Tales From The Inside: A Selection of Accounts from the Inhabitants of SuperZoo

Eilidh's Story (Part One)

The first time I found the door, I nearly tore it from its hinges in my haste to get through. There, lying in a bundled heap of gangly limbs in the corner, was my precious little calfling. She wasn't moving. A cold so intense it threatened to drown me swept down my spine. Suddenly, after running pell-mell to get here, I could barely make my feet take another step. I didn't want to see this. I couldn't.

Then she let out the softest little whine.

Nothing could have got me to her side faster. I caressed her face, speaking gentle words of comfort to her as I drew her to my body. Her mouth, weak at first, found me and latched on. A gentle tugging at first, then more eager.

Warmth seeped through me as she fed, becoming more and more confident by the second. I continued speaking to her softly, stroking through her beautiful ginger fur the way my mother once had for me. When she let out a little contented sound, my eyes welled up with tears.

I marvelled at the miracle that she was. A perfect little calfling, so similar in looks to her Daddy, and here she was in my arms. All mine.

I wish it could have stayed that way. In fact, if I was wishing, I wish we had never been separated in the first place. 

~

A gentle spring breeze was cooling the glorious sunshine on the day I knew I was ready to make nest. Hamish had been working in the garden when the first pains had come. He had torn into the house, yelling a war cry when he heard my own yell of pain and surprise.

"Ever the defender," I had teased him when he rushed in, pruning shears held aloft.

We had set off for the wood three miles south of our village immediately. Of course, most of the expectant mothers of the world would have headed to a hospital, a birthing studio, or their bed, but among Minotaurs, it is the common practice to build a nest in a peaceful part of nature and have the calfling there. The mother and calfling then lay together in the nest for three weeks- building the strongest mother-child bond of any known species- before returning home to everyday life.

Hamish and I picked out our perfect spot four weeks after discovering I was pregnant, and we had visited it regularly to add to the nest, ready for our little one's arrival. Hamish led me to the nest where, guarded by the roots of a humongous oak tree, I lay down amongst the leaves and feathers and waited for it to be time. He stroked his fingers through my fur and routinely collected water for me from a nearby stream. Everything went exactly to plan.

Until it was time to push.

The rustling of bushes was the first sign that something was wrong. Hamish, loathe to leave me and miss the birth of our little calfling, went nonetheless to investigate. Alone and terrified, I had no choice but to keep pushing and hope that, whatever was keeping him, he would return soon. He never did.

I don't know how I did it, but I kept silent as my calfling was born. The danger was flashing in my mind, and I made my plan- the moment the calfling was born, I would scoop her up and run. Traditions be damned- I would not stay in that nest with a newborn calfling like a sitting duck. I could bond with my little one anywhere.

When she arrived, my little calfling cried out for milk. I had not heard any more rustling, and I decided it was safe to delay our flight just long enough for her to feed. I am glad I did because if I had run with her there and then she would have died. 

As I fed her, I told her I loved her. I told her that her Daddy loved her, and that he was off chasing down a threat but he would be back with us very, very soon. I told her she was beautiful. And then I ran with her.

I understood in those moments, as I barrelled through the forest, what people meant when they said there are few things in this world more dangerous than a Minotaur mother whose calfling is in danger. I was hyperaware of everything around me. Running faster than I ever had in my life, I fled the trees.

It was my speed that was my downfall. I saw the trap, saw the net lying on the ground, but I could not slow enough to avoid it. I attempted to jump it, but whoever had laid it had known what they were doing, and it was too big. I held my precious calfling to my chest as it snapped up around us, thinking that at least she would be with me.

I could not have been more wrong.

When I woke, I was surrounded by high concrete walls. Far above me, humans floated in the air, staring down. Most of them appeared to be children. I reached around, searching for my calfling, but she was nowhere to be found.

Panic reared up in my throat, threatening to choke me. I had to find her. Now.

I launched to my feet and began barrelling down the corridor, passing several openings before reaching the dead end. I turned back and took the first opening possible. Another corridor, a few turns, a dead end. The next opening. A turn, a split in the path, a few more turns, another split, another dead end.

Somewhere in my panicked charging, I registered that this was a maze. I didn't stop running until the sound played. Echoing from my right, a call that I would know anywhere. The call of my little girl.

I called back as loud as I could.

Her call sounded again, but it crackled a little, like it was coming out of a speaker. Where was she?

I began to run again, but this time I kept my head enough to remember how mazes worked. There was a simple method to solve them, by reaching out your right hand and never allowing it to leave the wall, but I had no idea how big this maze was, or how much time I had to get to my little girl before it was too late. 

Her call sounded again, and I made for the direction it came from. As I had no idea whether it was morning or afternoon, I couldn't immediately tell whether the calls were coming from the north west or the south east, but from the shadows I knew it was one or the other. 

The humans remained above me, running, I now realised, not on air, but on glass. They couldn't keep up for long, but whenever I outran one, another would be there, peering down. I paid them little heed. All that mattered was that I got to my daughter.

I ran for long enough to know from the movement of the shadows that I was headed north west. The calls stopped coming after the first few, and I hoped desperately that didn't mean I was too late. 

I knew where we must be- on display at the SuperZoo. I had heard the horror stories of what was done to so many creatures in here. If my daughter had been subject to any torture...

I had thought I was running at full pace, but I found a new burst of speed as I imagined my baby girl being whipped for the humans' amusement. I was beginning to run out of hope that I would ever find an end to the maze when I saw the bright orange wall with the door.

Charging at it full pelt, I smashed straight through. 

My little calfling lay on the floor. In a matter of moments, I had her held close to me. I sobbed as I told her how sorry I was, how frightened I had been and how I was here now. I promised her I would stay with her, I wouldn't let anything take her away from me again.

What a perfect few hours those were, lying with my little girl, promising her the world and all of the love I could give. If only I could have made those promises come true.

After a while, there was a click, and a small vent in the floor opened up. I barely had time to position myself between the vent and my calfling before gas seeped in and the world turned black. 

When I woke, it was to find myself back in the maze, the concrete walls towering around me, and my little girl once again nowhere to be seen.