I had to simplify the design quite a bit, but I think it was worth 6 hours of my life I spent animating this XD. Also I'm bidding 1 12-frame animation or a high quality painted scene for the OTA.
Higher quality GIF version: https://www.deviantart.com/dracaena53/art/GIF-Ancient-Forest-972282886 Backstory/lore: In a period of renaissance within an ancient and forgotten world, a young sorcerer stumbles upon a ring of twelve weathered marble statues. Correctly assuming they were guardians of a lost artifact of the ancient civilization, he attempts a spell to resurrect the ancient creatures. Successful, the statues wake one by one. However, all but one begin to crumble due to their age. The only intact guardian, and the smallest, remembers only its purpose; to protect the artifact. The young sorcerer then joins the guardian in its quest for the artifact. The guardian is roughly the size of a leopard, light and agile despite being made of marble. A combination of stone and living matter animated through both the sorcerer's magic and the lingering enchantments of the ancients, it survives solely on photosynthesis for energy. The leaves and vines are extensions of its body, however they were joined magically as it was reanimated by the sorcerer, originally regular ivy which grew on its inanimate form. As an animated statue, the guardian is nearly invincible, though its leaves and vines are vulnerable; while wounds to these parts are not fatal, the guardian may need to go into a hibernal sleep to regrow them, as it cannot perform photosynthesis without enough leaves.
