Sometimes the Maiden is safer with the dragon
Queen of the Darkness, Anne Bishop, 2000, ROC Publishing:
[describing two statues in a fountain:]
"The back of the fountain was a curved wall of rough stone curtained by water that spilled into a stone-enclosed pool. The woman rose halfway out of the pool, her face lifted toward the sky. Her eyes were closed, and there was a slight smile on her lips. Her hands were raised as if she were just about to wipe the water from her hair. Everything about her embodied serene strength and a celebration of life......the other statue - the male.
The beast.
His visceral response to the crouched, blatantly male body that was a blend of human and animal was a gut-deep sense of recognition. It was as if someone had tipped him of his skin to reveal what really lay beneath.
Massive shoulders supported a feline head that had its teeth bared in a snarl of rage. One paw/hand was braced on the ground near the head of a small sleeping woman. The other was raised, the claws unsheathed.
Someone like Alexandra [someone who saw the world from a small-minded point of view] would look at this creature and assume it was about to crush and tear the female, that the only way to control that physical strength and rage would be to keep it chained. Someone like Alexandra would never look beyond that assumption to notice the small details. Like the sleeping woman's hand reaching out, her fingertips just brushing the paw/hand near her head. Like the way the crouching body sheltered her. Like the way the glittering, green stone eyes stared at whoever approached, and the fact that the snarling rage came from the desire, the need to protect."
Fables, March of the Wooden Soldiers, graphic novel, Bill Willingham, DC Comics, 2004
Snow White, heavily pregnant, runs out into the rain to wrap her arms around the neck of a giant gray wolf taller at the shoulder than she is: he's the Big Bad Wolf. "I knew it. I knew you'd come in time to save us! You always do! You always save me." He, in turn, looks slightly befuddled.
Sometimes the Maiden is safer with the beast.
[describing two statues in a fountain:]
"The back of the fountain was a curved wall of rough stone curtained by water that spilled into a stone-enclosed pool. The woman rose halfway out of the pool, her face lifted toward the sky. Her eyes were closed, and there was a slight smile on her lips. Her hands were raised as if she were just about to wipe the water from her hair. Everything about her embodied serene strength and a celebration of life......the other statue - the male.
The beast.
His visceral response to the crouched, blatantly male body that was a blend of human and animal was a gut-deep sense of recognition. It was as if someone had tipped him of his skin to reveal what really lay beneath.
Massive shoulders supported a feline head that had its teeth bared in a snarl of rage. One paw/hand was braced on the ground near the head of a small sleeping woman. The other was raised, the claws unsheathed.
Someone like Alexandra [someone who saw the world from a small-minded point of view] would look at this creature and assume it was about to crush and tear the female, that the only way to control that physical strength and rage would be to keep it chained. Someone like Alexandra would never look beyond that assumption to notice the small details. Like the sleeping woman's hand reaching out, her fingertips just brushing the paw/hand near her head. Like the way the crouching body sheltered her. Like the way the glittering, green stone eyes stared at whoever approached, and the fact that the snarling rage came from the desire, the need to protect."
Fables, March of the Wooden Soldiers, graphic novel, Bill Willingham, DC Comics, 2004
Snow White, heavily pregnant, runs out into the rain to wrap her arms around the neck of a giant gray wolf taller at the shoulder than she is: he's the Big Bad Wolf. "I knew it. I knew you'd come in time to save us! You always do! You always save me." He, in turn, looks slightly befuddled.
Sometimes the Maiden is safer with the beast.