Idomeneus and Amalthea

While George and Angela spoke, Mara and Beatrice looked at Mount Juktas a few kilometers from Knossos. The mountain was said to resemble the countenance of Zeus, whose symbol was a bull. From the side they were looking at the mountain, it very much looked like a human countenance. To Beatrice, the mountain kind of resembled that actor from Olivier's "Henry V", the one who played MacMorris, Niall Mac-Something. Niall Macbeth? No, "Macbeth" was a different Shakespeare play, a tragedy instead of a history and although it was based on history it was so loosely based on historical fact that classifying it as a history would be an offense to historians everywhere. It was a "Mac" so what was it? MacCarthy? MacNeil? Mara, on the other hand, was only reminded of his uncle after he had decided to insult the fruit vendor by going to his stand and squashing fruit that he had no intention to pay for. For Beatrice, the subject of Atlantis was completely forgotten. For Mara, he was trying to not think of George's fictional fiddle faddle.

Lin, on the other hand, was taking pictures with a camera from the Thetis. It was one thing to look at pictures in a book but it was another to look at pictures one had taken themselves. She kept a journal written not in Chinese, Tibetan, Uyghur, Manchu, Mongolian or any other language spoken in China, so that meant English and Russian were out, but in Japanese, a trick she and her brother had picked up from their father. In that journal written in Japanese she wrote of the adventures she and her friends had had, providing another view into what was dubbed "Richard Hamilton's Accounts of the Deep." When it came to the subject of Atlantis, Lin found it something fantastic to photograph.

"Hey, lets take a picture!" Lin called. Lin was a slim girl of thirteen, her black hair was kept in braids and she wore a yellow Alice band, a blue dress and shoes and a red jacket, the last of which had been a welcoming gift from Ellen. "Over there! By the Horns of Consecration!"

The Horns of Consecration, dubbed as such by Sir Arthur Evans, referred to the horns that represented Minoan Crete's sacred bull. The Horns of Consecration at Knossos were a reconstruction, but the Minoans did place such horns on the roofs of buildings, as well as on tombs and on shrines. There were a few pairs at Knossos.

Before the Horns of Consecration, the four other adolescent devisees stood. Mara and Beatrice were about a foot apart but George and Angela were so close they might as well have been holding hands. Lin was preparing to take the picture when from behind the right horn walked a girl.

The mystery girl was about seventeen years old, about five feet and eight and a half inches. She was a beautiful, brown haired young girl with an hourglass-shaped body and comely brown eyes. She was dressed like a female lead out of a sword-and-sandal film, wearing a sleeveless white dress that was above knee length and around a string on her neck was a blue stone with the image of a trident scratched on it.

Seeing her, Lin could only wonder if some actress from a local theatre was up here in costume goofing about. Despite her wonderings, the first sentence to emerge from her mouth was: "Who is that?"

The other four adolescent devisees turned in alarm as they saw the mysterious girl. She made her way straight to George and made the inquiry: "You search for Atlantis?"

"Yes!" George exclaimed. "Can you tell us anything about it? Was Knossos actually Atlantis?"

"Oh, no!" Mara brought the palm of his right hand to his face in exasperation. This could not have been happening. No one could have actually come along who could help George in seeking the Island of Atlas. This was impossible. Was he actually awake right now? Was he ill? Was this a fever dream? It must have been because there was no way this was happening.

"My brother and I can tell you." The mystery girl answered George.

With both hands on his head, Mara walked a few feet to the right all while muttering: "No, no, no, no…" What was going on here? Was he dead? Was this Hell? Could anyone explain to him why the world was turning upside down? There were no way George's fantasies were turning into reality.

"Where is your brother?" George asked.

"He is not far." The mystery girl answered.

Mara turned to Beatrice and asked: "What is going on? Has the world gone mad?"

Beatrice shrugged. If it was then it was, if it was not then it was not. She then ran her hands through her curly, golden hair, while looking to the direction of the port where the Thetis was docked. She was a lightly tanned girl with teal eyes and an athletic build. She was wearing an orange dress in contrast to the blue favored by Angela and Lin. "If it is, it makes no difference. I still want to take a look at the shops and see what souvenir I can pick up for my brother."

Mara stood there for thirty seconds in silence before inquiring: "May I accompany you?"

All of this Lin did not even pay attention to. She took a picture of the mystery girl that left George so absorbed, dare she say infatuated. Leaning over to Angela, Lin whispered: "I think someone has an infatuation."

An anguished expression spread across Angela's face. George couldn't have possibly been infatuated with this girl it wasn't possible. But what if it was? Was it possible that George was not interested in her and she was in him?

It was at that moment that Angela remembered something George had once told her: "I don't like brunettes."

Anguish was replaced by anger. With eyes glazed over, Angela exclaimed: "Lin!"

"What? He looks like he is infatuated."

Only to Lin did George look infatuated with the mystery girl. He looked more interested in what she had to say than interested in her. Angela too was interested in what the mystery girl had to say and did not appreciate Lin's voicing her belief that George was infatuated with her.

"What is your name?" George asked the mystery girl.

"Amalthea." She answered.

Amalthea? A look of apprehensiveness spread across Lin's countenance the moment the mystery girl gave her appellation. Well now, that sounded affected.

"What is your brother's name?" Angela inquired.

"Idomeneus." Amalthea answered.

That sounded equally affected. Lin looked to her fellow adolescent devisees and saw that both George and Angela were completely believing what they were told even introducing themselves, while Mara and Beatrice were both leaving for some reason or other, Lin wasn't exactly sure why. All she knew was that Mara had been going insane. That left George, Angela and Lin with the mystery girl who called herself "Amalthea."

The mystery girl who called herself "Amalthea!"

Lin looked down at her camera. Now that was an idea!

Then did Lin make her exit from the scene. It was time to go back to the Thetis and get her film developed.

Upon the stage that was Knossos' Horns of Consecration, there were only three players of the drama of life left. George and Angela had not even noticed Mara and Beatrice's departure, nor even Lin's. The moment the others had all departed, Amalthea pointed to a different pair of Horns of Consecration where a man was walking from. He was likewise archaically garbed, wearing an Ancient Greek tunic more reminiscent of Alexander the Great's day than the era of the Minoan civilization, orange in contrast to Amalthea's white dress. He was athletic, olive skinned and brown haired. Upon his arrival to their spot, George and Angela saw that the man was about thirty and black eyed. He must have been Idomeneus. He had the handsomeness of a Greek god for the most part and was equal in height to Richard.

"You two are George and Angela who seek the Island of Atlas?" Idomeneus asked.

"W-We are!" Angela answered. She had a wide-eyed expression upon her face, having never seen someone so handsome before. She might as well have been Esmeralda and he might as well have been Captain Phoebus de Chateaupers.

George noticed Angela's expression and immediately felt anxious. He had heard Lin voice her opinion to Angela that he was infatuated with Amalthea and the truth was he was, even to the point of questioning his claim that he didn't like brunettes. He hid it well enough but that didn't change the fact that he was still attracted to Angela, whom he had an association with, and the way she looked at Idomeneus filled George with worry. He hadn't any need to worry given the wide-age gap between Angela and Idomeneus, yet that still did not change the fact that Idomeneus looked better than George did. He was taller, dark of hair, handsome for the most part. Still, the age gap was quite wide so there was no need for George to worry but worry he did. What if Idomeneus was like Errol Flynn?

And then Angela took hold of George's arm. It wasn't enough to completely calm him yet still he did calm down. Whatever infatuation George and Angela felt for Amalthea and Idomeneus respectively would pass.

"Then my brother and I will tell you everything, but not here." Amalthea took George by the hand and pulled him away from Angela, completely leading him away from the Horns of Consecration. "Come, Farmer and Messenger of God. Let us tell you everything in the safety of Poseidon's domain."

Angela looked rather distraught when Amalthea began to lead George away. She became even more so when rather than offering an arm for her to take, Idomeneus just pushed her roughly and said: "Move!" The beauty of a Greek god might have belonged to Idomeneus but he lacked the graces of one. Whatever attraction Angela had felt towards him was now deader than the Minotaur.

Amalthea led George through a path that avoided the streets of Heraklion, indeed it avoided the city entirely. The path led to a sandy beach outside of Heraklion, the city having no beaches itself but outside of the city were miles of the sandiest of beaches. It was the secluded Matala Beach with its mountain caves specifically.

When Angela had caught up, it had been more because Idomeneus had once more pushed her roughly, to the point that she had to stop herself from falling over. She was unsuccessful and fell into the sand.

"Angela!" George ran over to her, wrenching free his hand from Amalthea's. He ran to her side and helped her up. Wanting to keep Idomeneus' hands off her as much as possible, George then wrapped his right arm around her so his right hand was on her right arm and placed his left hand on her left arm. Angela's cheeks reddened and for George any infatuation with Amalthea was completely forgotten.

"My brother is an absurd animal." Said Amalthea, slipping off her dress. She was wearing a white breast band and loincloth underneath. At being called an animal, Idomeneus glared at his younger sister. "Come, let us go into the safety of Poseidon's domain."

George and Angela had both learned to wear their swimsuits under their clothes while travelling the world with Richard Hamilton. Thus, did they undress until they were wearing only their respective swimsuits: a pair of red swim trunks for George and a brown and amber-striped two-piece for Angela. Idomeneus did no disrobing, he merely kept his tunic on.

"Think he has a rather scarred physique?" George asked Angela with a whisper. They were both looking

"Given Amalthea's animal comment I'm guessing an inhumanly hairy torso." Angela replied.

Angela's comment caused George to laugh under his breath. Laughing under his breath was not enough to keep Idomeneus from hearing however, and so the Cretan turned his glare from his sister to the Canadian boy. Immediately, George went silent. He and Angela both turned, to walk over to Amalthea with alarmed expressions.

"How are these two even related?" George asked quietly.

"Probably only share one parent and they take after their respective different parent." Angela replied.

Amalthea looked George over with grin and half-closed eyes. He looked quite good for someone who was lean and hungry in appearance.

"Have you a leman, George?" Amalthea inquired. By "leman", she meant a lover or a sweetheart. George had listened to some radio programs who had gone on trips through the dictionary and thesaurus. It was not exactly something he would have listened to but there was nothing else on so he just listened to them.

"I-I do not." George answered. He looked to Angela and then added: "But I'd like to." The two stared at each other with reddened faces. This had been the first time either of them had actively expressed such a desire, other than a reference to someone not being their type. Amalthea's half-closed eyes of attraction then turned to a glare of bitterness, that quickly vanished when George and Angela once more looked her in the eye.