My mouth fell open and I nearly tripped over my workbench as I backed away from the mad Queen. Yet, despite my obvious revulsion, Pasiphae continued to speak as though she were commissioning a new bracelet or necklace.
“You will be paid of course: gold, jewels, riches beyond your imagination, whatever you please. I don’t care the price; I care only that this costume is made,” and here she stopped for emphasis. “And that it be made in secret. No one must learn of what I have asked of you this night. Is this clear?”
“But...but...you...with...with...a bull...?!” I stammered.
“And what is so strange about that?” Pasiphae asked, raising her head proudly so that she was looking down her nose at me.
“You can’t! You musn’t! It is impossible...!”
“You will make it possible!” Pasiphae snapped, her eyes ablaze like the fire in my furnance. “That is why I have come to you. Did you not just claim to be able to make anything I asked?”
“But this...!” I gasped. “I can’t do this. You can’t do this!”
“And who are you to command your Queen?” Pasiphae sniffed haughtily.
“If the King found out...!”
“The King will not find out; I will see to that,” Pasiphae assured me. “Besides, my husband has affairs all the time and no one ever says a word. If the King can take a lover why can’t his Queen?”
“But not with a bull, your highness! Anything but that. A bull...”
“Cannot give me children,” Pasiphae soothed, putting a hand to her abdomen protectively. “My womb is safe, isn’t it? A bull’s seed cannot take root and so Minos need not worry about the line of succession being disrupted by my new lover. And nor can a bull brag after the deed is done as a man surely would. So you see Daedelas, no one will ever know. Indeed, if you design this costume well enough, not even the bull will know that he has had the Queen!”
“Please, I beg of you, do not ask this of of me!”
“A Queen does not ask,” Pasiphae corrected me. “She commands. You will do this for me!”
“And if I refuse?”
Pasiphae could see the determination in my eyes to resist her will. I thought she would match my will with a steely look of her own, but to my surprise she merely shrugged her shoulders.
“Very well, Daedelas, have it your way,” Pasiphae said casually, wrapping her linen hood over her head to leave. “I shall trouble you no further. Though, I do worry what my husband will say when he learns that I have been away from the palace for so long. You know, more than one man is chained to the dungeon wall for having being alone in my presence for too long. Some, were in my presence for all of a minute, others even less than that. I would certainly hate to see that happen to you, Daedelas.”
“You wouldn’t...!” I began, but Pasiphae cut me off with a knowing smile.
“I mean, after all, you have been in my presence for over an hour now. Alone. At night. In your workshop. My handmaidens are no doubt getting anxious. I wonder what they will make of my long absence? But then, that’s not your concern, is it? You wish me to leave, don’t you?”
She had me, and we both knew it. I tried to think of some way, anyway to refuse her mad request without ending up in the dungeon. I was a clever man, but the Queen’s power was absolute. If she willed it, she would have it. I was trapped.
I shook my head.
”No?” Pasiphae said with a faint smile and a mocking delight in her eyes. “You would like me to stay a while longer then?”
With a deep sigh I nodded my head slowly.
“And you will do as I ask of you?”
“Yes,” I said through clenched teeth.
I am glad to see that we could come to an agreement. You are wise...for a commoner,” Pasiphae smiled, but her smile faded as she looked nervously at the door. “Now listen to me carefully, for I want this disguise constructed in a very particular manner and I do not have the luxury of repeating myself. I have tarried here for too long as it is, and my husband will soon notice my absence. Are you ready?”
“Yes...your highness,” I added as an afterthought, wondering how in Hades I got myself into this. “You may begin.”
“Then listen well,” Pasiphae said as she began to pace the room, addressing me as one might a child. “You are to make this costume in secret. I will have materials sent to you at night; we can’t risk anyone noticing during the day.”
“Of course.” I felt myself sinking. “I will work only at night.”
“And I want it built out of solid material - wood and bronze - but the inside must also be hollowed out so that I can fit inside of it. Make sure the outside is strong enough to protect me - I will need to be able to support a great deal of weight upon my back, after all - but at the same time I wish to do so in comfort. I don’t care how you do it, just make sure the interior is hollow and the outside strong. Can you do that?”
“A strong exterior with a hollow center?” I thought about it for a moment, wondering how much the bull weighed. It was reputed to be a large as a house and weigh even more. What if I failed? What if it broke through the cow like an egg shell? “Of course I can,” I vowed, wondering if indeed, I could.
“Next,” Pasiphae said hurriedly, looking again to the door, “upholster the interior with soft pillows and line it with silk. I want expensive silk too; something exotic, not just the local stuff. Remember this is meant for a Queen!”
“I can do that,” I said nodding.
“But above all,” Pasiphae continued, “it must be clever enough so that when I am inside of it no one, not even my husband, may know who I am!”
“It must hold a lot of weight, have a hollow center, protect you from harm, be comfortable, hide your identity, and be made of wood and bronze,” I repeated, unable to believe my own words. “Anything more?”
“Just one,” the Queen said, blushing. “I...I...I want you to make this cow a pretty one. Make it white. I want it to gleam as white as the moon, and without a blemish on its hide. And it is to have gold horns upon its brow; gold like my crown. The eyes are to be a brilliant blue, like sapphires sparkling in the sea. You may model the eyes based on my own, if you like. And I want the hooves to be of the darkest ebony.” She paushed for a moment, as if trying to remember something. “Oh, and whatever you do, I don’t want you exaggerating the udders! Is this understood?”
I felt my mouth falling open again. A bull? The Queen? A cow suit? Exaggerating the udders? What madness was this? Somehow I managed to utter a, “yes, your highness.”
“Good, then you have your instructions. See to it that you follow them to the letter,” Pasiphae said haughtily. She turned to leave, but paused, before turning back around to face me.
“There is one last thing that I think you should know.”
“And what is that, my Queen?”
“I detest cows.”
“Your majesty?”
“In all the world they are the animal I despise most of all. Do you know why that is?” Pasiphae could see my look of confusion. “Because my court if full of them, that is why. They call themselves ‘ladies’ but really they are cows. They are emptied headed, vacant-eyed cows. Just put a necklace around one of their pretty little necks and see how easily contented they become. And their breasts! Huge like udders! It is obvious which of their traits have endeared themselves to their husbands. And do you know what they do with all their time Daedelas?”
I shook my head that I did not.
“Nothing! They sit penned to their palaces like a cow to a field, doing little more breeding children. Sometimes I wonder if Minos would not prefer such a cow for his wife. But I am no cow, commoner, I am Queen! I am a woman, fit to rule, with a mind of my own and ambitions to match. And they hate me for it, they all hate me, because they are jealous of me. They all think that they, and not I, should wear the crown of Crete. Those cows would love for nothing more than to see me humbled.” She turned and looked at me with eyes as mad as any I have ever seen.
A long moment stretched between us as I waited for the Queen to say something. Anything! For my part I could not hope to find the appropriate words. At last she spoke again.
“So you see Daedelas, if anyone were to learn that I wanted to dress myself as a cow....,” Pasiphae stopped, and looked down at her feet, “well, it would not go well for me. I can’t risk them knowing; I can’t risk anyone knowing. My people would never understand. Minos would never understand...”
Despite my horror, revulsion, and anger, I suddenly felt myself feeling a little sorry for Pasiphae. The cold, arrogant Queen suddenly seemed her age - not much more than twenty - and very much afraid. Maybe I had been too harsh on her to think so poorly of her? Perhaps she was not well? I decided to try to console the anguished young woman.
“Your majesty, it is clear that this cow troubles you. Why not wait a while? Perhaps there is another way...”
“There is no other way!” She shook her head sadly. “Don’t you think I haven’t tried? I have tried everything and nothing has worked! It has been a year now and nothing. Nothing! I can’t go another week like this Daedelas; not another day! I must have it. I must and I will! And you will help me get it. You are the only smart enough to do it. You will make me a cow!”
“But...”
“No, I have said all that I am going to say! Do your work, commoner, and when you are done make sure that when you are finished that all who see their Queen will think her a” and here Pasiphae wrinkled up her nose in disgust, “a....cow.”
“I will do as you say, your majesty,” I promised, unable to believe my own ears. Had I just promised to help build the Queen a cow so she could mate with a bull? A bull!?
“So you say Daedelas, but I do worry that you might get second thoughts and just wondering what the King, my husband, might say about all this.”
“I asssure you, your secret is safe with me, your highness.”
“I know it is, because if it’s not, it will cost you your life,” Pasiphae promised me as casually one might discuss the weather. But then a sly smile and the wink of mischievous delight spread back across Pasiphae’s wicked face. She walked slowly toward me until all that separated our bodies was her thin linen gown.
“But let us not speak unpleasantly to one another, Daedelas,” she said looking up at me sweetly, her perfume swirling about us. “And anyway, is this so different from what my husband asks of you? I know that he has you create for me all those wonderful trinkets that amuse me so and really that’s all that this is: just another trinket for my amusement. And isn’t that what my husband wants, for me to be amused by your clever little creations?”
“Of...of course your highness. Yes...just an amusement.” I mumbled as she leaned closer to me. Her perfume held me entranced, and for the life of me I could not think of anything else save for the beautiful, young body so very near my own.
“Serve me well,” she whispered, putting a hand on my arm, “and I shall reward you with gold and jewels beyond your wildest dreams. Fashion for me this costume and I will see to it that you get anything you desire.” She leaned in closer, pushing her soft breasts against my hard chest. “It is within my power to give you anything you want; you just have to help me get what I want first.” She looked up at me, her dark, tormented eyes boring deep into mine, “You will help me, I know you will, for I have seen it in my dreams.”
“Yes...I must...help,” I muttered. I took a deep breath of her sweet perfume and felt my mind whirl with ecstasy. Her breasts were soft, and I wanted to hold her closer to me, so that I could feel her more intimately. She was so soft, and sweet and...
“But if you deny me!” she warned, pulling herself away from me, “I will deny you!” My body ached as I watched Pasiphae’s body walked nimbly toward the door.
“I think we are going to be good friends, you and I, Daedelas!” Pasiphae called over her shoulder. “In fact, I am glad that I came here tonight. I have always wanted to see the workshop that has produced such fine amusements for me. You shall begin making the newest amusement tonight; tomorrow, I shall return for my measurements. I want to be fitted to this creation of yours as soon as possible!”
And with that she left, leaving me to wonder what madness had transpired before me. Little did I know that I was about to find out, and that the madness was only beginning.
What I have written of up until this point has been a mere chronicle of Pasiphae’s descent into madness. What is to follow shall be of a considerably...darker nature.
The Queen was as good as her word. The next night she returned eagerly with her handmaidens in tow and they quickly made themselves at home. They set up a small screen made for Pasiphae to undress behind. The measurements had to be precise; Pasiphae had requested of me that the cow suit be fitted to her body so perfectly that I would need to know every last detail of her body if it was to fit properly. Her handmaidens took the measurements and called them out to me, as I would furiously scribbled each measurment onto parchment, desperately trying to avert my eyes from the alluring silluheute of Pasiphae. If Minos ever found out I had taken his wife’s measurements...
“I am sorry, Daedelas,” Pasiphae said with mock pity, looking over the screen at me as her handmaidens ran my measuring cord over her naked body. “I know how difficult this must be for you; for any man, really. But these are royal treasures after all and one must not touch the King’s property!”
And it was true. The Queen’s body was protected by law. Her hair alone was considered a national treasure, warranting the death penalty for those who made the terrible mistake of brushing against it. I was not sure what I hated the Queen more for - her mock pity, or the fact that I would have given anything to look behind the screen.
In the weeks that followed the Queen and her maids came to my workshop every night at the same hour - always under the cover of darkness. But with each passing night the Queen seemed to become more and more obsessed, unstable even, scolding me for my apparent lack of progress. I worked furiously on the Queen’s project, determined to finish it and be rid of the arrogant Queen once and for all, and all the while wondering what kind of madness had possessed the Queen’s mind.
I was soon to find out.
It was especially late one night; Pasiphae having left hours earlier; when I fell asleep at my workbench from the sheer exhaustion of my efforts. The Queen’s cow costume was nearing completion, but that night I did not have the energy to finish it...
That night I dreamed of a staircase, a marble one, cut into the side of a steep mountain. I felt compelled to climb it, and so I did, seeming to climb the mountain for days, though I did not tire. At last I reached the summit and came to a beautiful field of green meadows where birds and butterflys played in abudance underneath the watchful eye of the warm sun. It was warm and joyful here, and I felt a glow of happiness all about. It was a place of great beauty and love, but in the middle of it all was love itself - for reclining comfortably beneath the shade of an olive tree was a woman of great beauty. She had hair as blonde and as bright as the sun, with eyes that held the spark of divinity. I knew at once who she was.
“Goddess Aphrodite!” I gasped, falling to my knees.
“Arise Daedelas,” the goddess commanded with a wry smile. “And please don’t bore me with the usual supplications you mortals like to engage in. We have much to talk about, you and I, and I can’t have you wasting my time with ‘goddess this’ and ‘goddess that.’”
“Yes, of course goddess.” I did as I was told and stood up. Aphrodite looked me over with an appreciative eye.
“You are a man of intellect and ingenuuity, Daedelas,” Aphrodite remarked. “Just the sort of man I had hoped the Queen of Crete would seek out for her little...dilemma.”
“Then you know about...about the Queen’s cow?” I asked worriedly. It was well known that Minos was highly favored by the gods. “Please do not punish me! I was only doing what the Queen asked of me. I never meant to betray Minos!”
Aphrodite laughed. “Don’t be silly! You are as much the Queen’s servant as you are the King’s. After all, didn’t the King purchase your talents to indulge his Queen?” I nodded. “Well then, it is your duty to induldge her and I would not want to get in the way of that!”
“But what she asks is unthinkable, unnatural, monstrous...”
“That is because the Queen’s mind is no longer her own,” Aprhodite explained, interrupting me. “I have seen to that; I have possessed her mind and made her thoughts my own.”
“But, why?”
“A year ago the Queen saw fit to deny me,” Aphrodite said, looking up at me sternly. “And so, I have simply returned the favor.”
“What do you mean?”
“She has denied me and so I have denied her.”
“Denied her?” I could feel my interest growing. “What do you mean?”
Aphrodite smiled. “I was hoping you would ask that. The powers of love are not to be taken lightly as your Queen is now learning. You see, I have placed within her mind a terrible desire and it grows worse by the day. She has told you about the white bull?” I nodded my head. “I have put her in heat for the animal, an undeniable, unyielding, heat. Her passion scorches her even now, raging within her like an all consuming flame.”
“But I thought you said you have denied her?”
“Oh, but I have! That’s the best part - there is nothing the Queen can do to cool her fire. She can’t sleep for dreaming of it; when she is awake she can think of nothing else, and if she closes her eyes she sees it in her mind. Her every thought is of the bull; she can hear it in the fields bellowing, she can hear it pawing at the ground, grunting her name. The mere mention of the bull’s name is enough to put her into an animal like heat. And yet, for all her desire, she cannot tame the beast within her. It was almost a year ago that I cursed the Queen’s mind, and since that day I have denied her the ability to satisfy her lust.”
“You mean,” I gasped, “She...the Queen...she cannot...cannot find release? The Queen can’t...?”
“Orgasm?” Aprhodite said with a wink, and then purred, “no, she can’t! Try as she might, there is nothing the Queen can do to assuage the monstrous lust within her, and it grows worse with each passing day. Of course, she does try. Oh, how she tries! When Minos beds her she climbs that pinnacle like any normal woman would until, just as she is about to reach her peak, she finds that she can go no further. Minos, of course, has no such trouble and so his lovely bride must fake her orgasm each and every night, leaving Minos to fall asleep peacefully while she lays awake, unfullfilled yet again. And do you want to know the best part? I leave her that way - just at the edge of release, with every fiber of her being aching for it!”
“That is truly a terrible curse,” I whispered in awe.
“Terrible, but poetic. The Queen thought me not chaste enough and so I am giving her a lesson in chasity. You really should she her at night though, she will do just about anything now! When Minos takes her she becomes a savage animal, desperate to get herself over the edge before her husband is finished. She all but attacks him, much to his pleasure, but never to hers, the poor dear. She has tried everything - Minos, her hands, those candles you crafted for her birthday...but only the bull will do. She wanders the halls at night, half asleep, half awake moaning terribly. I am even told that she can’t even sit still on her throne anymore, the pressure is so great.”
“So you sent Pasiphae to me then, to outfit her for this mating?” I interrupted, unsure if I could hear anymore of this without becoming a bull myself.
“Yes,” Aphrodite nodded. “It’s important that this costume be well constructed. This mating will be difficult for the Queen, even with my magic behind it. I don’t expect it to be comfortable for her, in fact I wish it to be as difficult as possible, but she must survive it and emerge relatively unharmed. Is that clear?”
“Yes...yes, of course.”
“This cow suit is very important. Without it the mating could never happen. At least not without the bull crushing her. It weighs over a ton you know. I can’t have it crushing her, trampling her, goaring her, or ripping her in two. She must survive this mating. Is that clear? I have...plans for her.”
“Plans? You mean after the mating? What sort of plans?”
“Never mind that,” Aphrodite said, waving my concerns away with an impervious hand. “Now pay close attention because I have a few changes I wish to make to the Queen’s costume.”
“Changes?” I swallowed hard.
“Yes. For instance - tomorrow, when you have finished the cow you are not to place it in the field like the Queen has requested. Instead I wish you to push her to the market square where I will be waiting for her.”
“The market square? But tomorrow a Festival is being held in the Queen’s honor! The streets are bound to be crowded....”
“Oh, and the head of the cow?” Aphrodite continued, ignoring me. “Remove it!”
“But goddess,” I said, struggling to find the words, “The Queen had requested privacy. She had hoped the cow suit would hide her identity.”
“Yes, she did want privacy didn’t she? A pity she shall have very little of it.”
“But the Festival...!”
“Is something the Queen would not wish to miss. You are to make sure that the Queen is there and dressed...appropriately.”
“But the streets will be crowded at that time of day! People will see...”
“Let them see! The Queen’s theft of my bull was brazen and committed in public where all could see. As such her penance must be seen as well.”
“But goddess Aphrodite,” I asked, perhaps foolishly trying to understand the ways of the gods. “why go through all this trouble if all you wish to do is shame the Queen in public? Surely you have it within your power to do that without my aid.”
“Of course I could, Daedelas,” Aphrodite said, seeing where I was going before I even got there. “With a snap of my fingers I could have the Queen stripped bare, tied to my altar, and taken by the bull for all to see.”
“Then why don’t you....?”
“Because, that would only teach the Queen that I am real and that is not the lesson I wish to teach her. I do not care if the Queen of Crete acknowledges my existance or not, it is enough that her subjects believe in me. Indeed, I hope that the Queen continues to deny my existance, so that when she is mated to this creature she will think that she, and not I, is alone responsible for her unnatural lust. Let’s see her try to explain that one to her husband after all her denials of me! But best of all, when all is said and done, when the Queen has given herself to a bellowing, rutting bull, she will be under the illusion that she wanted to do it. That ought to prick her pride more than just a little bit.”
Aphrodite smiled and leaned up from her reclining position. “But those are only minor changes. Now let me tell you about the important ones!”
Aphrodite then whispered into my ear what I was to do with the Queen’s cow. I woke up screaming.
The next day I finished the modifications to the cow in no time and by dawn was pacing my workshop floor, wondering when the Queen would arrive. As if in answer to my question Pasiphae pushed open my door and entered my workshop.
I knew at once that something was very wrong. She looked bewildered and lost, almost as if she did not know where she was. And where was Pasiphae’s escort, where were her maids? She had come to my cottage alone! How was she to be placed in the cow without the help of her maids?
She looked around my workshop like a lost child and her desperate eyes found me at last.
“Daedalas? Is that you? I...I...feel so strange...” She stumbled into my cottage looking at me like a drowning woman might a rope. “Everything feels so weird. My head...it is spinning,...and there is a strange buzzing noise in my ears...”
“My Queen,” I cried in alarm, “you come without your maids! Why are they not with you?”
“Yes,” Pasiphae answered, her voice far and distant. “Yes, my maids. I...I...I could not find them. Everyone seems to have left me. The palace was so...empty. I wandered...I came here. I...I don’t know how, but somehow I ended up here...” and her voice trailed off.
“This is terrible! Without your ladies how are we to fit you into your cow costume?”
“I don’t care how,” Pasiphae gasped, “I must be fitted and I must be fitted today! Do you understand me? Today! Now! I cannot wait another day, it must be now!”
“But your majesty...”
“It must be now I tell you! And when I have been fitted you are to see to it that I am brought to the royal fields.”
“But your majesty, your maids are not here. How am I to fit you without...”
But Pasiphae did not answer. She simply stood and stared.
“My Queen? Your majesty are you...?” but as I looked at Pasipahe I could see that the light had left here eyes and they had now become glassy and dull. I felt the cold hand of fear clutching at me as I realized what was happening - Aphrodite was possessing the Queen so that I could prepare her for the Festival. I would not disobey her now. The Queen stood there, unmoving, unblinking, and I knew what I had to be done.
I opened up the cow costume and looked at the Queen wondering how I was to possession her properly. I wondered if I could simply place her within the cow and then hike up her skirt over her bottom so as to bare her for the Festival as Aphrodite had requested. I tried this but there were too many gemed latches and intricate laces in Pasiphae’s dress to permit such a thing. I tried undoing the fastenings but the ornate style dress only frustrated my attempts. Time was running short if I was to have the Queen ready in time. At last I realized that I would have to tear the dress from Pasiphae’s body if I was to have her ready for the market square in time. She would have to be completely disrobed, her clothes torn from her body.
“If you did not have such expensive taste this would have been much easier for the both of us!” I scolded Pasiphae as I tore at her hemline.
She took no notice or care as I tore long strips of her garmet from her body. The sound of linen tearing filled my workshop and there in the middle of it all was Pasiphae, closing her eyes and pursing her lips in mild disapproval as she was stripped of her expensive clothing. When I had removed the last of her clothing I stepped back to take a look at what, until now, only the King had been allowed to see.
She was completely unadorned now, save for the gold crown upon her head. She was everything I had imagined and everything she had teased. And more, so very much more. It would have been easy to confuse her with a goddess. It seemed a shame that one so beautiful could be so deeply flawed, so arrogant and cold. Pasiphae’s body was warm, inviting, even life affirming. She was soft and white, white like the moon, and her skin as flawless as marble. Her dark midnight hair - her pride and joy - went the length of her back and her legs, lithe and lean, made a long, shapely journey up to her inviting thighs. Between those legs was the softest, silkiest, darkest triangle a man had ever seen, invoking within me thoughts I dare not write. I knew then what it meant to feel like an animal for Pasiphae aroused in me my most basic and savage of instincts. At that moment I knew what it meant to feel like a bull.
But what I saw next made me gap. She was big. Impossibly big. Her breasts were like two great globes, round and gleaming pale white like the moonlight. And they were firm, showing none of the signs of age or gravity has upon such overly large breasts. Pasiphae was a young Queen, barely twenty years old, and so naturally her breasts were to be firm and proud, but even for one as young as Pasiphae her breasts seemed almost unnaturally perky. And the size! They were almost obscene they were so big! I could not beleive what I was looking at. Pasiphae was of small frame and her figure had always led me to believe her breasts were equally small so as to compliment her figure. This couldn’t be the same Queen I took measurements for just a few weeks ago, could it? I grabbed my measuring string to make sure. a trembling hand I wrapped my measuring cord around the Queen’s breasts, measuring them and marvelling all the while at how soft they were. They gave way easily beneath my cord, though I was careful to exert only the lightest of pressure. So soft and yet so firm...it seemed impossible. I compared the measurements to those her maids had taken weeks early and my suspicions were confirmed: Pasiphae’s figure had indeed changed. I looked back at her, seeing the heavy hang of those enlarged breasts and wondered at how they must have tugged at her, weighing against her. What were Aphrodite playing at?
I shook myself of my brooding thoughts and with great reluctance took my eyes from the Queen’s naked and mezmerzing figure to that of the cow costume I would have to bind her to. The costume was in two pieces - the bottom half which was a essentially a platform for the Queen to rest upon, and the top half that I would affix to the bottom half, enclosing the Queen within. My discomfort at my role in this affair grew greater as I realized that I would have to touch the royal body to maneuver Pasiphae into my dark creation. I winced mentally, but knew that there could be no turning back. I had come this far and I would have to see it on to the end.
I put a tentative hand on the young Queen’s back, feeling her soft flawless flesh, and steered her gently toward her cow. Even that slight touch sent waves of ecstasy through me! Her perfume swirled about us, seeming to bind us together with its sweet aroma.
Pasiphae moved as directed and as I bent her over to place her within the tight confines of my creation I made sure to look away from her velvety sex, for fear of what desires it might provoke within me. I felt a pang of sympathy well up from within me as I bent the beautiful Pasiphae over and for a moment I hesitated. But I pushed the feeling aside and continued, bending Pasiphae over at the waist and manuevering her lithe figure onto the cow platform so that her stomach lay flat against it.
Flat against the platform now, I guided Pasiphae’s long slender legs carefully into the back legs of the cow where leather straps awaited her. I wrapped these tightly around her ankles, binding the Queen tightly to the back of her cow. I could not help but run a hand along Pasiphae’s elegant back and down her long legs in appreciation of her fine beauty. Then I placed a wooden brace over and around the Queen’s waist, locking it into place, so that the Queen was securely locked into posisiton. It was a special brace, one that was specifically designed with the Queen’s body in mind, so that the more she struggled, the more it would tighten its grip about her and hold her in place. Built into the brace were two small holes just big enough for the Queen’s delicate wrists to fit into. I slipped her wrists through the device before locking these into place as well. Finally I locked a similar brace around her shoulders. The Queen was now locked into place, bound to both the front and back of the cow, her arms handcuffed behind her back. I stood back to take a look at my handiwork.
Pasiphae was resting on her stomach, her breasts pushed uncomfortably against the bottom of the platform. Her head, back, and bottom were all still uncovered, but her legs were hidden into the recesses of the fake cow legs. The Queen was positioned as if she were on all fours, she was strapped down so that she could not stand up, and her body was suspended a few feet in the air so that she had the height of real cow. No sound or movement came from the Queen and I was thankful that Aphrodite’s curse had afforded me this small luxury for what I had to do next made me swallow hard.
Underneath the platform of the cow I had left an opening devoid of any support, just as Aphrodite had instructed me. I was to make sure that the Queen’s breasts were above this opening so that they might hang free. With great delicacy and some difficulty I maneuvered the Queen’s enormous breasts into position. The Queen’s breasts must have ticklish for she giggled as I tried working her breasts into position, but her giggling ceased when I freed her breasts so that they hung beneath her. Pasiphae winced noticeably, and it was evident that even in her entranced state the ponderous hang of those more than ample breasts pulled at her uncomfortably. I suddenly felt the urge to drop my tools and run from her, leave the Queen in her trance and escape to another far off island...but I knew that it was too late escape. I was just as trapped as Pasiphae.
I had been told in my youth that the Titans were dark gods but I saw now that there children were darker yet. The cow custom was not the first indignity to be visited upon Pasiphae that day nor would the baring of her breasts be the last. She would have to suffer more. Aphrodite had instructed me in a number of humiliations to decorate Pasiphae’s royal body with, none of which will I shall speak of save one and it the tamest by far.
The baring of the Queen’s breasts was not meant so much as to punish the Queen, as it was to entertain her subjects. There would have to be more: something to cause discomfort, something...unpleasant. Upon her soft, delicate flesh I was to attach two large and heavy copper bells, like those found around a cow’s neck, so that as she was rolled to the market square her nipples would announce her arrival with a cheerful ringing. As I readied the bell I could not help but look at Pasiphae’s recently discarded jewelry on my dusty floor and I thought how common these bells were compared to the Queen’s former adornments. I hesitated, remembering what Aphrodite had said to me in my dream.
“Bell her,” Aphrodite had orderd me. “Bell her like the cow that she is. These bells may appear small, and they make a light hearted music, but do not be mistaken - they are heavy. Very heavy. My brother Hades forged them himself, from metals buried deep in the earth. They will do more than prick her pride, my inquisitive friend, they will pull quite uncomfortably on her flesh.”
“Of course,” I muttered to no one in particular and returned to my work.
But it was no good. No matter how hard I tried I could not work the clasp of the bell around the Queen’s nipple. Everytime I touched her Pasiphae would squirm about playfully, making my job impossible. Worse, Pasiphae’s aureolas were large; quite larger than the average woman's and as such she had less of a tip at the end of her nipple to work with. I needed something to get the Queen to stand still and something tha would harden the tips of her nipples. It was hot and difficult work, but as I wiped the sweat from my brow an idea came to me.
I ran over to my table where I kept a bucket. It was one of my first creations when I had first arrived on Crete and it had the special ability of keeping water always ice cold. With one quick heave I splashed the ice cold water over Pasiphae’s exposed breasts.
“AAAAHH!” The Queen gasped as the cold water shocked her out of her stupor and her dull, lifeless eyes lit up again. “What...? Where am I? What is....what is...?” but then she moaned and the dullness returned to her eyes. “The bull, my bull, I need my bull,” she whispered, her head falling limp again.
As she whispered her madness I watched as her breasts dimpled from the rush of cold water, her nipples puckering and swelling outward so that the Queen’s large aureolas gave way to her nipples, growing into two taut tips. I now had more than enough to work with, but as I reached under the Queen my hands trembled. I grabbed one of her soft pink nipples and making it ready for those those terrible bells I braced myself, then opening the clasp of the bell, I let it close on the Queen’s nipple, pinching itself tightly against Pasiphae’s soft, sensitive skin.
“Aaaaiiiieee!!” The Queen cried out, startled by the sudden sharp pain of the clasp on her breast. I let go of the bell, watching it continue to pinch the nipple and tug at it; pulling the entire breast downward and stretch the nipple uncomfortably downward with its weight. “Ooowwww,” Pasiphae moaned, struggling against the weight of the bell. Frantically she tried to relieve herself of the pain by shaking the bell free, but it remained securely fastened to her nipple. All the Queen’s wild gestarations did was to cause the bell to ring louder.
I was half-afraid that the pain would cause Pasiphae to awaken from her god induced sleep but she soon ceased her struggling and became passive and still once more. I applied the second bell to the Queen’s soft flesh with similar results - more screams and struggling before the fog of Aphrodite’s mind control reasserted itself.
I was a little shaken but what I had just done and as I stood up I accidentally jostled the Queen’s cow causing her enormous breasts to sway from side to side. The cow bells jingled happily and though Pasiphae was deep in a haze, she seemed to hear the bells too, for she moaned in lamentation.
I then attached the top of the cow suit to the bottom, enclosing the Queen within her cow and trapping her as both she and Aphrodite requested. Now she was completely covered and had the appearance of a real cow, save for her head, breasts, and bottom which all remain very much exposed.
And she really did have the shape of true cow. In fact, one would be hardpressed to decide if the woman had been fitted to the cow or the cow to the woman. In many ways the cow appeared the more natural of the two.
I stepped back to see what terrible things I had done. Gone was the head of the cow and with it the gold horns and eyes of sapphire that the Queen had requested. Likewise the hide of the costume was anything but a pure white like the Queen’s soft flesh, but rather a common and spotted cowhide just as Aphrodite had requested. The hooves were similarly common - a drab brown - with wheels built inside of them for easy pushing, while the inside of the cow suit was anything but the plush interior that the Queen had wanted. It would hold her securely and protect her from harm, but soft and silky it was not. The only request of the Queen’s that Aphrodite had seen fit for me honor was that of the udders. Indeed, I did not even add any as the Queen’s cow-like breasts provided the proper aesthetic, though they were perhaps a bit to large for the real thing. Beads of sweat were collecting on my forehead. The Queen was almost ready, I had only to make the final adjustments, and yet I hesitated.
I ran a mournful hand over the Queen’s bulky costume, which kept her beauty hidden inside and gave her the outwardly appearance of a rotund cow. I ran my hand over the cumbersome cow and down over Pasiphae’s bared bottom. Then I took a deeep breath for the worst was about to come.
When all was done I looked at Pasiphae and felt myself growing sicker my the minute. No amount of arrogance, not even as much as the Queen had shown, could warrant what Aphrodite was asking me to do. I whispered a word of apology to Pasiphae for what I was about to do to her. I grabbed the straps of the cowhide to wrap about Pasiphae and thus complete her transformation from Queen to cow. I felt sick as I grabbed the leather cords to tighten about her, but I hesitated. For a moment I considered freeing the Queen, destroying this unholy costume, and running far away from.
then the Queen did something that returned a degree of sanity to my mind, that helped divorce my thoughts from my actions. I felt her suddenly stir and saw a small spark of light returned to her eyes.
“Wh...where am I? What is happening to me? Dae...Daedalas? Is that you?”
“My Queen, you are awake! Oh thank Athena, you are awake. I was so afraid for you and thought...”
“Hold your tongue commoner!” Pasiphae seethed with rage. “Do you think your Queen wants to listen to your mindless prattling? Is THIS my costume?”
“Your Highness you don’t understand...”
“No, you don’t understand! Look at this thing - it is so crudely built, and plainly decorated that I would think it more fit for a whore than a queen. A blind beggar could have designed it better! I am a Queen, on high with the Gods of Olympus, and this is how...”
My hands returned to their work and fastened the cowhide harshly about the Queen, trapping her in her cow. I had expected her screams of rage to become shriller but instead her vacant stare returned. My guilt was washed away as I thought of this arrogant Queen dressed as a cow, who even now thought herself on par with the very gods who were toying with her like a small field mouse.
I locked in the final bolts and fastenings, making sure the cow suit was securely fastened about Pasiphae. She was now locked in a suit of wood and bronze, her entire body encased, save for her butt, breasts, and head. If it were not for her exposed flesh, the Queen would have had the look of a real cow - a cute cow to be sure, but a cow nonetheless.
My job was almost done. My head swirled remembering what Aphrodite had told me to do next.
“After the Queen is fitted to her cow,” the love goddess had instructed me in my dream. “You are to shear her.”
“But Aphrodite...the Queen’s hair is a national treasure,” I had protested. “It is protected by law! Small locks of it have ransomed thousands of men, poets have made odes to it, it is her pride and joy...”
“And that is why she must be sheared. You will shave the Queen of her pride,” the goddess instructed darkly. “Her hair would shield her face from view otherwise, hiding her humiliation. She is to be allowed no such privacy. When she commits herself to the bull and consumates her dark lust, all are to see it. I want her people to she her cheeks stain red, I want them to see her eyes full of lust, and her lips cry out in passion as the bull fills her.”
I grabbed a pair of common shears and began gently arranging the Queen’s hair for what was to come next. Her hair was dark as obsidian and with strands as soft as silk. I was breaking countless laws just by touching it with my unclean hands. I worked the Queen’s long, dark strands into a tight, single braid and took the shears in one hand. Then, with a stroke I severed it from the Queen’s head. Long strands of dark silk fell from Pasiphae and cascaded onto the dusty floor. All that was left on the Pasiphae’s proud head was her crown and just enough hair to reach down to her chin.
removed the Queen’s gold crown and as I did so I heard a pitiful moan of protest come from the Pasiphae. On some level she must have been aware that she had just lost her crown. “Not to worry,” I soothed. “I have a new crown for you. There!” I said as I replaced Pasiphae’s crown with a pair of gold horns that fit neatly on her head. “There, just as you requested, your majesty.” I had to admit that I was beginning to rather enjoy myself now.
And then, feeling rather bold now, I grabbed a flask of wine. “This should help fortify your majesty for what lies ahead,” I said pouring liberal amount of the dark ichor into the Queen’s mouth who lapped at it greedily. She drank it like a woman who had not had water in days, drinking vociferously as the wine ran over her mouth and down her chin.
When it was all gone she hiccuped causing herself to giggle.
The Queen looked ridiculous, and gods help me but I was starting to revel in it. I watched the Queen lick at her chin to lap up the wine.
Pasiphae hiccuped a second time.
I wiped sweat from my brow as I opened up my workshop doors. The Queen had arrived in my shop when it was dawn and cool, but now it was nearly noon and the summer heat had become oppressive. I wondered how many people would be at the market square at this hour. “Well I am sure you are eager to show off your new costume aren’t you? Shall I wheel your Royal Majesty to the public square?”
I walked behind Pasiphae and placing the palms of my hand on her soft, rounded cheeks I pushed her out of my workshop and into the open air. The scent of her arousal was strong, sweeter than any perfume and though I desperately wanted to look at her dark secret, I willed myself to keep my eyes on the path ahead. Her pedals were open in full bloom, this much was painfully obvious to me, but I knew if I looked, even for a second, I might not ever make it the market square. And besides, I wanted to see this task done so that I could think of it no more. I wanted this arrogant harlot far from my sight. I rolled the Queen along the countryside, the scent of her arousal tempting me with each step. We headed into the city where the Queen giggled each time her cow ran over a small bump, causing the Queen’s breasts to sway ridiculously from side to side. I pushed onward, rolling Pasiphae’s cow over the rocky cobblestone streets, jostling the once pampered Queen the entire way.
Up ahead I could see the streets that would lead me to the heart of the city - to where Pasiphae’s evil fate awaited her.