#giant sphinx

[thegorgonist]

Sphinx Temple

You climb all the way to the top and that's when things get weird.

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[onenicebugperday]

@buzzing-honeybee submitted: i found this absolute lovely darling in [removed] (please remove) i found them infront of a gas station on a cool day and i dont think they were handling the cold well. kinda shivering and their proboscis (im not sure if thats what its called) was out. i put them in the back corner behind the store but im not sure if they wer alright. i wished them the best though.

It's possible they were newly emerged, but it's not uncommon to see adults in your area this time of year. Sometimes it takes a bit for their proboscis to fuse together and curl up correctly after they emerge, but even after that, the curled proboscis is always visible, though not quite as much as it is here. The "shivering" is used to warm up flight muscles! Anyhoo this sweet precious beautiful angel babe appears to be the aptly-named giant sphinx :)

[ex0skeletal-undead]

⏃⍜⌿⊬⌇⏁⟒ (detail) by Anato Finnstark

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 212

“Did we just pull an Isekai?” 

“I mean, does it count if it’s practically just Ghostwriter’s usual shit, just more chaotic?” 

“Sam, this is like a game, look, we even have inventory overlays!” 

“Yeah but Tuck, I died so therefor I pulled an isekai, right?” 

“Shit, why does that make sense?” 

“Boys, perhaps actually look into your overlay there? Perhaps look at the map as well?” 

“... oh my Ancients, guys, we’re not the players, we’re going to be the bosses of this game.”

. . . 

“This is going to be so much fun guys.” 

The JL Jr team would really like it to be known that they are in fact done with Klarions shenanigans. This is literally the first day school is out for the summer for them! Who even showed him DnD and anime anyway?!

[starry-bi-sky]

finally giving fem danyal her own au and fulfilling my 'danny is an animal whisperer' agenda at the same time: mother of monsters danyal 2.0

i say "2.0" because TECHNICALLY 'mother of monsters danyal' is an au I made back in June for Dark fem!Danyal (who I promptly named Layal). However, I haven't posted much for her yet, and I like the "mother of monsters" premise too much to leave it only to Layal. Plus Danyal in that au was going to become the mother of monsters anyway, just with significantly less world domination and mass extinction.

'Animal whisperer' Danny has been something I've been thinking about since my latest DP 'wolfpack au' post and it's! So fun to think about, and who no better to assign the idea to than Danyal Al Ghul? Who comes from a family infamously known for their love of animals and nature?

Fem Danyal is just purely self-indulgent. *gestures wildly at her* i just lomvb,,, her,,,, I've only really mentioned her in context of the 'Things in Threes' au/my first Danyal al Ghul au with the facial scar, but she's!!! I love her. She deserves her own au <33

So kill three birds with one stone! Make a post about it.

Anyways, Danny has a large lair. Similar to cult leader danyal, her lair is a giant mountain region resembling nanda parbat with a big temple/palace-like area built into the mountain. It's large, it's overflowing with natural flora, with its own mini-floating islands hovering over some areas, and it's also completely empty.

Danny takes one look at her lair upon first meeting, -- noting that it looked relatively smaller from the outside -- and promptly, with the elegance of an Al Ghul, goes "What the hell??" Because yes, while she does enjoy her own solitude and privacy, this is a bit ridiculous.

For heaven's sake, there's even a massive lake in there! What's she going to do with all this space? Can she make it any smaller? Why is it so big in the first place? This looks borderline like one of the mega-islands!

She finds out later that apparently, the amount of ectoplasm a ghost has can have an effect on the size of their lair. And since she has such a large core, her lair reflects that. Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff, it's bigger on the inside so it doesn't take up "too much space" on the outside. Don't worry about it too much.

Danyal isn't totally opposed to having such a large lair, she's just... a bit baffled by it. It feels like so much wasted space is all. All this flora and no fauna to enjoy it with. It's practically eerie.

She decorates her temple-palace area, transforming rooms to match her needs as she sees fit. In the center of the inner gardens is a massive tree that she likes to climb, with twisting, winding branches. Sam and Tucker have honorary rooms, even if they can't safely leave the specter speeder for long periods of time, even with proper safety equipment. So does Jazz. Ali (Dani) has one too, but he can actually use that one, and Danny brought him to her lair so he could decorate it himself.

She has a personal garden, but for the most part she lets the flora exist as it is. Too much space to cultivate it en masse anyways.

Skip to a few weeks later, on her next visit to Clockwork. She developed a habit of going to see him semi-regularly just because. She enjoys his wisdom, and he has a lot of stories to tell, and when he's not being the cryptic and esoteric timekeeper, he's a bit goofy.

(pushing my dadwork agenda here,,, i think Danny deserves to go 'hey, Lord Clockwork, do you want me to buy you something' while she's at walmart, only to receive a singular glowing sticky note that says 'cucumber gatorade'.)

(She insists on referring to him with his proper titles even for the most mundane of things because it's proper, but Clockwork sees a future where she eventually calls him "Cee" and by all things in existence is he determined to get there. Anyways,,,)

On her next visit to Clockwork, just as she is about to leave, Clockwork stops her and goes; "Ah, I have something for you. Hold out your hands."

Danny does as such, and Clockwork doesn't give out things often, so her curiosity has spiked to the highest levels. He turns away from her for a moment, using his staff to summon whatever it is he needs, and when he turns around.

He drops a fish into her hands. Granted, a fish in a small glass tank. But a fish nonetheless. A small one, roughly about the size of her finger, with a blue-black, eel-shaped body and four sets of glowing eyes. She can see thin, almost translucent, but spiny fins down its back and the start of bioluminescent markings. It's swimming around in circles in its small container.

"Lord Clockwork." Danyal says all too calmly.

"Yes, Danyal?"

"What is this?"

"That is an adolescent leviathan, Danyal." She’s transfixed onto the tank, but she doesn’t need to see Clockwork’s face to hear the smile he’s stifling.

The myriad of emotions that runs through her all at once threatens to overwhelm her, and she can’t tell if the feelings are negative or positive. So she carefully closes her eyes to breathe in through her nose.

“Clockwork.”

“Ah, I see you’ve dropped formalities.”

She ignores that.

“Why have you given me an adolescent leviathan?”

She's expecting the trickster to look amused when she opens her eyes. Instead, he just looks endeared. "I know you're fond of animals," he says, "and you always look amazed when you come across an animal of the realms. So I thought you might enjoy taking care of the young beast, it's mother is dead so it has no one to care for it."

Oh.

"But, if you don't like it," Clockwork's hands reach out for the tank, "I can simply take it back--"

Danyal shifts the tank out from his reach and hugs it possessively. "I never said that. How do I care for it?"

And so clockwork gives her a list, and when Danyal returns to her lair, she sets up a large tank in her room for the leviathan to swim in -- it's much too small for the lake right now, she thinks. She'll feel better if it's somewhere she can find it. She names him Suhā.

Suhā grows quickly, and by the end of the mortal month she transforms one of the rooms into a large pond for him to swim around in. He's a very loyal beast, recognizing her as it's mother of some kind. Danyal takes great care ensuring that her beastie gets quality care, and Suhā swims to the surface to see her when he senses her in the room.

It spirals from there. Somehow, Pandora catches wind that Clockwork gave her a leviathan, and so the next time Danyal visits the Greater Athens, she gives her a baby chimera. It's eyes are still sealed shut, Danyal can't bring herself to say no. She names the little beastie Firas.

Frostbite hears about it too, and not to be outdone, gives her an animal she's never even heard of. Infinite-realms born, apparently. A fox-like creature with two small horns like an impala, four eyes, and tall legs. The name isn't something she's quite sure how to write down, and she's positive that her friends won't be able to comprehend it. She names her Eira.

Getting the three of them used to each other was... interesting. Suhā tried to eat Firas when Danyal first introduced the two, and they've hated each other ever since. Firas and Eira are seemingly getting along. Her island already feels full enough with the three of them on it.

Of course, that's not the end of it. With her luck, she begins stumbling across other monsters. Realms-borne or otherwise. An injured hydra in the Grecian islands that, through lots of trial and error, Danyal is able to rehabilitate and heal. It routinely comes to visit her afterwards.

A griffin with a broken wing that she moves permanently to the island that likes to keep to itself, but tends to come down when she's near. It gets along best with Firas.

A panther-like monster from the Shades Woods that had six legs and three tails, with ends that reminded her of a venus flytrap. It stuck around the heavy foliage and she can only make out where it was when she saw its golden eyes reflect.

She befriends a young indrik with its leg injured, and much like the hydra it follows her back to her island, and stays there in the mountains. It comes out when she's alone, much like her other beasts.

She receives two more leviathan -- one from clockwork, and one she finds herself while exploring the deeper and darker recesses of the Ghost Zone. It was huddled against the carcass of its mother, and she managed to befriend and get close enough to it to bring it back to her island. Suhā is fully grown by then, with a head bigger than Danyal herself and he still likes to stick her head out of the water for nuzzles when she's near.

He's not very happy with his new siblings, but he's not trying to eat them when she's not looking. So she calls it a win in her book.

And it's not just large beasts either; smaller animals begin popping up when she's not looking. Bird-like creatures and small mammals, and she swears she saw a doe (or something resembling a doe) grazing in the forest while she was walking by.

She takes back with her a lone snake egg once, and it grows so big it wraps around her island and sleeps with its massive head on the mountain beside the temple, like some smaller breed of Jörmungandr.

And on and on it goes. Some of the beasts she comes across never step foot onto her island, some of them follow her back, while others she has to carry back. Not all of the ones that follow her stay, and Danny rehabilitates the injured and releases them when they're fully healed.

It's hectic, and busy, and frankly she loves it. Some of her rehabilitated beasts return to visit her, or to have their children somewhere on the island, or whatever it is they need to do.

She becomes a bit infamous for it. She goes to visit Dorathea once, and as she's walking through the streets she can hear some of the denizens whispering while she walks past.

"Is that her?"

"Her highness' friend? Yes--"

"--that's the one--"

"--Mother of monsters--"

Danny's not sure how to feel about that.

Although, she can't say she's opposed.

Danyal Al Ghul, Mother of monsters, raiser of beasts. It has a nice ring to it.

[friendlyfoxpal]

Kaelin and the Three Bear Boys

After some thinking after i got the to the prompt word fairy tale (and leaves) Thought it would be fun to do a loose Goldilocks parody with @keydekyie's characters Kaelin and Ruyak along with his two brothers Kadu and Renge. For his brothers had to work off from their descriptions in the books. So hopefully they look alright.

A really good series! I definitely recommend if you like G/t and monster boys! Really immersive worldbuilding, and character building.

[arttsuka]

Mer Mabel in a Zorb ball full of water.

She'd definitely ask for something like that

[sombertide-0]

another spix drawing featuring @sparrow-in-boots' Clay! honestly not a huge fan of how the colors turned out so here's a colorless screenshot edit: I FORGOT HIS FUCKING SCAR, MY BAD

[tickfleato]

the whole "well conservatives think we're ALL x so we should welcome ppl who are" thing is not something that should be used when it's actually harmful lol. you get this stuff with the furry community too like the "oh ppl think we're ALL zoo" like ok yes but can we agree to kick out the ppl who want to do real life bestiality. i don't think that counts as "burned furs...2!" Thank you

[forestfeeling]

Had quite a few lookers at the sheet on Saturday!

[yetihideout]

Pachimon "Monster World Tour" by Yokopro

[keydekyie]

The Grounded Sphinx

A young sphinx finds herself in a bit of a mess...

3321 words. Content warnings: foot-hold traps, very mild blood, off-screen violence.

▶──◆─◈─◇─◈─◆──◀

The stark bang of a closing iron trap shook Ciph from her thoughts and sent her leaping into the air a split second too late. The fire of pain shot through her body like a lightning strike.

The foliage all around was suddenly too close, grabbing, tangling. Her paw was caught fast. Panic spurred her to beat her wings, frantic, and new pain coursed through her wing as her primary feathers caught around a thicket and tangled tight, wrenching her elbow and twisting the joints.

She was stuck.

Her heart was hammering, her body screaming, Fly! Fly, stupid! But the futility of that was growing more apparent by the second. She held herself still, trying to breathe through the panic. 

Well… shit.

As the initial shock began to wane, Ciph took a moment to absorb what had just happened.

An iron snapjaw trap had closed around her left forepaw, and the reflexive jump she’d taken had wrenched her arm as her wings opened. Now her right wing was hopelessly tangled in the foliage. 

This was why her mother had always warned her not to follow game trails, as tempting as the winding paths were. The forest was no place for a sphinx.

Little good that did her, Ciph had always thought, but here she was. Caught in a trap, just as her mother had feared.

This was bad.

Panic rose again, and before Ciph could quell it she struggled against the trap, thrashing and spinning and straining. It was no use, of course. After a moment she tired herself out and went still, crouching stiffly at the end of the trap’s chain and gasping for breath in the smashed-down grass.

It was late in the afternoon, likely late enough that the human who had set this trap wouldn’t be back to check it before dark. Where did that leave her? Well, if a pack of direroden didn’t come sniffing, perhaps by morning Ciph could find a way to get out of this mess.

She shut her eyes for a moment, bracing herself. She hadn’t yet been able to look at her paw, fearing what she’d see. Cautiously, she opened her eyes and peered down at it.

There wasn’t much blood, which surprised her. The jaws were clamped just below her wrist, and the iron teeth were gouging deep ruts into her flesh, but the teeth weren’t very sharp and most of the pain was coming from the pressure, not punctures. She reached over with her free paw and gave a tentative pull on one side of the trap, but it was shut tighter than a drake’s jaws.

She shifted, bringing a hind foot up to brace against the trap, and gave it a firmer tug, to no avail.

Well, the trap was anchored to the ground, perhaps she could untie it. She tried to limp over to the anchor, but her tangled wing kept her from reaching it. If she hadn’t panicked when the trap snapped shut, she could probably have dug the anchor out of the earth. 

She was going to have to pry open the trap.

Ciph huffed, set her ears determinedly, and tried again. And again. And again. The sun set, the sky darkened, and she kept tugging and pulling and moving about, trying to find the right leverage to pry the trap open. 

Finally, Ciph had to lay down and rest. Perhaps she wasn’t strong enough to brute-force her way out. She’d have to think it through.

The trap consisted of a pair of jaws, alongside two wing-like levers that had pushed the jaws closed. If she could compress the levers, the jaws would slide open. The problem was that she only had one free paw, and with her wing tangled up, she couldn’t bring her foot around to the right angle to step on the other lever. 

So… what now?

Ciph sighed, laying her head down on her arm. She had heard tales of creatures gnawing their own feet off to escape these traps, would she have to do the same? Her stomach turned, but something deep in the back of her mind twinged readily at the thought, and Ciph knew she would do it if she had to.

She prayed to the gods she wouldn’t have to.

Perhaps in the morning light she’d be able to think of something more clever.

By morning Ciph’s muscles were aching terribly. Panic had dulled the initial pain, but she’d yanked her arm very hard when the trap was first sprung, and her tangled wing wasn’t happy either. Everything felt sore, including her brain. There’d been no sleeping through the discomfort.

Still, there was work to be done.

Ciph took another look at the trap, hoping daylight would illuminate some little pin she could pull, or a screw she could twist. She fiddled with the levers, trying to find a way to squeeze down one and then the other, but that didn’t work. Her paw wasn’t strong enough, nor the weight of her body heavy enough, to compress them both at the same time.

Then she heard voices on the wind, and she looked up.

Humans.

The owners of the trap, most likely. There were two, both men, one short and scruffy and the other lanky and blond. They stood watching from the other side of the glade, whispering to each other and pointing. They had a sly manner about them, like zatels eyeing up a pheasant’s nest.

Ciph growled low in her throat, tail lashing. It had to be obvious to them she was trapped and helpless, but still they were slow to approach. Well, small as humans were, it was caution that likely kept them alive in this dangerous country.

Finally they made their way towards Ciph, steps crunching quietly in the spring grass. 

"No horns, see?” the short trapper said, gesturing to Ciph’s head. “Young, then."

The blond trapper glanced up at the sky warily. “That means the mother may be nearby.”

“We should hurry, then.”

“Can you speak?” the blond trapper asked Ciph.

Ciph swallowed back a hiss, steadying herself. “Yes,” she croaked.

The trappers frowned at each other. 

"Should we…?" the short trapper grumbled.

A chill wind shuddered the trees, and the blond trapper scratched his chin. “If it can walk on its own two feet, perhaps… but it’s going to struggle. Sphinx don’t take to being led. We’d need more men either way. It’s almost as big as one of our garjen.”

"We could go and come back…"

"And walk right into the mother's claws? I think not. We should take what we can and go quickly."

Take? Ciph wondered in horror, looking between the trapper’s faces. Take what?

The short trapper shrugged. "I'm just saying, I know a noble who'd pay more for a sphinx pelt than we make in a year."

"Too much trouble. If they'd pay for the pelt, they'll pay for… let's see…" the blond trapper looked Ciph over, as though appraising a hunk of meat. "The tail, the paws, some feathers certainly. Perhaps the wings entire, if we can conceal them."

Ciph’s fur prickled. 

“We could each carry one under our coats, I think,” the short trapper suggested. “At least until we get back to camp.”

“Well, best get started, then.” The blond trapper raised a crossbow from behind his back, leveling it right at Ciph’s face.

Ciph balked, eyes wide, but she couldn’t bring herself to beg, not to these creatures. Instead, she looked the trapper in his cold gray eyes, bared her fangs, and hissed.

He hesitated, swallowing, and suddenly his shorter companion gripped his arm to get his attention. 

“What? The mother?” the blond trapper whispered, cringing down and looking up at the sky, but that wasn’t where the danger was. 

The shorter trapper was looking behind, back across the glade. He whimpered.

Ciph followed his gaze, and almost laughed.

As if she didn’t have enough problems already.

Ciph had seen Kanai before, but always from on the wing or a high vantage point. She’d thought of them as sort of wingless, giant sphinx, and she attributed their bad tempers and grim senses of humor to being grounded like humans were. Who could blame them?

But she’d never been stuck on the ground with them before.

There were three, young, watching from the other side of the glade. They were all staring at the human trappers in the eager, predatory way hunters did when they’d spotted prey. The air itself seemed to still in response, a hush falling over the forest. 

The trappers clearly knew how doomed they were.

The blond one suddenly bolted, diving into the brush like a mink into water. His companion fretted aimlessly in dismay for a breath, looking about him as though anything in the vicinity could save him, then fled into the forest in another direction.

The Kanai all lunged forward, two after one trapper and one after the other, and vanished to either side, out of Ciph’s sight. She crouched down, hoping desperately that her spots had concealed her in the grass and none of them would come sniffing.

They’d all looked to be youngsters. Ciph’s mother had warned her the children were far more dangerous than adults.

For a few tense moments, Ciph lay there listening to the wind pick back up and rustle the leaves. Could she be so lucky?

But soon approaching footsteps rumbling in the earth told Ciph that staying concealed had been too much to hope for. She sat up, trying to quell her racing heart and settle her puffed-up feathers. She’d meet this with as much dignity as she could muster.

Being friendly with Kanai was said to be a good habit. They were reliable foresters, careful time-keepers, and often willing to share food in exchange for knowledge, especially of their own kin in distant territories. Ciph and her mother had attended many Kanai festivals and gatherings over the years, but always at a sensible distance.

Being friendly was a good habit, but so was staying well out of reach.

Unfortunately, there was no staying out of reach with one paw in a foot-hold trap and one wing tangled in a bush.

A fourth Kanai appeared in the glade. No less a child than the others, but her demeanor was different. Unlike the first three, this one seemed… tired? Miffed? Not so eager, anyway. She sighed heavily and stood up on her back legs to look around, peering over the trees for signs of the others. She sniffed the air, and then her eyes fell on Ciph.

The Kanai blinked curiously, tilted her head, and fell back onto all fours. The earth shook.

Ciph’s dignity went up in smoke as the Kanai loped forward, eyes bright. With each step closer the ground trembled.

Finally, as the Kanai came close, Ciph couldn’t stand it anymore. “Stay back!” she snarled, fur and feathers all standing on end.

The Kanai paused, raising a quizzical round eyebrow, and smirked. “Aren’t you stuck?”

“Of course not.”

“You look pretty stuck to me.”

Ciph’s tail lashed, rustling the dead grass.

“It’s alright,” said the Kanai. “I want to help you.”

Glaring silently, Ciph considered this. She thought of the trappers, and the other Kanai that had run after them. Would those Kanai be back to chase her next? Would they be as polite as this one if they found her still bound as she was?

“Fine,” Ciph grumbled. “Some help would be… appreciated.”

The Kanai smiled, bowing her head, then approached. She sniffed the ground, looking the trap over. “Ah, one of the snapping kinds. I see.”

The Kanai shuffled closer, looming over Ciph like a mountain. Panic again begged Ciph to beat her wings and fight with everything she had to escape, but through sheer force of will she managed to stay still. The Kanai lay down, which made her seem no less enormous, and reached for the trap with both hands.

“The trick is to pinch these side parts, see? It makes it open,” the Kanai said gently, pointing to the lever arms on each side of the trap.

Ciph watched the claws as they came closer. They put her own little thorns to shame.

“Here, I’ll pinch them,” said the Kanai, “you pull your hand out. Are you ready?”

Ciph couldn’t find her voice, but she nodded. 

The Kanai gripped the levers between her claws, careful not to shift the trap too much as she held it, then squeezed.

The jaws of the trap loosened, and Ciph pulled out her paw.

Fear, for a moment, drove the thought of her tangled wing from Ciph’s mind, and she thrashed backwards in an abrupt and undignified bid for freedom. 

“Whoa! Stop! Stop!” The Kanai sat up and grabbed the ensnaring tree to hold it steady. “You’re still stuck! Hold still!”

Every movement the Kanai made was more frightening than the last. Ciph snarled at her and scrambled madly for purchase, clawing up clumps of grass and beating her trapped wings against the grasping foliage.

Suddenly the Kanai let go of the tree and backed away, ears tucked. Ciph gasped for breath and collapsed in a disheveled pile of leaves and feathers.

Neither of them moved for a moment, and Ciph’s nose caught the sharp scent of fresh blood. She looked herself over, but nothing seemed any more damaged than it was before.

“Sorry,” the Kanai said quietly. “Are you alright?”

Ciph glared at her. The Kanai’s ears were still lowered, her eyes wide. She seemed nervous.

“Oh yes, I’m having a fabulous time. Thank you,” Ciph mumbled.

The Kanai grimaced and lowered her head. “Your wing is so tangled.”

“I noticed.”

“I can… I can help…”

Ciph snorted, then shifted to sit up. “I can manage, but thank you.” Twisting awkwardly, Ciph reached up to pull at her primary feathers. The tree branches were woven through them with all the durability of a reed basket, and none of the precision. What a mess.

Still, Ciph set her jaw and got to work, picking at the twisted branches and feathers. Her shoulder twinged at an errant motion, and she couldn’t hide the gasp of pain.

“Can I help? Please?” the Kanai begged, leaning forward. “I won’t hurt you, I promise.”

Ciph paused, looking up into the Kanai’s black eyes, and noticed the smell of blood again. She glanced down at the Kanai’s nearby hand and cringed.

Well, her little thorns had found a mark. In all her earlier flailing, Ciph had caught the Kanai’s hand with her claws in a few places. The blood was barely visible in the nearly-black fur, but the sheen of it and the smell was unmistakable. 

Ciph sighed, shaking her head. “Fine, fine. You can help, just… be careful. I’ve only got two wings and I’d very much like to keep both.”

“Of course.”

The Kanai shuffled closer, reaching tentatively for Ciph’s trapped wing and the entangling branches. Ciph braced herself, expecting to be grabbed the way she’d seen trappers handle their quarry, but the Kanai did nothing of the sort.

Just one of the Kanai’s hands could have wrapped all the way around Ciph’s body, but the creature was very careful. She held the wing with remarkable gentleness, claws brushing delicately over the feathers. Almost too gentle, hesitant, as though afraid.

“This isn’t too bad,” the Kanai murmured, “it’s just that this blightvine is all wrapped up in the branches too. That’s why your feathers don’t want to just slide out.”

“Blightvine?”

“Yes, it’s this plant here.” The Kanai pulled on a strand and tugged it out of the mess, then held it out for Ciph to see. “It’s common in stands like this. It likes to tangle things. You wouldn’t have gotten stuck if it weren’t growing all over this birch tree.”

“I see…” Ciph couldn’t say she was altogether that interested in botany, but it was good to know for future reference. She’d commit the look of the shiny leaves and their planty scent to memory. 

The Kanai was making good progress on the wing, faster than Ciph would have guessed. Her long, sickle-shaped claws were making short work of the blightvine, and as she pulled the plants away the feathers were freed one by one.

“Your feathers are so pretty,” the Kanai murmured reverently, almost to herself.

Ciph frowned at her horrendously mangled wing. It looked like a dead animal. “Uh… thanks?”

“I mean, you know… the ones that aren’t messed up.”

“Sure.”

“A-actually, even the messed up ones…” The Kanai flushed and shifted awkwardly. “I mean, they’re all… nevermind. Sorry.”

Ciph smiled. What an earnest creature. “I’ll take the compliment. I’m sure I’ll be able to fix them anyway, with enough preening.”

The Kanai looked relieved at this. As she continued delicately extricating the tangled wing, she cocked her head, looking Ciph over again. “Aren’t you kind of small for a sphinx? How old are you?”

Ciph’s nose twitched. She wasn’t actually sure of that, anymore. Not since… well, not for a few years. “Old enough.”

“Old enough for what? Getting killed by poachers?”

“Apparently,” Ciph snorted.

“Well… I’d feel bad leaving you here by yourself. Do you have a family somewhere?”

Ciph sighed and rolled her head to the side. “Somewhere? Probably.”

The Kanai frowned, confused.

“I’ll be alright,” Ciph explained. “I’ve been on my own for awhile, now. I’m used to it.”

“But your wing…”

“It’s fine. It just needs some rest and grooming.”

“But this is the far edge of our territory, it’s not safe for you here. There are a lot of humans.”

“Two fewer now, I should think.”

“Yes, well…” The Kanai rolled her eyes. “Those poachers weren’t alone. You’d be safer further north.”

And with that, the Kanai pulled the last of the tangling branches out of Ciph’s wing. Ciph stumbled a few paces back and spent a moment flexing it, but it was very sore from being stuck and twisted all night. It didn’t want to fold nicely against her body the way it usually did, so she let it hang limply at her side. It looked quite pathetic.

“I can carry you a little ways north, if you want,” the Kanai offered, sitting back on her haunches. “There’s a mountain with a cave that’s hard to reach, you could rest there.”

“I know the one. I… I suppose I have no choice but to accept. But those other Kanai who came before you, do you know them?”

“They’re my brothers, yes. I don’t think they’ll bother you, but if they try to…” A fierce look came into the Kanai’s eyes for a moment, flashing like sun on the water. “I’ll be certain they regret it.”

Ciph chuckled and flicked her tail, equal parts appreciative and intimidated. “Do you think they…” she hesitated, searching for a more delicate word but finding none. “Do you think they ate those poachers?”

“Definitely. They’re probably off looking for the rest of the group now.”

“Oh.” Ciph sat back, surprised at the quick answer. She hadn’t thought Kanai would admit to such things so readily. “Good.”

The Kanai squinted at her, dubious.

“Do you eat a lot of humans?” Ciph asked.

“Me? No. My brothers do. I’ve lost count how many.”

“But you don’t?”

“Not really. It’s weird to eat things that can talk.”

Ciph scoffed. “‘Talk’ is a generous way to describe what humans do. ‘Scheme incessantly’ is more accurate.”

The Kanai chuckled at that.

“Anyway, thanks for the help, and apologies for being so reluctant to accept it. Oh, and also apologies for the, um… the scratches.”

“Oh that’s alright,” the Kanai laughed, looking down at her hand. “I don’t mind. I’m just happy I could help.”

“I’m called Ciph, by the way.”

“Good to meet you, Ciph.” The Kanai turned to smile down at her warmly. “My name is Sliuk.”

[ex0skeletal-undead]

A Riddle by dariuszkieliszek

[madcat-world]

Disdainful Stroke - Irina Nordsol Kuzmina

[witchezgetstitchez]

My most recent cross stitch of moths for my moth loving friend!

I'm ridiculously happy with how it turned out. Hours of making each pattern and adjusting the spacing and placement ACTUALLY paid off!

[uiuishii]

Didn't buy Dragon's Dogma 2 but I'm counting for yall to share all the sapphic content on tumblr 👀