Authoress: A poetic look at the creation of the Labyrinth. Simply put. I can't really call it a one-shot, because it really is only the narrator (Jareth).
If you wish it to be otherwise, please leave a response saying so !
Disclaimer: I do not own the old Greek Myth of Daedalus and Icarus, nor do I own Labyrinth. I just meshed the two!
Melted Wings
Would it surprise you to find out that my original name was not Jareth? Or Goblin King? Or any other childish name the fairy tales have taken poetic license to give me? I expect so. For I have only been known as my immortal name and not my pathetic mortal name that mirrored my sorrow. My name was Daedalus. And I was once an inventor, an artificer of Athens; but most of all, I once was a father.
Icarus was his name. His hands were clumsy and would tremble often. He wished to help me with my work, but would often break things and drop my creations. As an inventor, of course, this was daunting. Keeping track of his hands and my own work slowed me and ultimately tired my soul.
Never doubt that I loved my son. I loved him dearly. He was the only thing in the world that could make me smile so. Though he was clumsy he had a curious nature and a kind heart. His eyes were always alight with fascination. To an inventor and creator, this was all I needed as fuel for new ideas.
My nephew then appeared. Oh, Talos, my bright young nephew and apprentice. He was as sharp as a dagger and as clever as the nymphs. What Icarus broke Talos could mend in a day's time. He lit up my mind with new ideas when he found new things. The boy had a knack for inventory. I believe this is what led to my jealousy.
Jealousy is an evil witch. I was not mad with Talos because he could create more than I. I grew angered because he was not born as my son. I found my soul growing sour towards Talos.
Then one day when we were atop my acropolis in the city a bird landed on the edge. Without speaking the bird praised its ability to fly. Its wings shone bright in the sun. Talos asked me if man would one day begin to fly. In a moment of madness I picked the boy up and began to swing him around, asking if he wanted to fly.
It was a game. I never meant to hurt him. Oh, how I hate myself for what I did to one of Hera's children. Talos fell. As he fell my heart did also.
Exile. I was not to be killed, but exiled from Athens. My deeds deserved more than exile, but I did not voice that. If I were to leave this world, who would protect my son from the dangers of the world?
To Crete we went. King Minos was the ruler there. He offered me employment under him as an advisor and inventor. One of the greatest tasks he granted me was the creation of a prison; a cage that could never be broken from. He commissioned me to build the Labyrinth.
On an island not far from his kingdom I was to build the labyrinth that would serve to imprison the fierce Minotaur. The Minotaur was a creature with the head of a bull and body of a man. He was the offspring of the king's wife, Pasiphae, and a bull Poseidon gave to Minos as a gift. The creature was untamable and wild, eating off the flesh of human.
Needless to say I took the offer, not knowing that I was also building my own prison. Minos put me in the Labyrinth when it was finished and I had loss favor with him. Icarus too was sent with me into the maze. My knowledge was not to escape its walls.
Minos was a very dull king to think that I wouldn't find a way out. I built the cage, only I knew how to escape. So with my son I managed to dodge the Minotaur long enough to find the door to the beaches.
I knew the maze, not the island. Minos had put guards on the waters. It seemed I also underestimated him. Minos showed he controlled the sea and the land.
Then, as a curse and miracle, the bird from Athens landed near me again. In the same silence, he mocked me and whispered things of my sins. Another bout of insanity took me and I strangled the bird, killing him. Feather flew around me and landed at my feet. Unlike my first kill, however, this one sparked new life into my old bones.
"Minos does not control the skies," I told my son.
I set to work on my wings; the creation that would give men the means to fly. The wings were made from the feathers of the birds we could find and capture. Put together with wax, they were fashioned with the arch much like a bird's. They would capture the wind and carry us away from this island.
Looking to my son I took his shoulders in my hands and looked into his eyes. I told him that he must follow behind me as we fly. He was not to fly too high or the sun would melt the wax. He was not to fly to low or the sea spray would wet the wings and drag him down to the unforgiving waters.
Then with one gentle kiss to his forehead I led him out into the sky. The wings were beautiful. They took us away from the island, leaving the Labyrinth behind us. We were leaving our prison. My son would be free.
It was only when I saw feathers falling around me did I realize what had happened. My ears then heard something that a father should never hear: The yell of my son, calling for help. He had flown too high. The sun had caught his wings in its warm embrace and melted the wax. The wings had crumbled and my son, my light, and my purpose fell to the sea, being swallowed by Poseidon's home.
Nothing could mend my heart. It was cracked in too many places. Too many stitches had already been used to try and save it. Landing on the beach of the mainland brought me no joy. For my son was not there to land with me. I had lost him.
My blood ran cold and I had nothing left to give the gods or the world, expect my mind, which still worked, though saddened. My mind decided, however, that Minos would pay for taking my son from me.
My Revenge
His death was cruel, as was Icarus'. He was swallowed by water, as was my son. The death fit the criminal's crime.
I allowed Minos to try and find me. I had found a home under King Cocalus and was a toy-maker, to the delight of his young daughters.
Minos created a very creative way to find me. Going from kingdom to kingdom he carried with him a spiral shell. He told the kings that every shell like this had passage ways and tunnels like many mazes. Anyone that could get a string all the way through one end and to the other would gain a fortune never seen before.
Cocalus gave the shell to me. Taking the challenge, I showed the king's two little girls a trick. Coating one end of the string with honey I let an ant do the work for me. Dipping the end of the shell in the same honey the ant found its way through to the reward, bringing the string with him.
When Cocalus presented the shell to Minos for the reward Minos demanded Cocalus hand me over to him, knowing only a mind like mine could have solved the puzzle. Cocalus could not disagree, for Minos' armies were greater, but he did persuade Minos to stay for dinner and to take a bath.
It was then that I took his life. I had built the king's bath houses. I knew how they worked. How the water entered the chamber and how it left the chamber.
King Minos was scalded to death in the boiling water I let him drown in. It was a horrific death, but Cocalus did not say nor do anything to me. I was not the only one that agreed that Minos should be sent to Hades. And so he was.
Athena's Gift
But his death did not soothe my soul. Grief over took me and I went away from Camicus, King Cocalus' land. I went away and hid myself from the world. A shadow shrouded over the man that was once a father. I was a shell to the world.
Then a deity's light visited me. Not in a tunnel, but above me. A bright blue light that I let surround me. Warmth flooded my veins and seemed to wake me. A voice told me it knew my sins and fears. It would take me away from those things; give me a new life; an immortal life.
Athena, the goddess of wisdom and judgment, took me from the world of mortals. With me she took the Labyrinth island and set us both in a world of her own creating. I was placed as ruler and given a new body; A body that would change to her bird of choice, the owl. I would never forget, though. I would never lose those memories.
My hands that took the life of Talos. My hands that built the prison for a monster. My hand that made the wings that flew my son to his death. My hands that took King Minos' life.
Now here I rule over the dejected children of the world. The goblins that came here for protection from the cruel world are loyal to me. Other creatures that were shunned and cast away from the human world are all welcome here, regardless of past sins and faults. Just as I, they are here to forget.
But I will never forget my real name. The name that was both famous and infamous. The name of an inventor, of a creator, and of a father. Daedalus.
Authoress: What did you think? Good? Bad? Peachy? PLEASE REVIEW!!