For my story, I'm trying to think of a good way of describing a manticore. I don't want to stop the story to dump a load of description or exposition, but I also want to present my manticore not as something cobbled together out of animal parts, but as a creature that, like the duckbilled platypus, evolved along its own path and only looks like it was cobbled together, because of convergent evolution.
I have a number of ideas for making the manticore a little bit different than traditionally described, for example with a tail covered by hair instead of chitinous armor. But my idea is that someone who saw it and escaped and survived to tell about it in the town would probably say "It had the body of a lion with the face of a man, but the tail of a scorpion, and the wings of a bat."
But I want the reader of my story to know that it looks a lot more natural than that.
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51,347 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 22 58
This is a good question. The way things like sphinx and hippogriffs and whatevers are described, I can never really imagine the transition.
Talk about the details: how the materials (chiton, leathery skin, human skin, fur) transition from one to another, on a small scale. The hard skin of the scorpion bit slowly growing minute ridges that translate seamlessly to fur, with strands peppering the whole creature. The fur can end gradually, just like hair on the nape of a human neck, etc. etc. Just mention that it's hard to tell exactly where the parts separate.
----------Having been called in here very many times over the past few months to answer for this or that misdemeanor, Oliver was well acquainted with the room's nuances and eccentricities – most of them fungal.
7,969 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 23 09
I would describe it's disparate features, instead of simply likening them to existing animals, though it might help someone trying to make sense of a creature.
"It's body was huge, covered in coarse, stinking fur and it ran on all fours, agile as a cat with razor-claws. Oh its face! Its hideous face was that of a man, but grotesque, twisted with years of brooding malice. The beasts' wings, webbed and featherless like a bats, shut out the sun."
Helps with word count, but I've never seen a manticore so I don't know how much help this is!
----------After two years of failing to launch, this will be my year.
2009: The Tears of Angelcynn
0 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 23 14
I am thinking I could use the classic description as a reference. Something like:
The manticore did not look much like the minstrels described it. It had a lion's body with bat-like wings and a scorpion-like tail, but the tail was covered by hair, and the wings looked more like kites made out of bat-skin, except with bushy tufts of hair along the edges. The face was like a human's, except for the eyes, nose, mouth, chin, cheeks, forehead, and ears.
And then I can go on to describe similarities and differences, as long as I don't run on for too long considering that the POV character is in great peril at this particular moment.
51,347 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 23 16
If the character's in danger, perhaps focus on the deadliest bits - the tail dripping poison, the viciously sharp claws, the powerful wings, the...well, human teeth, but still, how creepy would it be to have something human-ish staring at you with all those animal bits ready to start devouring?
----------Having been called in here very many times over the past few months to answer for this or that misdemeanor, Oliver was well acquainted with the room's nuances and eccentricities – most of them fungal.
5,150 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 09 10
Something like:
"At first I (we) thought it was some wild man, leaning against a boulder. I/we called out, and as it turned its head I realized it was too broad for a man's head. Hearing me it came out from behind the boulder and.."
Then head to thick neck, 4 powerful legs, golden fur, long tail. When it unfurled its hideous black wings, I ran like the wind.