Not too much happening, except I'm still trying to get ahead on homework and other suchthings. But I just thought I'd post some original stuff (ironically, all from my novel-writing class) :




I was a little bored today during Novel Writing Seminar, since we were watching "The Hustler" and it wasn't really keeping my interest. So I doodled this little character, a young quetzalcoatl named Teo. I have no idea what he's from or anything, but I kind of like him. Might do a design change and color picture of him later.


And then, just a scene from chapter two of my novel for the same Novel Writing Seminar. Since practically all we do in that class is watch movies and cartoons anyway (not that I'm complaining!) who knows when we'll get to the actual writing part:


Mavis settled down long enough to flip open her notebook before the noise came again, this time closer. A couple of stray pebbles tumbled from a rock outcropping on her left…definitely not the product of an overactive imagination. She closed the journal and slowly got to her feet, now certain that she wasn't alone.

She turned around, but saw nothing. The sun cast long afternoon shadows across the rocks, leaving it too light for a fire but too dim to quite see things clearly. The wind circled through the jutting rocks, whining and sending a cold shiver up her spine. But the shadows and wind themselves didn't seem out of place. It was something else…

Why can't I hear any animals or birds?

Mavis turned back to her campsite, and screamed.

Sitting directly above her on one of the jagged rocks was a naked man. At least, that was her first thought…on a second glance she realized that he wasn't exactly naked, and that he was more of a young man than an adult. A third take put both her new perceptions into questions as well.

Jutting from the boy's back stretched a pair of wings, colored tawny brown with black tips. Mavis found herself automatically estimating the wingspan: it looked to be nearly 15 feet from pinion to pinion. The bottom half of the boy was completely covered in smaller down-like feathers, and where his feet should have been instead were curved talons. The boy's hair, like the wings, was tawny with black tips. His slight frame was spotted with dirt, scratches and a few old scars. He stared down at her with remarkably large, dark brown eyes.

Mavis only stared back, too startled and confused to even breathe. For what seemed like an eternity, neither of them budged an inch. The idea dawned on Mavis that this…thing really was a figment of her imagination, and that the moment she blinked it would be gone. Her lungs suddenly screamed for attention, and she let out a long breath.

The winged boy suddenly hopped from one rock to another in a swift motion, and the unexpected movement brought another startled cry to her throat. The boy cocked his head to one side, his expression confused. He continued to shift around nervously before perking up at some unseen feeling. He unfolded one of his wings and began to pick meticulously as it, smoothing the feathers and flicking away dirt at a speed Mavis didn't believe was humanly possible.

He…he moves just like a bird!

The more Mavis watched the boy, the more he confirmed her suspicions. He constantly darted his head and blinked at his surroundings, as if listening for predators or a change in the wind. Every once in awhile he would dart from rock to rock with a quick flap of his wings, landing deftly on his talons.

It seemed the boy-bird hadn't noticed her, and the thought eased her fears a little. A photo! She needed to snap a photo of this thing, whatever it was…and then she remembered that her camera was still at the bottom of the cliff. Dammit! She finally eyed her journal, still sitting by her pack and cooking equipment. Maybe if it sits still long enough I can sketch it. But would a sketch be good enough? No one would believe she'd seen this thing without photographic evidence. A sketch would be better than nothing, though…

Still keeping her eyes trained on the boy-bird, Mavis shuffled a step forward and knelt down to retrieve her notebook. Her fingers brushed the leather cover just as the boy suddenly leaped to the ground, landing no more than an arm's length away from her. Mavis yelled something incomprehensible and leaped back, hitting her back against the boulder behind her. This thing was no longer just a winged Bigfoot or Loch Ness Monster that she could document and study; it was up in her face and real, and its wingspan made it seem twice as huge. She could smell it from here: salt and mulch and years without brushed teeth hit her full in the face. But more than that, the talons frightened her, and the boy cracked his mouth open to reveal almost vampire-like incisors.

The camera was instantly forgotten. Why didn't I have the sense to bring a gun with me?!

"Kulay."

Mavis blinked at the too-close-for-comfort boy-bird. The voice definitely hadn't come from her, which meant…

"Kulay," the boy repeated in earnest, cocking his head again.

"You…you can speak!" Mavis finally sputtered, almost as much for herself as for the boy-bird.

The boy hopped back a step, as if this revelation shocked him just as much as it did Mavis. He looked at her suspiciously. "You know Kulay?" His voice was high and fast, matching his birdlike mannerisms.

"No, I just…thought you were dangerous, and then you started talking, so I thought—"

The boy-bird pointed a finger at her, stopping her mid-sentence. "You…you are strange." He drawled his statement as if it were the most profound thought in existence.

"But what are you?" Mavis asked. Something about being able to carry on a conversation with the boy-bird helped ease her fears, but only a little.

"Kulay!" he said again, sounding annoyed.

"I don't know what a 'Kulay' is," she responded. Just keep talking to him…

"No! Kulay!" The boy snapped to attention, spreading his wings wide and pointing to himself repeatedly. Mavis felt her heart shoot up into her throat once again at the sudden outburst.

But as he stood there, looking frustrated and fierce with his wings outstretched, a thought crept into Mavis's mind.

Could he be the sungull?


Why does all the original stuff I do include something with wings?... o_o;

KH2 countdown: 20 days! ZOMG less than three weeks!

Drawing: I haven't been drawing nearly enough lately. I'm going to try and work on those pitch pages this weekend.

Writing: Worked more on my novel today, as well as the huge-ass KH fic yesterday.