Ariadne and the Tales of Heroes

"What if we live in a world where the fairy tales were real?"

"Then, this world would be much bigger than I ever realize."

"Then it is up to you to accept those beliefs and questions," she added. "You may if you want to return to your army and continue living your life. You would then most likely never see us again after this. Or you can keep going down the rabbit hole."

"I always hear that quote; I never knew what it meant, though."

Daiyu smiled. "Trust me, Alice and Wonderland is a good story. That is where the quote comes from. It means to keep going in one direction regardless of the consequences."

Sárkány slapped his head, "Oh, poor Alice. I should have caught her before she fell into that hole! Good thing she was able to climb out." He shook his head and looked at the ground in shame.

Toha was genuinely curious "I don't have anything better to do than this anyway. I have been in the army for a month. They keep sending me on scouting missions, and I almost keep getting killed. I have a feeling that I won't be really be remembered as a hero in the far future anyway. I fight to help ensure that Native Americans will become citizens. I don't know... I guess, for now, I will see what is happening."

One of Daiyu's eyebrows rose. "Well, you might have to decide if you are coming with us or not soon. We will only be here for so long. This is a warzone, after all."

"You don't live here?"

Daiyu laughed, "Toha, I wish I could...we live in a time of searching. We help others where we can, try to find...well, we get sent on missions all around the Earth."

Ariadne was near the end of the block as she was using her magic to feel for whatever she was looking for. She was getting no luck. Daiyu turned to look at her and shook her head.

Daiyu looked disappointed. "Well, we knew that we might not find it here. With all the fighting and destruction, it is confusing our ability to find it. This war is stirring the mana flow heavily."

"Mana?" Toha asked.

"It is the energy of all of us. Our Chi if you want to look at it from my homeland or at least one of them. Mana is our ability to cast spells, channel teleports, control the weather, maintain a shape, do miraculous things, and a lot of other fun stuff." She sighed, "I wish I could cast spells, but thanks to a certain mythical traveler, I ended up getting the ability to use certain magical gadgets and still serve as a guide in some ways. I try to keep myself useful."

"You are always a great service to us, my lady. I am always happy to have you with us," Sárkány replied.

"I know, my love. It's hard for me to fight other deities, creatures, or something that way beyond human intervention. As a mortal, it makes things hard to fight at all. I do have some tricks of the trade to help out, but..."

"My sword is always yours, my lady."

"Oh...I already know...both swords," she said with a smile and a wink.

Toha didn't get it. He looked at Ariadne as she started to head back to the group.

Daiyu shook her head "I knew we weren't going to find it. We might never find all of them."

Toha noted, "It must be important what you are looking for."

"It most certainly is. Everyone is searching for them. Us and any other group out there."

He went and tried to think. A thought occurred to him.

Toha yelled to Ariadne, "Hey, did you try to check some of the other areas of town!? They might have an underground wine cellar or some hidden place here in town."

Ariadne put her hands to her hips as she thought about it. Her gaze then refocused on Toha. She nodded as she began to walk by the houses in search of anything that she was looking for.

"What did she lose that is so important?" Toha asked.

"We will explain it later when we have the time to explain it."

"Might be better to le..." Toha's voice stopped as he looked eastward downs the road. He saw something was in the distance, but it was tough to see from the range. Both Daiyu and Sárkány turned their gaze to look at what he saw.

It was still too hard to see what it was. What he did tell was that it was a medium-size wagon or something with several people walking beside it. Beside them were German soldiers.

"Damn! We have a company heading our way!" Toha yelled. He looked at the ground below him. "Ok, I will try to distract them while you try to get away from them."

Before he could step forward much further, Daiyu's hand halted his movement as she grabbed his shoulder. She looked at him with a smile. Sárkány, in turn, got in front of both of them like he was trying to shield both of them.

"Don't worry about it, Toha..."

Toha could see what was closing in on them. It was no wagon that was coming with the squad of soldiers. It was an Ehrhardt E-V Armored Car. These vehicles, along with other armored cars, were some examples of turning ordinary vehicles into war machines. Armored Cars often had a hard time fighting in the mud and dirt of trench warfare, limiting their use, but it didn't mean that they can still use them on roads and rear guard moves.

"Shit...there is no way we can beat that. That is an armored car. They are mobile machine guns on wheels. I don't have the firepower to counter it. Even if we all worked together, there is no way we can outfight it or outrun it."

Daiyu assured him, "Ariadne knows that Toha. She knows what she is doing."

Toha shrugged his head. What he saw next would amaze him to the end of his life.

Ariadne single-handedly walked up to the squad of soldiers and armored car to blockade them from entering the town. She stood defiantly at the center of the road. She held up her hand.

She spoke in a loud voice in perfect German "Im Namen der Götter...umkehren!"

Toha heard the words and tried to translate to the group, "In the name of gods turn around."

One of the German soldiers with a pointed helmet with a pistol in his hand waved his arms at her and replied, "Geh uns aus dem Weg!"

"Get out of our way," Toha translated.

Ariadne took her leg and slammed her foot on the ground hard, and suddenly there was a rumble from the building. She stood about forty feet away from the group. Toha felt the ground shake some as the Germans were taken aback from the scene. There was some minor panic from the event.

"Letzte Warnung" she said to them.

"Final warning," Toha translated. He was amazed it was like she wasn't...human.

The German officer took his pistol, raised it at her, and fired. The round struck her face and bounced off of her, doing no damage.

"Impossible...it's impossible," Toha said.

"I said those same words practically 25 years ago," Daiyu said. "Watch everything and become a believer."

Toha's gaze never faltered. He watched as Ariadne's form glowed white. A bright light emitted from her body, and there was a flash of light that caused all but Sárkány to look away. The German soldiers were covering their eyes. Toha looked back to see something that he would never forget once the light faded away.

Ariadne was no longer human. She was a nine-foot-tall Minotaur. He was looking at her from behind, but he knew what he saw. She had a tail of a bull, her feet were hooves, she had fur that covered her body, horns from her head, and she had four fingers on each hand. She no longer wore clothing but bronze armor instead that covered her chest and top portion of her legs.

One of the striking features was that the weapon she had in her hand when she was human was no longer a gun but a trident. Ice vapor radiated from the trident's tips. Toha's mouth was wide open in shock.

She said in English, "I am the Goddess Ariadne, granddaughter of Zeus the almighty. You are in my way!"

The German soldiers were in total shock as some ran away in terror. Some stayed by the officer in complete shock or confusion. Amazingly the officer held his stance, but even this was something he did not expect. He held his pistol trained on her.

The German officer screamed, "Feuer! Offenes Feuer!" as he began to fire his pistol at Ariadne. The armored car fired both its forward-mounted machine gun and fired its top-mounted machine gun at her. Only one of the other German soldiers complied with the officer's orders and began firing his rifle at her.

All the bullets were bouncing off of her. One of the ricocheting bullets smacked the dirt by Daiyu.

Sárkány took his rifle and smacked the butt of it to the dirt on the road. "Enough of this hiding! Stand back; I will protect both of you with my life!"

Toha, while watching Ariadne, saw as Sárkány morphed. His skin turned into scales, his clothing turned into armor, his rifle began to shift into what looked like a sword, and large wings quickly grew from his back. A serpent-like tail grew from his rear. He grew in height at about eight feet in height.

Daiyu was utterly unfazed. She never even bothered to lift her rifle. It was like she had already seen this before.

Within a few seconds of firing, the officer stopped firing and lowered it in complete shock. The armored car stopped firing as well, knowing they did nothing to her. The German soldier that fired ran out of rounds lowered his rifle.

There was a dead silence. Ariadne said in a defiant voice, "My turn..."

She took her trident and lifted it like a spear and threw it had the officer. The officer was impaled in the stomach and flew to the ground several feet away. His body slowly began to get colder. His entire body was turning into ice. She then held her hand to the trident, and it disintegrated and reappeared in her hand.

The rest of the German soldiers seen enough. They all ran away as the German car began to go reverse. It pulled hardback and struggled to turn around as quickly as possible. It then floored it as it made a full ninety-degree turn and drove back as fast as it could. Ariadne decided to hold her stance. She took the blunt end of the trident and slammed it to the ground, almost making a tremor from the impact.

"Amazing..." were the only words he could say.

"Ha, Ha, nicely done, Princess!" Sárkány said with his newly transformed body. He still had his back pointed at Toha.

Ariadne then walked up to the frozen body of the officer, and she shook her head. "There was nothing I could do for you mortal. Forgive me." She then took her free hand, clenched it into a fist, and slammed it at the ice form, shattering the form of the man into tiny pieces. After a moment of silence, she turned around and started walking back to the group.

Daiyu nodded, "Witness gods at work Toha, for now, you are a believer."

Chapter 5: The Mission

Ariadne walked up to Toha and the group. Her powerful form dominated his vision.

Toha only knew so much about the Minotaurs of stories that his mother read to him from his father's library. They were known as beasts that guarded the labyrinths, and that was all he knew.

It was hard to see all her features from behind. Upfront, Toha could see that Ariadne was wearing bronze armor that covered her chest and body. She had small horns protruding from her head. Her trident turned almost into a walking stick as the blunt head tapped the dirt when she walked. Her hooves left prints on the ground as she got closer and closer.

Toha was still left with his thoughts "She is both powerful and beautiful." He noted her form; he could see a feminine look to her. She had orange fur with some white spots that covered her body that was not covered up in armor. She had a small amount of brownish hair sprout from her head that looked like human hair. Her chest size was average size but proportional to that of a woman of her size. Her nine-foot frame dominated the size of the group. Her tail waved to and fro as one of her hands touched her hips. She had brown eyes.

"Are...is...are you truly that?" Toha struggled to ask her.

"This is my true form, Toha. I am Ariadne, the Goddess of Labyrinths. I am the granddaughter of Zeus and Princess of Crete...or I was a long time ago. So much as happened from that time to today."

Her trident then disintegrated in her hand as she then held her hand to point out the rest of the group. "This is Sárkány the dragon and this is Daiyu, a human and good partner to Sárkány."

Daiyu interrupted, "By the way, his name is spelled Sárkány. I know to you it sounds like 'Zarkon.'"

Toha never had a chance to note his true form. Sárkány was an anthropomorphic bipedal dragon. He wore a suit of armor on top of the armored scales that he already had. He had a greenish coloration to his whole body. He wore a helmet that protected the top of his head but did not cover his face. He could see a pointed nose of a reptile, dragon-like wings, scales that covered his body, five fingers on each hand, a broadsword in his right hand, four-digit feet with talons dug into the dirt. He had a tail with spikes that protruded from the tip, and he had yellow eyes that were reptilian-like.

"Is this your true form?" Toha asked.

Sárkány smiled, "But of course, lad."

Daiyu added, "He has another from besides being human that I have seen once. He only does it if there is no other choice."

Toha shook his head "This is all incredible. I never imagined that...you people exist. I had always heard of you as myths or made up stories. I...I don't know what to say."

"It is ok, lad," Sárkány stated.

Ariadne nodded, "It will take time, but you will get used to it. Everyone will."

"It is natural to feel the way you do," Daiyu explained. "We...they take on human form to help disguise themselves as human. The catch is that it is very draining on their mana. After about half a day, they have to revert to their original forms to help recharge and do it again.

Ariadne had her arms crossed "There was a time when we barely ever had to take human form. Now with things they are, it is becoming a necessity."

Daiyu nodded, "Us humans are getting better at surviving. In the last forty years, we have watched the population of this planet explode. I had seen it first hand when it came to places like China that it has affected them politically. Europe was the perfect example of increasing population and technological changes that, when the war began in 1914, everyone thought that it would be over in less than a year. Four years later and we barely moved an inch. I hope that this war is a lesson on all of us."

"That wasn't what I was meaning."

"I know," Daiyu said. "The population of this planet is getting so large that it is hard for the deities to hide. They are invincible when it comes to lethal weapons, but it is difficult to maintain human forms for the deities that are not human. They can maintain the form for several hours, but it drains their power."

Toha shook his head "Is there a place we can go to sit and talk about everything? There is a lot we need to talk about."

Ariadne turned around and looked at the ruins. "Yes, I imagine the Germans will not be coming back here. But the allies will try to occupy this place."

Sárkány jumped in. "We can simply take human form, Princess! The Allies will not bother us too much if they think we are natives of this town."

"No...I am not picking it up here in this town at all. I would have picked something up by now. If the Germans had simply waited a few minutes, I would have given up and let them take the town instead of killing one of them."

Toha shrugged his shoulders, "I have had to kill..."

Ariadne looked down, "I have the power to kill a lot of human mortals. I try to avoid it when I can. I had to chase them off, and the officer wasn't going to stop. That human might have been a father for all I know. Yes, Toha, we have all had to kill, but I don't take pleasure in killing other mortals like that...well, we need to decide. Do we keep searching this town? I am not picking anything up here."

Daiyu scratched her chin "The war and conflict are making it hard to pick anything up. I have a good feeling there is nothing here like the last four towns we have checked already. The war is disrupting the mana flow. I suggest we find a new spot where we will not be disturbed."

"I am for whatever the group wants, my lady," Sárkány said.

Ariadne nodded, "Fine. Let's get out of here. Daiyu put us in the open grasslands of Oklahoma, United States. I want us away from all humans by at least 10 miles."

"You got it," Daiyu said as she stuck her hand into her coat. She then pulled out a small bag that Toha was trying to figure out what it was. Her pointer finger and thumb entered the bag, and then she pulled out a small sphere. "Toha, let me ask you this question. Do you want to come with us and try to answer the questions you have now, or do you want to stay with your unit?"

Toha was in deep thought. He had genuine curiosity in his mind. "I think I will come along. Beats being in a war. I have no idea how much longer this is going to last anyway."

"Then you will have to do something for us all. You need to leave your dog tags here and one of your guns. Put it in one of the ruins. They might think you are dead or possibly got killed from your mission. If you ever change your mind, we will make sure you get back to your unit before night time."

Toha thought to himself, "Leave my dog tags...leave my gun...I guess I can do it. I feel this is all new to me, anyway. I need to know why Coyote guided me to you three."

Toha walked back to the ditch and picked up his MP-18. He then walked up to one of the ruined homes. The place had been burned down to a blacked burned ash. He then put his rifle into the ash and threw some of it on top of it. He then reached onto his neck and snapped his dog tags off. He took a good look at it and read his name and then tossed it next to the rifle.

With all being done, he walked up to the group, and Daiyu nodded. "I understand what you have to consider, Toha. Trust me. You are doing the right thing. They might not be fully convinced you are dead, but they will still think you might be dead or simply missing in action. Either way, they will less likely launch all-out searches for you wherever you go."

Toha nodded, "Let's go."

Daiyu closed his eyes as he raised the purple sphere to his mouth. He then said three words to the sphere marble and tossed it to the ground ten feet away. Suddenly it flashed and transformed into a twirling spinning vortex in the street.

Toha could see through the vortex and see a green field through it. It was a gate or portal to the location that Ariadne requested. The vortex was large enough, even for Ariadne to leap through.

"Let's go...we have about ten seconds before it closes."

Without hesitation, all but Toha walked through the portal. Toha thought about it for two seconds and ran through the portal. To Toha's eyes, there was some blur and distortion in his eyes as his body was transported from one location on Earth to a new location in less than a second. He emerged from the other side and saw the three looking at his direction, wondering if he was going to go through or not.

"Whoa..." he said as he turned around to look at the vortex. The swirling vortex suddenly collapsed. Toha suddenly realized he was no longer in Europe but in the United States now. There was nothing but grass around him.

He was in the massive expanse of grass fields that dominated the Oklahoma landscape. He immediately noticed the location of the sun as well. What was around 1 pm in France was now around 6 am in the morning there. The sun was close to rising now. It was morning once again for him.

"Incredible...," he said. He looked at the minotaur, dragon, and human that were looking at him. Ariadne was the first to walk away from the group as she walked around. She got about twenty feet from them.

"I think we need to find a place to rest shall we," Ariadne said as she took her large hands and clapped them together. Then she opened her hands, and light and string flew from her hands. The string flowed from her hands nonstop. It wove itself as two large structures were being formed. Tents large enough to house them were being created from her hands.