Look towards the path, child

Two of my original characters, Sasha and Kida. Done for Illustrative Media.


Here is the prose that went with them, it's rough, and kinda terrible. Bear with me n_n.



The cypress twisted and wove around the thick of the wood like a vein of the earth itself. The humidity was oppressive, heat and water mixing into a noxious atmosphere most beings couldn't manage to sustain themselves in. The strange man shambling through the brush had skin with a moist film, Long webbed fingers pushing the thickets aside with ease and a large wide nose breathing the air deeply and filtering the wet and oxygen together without distress.It was perfect for his kind, and he chose this place because of it. Murky water festooned with algae and rot splashed around his calves. It someone had tried to follow him-a poacher, hunter or busybody- the cayman, water moccasin and even the mud itself would put an end to it. A normal man would be up to his thigh, quick eats for a lurking mouth to take advantage of. Sasha wasn't a normal man, and he walked through, the scaled and slimy occupants gave him a wide berth and he passed by without fight. he wasnt a threat, and most definitely not food. He ambled through the mud and muck without a care, batting stray swamplife aside as he crossed the familiar woods. It was his element. Quite suddenly,he stopped. Before him was a huge, imposing thicket. Masses of brambles and deep green water-a wide, deep murky pool, with brillliant shades of green and blue that fought for dominance against the glare of the high summer sun. Swaddled in algae that matched that in his thick dreadlocks, the pool was pungent and welcoming; abundant flowers, fruit and bugs littlered the land around the pool and dragonflies tiptoed across the film on the water's surface. The twisted trees and thick roots around it held birds, frogs and other fodder. a huge overhang carved from the earth itself precipitated above the water, bent into shape by an equally huge mangrove tree. Deep gnarled roots snaked through the mud and water deep below. Beneath the protective cage of the mangrove and mud he saw fish and a familiar little form lurking in the shadows darting about, trying to catch them. He smiled, greenish lips crinkling lightly and exposing a set of short, garish and very dangerous looking teeth. he strode through the clearing and crept up to the tree, observing the scene below. The little figure darted around as easily as the fish, a rounded lpudge of a body deft and agile in the water. yellow green curls formed a halo around a large little head and huge yellow eyes the grew still huger when they saw him. The little swimmer squeezed through the roots of the mangrove and surfaced immidiately in the open, making a racket and reaching for him. fat little webbed baby hands wiggled for him. Sasha quickly stepped off the water's edge and joined his son in the fun. It lasted long after the sun started to creep beyond the swamp. Fireflies lit their way and cicadas and locust clouds deafened them with the pulsing thrum of the warm season. Sasha stayed at the nursery pool for a few days, looking over his toddling son's progress and showing him various things. the child's legs were just starting to sprout beyond the huge fluid tail of infancy and he was ungainly, to put it mildly. However, there came the time that Kida, his little swimmer, would be as gangley as he, provided he survived to adult hood. Sasha's carefully chosen nursery pool was fine for a youngling like Kida, but it couldn't sustain them both and he knew that Kida required the resouces of the entire area to sustain his huge growth spurts to grow enough to survive the winter. Sasha's impromptu visits were more bonding and overseeing than anything else. It was up to Kida to grow enough to survive outside fo the water before the true lessons would come.The child was doing well, but always missed the company of his father. With the promise of joining the main tribe soon enough, Kida was contented to listen to stories of the rest of their kind as Sasha described the village. Sasha carefully manuvered the swimmer onto the base of the mangrove. Kida toddled up from the water, pendulous little body waddling close. he listened with rapt attention as Sasha recounted the village, Kida's mother, and his brothers and sisters and all the other kin. Sasha used his large skiffstaff-a gnarled, twisty thing bend from the root of a tree itself- to point towards their homestead further in the island- far from marauders and the filthy habits of outsiders who every so often washed up on the island, who poisoned their home and destroyed their families. Sasha held a special hatred for these folks that he could never fully hide, and even little Kida, who only knew of the nursery pond Sasha had bore him into, felt something bad happened when these 'Others' washed up. Kida listened in wonderment to all the things his wise old father said til his eyes grew heavy and his little baby hands slipped from the skiffstaff. Kida wriggled closer to Sasha, who picked im up and slowly sank into the still-warm water of the pool. He settled down with Kida deep underwater, making sure Kida's gills moved as strong as his own, and settled to sleep beneath the surface. Sasha occasionally rose for a lungful of unfettered air, and towards sunrise he slipped away quietly to return to the main camp.