I thought it would be fun to do some redraws of my really old drawings, which were actually in paper doll form instead of in a sketch book. I thought it would be a neat project to tackle. I noticed that most of the paper dolls were characters I made (though I can't remember their names). Which is interesting given that I may now have a whole bunch of new characters to use in my drawings, animations, character interviews, short films, and novels. Most of the characters who I am going to redraw are probably going to be girls, due to the fact that I didn't draw boys until very recently. Back then if I did draw boys they were usually bearded or had a mustache. I was very young and I guess it was my only way to show that a character was in fact a boy, and not a girl. :)
Let's begin:
The first drawing, I want to redraw is a green fairy character. I assume the character was either another character who was turned into something by means of magic (there is tons of shapeshifting in my stories old and new) or a villain in the stories. Her appearance is unusual, so I am very unsure which of the two it is. But I thought it might be interesting to turn her into a character that always was this way, or perhaps has some cool shapeshifting ability or something that comes from the species of fairy she is. (Perhaps with her having the shapeshifter ability, but not the villain part).
(Image from wikia, https://goodomens.fandom.com/wiki/Crowley
(warning: if you decide to put the link into your search-bar, I should warn younger readers, that there is swearing in the show so there will be quotes from the show with swearing in them in the article. I just wanted to warn you)).
So when I looked back at the character, herself, her eyes reminded me strongly of Crowley's eyes from Good Omens, especially since her eyes were not fully yellow and had had white around them, even though I highly doubt that this character is a snake demon with a love for the band Queen. (But who knows, she might actually have a little Crowley in her).
(Image from wikia, https://darkcrystal.fandom.com/wiki/Deet?file=The_dark_crystal_2018_deet_via_netflix.jpg)
And her skin color and ears and everything reminded me strongly of Deet from the Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, sincethey seemed to have a similar design.
So next after thinking that she looked like a mix of Crowley and Deet, I began redrawing her, and adding in details that weren't there before in the original while keeping the essence of the original.
Here is the uncolored version:
Unlike the original, I decided to give her leaf wings as it seemed to fit with her personality.
Here is the colored version:
I have yet to come up with a name that suits her, but we will see what happens as I develop her more.
The next drawing is of a prince, who can turn into a peacock at will. (Or maybe it's not in his control...I can't remember which).
Since, he had facial hair to show he was a boy, and since I know how to draw boys now, I thought I would give him more of a slick-back look and have a little perhaps of hair jelled hair (as he would care about his appearance, like the children's book version of peacocks do).
I took my new ideas for this and put it into the redraw. Here is the uncolored version:
Here is the colored version:
The whole idea where peacock feathers made eyes all over his shirt was actually taken from Greek Mythology, as Argus had eyes all over his body. And since Argus seems to suit this character now, I am going to call him Prince Argus. (Who turns into a peacock, ironically). Speaking of that, I decided to redraw his peacock side...
The reason why the feathers are so colorful in comparison to a normal peacock is because when I was younger, I grabbed a whole bunch of markers to draw the feathers. However in terms of characterization he says it is because he isn't a "common peacock" and that it makes it easier for servants to find him amongst the "common peacocks." (He will probably hate me saying this but if your ruler has a personality of a peacock and rules the kingdom in a vain way, there is likely to be a revolution. Once he is overthrown, since every ruler seems to have a shapeshifting ability, the new president will have one too. The question is what animal they would turn into? )
(President Athena in human form)
To answer my own question I made a character that wasn't a redraw. This character (whose name is President Athena) is the one who takes the place of Prince Argus. Since there are a whole series of princes and princesses who can shape-shift into animals (and whose outer appearance suggests the animal they shift to), I think it would be neat for there to be a president who can do that. She can shape-shift into an owl. The reason I chose to do an owl as the form she shifts into, is that (even though this a stereotype of animals) the owl is wise and the peacock is vain. And because of this, I wanted the animals to show the true natures of their characters. Also, an owl is less colorful, while a peacock is more colorful. With the color differences I was trying to show that Argus is more in it for himself while Athena is in it for the people, therefore wears more reserved colors.
(Athena in owl form)
For her animal form unlike Argus's flamboyant feathers and such, she has her eyes to show that she is human. Owls don't have green eyes, so you can tell that she isn't a normal owl.
But back to redrawing...
Here is another fairy. This one unlike the last is not green, but is wearing a really vibrant pink:
I began redrawing the paper doll. This is
the uncolored version:
This is the colored version:
I gave her ripped pants and blue lipstick. I don't really think that the ripped pants were in the original sketch, but this is how it turned out. But I wanted to make sure that there was still a hint of blue in her costume.
This one is another two-sided paper doll:
I am not entirely sure what her character background is. She was probably a princess of some sort. (Though unlike the others she doesn't appear to be able to shape-shift).
So, I began redrawing the first one and catching the details of her patchwork dress and everything:
She even appeared to have a snow white like collar, but it didn't really fit into the redraw.
This was really fun to redraw, because I had a lot to work with.
Once I finished sketching it out, I colored it in:
Since there seemed to be a little orange mixed in the middle with the blue top, I figured I'd add it in somehow. I also added in some details that weren't there in the original (the dots in the middle of the dots on her dress and the dots on her hat).
Then I began redrawing the flip side. It was much more rainy on the flip-side, perhaps to show her change of mood. She also had a change of outfit which appeared to be a raincoat. Her outfit was less detailed on the flip-side, but I decided I would add in some details anyway.
Greetings Travelers,
I thought I would make a post about world-building, and about censoring and criminalizing
something in your Fantasy world, Science Fiction, or dystopian world as this is an important issue in our own world, and it helps to think about the issue in as many ways as you can and not just black and white.
So let's begin: **warning: spoilers ahead for The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, an episode from the TV series Star Trek: Voyager called "Random Thoughts," and an episode from the series Star Trek: Enterprise called "Stigma." If you haven't watched or read these, read the post with caution or go and read and watch them before continuing**
One should keep in mind when criminalizing something in their fantasy world or science fiction world for that matter that no matter how hard your society tries to stop people from doing whatever they want them to stop doing, that they won't be able to get rid of it completely. As an example in All is Not Lost For All Will Begin Again, the country where my characters live and where their story starts has rules against modern medicine and tenchology hence why they have not developed as quickly as they could have. The reason for this is fear because something like what happened in the Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein happened causing fear and making people resort to using natural medicine and using mesmerism in place of drugs. And people have made sure that technology is safe before releasing it to the world. However, even if I like this form of censorship for my world (as a writer of it), I cannot say that everyone else in the world or that the people outside of my world who are reading my book will be okay with it. In fact I am sure there is a black market for different types of drugs in my world where people put new drugs that are potentially dangerous and untested there and models of the technology and the blueprints for the technology is also sold. The reason why this is all happening, though, is that if one makes something illegal, anything, people are likely to go and buy it or do the now-illegal practices that the government told them they couldn't do.
This in fact has happened many times in books, movies, and TV shows.
In Star Trek: Voyager there is an episode called "Random Thoughts" where to even think a bad thought is illegal because it will cause crime. The reason being the people of this planet are telepaths. They can read each other's thoughts and read non-telepath's thoughts. And to have a bad or violent thought in that world would affect people enough for them to kill someone or commit another crime. This seems like a reasonable law since we see the world represented as a safe haven, and a beautiful place. However, when B'Elanna gets wrongly accused for releasing a bad thought the punishment is a little
severe. They say she must remove the thought from her mind, and they would do it in a way that could potentially damage her brain.
(image from wikia, https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Random_Thoughts_(episode)?file=Engramatic_purge.jpg)
As the crew investigates we are led to find out that there is a black market where people sell bad and violent thoughts for the pure enjoyment of it, because "outlawing violent thought hasn't made it go away. All you've done is force people to share it in back alleys." (ep. "Random Thoughts") and the people who are doing it don't really care about the consequences of what they are doing. But they do it anyway because the government made it illegal, or just because they have an addiction to it or they want to, or they feel incredibly pressured by society and want some freedom to make mistakes. There could be a million reasons as to why one would do something illegal.
An addiction to the thing can also be a reason as to why someone would do something, even if it is something they themselves decided was prohibited. In The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Jekyll did not want to go back to being Hyde, yet his body forced him to, because it was unbalanced after he had tried to separate the two sides of himself and also disrupted the Yin and Yang balance of his body and soul.
(Image from wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Jekyll_and_Mr._Hyde_(character)#/media/File:Jekyll-mansfield.jpg)
Around the time that Jekyll stopped taking the drug he looked sickly. Utterson came to see him and he had "his death-warrant written legibly upon his face. The rosy man had grown pale; his flesh had fallen away; he was visibly balder and older; and yet it was not so much, these tokens of a swift physical decay that arrested the lawyer's notice, as a look in the eye and quality of manner that seemed to testify to some deep-seated terror of the mind." (pg. 27-28) Jekyll's addiction to the drug forced him eventually to take it against his will, despite the fact that he set up a rule himself not to take it. When he felt an urge to do it, it was because he was "seized again with those indescribable sensations that heralded the change; and I had but the time to gain the shelter of my cabinet, before I was once again raging and freezing with the passions of Hyde. It took on this occasion a double dose to recall me to myself; and alas! Six hours after, as I sat looking sadly in the fire, the pangs returned, and the drug had to be re-administered." (pg. 67) Either way, if something is outlawed by oneself or by a society, it doesn't mean the addiction, the need, or something else along these lines will not come in and break the rules that have been set up.
However this issue isn't black and white at all, and no one should view it that way, because it has happened throughout history as well as happening in TV shows, books, and movies.
Outlawing something, whether it be a religion, medicine, books, etc. has happened many times throughout... The Nazis outlawed books that they disagreed with and deeply censored them, even burning them as well as deeply hurting and killing people who were Jewish. The British in the 18th century censored Americans' letters to one another which caused the Americans to create their own postal service. King Henry VIII caused Catholics to have to hide their religious beliefs and some were forced to create a safe haven in their home so that when people came looking the people who were of that religion would not be noticed. Recently the book, Harry Potter, was almost taken off the shelves (and some people have succeeded in getting it removed) because some people were scared of the ideas that the book presented. Not every time that something is censored means the thing itself is evil, or that the people who are doing the now illegal thing are evil. It is often the censors that are evil.
We should also keep in mind that censorship can be really hurtful to people because it can also be used as discrimination against people they don't agree with, which is seen in history, but also represented quite well in another Star Trek episode...
When T'Pol from Star Trek: Enterprise in the episode "Stigma" unwillingly participated in a mind-meld which was illegal (and considered dangerous in her time-line), the Vulcans were not willing to give her a cure or a treatment for it and looked down on her because of it. It was illegal in their minds, and also uncivil. T'Pol even comments in the episode about how unfair the discrimination is by saying "There are no rules telling you to oppress minorities" (Ep. "Stigma")
The problem about taking censorship or criminalizing something lightly in your stories is that you can really hurt people who have indeed gone through similar things and felt discrimination because of it, so you do have to also keep in mind the hardships of it and how it may force people to hide who they are.
In any case no one should take censorship lightly. As a creative artist you have to be wary of that because people like us have been censored throughout history. And one day it could be our own writing that is censored, which is a scary thought, but you have to keep it in mind when writing a story involving censorship.
As for writing about censorship in your story, you probably want to bear these thoughts in mind..
1. Is the world censoring something potentially good? and why? 2. Do I view the thing that the world sees as potentially bad as bad as well? And why? 3. How does it affect the world now since the thing is censored? and why? 4. Does it affect a minority or a majority? and why? 5. Does the censoring of the thing, hurt a group of people's belief systems in any way? and why? 6. Does the censorship support another group of people's belief systems? and why? How and why did the thing get censored or turned illegal? And why?
7. What happens if the thing gets uncensored or becomes legal? 8. What happened to get the thing to be censored or to become illegal to begin with? 9. Are a majority of people going to be upset at all if the thing is uncensored or decriminalized? 10. Was the thing harmful in any way? Or was it something people deeply cared about? 11. What happens if someone breaks the law? Is it a harsh or more gentle punishment? 12. Does this censorship or criminalization remind you of any historical events or event? 13. Does society hurt or make fun of the people who do the censored or illegal thing? Are the people who do the thing a minority? 14. How do people hide that they do the thing? And is it possible to hide? 15. if people are banished for doing it? What stops other people from protesting? 16. if people get killed for doing it? What stops protests from happening? And does the fear of getting killed motivate people to continue doing it? 17. Do any of your characters do the illegal thing? And why do they do the illegal thing? 18. if your character doesn't do the illegal thing is it because of religious beliefs or something else?
I hope these world building questions are useful. Feel free to copy and paste them into whatever you are using and answer them. Last time I made character developing questions I realized there weren't enough for myself or for an another person to think deeply enough about it, so I added more this time for world-building. Enjoy!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How does your Fantasy or Science Fiction world's censorship affect the world? And what is the censorship exactly, what is the government censoring?
-Quinley
To celebrate I decided I would post drawings of my characters of color. In Fantasy there tends not to be as many characters of color, which is sad, but hopefully there will be more stories that do have that in the future.
The first drawing is of Elm, my dryad character.
I really love how her hair turned out in this drawing.
The second is of a character who doesn't currently have a name yet, but she is from
The Silver Key, and is a priestess and martial artist.
This character who doesn't have a name yet, was actually inspired by
the fact that Halle Bailey is going to be playing Ariel in the live action Little Mermaid.
Even though the character herself is not Ariel.
A drawing of Elm dancing in the rain, I really love the way this turned out.
As for this drawing, I thought it would be fun to draw her in a pose that showed she was ready to fight. In my book, she is a very skilled marital artist and someone you probably don't want to anger or hurt her friends.
Hello fellow animators and Greek mythology enthusiasts.
I've talked about my recent writing and editing projects I've been working on. So, I thought it would be a good time to do an animation project post. Two years ago I announced that I was going to be animating Pandora's Box, but I didn't give any other details about it, so I figured it was time to tell you...
The scriptwriting portion This was the first time I wrote a script for something (besides a one woman show that I had worked on more recently in the summer of 2019--more on that later...). I might have to rewrite the script in some ways, and add some scenes into it, but so far I think it is a good first draft. I would like it to make it flow in the same ways that some of my stories do. Perhaps, I could make it a little less comedic, because I want it to be more serious. I find that when I write conversations, they tend to be a little weird, often with comedic elements, even when it is not intended. The reason I might have accidentally written it that way was that I had been writing a serious story before I wrote the script and wanted to write something more light-hearted...which isn't exactly what I want the whole script to be like. (I want it to have light-hearted bits, but as a whole I want it to be serious and have an epic feel to it). I am aiming for the script itself to be a little like the the movie Clash of the Titans (the 1981 version, not the new one).
(Image from Rotten Tomatoes, https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/clash_of_the_titans)
I like how they took Greek mythology and retold it. Though, there were some minor changes to mythology, they didn't make it a different story or mess up the Greek Gods' family tree (like Disney's Hercules does). I also like the High Fantasy feel they gave the myth, and I would love to apply that to Pandora's Box. I also want to have a subplot with Athena and Artemis in animated movie, because it was not brought up as much as I would have liked in the first draft. And since Pandora was the first human woman on Earth, Artemis and Athena would be obsessed and excited over her. Another issue I still have with my script is the timeline. As far as I am aware, it is never clear in mythology when the various gods or goddesses were born, but I am sure I can create a timeline for it. For example, Artemis and Apollo have to be born before Hermes in order for him to steal the cows, and Hephaestus has to be born before Athena in order for him to crack Zeus's head open and allow her to come out of it. And since in some versions of the myth of Prometheus (which is before Pandora's Box) Athena is there and breaths life into Prometheus's creation, she has to exist around this time... The only period of time when it is clear that Artemis and Athena are not there at all is during the battle when Zeus dethroned his father Cronus. But that was only because at the time Zeus had not exactly been married yet and had no children. (And he married Metis later...) But in terms of timeline I really like how George O'Connor handled it in his comic book series Olympians, because he had certain times that all the gods came in, and he also figured out what myths the different gods should or shouldn't be in. The storyboarding
One of the panels from my storyboard.
Storyboarding is very different from actually animating but it at least helps you get from here to there. At the beginning it feels a little like you are making a comic in some ways without there being any actually speech bubbles. The thing about storyboarding is that it has to be rough drawing and you shouldn't do an overly detailed one. It's almost like plotting out a story, except that it is telling you where the characters will go, and how the character gets from A to B. And then after you're done with that, the actual animating comes in.
I began by putting the storyboard frames into the frames of the animation, though
my animation will not be drawn in the same way, as the storyboard frames are drawn. The storyboard frames are just there so I can figure out where the characters are going.
For anyone who is interested in animating and wants to know what app I am using,
I am using Sketchbook. And I used Sketchbookx (a different app) to the draw the background.
I then began inserting the images from the storyboard into the frames. This took a little while to figure out, since I had never used it for storyboards before.
Hermes will not be floating (at least not floating and unable to see his lower half) in the actual animation
My intention for the story board was to get something like this near the end:
Though I must keep in mind that the storyboard above is probably a final and complete draft story board and not what the story was originally like. There were probably many other storyboards before it. But I was aiming for the feel of it, though mine probably isn't the last storyboard because I might have to rewrite the script (and take away some of the narration).
After that I added in some keyframes, to make it move and not jump from frame to frame.
The next thing I did was to try to make basic frames in between the keyframes that showed how the characters flowed within the scene. Once I finish this one storyboarding for the whole script, I will be able to go in and make animation that feels as if it flows well.
Concept Art...
In order to actually animate the characters, however, and not rely on my quickly drawn sketches for the storyboard, I have to figure out what exactly they look like. Of course this may change and grow as I am developing them...But here is the current view of the characters...
I actually looked at several sculptures of Artemis to draw her. She will probably get a more distinct design over time, but this is what I have currently. The statue references I used were this and this.
But this is my second concept drawing for Artemis, though I might keep the statue-like face while still making her more tough and less delicate looking. Or maybe instead make her look like this (even though I didn't use a statue as a reference):
I am thinking that Aphrodite will have a different facial shape than Artemis (whether it be that I decide to make Artemis have the facial shape above or not).
As for her hair, I was trying to give her two different shades of red that made a cool pattern throughout. However I also seem to be referencing in her hair the fact that she was a cause of a war, the Trojan War to be exact, and that a lot of blood was spilled over that. (Also one of the people she loves is Ares the god of war).
I think when I draw Hermes again, I'm going to make him tanner since he is the messenger of the gods, which would mean he would travel a lot. But this is a basic starting point for his concept art...
The next thing I want to do is what I did in the photo above, drawing the character multiple times. This was very helpful in developing Gletta's current appearance. So I assume this will also work with the concept art for the Greek gods and goddesses, and even for Pandora herself.
Happy Holidays everyone! Since there are so many holidays celebrated during winter, and I didn't want to make someone feel left out by mentioning only three or four, I decided that I should write a story that captures something that all those holidays have in common...which is love. I also decided to set it in the world of my novel, The Silver Key. By doing this, I will show how people (humans and shapeshifters) who would usually be enemies, can be friends around this time of year...at least for the time being. "The Fairies or the Faylena" is talking about winter holidays celebrated in my Fantasy world. I haven't figured out the exact dates since they don't fall at the same time as our world's holidays. But one thing I do know is that these holidays are celebrated during winter. My inspiration for the story was this song: The Fairies they Draw Near
I imagine songs like this played (by local musicians) during the holidays in the world of The Silver Key. Though these two holidays take place in winter in two religions that celebrate fairies or faylena, I believe there are other religions in the world that celebrate the fairies or faylena (just not at the same time of the year.)
So, let's begin the story.:
The Fairies or the Faylena
This is the night, where many sit by candlelight
Hoping to get a sight of a fairy in the pale moonlight
Every child will tiptoe over to the window, hoping to see a
fay down below.
Far above the trees the fairies fly, into the night sky
All their voices are heard, and many rejoice at hearing a fairy’s voice.
Round the bend they fly, and some hope to apprehend,
In the starry sky they float, and many writers wrote about the fairies and how they were beautiful beyond compare with wild wispy hair,
Even the bards let out a tune, about the fairies seen above the moon,
Soon the winter’s frost is gone, and the fairies leave at dawn, to promise to return when the frost returns and laces the winter ferns.
—Phoenix
She sat outside on the steps of her apartment and looked down at the streets.Some houses had candles on the windowsill at this time; on others there were none, or the candles were snuffed out. Out the window of some of the houses, flowers were hanging: they were blue, silver, and sometimes even pink and yellow. While other windows had paper stars and even rainbow fabric flying out of them.
She wasn’t sure when the fay would come, but she was excited about it anyway.Few have been said to see the fay during this time of the year. Some waited out all the night until sixteen o’clock and never caught glimpse of them. But, she had a hope they would show, surely fay would take an interest in humans, wouldn’t they? For they were said to come every year, she reminded herself, and she had heard that some passers by had seen them, once.
She picked up her match box, and walked down the road singing tunes to herself, looking around, and lighting the matches as she went. Her daily wages she had earned had paid for them. She lit another match as soon as the second had gone out, as she ventured into the dimly lit street. Several carriages passed by her: some of the passengers looked out the window, but only for a moment, until they looked back at the driver and told them to keep going.
She passed store windows. Some stores still looked open, while others looked closed and locked for the holidays. She stood to the side of one of them that appeared to be open, and she opened its green door, closing it once she got inside. She exhaled, glad that she could get some warmth that wasn’t being generated from her match. She walked around the store—elaborate dresses were hung there. Some had feathers sticking out of them, which had an unusual feeling to them, as if they weren’t even normal bird feathers. She eyed it for a moment, and then walked over to an another one, it was long and blue and a lot less elaborate than what the one from the feathers had, but yet intricate patterns were woven into it.
“Do you like it?” came a voice, she turned around, she nodded her head in the spur of the moment. “Well, the reason you might, it was because it was modeled off the dress Ashalena wears.” He nodded his head, he then pointed her in the direction of the feathered dress, “and those feathers? You may be wondering where we got them, well you see, someone gave them to me, and told me that they once were owned by a shapeshifter.” She nodded and looked down at her hands, she hadn’t exactly wanted to go in and look as if she wanted to buy any of the clothes, in truth she didn’t.
“And this.” he said pointing to a pink dress, “was previously owned by a rich noblewoman—“
“I’m sure that’s wonderful!” she stuttered, stepping off to the side.
“Oh, well, do you think you would like to have a dress made to look like any of these? I’m not sure if we could get shapeshifter feathers, but we could try—“
“Thank you, but I am in a rush to go somewhere!” she said, feeling as if she had walked into the wrong shop. She did not have nearly enough money to buy any of these dresses, no matter how beautiful they looked. She smiled, rather falsely “I just came in…to, get out of the cold.” She put her hand on the doorknob and slowly turned it, and walked out into the cold once more. She wrapped her shawl more tightly around herself, she wasn’t sure if that would help in the slightest. She decided that she would walk to the woods in hopes of seeing a fay, even if the forest were swarmed with shapeshifters. She didn’t care as long as she had a chance to see the fay. She walked even more until she had left the city and reached the dark forest, her feet were sore, but she saw that the trees around the forest were tightly growing together and moss was around their roots.
She continued to walk. Even though she had been told many times that fairies were more likely to be seen where humans thrived, she had a sense that they would be in the forest tonight, as she had also been told they had a connection with nature. And it didn’t make sense to her for them to be in the city, even though some had seen them there. Besides not everyone in the city had seen fairies, some had said they caught glimpses of them, and she wasn’t sure if she fully believed all of them. There came a sound of something walking near her, she heard the sound of branches cracking underneath their feet, her first thought was that it couldn’t be a fairy, what she had heard of fairies was that they walked on the air and not the ground. But whatever it was she assumed it was a shapeshifter, shapeshifters were known to roam the woods and were very hostile, very, very hostile she had heard. She looked around, no thought to pray to the god of protection and safety came to mind (though that probably would have been of use). Her only thought was of the dress she had been shown and the feathers. The sparkling feathers that had been sewn into it came to mind, it wasn’t a ridiculous thought though, she knew whoever had got the feathers surely had come across a shifter and survived. Though she wondered how exactly they did that…. She didn’t wonder for much longer, for a figure appeared. They were wearing leaves, and there were a few of them in their short, black hair. But something was different about this figure beyond wearing leaves. Which was highly unusual for her to see, since she lived in the city and no one she knew of walked around wearing them or remarked on leaf-made clothes as “high and wonderful fashion." But the fact that they were not carrying a weapon of any sort brought a small burst of comfort. Even though she looked around for any sign of hostility, there was none.
“…you’re…you’re…not armed!” she muttered out loud expecting the shifter to not understand. The shifter stared at her for a moment and then looked down at their arms and gave a quizzical look, “oh.” she muttered, “you understood…sort of.” The shifter walked over to her, or rather scampered across the ground and stood close to her, surveying her every move and staring at her with their dark green eyes.
“What I meant, is that you aren’t carrying a weapon. You do, however, have arms.” The shifter looked at her, and let out a few sounds she didn’t completely understand. But they reminded her of the sounds wild animals made, and strongly reminded her of the chirping of birds. Then they turned and looked up at the sky as if waiting for something, something to come.
“…I wonder if the fairies will come this way.” she thought to herself, perhaps a little too loudly, the shifter looked over at her, a look came across their face one that seemed to understand the word, but not quite agreeing with it, but now the look was far from quizzical.
“You mean the faylena—“ they said, in a voice that still had a remnant of the bird sounds it had made before.
“You can talk!” she nearly shrieked, she had half expected the shapeshifter to remain talking in an incomprehensible language, and she found herself to be a bit surprised that they could even speak her tongue. It was a guilty feeling surprise like she had lacked the knowledge or thoughtfulness to even believe the creature had intelligence beyond the ones of an animal“in my tongue—“
The shifter sighed, “yes I am able.” they replied, their voice still following the pattern of a bird’s song. “Anyway, you mean the faylena.”
“What is the faylena?” she asked, feeling a little upset that she had been corrected on what they were called, of course they were the fairies, what else would they be?
“They come every year from their land, where nature is ever in bloom, where nothing disturbs the peace.” they replied, the shifter looks up again, “the feylena are kind and just, and know no evil—“
“you mean the fairies.” she replied, feeling like she could end up teaching the shapeshifter what it really was, “they come from a land far away, where no human or shifter can go, but they return at this time of the year to bring peace and joy—“
“…Aren’t we talking about the same people?” asked the shifter, she bit her lip,
“no, we aren’t.” she replied in the single moment. “Yours are obviously some shapeshifter deities that…that,are well…related to nature.”
“What?”
“Yours are shifters of sorts.”
“No, they aren’t. I mean they can be seen in different ways by different onlookers…but they aren’t shapeshifters, or gods, for that matter. They are something in between…they are the Feylena, or the fairies depending upon what you desire to call them.”
The shifter looked over at her,looking down at the ground and then back at her, “and, besides you just said yours are from a land, faraway…“
“it’s probably a different land.” she muttered. “A very human-like creature land.”
“…alright, then.” muttered the shifter, looking up at the sky once more, “they are said to arrive around this time.”
First there was nothing the sky remained the way it was with little hints of light in the sky here and there, but a light a light like no other came across it. The light shone for a few minutes in the sky and then separated into several.They seemed to be darting around, but not for no reason, they seemed to have a cause to fulfill. A goal as they darted around the sky.
“By the gods!” she sighed, looking over at the shifter, who smiled back at her, “it’s really them.”
“Indeed it is.” replied the shifter.
“But…wouldn’t a shifters’ Feylena be different than our fairies?” she asked, “with wings and talons and—“
“Oh stop.” replied the shifter, staring up again at the sky,
waiting to see what one of bright lights did. It stood there for a moment, and thenslowly went down to the trees. And then something changed about it, as it went down, and emerged but in a different less loose form…
“oh, it’s a fairy, it’s a real-life fairy!” she squealed, the shapeshifter merely smiled, “the faylena.” they both looked at each other for a moment, a small laugh escaped each others lips, any anger or disagreement that had gone on between them had slowly, ever so slowly faded away. And they both looked over. What the shapeshifter saw was a beautiful creature with wings made out leaves, and flowers blooming in her hair. What the human girl saw was a woman wearing a flowing green dress, but the hair of the fairy or faylena was of a rainbow hue.It hung about her shoulders and her wings were of bright light. She didn’t just stand there in the radiating light which shown from her body, she walked over to them, or rather floated over them and greeted them with a smile. And placed her hand, her warm hand which seemed to have an unearthly feeling to it in their hands, she looked over at the girl and the shifter surveying them both, “I suppose you are the two I was told to meet—“ she said, her voice had a soft feeling to it, but yet felt like nothing from that world, “the human and the shifter who waited to see us, in this beautiful night.”
“…you knew about us?” asked the girl, “did the gods tell you?” The faylena or fairy looked over at her,
“if they did, I am not allowed to exactly tell.” she smiled,
“But I was told to present these to a shifter and a human who met tonight, despite their underlying differences…” She brought out two golden chains. They both had lockets attached to them which had something inside of them, radiating light like the one they had seen before with the fairies or faylena, “..and met to this very night in hopes to meet us.” She floated over to the shifter and placed the golden chain around their neck, and floated over to the girl and hung it around hers as well. The shifter despite the amazement of the experience, felt they had a need to ask what exactly these beautiful fairy-made or faylena made necklaces did. For they knew that whenever a fairy or faylena was to present a gift to a mortal, be they shifter or human or the gods know what, there was usually an underlying meaning to it. And it wasn’t just there for the beauty of it.
“What exactly do they do?” asked the shifter, the fairy or faylena looked over at them. “They have two uses, one to call us for help when you are in need of it, and two, to sustain and help this friendship which you two have formed…or at least are beginning to form. How exactly it does this, this is up for you to find out, in time you will know. But you must know that this friendship must not end this night, like so many friendships between humans and shifters do, but that it must continue…” The faylena or fairy looked down at the ground as if trying to figure out how to form what to say next. “Even if others want to pull you away from it, don’t let them!” The girl nodded, so did the shifter though the entire meaning to them, wasn’t exactly clear, they knew they had to remain friends though, but they had only gotten a little bit of what was to come, at the moment they felt the current love which surrounded them that night, the night that they met the fairies and the faylena at the same time.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What winter holidays exist in your Fantasy world(s)? Do they have any religious reasons for happening? (Like did a god or goddess, or prophet (or another supernatural being) cause it?)
Happy holidays to everyone!
-Quinley P.S. An upcoming post (that will probably be posted after the New Year) is one about my progress on my animation project, Pandora's Box. So be sure to keep your eyes open for that.
