side.

I was the one who tore her head from her body and burned the remains. I was the one who caused the destruction of everything we loved.

He came into our territory only hours latter. Slaughtering any human he came across. As a precaution we are always prepared for a second Cold One, but we were not prepared for his power.

Men shifted their forms and turned on each other with no warning or hesitation. Killing their family and lovers.

When he finally appeared there was only a few warriors and a group of ordinary tribesman left, the rest having killed each other.

He questioned us, and we were forced to answer. It was like a voice in my head that I could not ignore.

I latter learned that he possessed a unique power, the ability to control the minds of animals. Those of us capable of the Second Beast transformation had enough animal in us for him to control as he pleases. We were conscious and aware of everything we did while under his control.

From his questioning he learned that I was the one who led the hunting party that killed his mate, and ultimately finished her off.

He took control of me and forced me to kill and eat every warrior of my tribe. Next was my children as my wife watched on, and finally her as well. He dragged this out for weeks.

The taste of my sons flesh in my mouth, the look of fear and betrayal in his eyes, it's something that haunts me to this very day. Something that monster would never let me forget.

He spared the normal members of our tribe, but it was not out of any sense of mercy it was only to further his vengeance.

And so he gathered up the remaining members of this tribe and built a city around this Temple.

This Temple, which is the only thing remaining of those old days.

After a few decades he acquired these chains which bound me. They drain the strength from me and leave me unable to transform.

And so he chained me up here in the Temple, while he led the descendants of my tribe to conqueror the entire Island.

He stole my name and took it for himself. He made a mockery of our gods and religion and preaches it as the truth to people of this land .

He destroyed all knowledge we had on our history and most importantly the Cold Ones.

For centuries I have stayed here watching and hearing everything he has done.

How am I still alive you might ask?

Those among my people with the ability to change are given a type of pseudo immortality.

As long as we regularly change forms we remain unaging.

The man you know as Minos would often force me to change so I would not die of old age.

There was a ceremony that my people performed every nine years, when a group of children would be chosen to serve in the Temple for a certain amount of time.

He took that ceremony and used it to choose children who were then led down here to my prison.

He then used his powers to control me to eat them alive. Children screaming in terror, begging for mercy, calling out for their mothers and fathers. These children who are the only remaining descendants of my tribe.

Their bones then left here surrounding me, reminding me of all my sins.

For centuries this has been my existence.

So I ask of you, though I might not deserve it, grant me mercy and end this hellish existence of mine.

If there is even a little bit of humanity left inside of you. Kill me.

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I stare at the real Minos, a man with nothing left to live for, and I can't truly find it in myself to blame him for my sons death, He was just a tool used by the false Minos.

"The last group of children, you were forced to kill them all?" I asked

"Yes all of them, like every time before." He answers dejectedly.

"There is nothing I can say to change your mind? I can let you free, you can go wherever you want."

"There is nothing left for me, all I want is the peace of death"

Sighing I stare up at the ceiling and all the images of bulls and men. It would have been nice to gain him as an ally of some sort, but I know a lost cause when I see one. If I free him he will just go and kill himself.

I move and I'm behind him with my hands around his head, and with a quick jerk I end his suffering.

I burn his body to ashes and collect the chains that were keeping him bound.

He said these chains drained him of his strength and kept him from shifting. I wonder if it works on vampires or other supernaturals. It will be interesting to find out.

As I race back to where I buried the False Minos I see a large group of wolves and dogs digging at the dirt and stone i which he was buried.

Even as just a head and shoulders he still has his powers it seems.

With a quick flex of my power and the animals are burned to ashes. I quickly dig up Minos and pull him from the ground.

Venom leaking from his neck and spitting out from his snarling mouth, glaring at me with eyes of rage.

"I can smell that beast on you" He growls "Find the bones of your child did you?"

Laughing I look down at whats left of his body held in my hand "You truly don't understand your new position do you? You'll learn soon enough"

As I run back to Zakros with the screaming head of Minos in my one hand and the chains in the other I think about the future of Crete and how I will shape it.