Okay final inktober week, plus a few extra days. I enjoyed working on this surreal fantasy world. I didn’t miss a day, but would have liked to spend more time on some of these pieces in other mediums. If I were to do it again I’d buy watercolor paper instead of using up some paper that can’t hold a lot of ink.
Previous Inktober Weeks:
Button
Wherever one touched the thistle, they bled.
But when one pulled away, no scarring or wound could be seen.
Actors coveted it.
Firefly
“Leave the leaves,” she remembered her grandmother saying, “the fireflies lay eggs under them. And If you’re lucky you’ll see the birdwomen who love to play amongst the fireflies in summer.”
Rowdy
Mari found the city, in one word, rowdy. Well, rowdy and hot.
As she skirted along the crinkle-crankle walls, she looked up to see a singing woman stringing up laundry. Cool drips fell onto the brick road, giving off a faint, but not unpleasant, odor that evaporated as quickly as it came. She heard glass bottle clinks and guffaws from some unseen bar.
Mari scurried away from people betting on a dog and a lizard-like creature fighting. Or she thought the humans were betting. Until she saw the dog with a coin purse hanging in its mouth strut away to a nearby group of dogs.
Every corner had some new oddity, and she struggled to keep her face neutral as she made her way through the city.
Inferno
They danced, and the fire grew.
They danced harder, and an inferno erupted.
As they went into a frenzy, a face appeared in the flames.
Puzzling
The puzzling thing about Gatis is that all the other gods did not know where they were from. They just…appeared. Then disappeared in the desert.
Onion
Mari had strange dreams again. A woman, her mother, she realized, turned away from her and danced in a field, her dress getting caught in grain.
When Mari likewise turned around she faced a enormous tiger. She peered into it’s open jaw and saw two frogs dancing a jig on a tiger’s tongue. One held an banjo, and the other held a onion.
Skeletal
Skeletal stylites flanked the bridge to the port city, peering down at travelers as they passed through.
Lesson
Visitors seemed only too eager to extrapolate more than they knew about the artifacts found in the sands.
Vacant
If you find the hidden holy well down in a hidden mossy glen, go to the rocks that look like a cat and her mossy kittens. Tie a small strip of cloth to the white tree nearby then drink from the sacred waters. If you do this, then your animals will be healed.
(I miss stumbling into holy wells on hikes in the beautiful Burren, near where I once lived in Ireland. It revealed its wonders slowly. )
Award
Her award was to rest and dream.
