I shake my head and blink, then stare back into the face I had last seen in the mirror this morning. "What.." My voice is too high and thin. "What happened?"
I am suddenly set down on the ground, nd I find myself balancing on numb, thick feet. No, cloven hooves. And black-furred, bovine legs.
My voice laughs, and I look up to see a broad grin. "I have rewarded you. You are a minotaur calf now, and you will grow up to be a fine, strong minotaur bull." My face looks up towards the cliff. "And I will take over your human life. I am tired of being a child."
Confused, I look down at myself again. "Tired of being a child? How old are you.. am I?"
The former minotaur shrugs. "I don't know. Last time I visited here, it was 1922. And I think I was here back when there were only Indians living here, and no white men. But that was when I was really little."
"You're hundreds of years old!?" I gasp, then realize what that means to me. "But that means it will take hundreds of years more to grow up!"
"Right!" The man who is now me points towards a swirling cloud that is forming behind me. "Maybe longer - because your new mother is coming for you, and the last time I ran away like this, she made me a baby again!" Then he shoves me hard enough to make me fall backwards towards the cloud, and runs for the path up to the cliff!