User blog:Jerichow/The Stuck Manticore

People were joking about a picture of a Manticore stuck on some stairs, thought I'd make a What Would You Do about it and this is what I threw together quick.

It's late at night, your friends had invited you out to a local bar for drinks after the caravan of merchants you and your friends were hired to guard made it to town safely. The four of you had spent the better part of the last three hours swapping stories back and forth about all of the monsters you fended off who were trying to capture the unarmed merchants, each one of you trying to best the other out until you put them all to shame with your tale of taking on a Manticore single handedly without your sword and your shield, having been broken in the fight before against a Lamia that had broken them both. You put them all in awe with the details of the bout, and how you had, in the heat of the moment, let your judgement and gentlemanly nature get the best of you, and you let the monster go with her life, citing her devilish beauty and charm as your ultimate weakness, your Achille's Heel, and that you could not bring yourself to harm someone so beautfiul. They laugh at your story, all four of you polishing off your beers before you set off for the night to your rooms.

Your friends all leave the bar, heading for another as they continue their night of bar-hopping while you head for the stairs to the inn attached to the back of the bar on the second level. You hardly notice until you are several steps up the incline, that there is a cowering figure on the stairs half way up, just high enough to get a good view of the room, and coincidentally, of your table where you were sitting only moments before. You know immediately that she is a monster, furry paws and feet a deep greyed purple in color, maroon wings on her back, and stuck between a few of the bars in the railing, a Manticore's tail. She seems hesitant to make eye-contact, let alone even turn her face towards you until, being the gentleman that you are, you stop next to her on the stairs, taking note of her plight. Two of the thorns on the bulb of her tail had gotten caught and stuck in the wood while her tail was interwoven between the bars, obviously causing her great pain.

It isn't until you see her face that you notice, as if Fate is playing games with you once again, that it is the Manticore you had fought before, now dressed in pink denim shorts and a red tank top. You stand there, hesitant for several moments while the girl keeps knelt down on the stairs, obviously still stuck. After several moments you kneel down behind her, "Hold still..." You instruct her calmly while you take care to grab ahold of the squishy and meaty bulb at the end of her tail, doing your best to keep your fingers from touching the white spikes on her tail, knowing full well what they would do to you if they poked you.

"H-Hold on, you're gonna--" She tries protesting but you are already at work, carefully wedging the tip of her tail loose. She stares at you silently, curiously while you do not make eye contact with her, slowly pulling the tail gently in different directions. She can feel her cheeks warm up, knowing they were turning a similar pink to her shorts, but she is brought from her self-awareness when you suddenly pull your hand back, grunting obscenities as you suck on your finger. Looking down, she can see a thin trail of red on one of her thorns, "Did you just--"

"Hand slipped, your tail is wet..." You cough a couple of times into your hand as you wipe your finger on your shirt and get back to work on her tail, however, you are much more hurried as your own cheeks begin to glow and your head begins to sweat, "There!" You silently exclaim as you give one last good tug on her tail, pulling it loose, the Manticore quickly weaving it back out of the railing and rubbing the sore spots. By this time your breathing is heavy and your face is red, the poison on her thorn was as strong as you suspected, and it was doing its job extremely well as you feel your third leg pressing aginst your own pants.

The Manticore looks at you, stares at you for a few moments before that same sly smile finds its way upon her face once again, that same one she used at the end of your fight earlier in the day, "Trying to pay me back?" She jests, sitting down now casually on the stairs in front of you, puposely letting her legs spread and giving you a full view of just how short her shorts were on the inner thigh. She was teasing, no doubt about it.

"Well..." You huff as you try to get up and subsequently balance your weight upon the railing, "You uh, you did let me go earlier..." You try to smile as the Manticore stands up, her mind seemingly made up as she steps down and takes the collar of your shirt between her thumb and pointer finger, "Yes?"

"I do hope you don't think this is enough to pay back letting you get away earlier." There it was again, that toothy grin on her face, that same one she had as she toyed with you in the forest, like you were nothing more than a mouse before a lioness. You shake your head, the only answer she would accept, "Good, because I'm hungry, and you... you smell like dinner." You could feel without looking, something grab at your belt buckle as she turned around, "Why don't you just follow me little mouse, I have plans for you tonight..."

It was only then that you realized it was her tail holding you by the belt buckle, one of those white pearly thorns hooked right between your pants and skin pointed inward, "What if I--" You attempt to ask, but you feel the thorn slowly push forward, its razor sharp tip pressing into your skin, any more pressure and it would break through, pumping more of that poison into you.

"I may or may not accidentally shoot out one of my thorns... now come on, I'm hungry." Her words were menacing but playful as you followed as best you could, "I let you live because you're my type, and you look tasy. You're gonna pay me back all night for letting you get away earlier, I hope you know."

"I'll uh.. I'll do my best." Your uneasy face betrayed your words as you tried smiling and laughing, those glowing ruby eyes staring back at you in the dark hallway letting you know that you were her all she cared about now. As you pass through the door of the room she had rented out, the last thing you remember thinking is, ''Damn it, why did I have to become an adventurer? I should have been a baker...''