Manticore Portrait

In my time alone I visited the ruins of Pueh. I walked through the abandoned roads and took shelter in the houses that had not held anyone since before the Grandfathertime. I hunted and foraged and spent time with my own thoughts. One day, as the winds were turning and growing colder, I met a Manticore.
Because they are both beast and man, the Manticores are revered by the Earth People, for beasts are truer to the Way of the Earth than men, and their Ghroi more powerful. This Manticore walked on things that were both hands and feet and paws. It panted and growled like a beast yet moved its lips as if muttering to itself. Though it walked on four legs, it was tall enough to look me in the eye. I looked back, and because I did not make obeisance as a man should when he faces a Manticore, it struck me in the face, opening my cheek. I was furious, but also terrified, and I bent and pressed my face to the Earth. The Manticore stood for a long time before it was satisfied with my abasement and left. It was then that I knew that I was wrong to hate my people for giving my sister to the Manticores. I should hate the Manticores for taking her.

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This was fun fun fun to paint, and even better, it broke me out of the art funk I've been in for the past few weeks.
This is a manticore, and it lives in the same world as my Guncraft characters (though a few centuries earlier). Michael Jaecks [link] put the idea in my head to paint a manticore, and several weeks ago a unique concept and idea for the manticore came to me. I plan to do a larger painting of this creature, showing its entire body as well as its native landscape.
The italic text above is a snippet of a short story I'm writing. I'll post it in its entirety once I do a more complete and involved painting of a manticore.