Emma and the minotaur

“You think he’s your father?” Minotaur said.

“You’re just talking,” Emma said. “I don’t believe anything you say.”

“Why would I lie to you, little girl? I could crush you in a moment and be done with it.”

The minotaur turned suddenly and snatched something out of the air. It was Domino. He had tried to sneak up on the monster. Minotaur held him by the head in one giant hand and the faun hung like a doll.

“I had enough of you,” Minotaur said and he squeezed. The horns of the creature crunched under the monster’s grasp and he howled in pain. Minotaur threw him aside.

“What now?” he said. “Who else will come to your aid? Who else is left? The horse? I will crush him as well, but no, he will not interfere in this. Will you, Titanius?”

“I do not have to,” Titanius said and turned to Emma. “Princess, how long will you suffer this fool’s speeches?”

There was a certainty in his voice that reassured her somehow.

“In my favourite book,” she said. “Almost no one believes in the hero but he proves them wrong.”

Emma looked from Titanius to Mr Oak. The tree was glowing softly and there was a hum, a little song, coming from him, and it was as though he was singing to himself, content. Mr Jingles was nestled in the tree’s roots and he was humming along. She looked from the tree to Will and Lucy. They smiled at her. She looked to her father. There were tears in his eyes but also hope. He smiled as well.

“Almost no one,” Emma said.

There was a roar from the beast as he laughed once again. Minotaur looked down at her.

“Enough,” he roared. “Enough of this game.”

He took another step toward her and he was upon her, towering above her head. The girl and the monster faced each other beneath the red sky. Emma was trembling but she held her ground.

“You’re right,” she said to him, and a light surrounded her. “That’s enough.”

From the edge of the clearing came the voice of Titanius. “Finally,” the unicorn said.

“You see,” Emma said to the minotaur. “What I said, that’s just in the children’s stories. I’m just wasting time. Tricking you, see. What I’ve really been doing is listening.”

Emma had been thinking it over as they had been speaking. In her new language, the language of the music, she had spoken and she had hummed and she had shouted. There was one thing that she hadn’t done yet and the tree had been showing her what it was. It was the most powerful thing, the thing from which everything had come, and the thing that gave the trees themselves their power.

Emma sang, and it was not with her voice but with the light that was inside of her. It was the song that she had learned when she had been inside the light of creation. It was a song of power and a song of life, and she knew that there was no one in this world who could stand against it.

The light that surrounded Emma grew and exploded from the flute that she held. She raised her hand over her head and a beam of light shot to the heavens. The red sky shattered and the pieces fell to the ground like glass and revealed the moon and the stars.

The minotaur cowered and he winced at the light. He covered his ears as though the song caused him great pain.

“Leave this world,” Emma said. “Now!” Minotaur ran. He reached the edge of the clearing and found that he could not pass into the forest. The trees that surrounded the clearing stood so close together that nothing could go through but the smallest critter. There was no way out but one. It was an opening in the trees that