People don't seem to know what a manticore is. D: So I shall give a little mythical creature lesson! :DDD
The manticore was originally "seen" in Persia, it is a feared, man-eating manticore, or manticora, and is also said to have been "seen" in the jungles of Brazil and Indonesia, as well as the forests in North America and Europe. It has the body of a lion and a tail of poisonous spines that some people say can be shot like arrows, making it a lethal predator. The poison gland in the quill continues to contract poison through the hollow quill, making it lethal even after the quill has been launched. It eats victims whole, using its triple rows of teeth, and leaves no bones behind. Its face is said to resemble a human's, and travelers in marshes have mistaken a manticore for a bearded man from a distance. The manticore's call is melodious, similar to the lower notes of a flute blown together with a trumpet. Despite being a beautiful sound, most animals know to flee when they hear it. Humans should pay attention to this. Manticore mainly eat animals such as deer, antelopes, gazelle, and humans. Sometimes they will catch smaller mammals, such as rabbits, rats, or shrews. The manticore range from being the size of a wolf (Ed's the size of a wolf.) to a tiger. It's rumored they can speak all types of human language.
That's about all I know, and this is all from various sources so... Whatever. (: There! I hope you guys understand what a manticore is now. (:
Anyways this chapter was really fun to write, so I hope it suits your fancy as well.
Warning - Killing, man-eating creature, violence, madness, Ed, Envy, etc etc.
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Ink Hands
Creature Hunt
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When the blond awoke, he found himself as a beast and not a human. He let out a huff, just great. It was painstakingly hard to hold a humane form, and he was quicker in this form. So he might as well stay as a manticore, and wait to enter a human form when he reached a town or city. That would work. A cracking of twigs, and the scent of gunpowder alerted him that the military was still following him. Oh, they could use a good scare. Glancing around, he launched himself into an elder oak, and scrambled up to the middle level branches where he would be hidden enough, but still be able to see the soldiers.
There were five of them, including that General, Envy, and Al. They were obviously confused as they had stopped in the clearing where Ed had spent the night, and were looking around for footprints.
"Where'd he go!?" complained Roy, looking around for any sign of the blond. He received several opinions, and none were vaguely right except the one comment about an "ambush". Of course they wouldn't know it was Ed that was ambushing them...
Eying the closest soldier, he crouched low on the branch, and crept forward. Once he reached the end of the branch, he let out a low call, and slammed into the soldier. The soldier cried out before his throat was crushed in the blond manticore's jaws, and he looked up, licking blood from his jaws. He grinned when he saw the looks of shock and horror on the other's faces.
"Wh-what the fuck is that!?" screeched Al, staring at the feline creature as it turned to eat the soldier.
"I'd like to know too..." muttered Envy, confused at the sight of a human faced cat.
Ed licked his jaws and turned away from the half-eaten soldier, the soldier tasted fairly disgusting, and would probably give the blond a stomach ache if he continued to eat him. Giving a snort, he was thankful for being able to speak human in this form, "A manticore, human, is what I am." His voice was melodious, but fairly similar to his human one had been. Still it would cause the animals of the area to flee.
"What..? But, manticore aren't real! They can't be!" Roy accused, glaring at the beast.
"Then you're saying homunculus aren't either, and there is one standing right next to you. And besides, can't you believe what you see?" answered the blond, taking to sitting on his haunches. The remaining regular soldier moved to fire his gun at the beast, but found that the blond had flicked his tail, causing a single quill to lodge itself into the soldier's throat. The soldier made a gurgling sound as the flesh of his neck to black and fell over, dead in a heartbeat.
Glaring spitefully at the beast for killing another of his soldiers, he snapped, "You're probably just a well done chimera!"
That did it, so the blond jumped on Roy, and pinned the human to the ground, snarling in the pale face. "Yes, yes, and you are probably a troll in disguise trying to trick women into coming with you so you can feast on their flesh, no?"
It seems Al finally came about himself and had some sense, "Brother...? Is.. Is.. this what that fake you turned you into?"
The manticore walked back over to the tree he had been hiding in, and sat down, tilting his head in thought. He silently figured this would be best to lie about, and say that he had been turned into this by something else. That was true, but he was the same as the person they were hunting.. So.. Yes it would be best to lie. "Yes... Al..." he said slowly, looking away, pretending he couldn't bare to face his brother.
"Then you'll tell us why you left?" Al asked cheerfully.
Ed nodded, but frowned slightly. His ears folded back, and he stood up and turned of into the direction of the mountain range. "Yes, but not here, it isn't safe," he growled, glancing around as if expecting something to come leaping out at them.
"Why?" asked Envy, once more finding himself truly curious.
The blond manticore snorted before answering, "The trees have ears, and I'm not the only 'mythical' creature as you call us, around. After all to create something, one must have seen it before, no? So therefore creatures like dragons, trolls, and such do exist. I have a feeling you'll be meeting them soon enough. So let's go, before I change my mind."
Then he lunged through the undergrowth, stopping to allow the others to catch up now and then before continuing. Soon they were deep within the forest, and the blond showed no sign of stopping. In a mid run he stopped to a halt, and looked around warily. Before him was a large cluster of rocks, with an old withering oak growing over it. A single, gnarled branch loomed over a wooden door that looked like it was wildly slapped onto a large hole in one of the rocks. A black, rabbit-eared, goat-horned, four-eared creature scuttled down to perch on the overhanging branch. Handing from a prehensile tail, golden eyes fixated on his visitors.
"Hoo, hoo, who have we here? I recognize the blond manticore - as according to the other manticore, being the color of gold is a symbol of great power, no Edward? But I do not recognize the humans. Though the younger one reminds me of Edward, well will you speak, Edward?" the black creature asked, sounding very sophisticated for hanging upside down.
The blond huffed, "Yes I will, black phooka. The one that reminds you of me is my younger brother, if you must know. The one that looks like a damn palm tree is a homunculus named Envy. The pale bastard is General Roy Mustang of the military, what, you want to record this event in your mind, trickster?"
"Hoo, you know me too well, my blond friend, now then let's get inside, I fear what may be listening. After all, I haven't even heard all of your past, now in, in," the phooka beckoned, the door swinging open. The manticore waited patiently as the three military figures walked into the half above, and half below cavern, before walking inside with the phooka sitting on his back. The door shut with a clang, and he listened as the phooka muttered something, most likely something to prevent unwanted ears to hear.
Within the cavern, lanterns were strung from the roots of the oak that made up the roof of the cavern. The lanterns caused warm shadows to cover the surprisingly large cave. The dirt floor was soft, and simply seemed to be sand and nothing more. They were in the center cavern it appeared, as several dark holes appeared to lead to other places. A table was set off to the side, with fruits and bread placed in bowls upon it. At the center of the cavern lay a clear blue pool, that was only around two or three feet deep. The phooka jumped off of the blond's back, and trotted over to the table, and plucked out a few blackberries, devouring them in seconds.
The blond had walked over to the pool, and had bent down to lap water out of the pool before laying down in a dry spot in the sand. The three military figures noticed a pile of cushions had appeared behind them to sit in, and warily they sat down. The phooka had returned to his perch on the manticore's back.
"So are you going to tell us now, brother?" asked Al, looking curiously about the cave, noticing that some things had changed as he looked about. Such as the fact that the five dark holes that obviously led to other parts of the cave had relocated themselves. Also, the roots of the tree seemed to be moving about like snakes, but the lanterns stayed in the same place. He decided this place was creepy, and strange.
"Hoo, hoo, yes please begin Edward. Please start from when you left your, ah, brother was it? Oh, I shall have a delightful story to tell future phooka! Delightful, wonderful, delicious, mesmerizing, and all those other complimentary words out there. Please do start now, Edward," the phooka said, still with that sophisticated tone.
The manticore sighed deeply, before shifting ever so slightly so he was facing the three humanoid figures.
"Alright..."
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Um... Yeah. So anyways I figured if I had a manticore in here, I'd have to have other mythical creatures too... Please tell me you know what a phooka is... If not... Just google it or something. (:
Anyways yeah, I might not be able to update for a while because I'm going on vacation. But I'll surely have a chapter for this and the sixth chapter for my other fic up on Wednesday, then you won't get updates for a week. 'Cause I'll be in St. Louis, Missouri, for a week. At least, I think its in Missouri. Then I'll have more chapters uploaded. Since I'll probably be writing them down in my notebooks or something. xD
R & R peeps, please and thank ya.