Top 5 mythical creatures?
ooooooooooooh. i'm going to exclude human-based mythological creatures (e.g. your mermaids, selkies, etc.)
5. qilin - this grew out of (shocker) a fic i read way back in the day which is the first place i heard of this particular creature. a hooved chimerical creature, a good luck symbol who is supposed to appear when a particularly illustrious leader shows up. she gives us major king/lionheart vibes. i would say, somewhat in the same vein, i love me that white royal stag. something something a big outward mythological symbol of a good ruler.
4. rat kings. do they count as mythological? idk man something about them tickles me excessively. we have become so intertwined we are no longer one creature but several conjoined, a creature built out of smaller copies of the same creature.
3. minotaurs but especially The Minotaur (you know, from the labyrinth?). i've read way too many retellings of ariadne and the minotaur not to have a particular soft spot for this one. you're so monstrous you have to be sealed away in a special tomb. you're so loved your sister dances on top of your tomb every day. i read a particularly moving short story by naomi novik about ariadne and the minotaur and it changed my brain chemistry.
2. kitsune. trickster beings are by and far my favorite kind of any character archetype and i read naruto at a very formative age, so this one is kind of inevitable.
1. dragons. sorry to be so basic but they're a classic for a reason. i have a goodreads shelf that literally just is for dragon-related fiction. considering one of my favorite real animals are whales, i think i'm just a fan of humblingly huge animals.
honorable mentions: water horses, banshees, almost every variation of japanese youkai, sphinx, unicorns, hellhounds and black dogs, and griffins
