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Description
Panther looked around at his surroundings. Everyone had begun to bow down before him- but he was no King.
His face and body were decorated in elaborate markings resembling his own skeleton. It’d taken the herd a few hours to get him ready for the ceremony, and brushing out his long hair took up much of the time.
He was shocked- confused, almost. Maybe it was an accomplishment to kill a great rival, but he never thought he’d earn such praise. With wide eyes, he watched as the tribe chanted his new name. He saw his best friend Zena in the crowd, smiling at the familiar face. He saw the tears staining her cheeks, but they weren’t sad ones. Not today.
He never realized how many zebras there were in his tribe. It was way more than a few dozen. Maybe even hundreds of them… and maybe their decreasing population would start to grow again. After all, there was no longer a panther to kill the young, old, and weak- and even the most powerful of soldiers, including Zena’s older brother.
He’d ended the terror. The panthers were gone. For now, at least. He stood there, his shocked expression slowly growing into a smile. The painted warrior spread his wings, shouting in triumph. Great things were to come for the little soldier.
~
His face and body were decorated in elaborate markings resembling his own skeleton. It’d taken the herd a few hours to get him ready for the ceremony, and brushing out his long hair took up much of the time.
He was shocked- confused, almost. Maybe it was an accomplishment to kill a great rival, but he never thought he’d earn such praise. With wide eyes, he watched as the tribe chanted his new name. He saw his best friend Zena in the crowd, smiling at the familiar face. He saw the tears staining her cheeks, but they weren’t sad ones. Not today.
He never realized how many zebras there were in his tribe. It was way more than a few dozen. Maybe even hundreds of them… and maybe their decreasing population would start to grow again. After all, there was no longer a panther to kill the young, old, and weak- and even the most powerful of soldiers, including Zena’s older brother.
He’d ended the terror. The panthers were gone. For now, at least. He stood there, his shocked expression slowly growing into a smile. The painted warrior spread his wings, shouting in triumph. Great things were to come for the little soldier.
~
- Panther is a young teen here! I like the idea that after his zebra herd cut his hair in the traditional zebra cut, they let him grow it out. Even though it naturally sticks up, it got so long that it started to hang down against his shoulders. He doesn’t even know how much he resembles dear mother Luna with this hairstyle. He keeps it for a while, before cutting it pretty short. Since all the zebras pretty much know him, no one misidentifies him as female. Some of the younger ones probably do, but he doesn’t mind much at all. He loved his long hair while he had it.
- This is the ceremony celebrating the death of the tribe’s greatest rivals, panthers. As mentioned in the story above, these panthers had hunted down the zebras excessively. Panther killed off the biggest one, and the panther attacks seemed to stop after that…
No one had ever seen anyone significantly wound a panther, let alone kill one before… After killing this panther, everyone was very clearly shocked. He was considered an equal to it, at least in strength. This feat earned him his new name, and he happily discarded “Salvatore,” the name given to him by his wretched mother. He was Panther now.
- He got his cutie mark on that day (a panther skull), which was yet another shock to the zebra tribe. The Farasi Tribe Zebras don’t have cutie marks, unlike other zebra subspecies. Cutie marks were unheard of until Panther got his. In honor of his skull cutie mark, they painted him in a skeletal pattern.
- To Panther, at least in this scene, it looks like there’s hundreds of zebras celebrating his accomplishment. The crowd sure is huge, but it’s probably only 50 of them. The tribe has a hard time even with the panthers gone. They have no food, despite being omnivorous and open to practically any meal. Unfortunately, the tribe population still decreases. Fortunately, though, the decrease isn’t nearly as fast as it once was.
- This ceremony means a lot to him. It marks a huge change in his life, and the time he proved his worth to the Tribe. Eventually, he went on to earn the title of Lead Defender.
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Finally drew him with his new colors! I like the grey palette more than the old blue one, probably since the blue was really hard to shade :’)
And just so it’s clear, no, he’s not a girl here (: He just happens to have long hair.
Anywayyyy, this is the next part of my story arc! I’ve been pretty excited to work on it, especially since Panther’s my fav :‘D Thank you for checking this out!
Here’s the verse so far: www.deviantart.com/venommocity…
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