Her Mother’s Daughter.
Ziradess takes to the desert kingdom of Sirn like a fish to water. The savage wilderness gives her breath, the sun makes her skin shine more golden than ever - and she gets to handle all manners of pointy things!
The plan was to follow in her mother’s footsteps and earn her ritual Desert Clan tattoos by slaying a man-eating lion that had terrorized the clanspeople for some time. So she armed herself with the traditional spear and dagger and went to face the mighty beast.
... who turned out to be a scarred and one-eyed old thing, driven from his pride by one younger and stronger, to scrape out a fading existence in the scorched lands. Never one to second-guess her strong heart, Ziradess decided on the spot that there would be no honour in such a kill, shared her rations with him instead, and won his trust.
She named him Ezhghar, a Sirn name meaning “mighty”, spoiled him back to vigour and size - and having him ever at her side efficiently shut up those vocal about her mixed blood making her an unfit part of the Sirn royal family.
Another of those quick texture + shading pictures. ♥