Bonus Drawing # 101, Pania of the reef

Ok, just one more. We’re parked up in our home-on-the-road, Liberty the Great, in Te Awanga in the Bay of Plenty. It’s an awesome campground, right on the beach, and we’re loving the feeling of impending summer. There’s a legend in these parts of a beautiful woman called Pania who lived in the ocean, and fell in love with the son of a chief. She could only be out of water at night, and had to return to the ocean at dawn. Given the setup, it’s not suprising that treachery and betrayal ensued, and she and their son fled back to the water, never to return. Here she is, back in the ocean as a single mother, nursing the boy who grows up to the kaitiaki (guardian) of the area, a taniwha (spirit) who often disguises himself as a shark, a stingray or an octopus.