Excerpt: Sighs for the Labyrinth - Dungeon Grind Anthology
The ample teaser below is from the story "Sighs for the Labyrith" one of many tantalizing, monstrous romps in the Dungeon Grind anthology.
Draw your sword and immerse yourself in the dark menageries of (in TOC order) Voice Spider, Sarina Dorie, Marderschaden, Kandrel, Rechan:, myself, George Squares, Ross Whitlock, Tym, and Whyte yote
Formidable cover art by Unciaa
Editorial wizardry by Kandrel and Rechan
Dungeon Grind will invade Rainfurrest 2015 from the tables of Furplanet, from whom the anthology can be pre-ordered.
Excerpt: Sighs for the Labyrinth
By Slip Wolf
They came across Spartan warriors in calisthenics, armored, lightly attired or naked as Olympiads.
Helots, some servile, many elevated to fill military roles in the advance upon Athens, darted about to
maintain the camp. At its perimeter, Spartan sentries fixed eagle-eyes east under their peaked
helmets. The tour of the outskirts passed pits of refuse that attacked their noses, and then they
came across the small lake where the men had seen to elementary hygiene.
And where one odd last soldier now splashed itself in the river. The creature was thick with the loam
of countless departed bodies. The King regarded the minotaur calmly as the creature stood from a
crouch, facing away, digging at film in his eyes. "What remarkable spectacles the gods upturned in
this world," Archidamus mused. "Where my own ancestors would have cursed the very idea of other
Greeks within our ranks, now we find ourselves hosting beasts along-side us as though arming the very
horses we ride on."
Lukan said nothing. Out in the sinking sunlight, Cyrantus was an imposing figure. His horns curved
like deadly spear-tips into the sky and his massive shoulders glistened wetly, casting light off the
upward curve of each bristling muscle. A broad back trailed down to where a thin tail beat its tuft
below curvaceous buttocks. The bend of its bullish legs and hooves were concealed beneath the water,
but as it turned, they saw a rolling, hardened abdomen taper down to a thick waist and Lukan blinked
at what the water did not conceal. The thick, dark shaft of its ample penis drooped to the water's
face, narrowly covering a lightly-furred sack beneath. The lengthy member quivered bronze in the
reflected light as the minotaur shifted its stance on the mud beneath the waters.
Lukan fought to avoid openly marveling at the impressive proportions that nature gave the half-bull.
Was this the creature that had fed wit to his ears the very night before? Had that been some dream?
As he gazed upon the minotaur's physical magnificence, finding sensations stir in him unfelt since his
trysts back in the Agoge, he heard Kerata mutter disdainfully, "It has many impressive aspects for a
raging beast. I should wonder how it performs." There was a sardonic tone in her voice.
Her father nodded, though he missed or ignored his daughter's jest. "This creature was brought into
the army by General Lukan's predecessor, Peleartes, though we don't know the means by which this pet
was tamed. I assume that relief from its war lust was reward enough. I know not what flesh it eats,
that of Greek or otherwise."
"It is fully tame," Lukan rushed to say. "And it is a valuable...tool of this army of course, far
more than the war elephants the Persians use."
Cyrantus appeared to hear the muttering at the lake's flanks and turned to see the King, Lukan and the
King's daughter staring at him. His shoulders slumped, but he made no attempt to cover any part of
himself. Dark eyes found Lukan's and the General realized that this beast knew precisely how he was
expected to act in front of a King. There was a strange flutter in Lukan's heart when he spoke the
next words loud enough for the minotaur to hear. "This beast is a violent brute. But it has an
agreeable disposition when properly cared for. It knows whom to gore, and I will happily employ it in
my army till we take Athens."
"What use for it after that?" Kerata asked.