Jack was a very ordinary boy with an extraordinary life. He had fought an epic battle with a monster since he was three years old. Even though the monster tried and tried, he could not beat Jack. Night after terrible night, the monster would visit and torment him.

Do not upset yourself or prepare to read the trials and suffering of a poor young boy. Instead, I will tell you the tales of Jack’s nighttime journeys and how he left the monster alone, angry and full of hatred for himself and others, while Jack journeyed across space and time in a huge acorn that grew in his garden, in an old oak tree beyond the stream, just visible from his bedroom window.

When I say ‘huge acorn’ that’s not exactly true although to all intents and purposes, it seemed huge to Jack. He would shrink to just the right size, and so to him, the acorn seemed huge. Now you can’t just go and squeeze inside an acorn, no matter how small you are.Acorns are full of acorn flesh. Jack’s was carefully and beautifully hollowed out with rooms and furniture, including a cosy bed. It housed a library of tiny books (all the classics) and enough paper, pencils, pens, paints and pastels to cover the walls with the illustrations of his remarkable and fantastic adventures. Overhead, two windows allowed Jack to peer outside at the vast oak or when he was travelling, the wonders of the world outside. At the very top, in front of the biggest window were controls that allowed him to steer his acorn through time and space.

The monster had no idea that although Jack appeared to be there in front of him, he was really nowhere to be seen. If only he had looked outside the window, just beyond the stream at the old oak tree. There, hanging high in the uppermost branches he might have seen the acorn. If he was patient (monsters are only very rarely patient), he may have spied a tiny light, too small to be noticed unless you really looked, flickering from a tiny window. And there, a small boy the size of a speck of dust looked back across the stream at the bedroom window and smiled. In the bedroom, the monster looked down at Jack, but what looked like a small boy was no more than a shell like the acorn. Jack turned away from the Acorn window and returned to reading his book. He relaxed into his comfy chair, turned the page and wondered what a minotaur really looked like.

Chapter 2

Theseus lay back on his bunk and wondered what a minotaur really looked like. He’d been aware of the minotaur all his life. He had heard all the tales, how the creature was part bull, part man, how it (or was it he?) lived in the centre of some really difficult maze in Knossos, Crete so it couldn’t easily escape. Theseus really didn’t understand the thinking behind that. Why didn’t they just lock the thing up with a really strong door? Anyone with patience and half a brain could eventually find their way out of a maze. Maybe this Minotaur was just really stupid. All he knew was that in a few days time this monster was going to be fed seven young women and seven young men, all from Athens. Something to do with angry gods and a big mistake his dad had made. They had to do this every seven years and this was the third Minotaur feast they were preparing. Did bulls actually eat people? Didn’t they only eat hay or grass? The idea of being slowly chewed to death with blunt molars made him shudder. The whole thing was a puzzle, just like the labyrinth. Sadly for Theseus it was a puzzle he was going to have to solve quite soon. His dad (Aegeus, king of Athens) had been worried sick about the whole Minotuar thing. To be more accurate he was more worried about how it made him look. Theseus knew his dad loved him and that he was important to him, he just didn’t know why. Aegeus loved to be right but he loved to be king even more and sons were an important accessory to all kings. Aegeus had worked hard at having sons and it hadn't been easy. In reality, he wasn't that bright and he struggled to make sense of the world.

In what felt more and more like a moment of extreme madness, Theseus offered to set sail in the morning for the island of Crete to be one of the seven males to be fed to the Minotaur. Naturally, he had no intention of being eaten. He was planning on killing the bull. Theseus’s heart pounded hard in his chest. There must be better ways to prove to your dad that you’re a hero and worth his love and respect.

‘You do know it’ll kill you lad!’, Aegeus raised his eyes to the heavens.
‘Not necessarily, I’m pretty good with a spear and a sword you know.’
‘Yes you are pretty good but have you seen the pottery’?
Theseus looked at the vase his Dad was pointing at. A huge bull-like beast with horns was painted across it, a man broken in half across its neck, blood spurting in the air.
‘Look at it! I don’t think a spear is going to do much damage, do you?’ He said, waving his finger at the rust coloured pot.
‘You’re gong to get killed and make me look a fool’
‘Oh thanks’ said Theseus. ‘Don’t worry about me’.
‘Listen’, said Aegeus, lowering his voice, ‘I didn’t ask you to do this, but now you’ve volunteered, it would look bad to back out’.
‘I’m going to be okay,’ said Theseus. ‘I can do this and make you proud that I’m your son’.
Aegeus paused and looked him in the eye.
‘If I were you, I’d get some good running sandals’ he muttered almost under his breath 'or make sure you stay behind that chubby lad we're sending from Piraeus. there's no way he'll outrun the bull'. The courtiers howled with laughter.
‘What? Have you forgotten the six labours’? Theseus lifted his head, a look of defiance and pride across his face.
‘Listen son’ Aegeus said ‘I know all about the labours’. he made exaggerated air-quotes at 'labours' and nodded knowingly at Theseus.
‘What’s that supposed to mean’? He said.
‘Well, come on, you got rid of a few bad apples on your way here from your mothers and we’re all very grateful’. said Aegeus, stroking his beard.
‘But’ he paused.
‘But what?’ Said Theseus.
'You pushed old Sciron off a cliff when he wasn’t looking, nicked lame old Periphetes’ walking stick and killed a pig. It’s hardly hero and statue worthy is it son?’
Aegeus laughed. “you spin a good story though, I’ll give you that’.
‘I see’ said Theseus. ‘And mum’s a goddess is she?’
‘Yes, she’s bloody gorgeous is your mother’ said Aegeus, looking incredulously at Theseus.
‘You know exactly what I mean’ said Theseus.
‘Your very convenient story about me being born out of wedlock because apparently a goddess visited you in the night and then miraculously left me by a rock. Come on dad, everyone with half a brain knows’
‘Knows what?’ Asked Aegeus.
‘Knows that you had a bit of a fling, but you can’t bear being seen to be wrong or to have made a mistake. So you made up some stupid story about mum being a goddess’. Theseus was fuming now.
‘And those poor idiots out there' Theseus pointed out the window 'they believe it all. They think that you were somehow chosen. And they think I’m the result of your magical union. It’s all nonsense’.
Aegeus was pointing out of the window now. ‘They bloody love me’ he said.
‘Yes, they do’ sighed Theseus. ‘They really do’.
Theseus picked up his things, turned from his dad and walked away.
He’s the monster, he thought as he walked away with his head down muttering about how he would be bringing back some minotaur leather as a gift.
‘Theseus’ said Aegeus.
‘Son’
‘Please’
Theseus stopped and turned.
‘Be careful lad, come back in one piece eh?’ Aegeus smiled meekly at his son.
‘If I’m successful’ said Theseus, ‘I will raise a white sail. Look to the horizon to learn the fate of your son. If a black sail is hoisted, then the Minotaur has consumed me and everyone else’.
He walked out of the palace and into the night.