Manticore

Second Conversation from the Bestiary

Manticore: Noun. “[A] legendary animal having the head of a man (often with horns), the body of a lion, and the tail of a dragon or scorpion. The earliest Greek report of the creature is probably a greatly distorted description of the Caspian tiger, a hypothesis that accords well with the presumed source of the Greek word, an Old Iranian compound meaning “man-eater.” Medieval writers used the manticore as a symbol of the devil. In Canadian author Robertson Davies’s The Manticore (1972), the protagonist dreams of a sibyl leading a manticore and examines his dream under Jungian analysis.” (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

The forest.

The heart of the forest.

A heart of the forest. One of many. The forest is like a creature of the depths and its dark blood is too much for a single heart. The sun falls in a pale yellow mist through the leaves.

The Huntsman stands with his rifle at his side and a brace of rabbits over his shoulder. In front of him, the Manticore sits with its neck bound in his snare. The morning is hot and damp. The Huntsman is sweating. The birds are singing.

The Huntsman remembers the Manticore’s face. He has never seen it before.

Huntsman:
I was young. My mother bade me never leave the path. I said the path is a dead thing. Nothing grows there.

Manticore: (Mother’s voice)
The forest is not safe. You will become lost.

Huntsman:
I was already lost.

Manticore: (Mother’s voice)
My child! My child! Help! Someone help me! My child is gone!

Huntsman:
I never meant to go so deep. I only meant to see the forest properly.

Manticore: (Mother’s voice)
My child is gone.

Huntsman:
Sometimes I wonder if there ever was a path. Sometimes I wonder if I ever had a mother.

Manticore: (Mother’s voice)
Sometimes I wonder if I ever had a son.

Huntsman: (raises rifle)

Manticore: (laughs, laughs, laughs)

---

Thank you for reading this, the Second Conversation from the Bestiary.

If you have any suggestions for a topic for a future post, I would love to hear them.

Please like, subscribe, comment, and share—all of those things that please the dark algorithm entities.

Seek the forest. Feed the wolf. Be brave, be clever, be kind.