Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Realistic lion head in profile

Realism · Black and grey · Flash

A lion's head turned to the left, with a full, flowing mane and a steady, watchful eye. The linework is fine and layered, with soft shading on the fur and sharper contrast around the nose, whiskers and eye. The drawing is entirely black and grey and fills the frame on a plain pale background.

Realism Lion Mane Portrait Animal

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The lion had not eaten since the transfer shuttle came down in the dust storm, and Ilse Varga, who had spent nine years logging its breathing on the reserve, said it was sulking. I said it was waiting. She told me that was the same thing with a better coat.

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Its mane was the colour of wet slate in the early light, thick at the throat where the wind combed it flat, and it held its head turned to the left, always towards the ridge where the old boundary fence had rusted into the scree. Every morning the same eye went there and stayed. The seed bank records said the first pride had been carried up from Earth in cold sleep, and that the people who woke them had kept the drawings, pinned to the mess hall walls for three generations before anyone thought to ask what they were for. Nobody on Keld had ever seen one breathe.

Ilse wanted the tag fitted before release, so the valley survey could track it through the hydroponic terraces. I wanted to leave the collar in its case. We argued over a cold flask of tea until the sun cleared the storm line, and neither of us won.

In the end I opened the gate and stepped back. The lion did not go through. It rose, looked at me for a long moment with that steady, unhurried watch, then turned its great head back to the ridge and lay down facing it. I left the gate open and the tag in my pocket. Whatever it was waiting for, it had the decency not to ask me to hurry it along.