The Labyrinth

5: Astarios

"Peter! Peter!" Victor cried out, rushing through the gymnasium to find his brother. Peter was nowhere to be found. Dodging axes and flying spears, he ran straight into the Xenia, where he crashed into his elder brother, just leaving the room now.

"Ouch!" Yelled Peter angrily. He shook off the arm that Victor had just charged into and frowned at his brother, "What did you do that for?"

"Peter! Oh Peter! Something terrible - ." Victor wailed with such great fear in his voice that he started to tremble and shake.

"Victor, I need to go. I've had enough of this childish behavior." In his most fatherly manner, he pushed past his brother. Victor grabbed his arm and spun him back round,

"We need to...hang on..." Victor paused. Fresh new uniform, combed back hair, a washed face. He even smelt good too! "Why do you look so...nice?"

Smugly, Peter puffed out his chest and grinned, "Kleio wants to meet me at the centaur stables, so I'm going...now." And with that, he turned on his heel and rushed off towards the stables. He had ignored the cries of his younger brother. He had ignored the dread in his words, the tremble and shake, the quiver and tremor of Victor's voice.

Victor curled up beneath the blankets like a snake, and he dreamt of being one of those flying creatures. Or one of the drakones. And in his dreams he thought of hovering high above the mountains, swooping between clouds and trees and temples with a God clinging to his back, putting all his or her trust in this beautiful creature. He imagined having great gold fur that glimmered and glistened in the moonlight and that caught the eye of every man and woman he should beat his wings above. All the other animals would be inferior to him, and he would be loved and valued by everyone and everything. The dream did not last long. He woke up disappointed by the dullness of the room and his non-winged arms. The bed in which is brother slept beside him was still empty.

Victor decided he would not tell Peter about the terrible things he had heard that day. Yes. If Peter could happily put a random girl before his own brother, he was simply not deserving of Victor himself. Peter would have to suffer. Alone.

The sun had already started to take its plunge when Peter arrived at the centaur stables. Wary not to bump into Phofurn again, he stood behind the haystacks and waited for Kleio, out of sight of the enormous wooden doors. Some time had already started to pass when Peter began to wonder whether she had forgotten about their arrangement, or had deliberately humiliated him. Perhaps he had been set up for some prank or joke. A hushed whisper broke his thoughts: "Peter! Over here!"

Kleio was standing behind the side door, curling her head round and grinning at Peter. "Quickly!" She whispered loudly, and Peter trotted over and slipped behind the door.

He had not walked into the centaur stables, but a beautiful round ring, softened with golden sand. Huge claw prints had been sketched into the sand, and, looking up, Peter noticed that there was no roof. Instead, a gaping round hole had been carved out of the wood, looking up at the fading blue sky and the dwindling sunlight. The moon had already swung into place, but the stars were not yet sparkling through. Kleio grabbed Peter's arm and ran into the center of the ring, dragging him with her. She stopped, and whistled loudly.

What happened next could only be described as the unbelievable; Peter had never seen anything like this creature in storybooks or films, let alone in real life. Enormous wings. Frosty silver fur. Great black eyes. With the hind legs and body of a big cat, covered by colossal white wings, the bird-like creature tip toed from behind the wooden paneling of the ring. It paraded its wings, like great parachutes, stretching them outwards and sweeping them across the sand behind him. The creature was graceful but terrific. This stunned boy could do nothing but let his jaw hang wide open, almost touching the floor.

"This is Astarios — she's our only griffin. Probably the only one in Greece!" Kleio smiled, letting Astarios push the top of her head against her palm, scratching behind her ears.

"How...how did..." Peter, astonished, found himself speechless.

"Hippolytos lets me see Astarios every week in return for self defense lessons. She's not allowed to walk round the gymnasium." Kleio lifted Peter's hand to Astarios' head, and he felt her soft, feathery fur between his fingers. The griffin stared at him with great black eyes and sat close to his feet. Hippolytos was the keeper of the centaurs and animals amongst the gymnasium, and a marvelous keeper he was too. He had never got on well with Aegeus because the King had wanted the griffin gone, but Hippolytos insisted that the creature should stay— if the griffin went, he would too — and so Aegeus had no choice. "But she's lovely really," Kleio carried on, "Astarios is the only happy thing here!"

They sat at amongst her wings for a while before Kleio pressed her ear to the griffin's head.

"What are you doing?" Peter asked.

"Griffins are different to the other beasts. Their heart sits next to their brain, but it's much bigger than the brain." Kleio mumbled, still pressed against the top of Astarios' head.

"Doesn't that make them a bit...stupid?" The boy laughed and pressed his ear to Astarios' head too to listen to the heartbeat.

"Absolutely not," Kleio replied, "It just means they always follow their heart. Griffins are always honest and honourable — they only follow their heart."

Peter listened to the thud of the heart as it hit the skull forcefully, and Astarios let out a warm purr and sunk her head into the sand softly. As soon as Kleio rose, she rose too, dropping her spine for Kleio to climb upon her back. The girl hopped onto the Griffin's back, gripping onto her tough mane hidden beneath the wings. "Come on!" She called, and Peter, surprised, mounted Astarios behind Kleio. At once, her wings began to rise and fall gracefully, creating an enormous sand storm around them from the gusts of wind. It was only a hover first, lingering just above the ground. Suddenly, with one great flap of the wings, Astarios rocketed into the air at an amazing speed, through the hole in the roof and into the night sky above. Peter clung onto Kleio, struck by fear and excitement, before Astarios zipped between the stars and the trees, until the two teenagers were completely star-struck.