Xanthos and the Soul Demon.

Xanthos and Timeous were best friends and their names originated from Greece. They lived in America and went to the USA school. They were in their last year of school. They had been there since they were 11 years old. They are both now 16 years old. The last year of school was nothing but exams. They always had trips to boring museums. Xanthos and Timeous were getting sick of it.

The second to last day of term arrived. They both rested their heads on their desks. Miss Sloth immediately shouted at them. They sat up and listened to the day they were about to have. It was just another boring exam. At the end of the day, Miss Sloth told the class that they were going to Crete tomorrow. The last day of term came. Xanthos and Timeous rested their heads on their desks as usual. Miss Sloth shouted at them again for the last time.

They then sat sail for Crete, arriving there a week later. There was terrified instructor asking the class to get off the boat. Most of the day was taking up by the boring instructor talking about Crete. The next day, he mysteriously disappeared. Miss Sloth had to think on her feet, so she ordered everyone to get back in the boat. However, Xanthos and Timeous didn't want to go back to their fat and lazy mums. They sneaked off while Miss Sloth counted twenty eight students. She soon realised that Xanthos and Timeous were gone. She jogged towards a bush were they were hiding. Suddenly, a Minotaur jumped up from behind the bush. Miss Sloth quickly ran into to boat and quickly sailed out of Crete with her class, forgetting Xanthos and Timeous, along with none of her shoes.

The Minotaur picked Xanthos and Timeous up. He said: "New arrivals let me guide you to your new luxurious house."
Xanthos replied with: "What are you?" "And how can you speak?" "Wait did you say luxurious house?"
"Yes that's exactly what I said," replied the Minotaur.
"Totally cool!" said Timeous excitedly. Xanthos forgot about the questions he asked earlier and followed the Minotaur to their new home. "There is only one rule while living in Crete," said the Minotaur. "And that is to visit Minotaur castle on the last day of the month to obey the Minotaurs and their great master. They took no notice of this until the Minotaur said: "If you don't come on the last day of the month, then you will experience a very painful death. Luckily for them, the monthly visit had already happened as it was the 1st of June now.

They sat, ate and slept in their new house for the next 29 days. Living this life was their dreams, but still wondered why a creature brought them there. On the 24th of June Xanthos reminded Timeous that in 6 days time, it was worship day. Then came the worship day, the 30th of June. "Get up Timeous, it's worship day."
"Oh you go, I'll stay her," replied Timeous.
"No, you'll get killed if you don't come," said Xanthos.
"Alright, I'll get dressed." said Timeous. They went outside for the first time in around a month. The sun blinded their eyes. "Looks like we need to need to get out more", said Timeous. They didn't know where to go, so they tapped their fingers on a woman's back, hoping for directions to the Minotaur castle. As soon as they saw the woman's face, they froze and made a sigh. Her hair was blowing in the wind and she was beautiful. They were stunned for a while. This woman wasn't like any other woman they have met before. She was the same age as them. "Um, w...where can we get some guidance to reach Minotaur castle?" said Xanthos.
"Oh you must be new, I'll show you," replied the beautiful woman. They followed her beautiful hair blowing in the wind. The two boys weren't paying attention to what she was saying.

They suddenly realised that they were staring at the doors of the Minotaur castle. They entered, quickly changing their emotions from being in love to frightened to death about what lurked behind the doors. There was an army of Minotaurs and a mysterious, large shadow deep into the castle. The shadow then became visible as a big demon with his fingers touching each other to form a diamond shape. "I've been expecting you Xanthos and Timeous", said the Demon. "How did you know our names?" asked Timeous and Xanthos.
"I am very powerful and I am a master of many arts", replied the demon.
"Sit on the floor and obey your new master for life!"
"Ok," said Xanthos and Timeous.
"Now let's read from the Holy book of Minotaurs, General you may begin while I have my royal treatment. He laughs evilly and then stands up, 8 feet high and walks into his room of luxury which is better than anybody else's room.

The General was the most vicious of the Minotaurs. He had sharper teeth and was taller than the average Minotaur. He read for half an hour and stopped when somebody yawned.
"Right, it's nothing but death for you, sir", said the General of the Minotaurs.
"But I'm just tired", complained the civilian.
"Arguing back, that's gonna cost you!" said the General.
He told the civilian to wait inside the waiting room. He continued reading for the rest of the time and then dismissed everyone to go home.

The Soul Demon emerged from his room and called a boy who was named Weasley for a talk. The General had blood coming out of his mouth when he returned from the waiting room. "Now tell me, Weasley were you or were you not stealing luxurious items from my room yesterday?" asked the Soul Demon, welling up with anger.
"No sir," replied Weasley.
"Liar, I hate liars!" boomed the Soul Demon. "Stand up straight." "Now tell me one more time, did you or did you NOT STEAL LUXURIOUS ITEMS FROM MY ROOM!"
"No sir," repeated Weasley. The Soul Demon destroyed the chair Weasley always sits on when coming to Minotaur castle. He then grabbed the little boy by his waist. His mum came running to his aid shouting no, only to get scorched by fire breath. This was followed up by a gust of wind. All of which came from the Soul demon himself. His dad then came to his wife's aid, only to be flooded by the Soul demon's water powers. "Filthy Humans", said the Soul Demon. He used his gravitational skills to send Weasley's dad to the underworld. Weasley's dad thought he would stay in the castle, but he didn't understand the laws of gravity and fell deep into the underworld. The Soul Demon turned back to Weasley and began extracting his soul. Weasley lay flat on the floor of the castle, slowly turning to dust. "My baby," shouted his mother. But she was too late and her soul was also extracted. The Soul Demon laughed evilly and said: "Another small task for someone of my superiority."

Xanthos invited the woman that had guided him and his best friend to the Minotaur castle over for tea. "I never got your name," said Xanthos after the woman entered his house. "Oh, it's Aphrodite," replied the woman who had stolen both Xanthos' and Timeous' hearts. Xanthos continued to invite Aphrodite over for tea for months, while also laughing with her, getting to know her more and visiting the Minotaur castle with her. Timeous was furious at the sight of this. He needed to expel to rage he had towards his best friend after taking the love of his life away from him. Unfortunately, he expelled it in the wrong way.

He travelled to Minotaur castle the next day. This was not the correct day to go as it wasn't the day of worship at the end of the month. But Timeous didn't care as he wanted revenge for all the times Xanthos had won over him. Although he was always been best friends with Xanthos, he always had a little rivalry with him in the back of his head and it grew stronger after what he had seen yesterday. He finally made it to Minotaur castle after asking an old man how to get there as he still didn't know. This time was different. He was not afraid to enter to castle. All the Minotaurs within the castle charged at him with no warning and said: "Fresh meat."
"Stop at will, minions," said the Soul Demon. "Don't mind my minions." "Come, sit down in the front row."
"Thank you for your save," said Timeous as he sat down in front of the man mountain.
"I have been expecting you," said the Soul Demon with an evil grin.
"Again, you're freaky," said Timeous.
"I know," said the Soul Demon. "Let me guess at random, Xanthos your long-time friend took Aphrodite for himself and now you want revenge." "Is that it?"
"Um, yeah," replied Timeous. "How do you do that?"
"I told you before, I have powers and I am also superior," gloated The Soul Demon. "So my plan is to kill Xanthos for good," said Timeous.
"I like, I like, your thinking is so evil, that's exactly what I like!" said the Soul Demon as he laughed evilly. "The Minotaurs can eat him," said Timeous.
"And we could hire Medusa, the hydra, the harpies and Cerberus", said Timeous. "That's good too," said the Soul Demon. "I can arrange that Timeous!"
"I'll send a letter to Xanthos explaining that you have kidnapped Aphrodite," said Timeous.
"Kidnapped Aphrodite, absolutely wonderful," said the Soul Demon. "I've always hated her since she joined our community in Crete and met me."
"I will write the letter now", said Timeous.
"Good," replied the Soul Demon.

Xanthos went to Aphrodite's house to ask her over to his house. He opened her front door with a pair of keys he had been given by Aphrodite. She was nowhere to be found. He thought that she was probably just out for a walk. But he found it she wasn't when he found a letter on her coffee table. He travelled back to his house, wondering what to do. Then he remembered that his dad was a Christian before he died. He remembered his dad praying to God every day. He never believed in God, but it was pray to God or nothing at all. He prayed to the Gods for half an hour until Zeus came off of his cloud and a ray of light beamed onto Xanthos. "What do you want?" asked Zeus the all-powerful God of the heavens. He explained his situation to Zeus and then waited for his answer. Zeus yawned and then threw down the sword and the shield of Crete. "Use it wisely," instructed Zeus.
"I can't accept this," said Xanthos.
"Keep it, you'll need it," said Zeus. "Do not let it out of your sight."
"But..." said Xanthos. Zeus had returned back to havens for a nice long rest in his bed.

As Xanthos walked out of his house, he stepped in some mouldy food and screamed in horror. "Some hero I am." "I've stepped in last night's food." He ambled outside and gazed at the sky. It was turning darker rapidly. He ran to Minotaur Castle with the sword and shield of Crete, now knowing his destination after going with Aphrodite regularly. But then he forgot the rest of the directions when he was half way there. By this point, he was distracted by Aphrodite's beauty and switched off every time he came to Minotaur castle with her in the past. He saw an old man nearby and asked him for directions.
The old man replied with: "Some other guy asked me the same thing yesterday." I told him it was too dangerous." "You'll get eaten if you go there, it's not a day of worship," explained the old man.
"I need to rescue someone very important to me, that is being held captive there," said Xanthos.
"Well alright," said the old man. "I know a shortcut that should get you there in no time." They both travelled for about 10 miles and then the old man said: "This is as far as I can take you; it gets really dangerous in these parts." "Just go straight ahead until you reach the castle." "Good luck saving your friend."
"I never realised that Minotaur castle was this far from my house," said Xanthos to himself. "I must have not realised because I was too busy admiring Aphrodite's beauty." "Oh sorry, thanks for the guide."
"Your welcome," said the old man with a smile on his face, now knowing that Xanthos was going to rescue someone he loved.

Xanthos continued his journey to the castle, but froze as he made an encounter with a group of Harpies! He fought them gallantly with the sword of Crete which he used to slice their bird-like heads off. Suddenly, a gush of energy from the sky penetrated the sword of Crete. From the ashes of the aftermath, the Hydra appeared inflicting a vicious attack open the hero and causing a piercing scratch to form on his right shoulder blade. With the new energy Xanthos had received from the heavens, he sliced the body of the beast, acknowledging that if he sliced one of its head's off, it would instantly replace itself with a new pair of heads. Medusa charged out of the sky and opened her eyes and her teeth up widely. Xanthos remembered that he couldn't look at her ugly mug, but he was little bit late as his finger turned to stone before he closed his eyes. He then proceeded to chop her head off. He placed it into a sack as it was worth a lot of money which would be enough for a wedding with Aphrodite. Xanthos was proud of himself and started to relax. Out of the shadows, Cerberus the legendary three headed dog appeared and took advantage of the fact that Xanthos had let his guard down. He wasn't strong enough to defeat the monstrosity. His underworld army rose from the ground. "This is the end of the line for you, my friend," said Timeous.
"Traitor!" Xanthos shouted as Timeous slammed the doors of the Minotaur castle shut. Zeus then dropped a potion down to the earth. Xanthos quickly ran towards it and caught it. He used to the potion, drinking every last drop, waiting for a result to occur. He transformed into an exact clone of Cerberus.
"How does this help?" shouted Xanthos towards to sky. But then he realised that he had the power to control the underworld.
"Cerberus is me, but how?" asked Xanthos confused. He told the army to attack well...himself! They followed his commands and then vanished into the shadows. He wiped the sweat away from his face and then said: "I couldn't even dream of marrying Aphrodite now I'm a three headed dog." Thankfully, the potion wore off and he was returned back to normal.

Xanthos stormed into the Minotaur castle with only one thing on his mind, to rescue Aphrodite. The Soul demon span his chair around and applauded Xanthos. This reminded him, that he had the Soul demon to deal with as well as the Minotaurs and Timeous. This made it a lot harder for his dreams to come true. He raised his sword against the demon with confidence despite this. He then ran through the army of Minotaurs, slicing all their head off one by one. He was doing very well until the Minotaur General stopped him in his tracks and grabbed him from behind unexpectedly, growling at him with vengeance. "You will pay for your actions boy," said the General firmly.

Timeous then came out of one of the many shadows in the castle and greeted him profusely. "Timeous, you traitor," said Xanthos. "Why did you do it?" He then became stunned as he quickly realised that Timeous was not alone. He was holding a sword to Aphrodite's neck. "Give this whole thing up, live a life in our house, take it I don't care," said Timeous. "Just let me marry Aphrodite, otherwise none of us can have her, literally." The Soul demon clapped his hands together once again. "Bravo, bravo Timeous." Xanthos became very angry and broke to General's grip on him. He clashed swords with Timeous, his once friend. The General was on the floor with his hands over his head. "Good, good you are very skilful young Xanthos," said the Soul demon impressed. "Join me and together we can rule over Crete, tax civilians as much as we like and live the life of luxury like you've always wanted."
"No thanks, freak," replied Xanthos. The Soul demons face dropped.
"Very well, Minotaurs you have permission to continue attacking."

The Gods gave the brave hero another potion. He didn't hesitate to drink it. The potion supplied him with super-strength. He then glided across the castle with his new power, destroying it on his way. "My beautiful castle!" shouted the Soul demon enraged at was happening before his eyes.
"It looks like a homeless shelter to me," said Xanthos laughing.
"Get him you incompetent minions!" shouted the Soul demon even more enraged. Xanthos' new power wasn't enough to stop a hundred Minotaurs, so Poseidon came off his cloud and presented him with twelve more items. "These are the twelve talismans of Crete, each of which possesses a power." "Take extra care of them."

Xanthos used all twelve talismans to defeat all the Minotaurs, including the slightly more powerful General. "Impossible, the General of my Minotaurs dying hopelessly and my one hundred Minotaur minions sliced to pieces!" said the Soul demon becoming increasingly angry with Xanthos. "This is never going to be over, only when you're dead will it be over." The Soul demon lunged at Xanthos. While the demon did, this, Xanthos couldn't help noticing that Timeous was about to slice Aphrodite's throat. Xanthos quickly ran past the Soul demon and rushed over to Aphrodite to help her. One of the talismans given to Xanthos helped him to vanish into thin air and another helped him get to Aphrodite faster than the speed of light. He used another talisman to burn Timeous sword while being invisible. "What happened to my sword?" asked Timeous. Xanthos used a third talisman to heal a wound on Aphrodite's neck that was made Timeous. He used a fourth talisman to create a good and bad copy of himself to knock Timeous out cold.

The Soul demon used a fire attack to stun Xanthos for ten seconds. He woke to see the Soul demon using his powers of gravity to drop him into the underworld to join Weasley's father. He then glided out of the Soul demon's way. The Soul demon proceeded to try and kill Xanthos and used his water powers to drown him. This action failed and as a result, the Soul demon then descended into the ground of his castle. Two horns than sprang up from the surface and surprised Xanthos. The Soul Demon followed this up with a gust of wind. He couldn't defeat the Soul Demon who then shocked him with a bolt of lightning vigorously. "Let's end this feeble Xanthos," said the Soul demon. Xanthos got up onto his feet and lashed out on the monster. He cut his hand off with the sword of Crete. This wasn't good news to Xanthos, as the Soul demon simply re-grew his hand. He then said with a smile: "That's the best hand I've ever had." "And now it is time to extract your soul!"

While this happened, Timeous recovered from being knocked out and snuck into the Soul demon's luxurious room. He saw 3 bottles in their labelled Merge, Growth and Elements. He hastily picked up the merge bottle and ran back to the fight scene. He used the bottle he had found to merge his own body with the General Minotaur's body. He had become half of himself and half Minotaur. Once this transformation had taken place, Timeous couldn't control himself as he had the mentality of a Minotaur. He engaged in a malicious fight with Xanthos before the Soul demon could extract his soul. Xanthos dodged Timeous' first attack and then slice his head off the second time he attacked. "I'm sorry Timeous, you were my friend, but what you did was wrong."

Hera then came down off her cloud. She issued Xanthos with one last potion which was crucial in defeating the Soul demon. "Empty this potion in the Soul demon's mouth," whispered Hera. Hera quickly disappeared. Xanthos used all 12 talismans to force the potion into the Soul demons' mouth. This did not help him at all. There were now eight demons standing in front of him. The Soul demon had become non-existent. Xanthos was astonished and wondered what to do next. Hera once again came off of her cloud to chuck a sack down. "Sorry sweetie, Zeus forgot to give you all of this stuff," said Hera. "He forgot to give you the most important items." She disappeared in a hurry once again. "What am I supposed to do with a sack against eight demons?" asked Xanthos. He opened the sack and found a list of instructions. He then looked deeper into the bag and found a drum, a fan, some castanets, a lotus pod, a flower, a flute, a gourd and another sword. He read a one of the spells given to him and looked back in front of him. He now saw seven demons in the room. He continued this process with each spell, using a different item from the sack each time. All eight of the demons were sucked into a portal and sent back to the demon world, never to harm Crete again. Xanthos was relieved after this happened and went to hug Aphrodite. "Will you marry me", asked a very exhausted Xanthos.
"Of course I will marry you Xanthos, you're my hero," replied Aphrodite.
Xanthos and Aphrodite got married 6 months later and had a child called Theseus a year later. When Theseus was 5 years old, Xanthos told him of how Aphrodite met, his former best friend Timeous and his difficult struggle against the soul demon. But above all of this, the part of the story which interested Theseus the most was the fact that his dad fought off one hundred Minotaurs. He became inspired by this and dreamed of being as brave as his father. After hearing this story, he then thought for a while and said to himself: "Who knows, maybe one day I'll get to fight a Minotaur like my daddy." Xanthos still owned all 12 magical talismans, the sword of Crete and the shield of Crete, keeping them safe until one day Zeus would remember to come off his cloud and collect them.