Artist's Block: 2014

This image is a collab peice with my friend Alex done over a DrawPile session (drawpile is a drawing program that allows a bunch of people to work on the same image at the same time over the interwebs). After I decided to write a story about this wizardly frog. The story was also edit by Alex

The Wizard Frog

Chapter 1, the Wizarding

A brave warrior enters the forbidden marsh. His sword hand is held out in front of him for balance, and his left held closely to his chest, gripping a crystal encircled by ribbons of silver, attached to a long chain. The chain is woven through the fingers of a heavy leather glove, and through them, clouds of violet and orange can be seen in the centre of the gem.

His hand starts to droop, as the weight of the sword strains his endurance. The eerie quiet only broken by sounds of movement that seem out of place in the still swamp. The knight's breathing quickens, and he pauses. He sheathes his sword, and closes his eyes to focus on his memory of the wonderful and lovely princess.

"I have infused this pendent with my love, for you, as long as you have this, my love will protect you."

His resolve strengthened, he opens his eyes and speaks to the empty swamp, hoping to strengthen is will with his mantra:

"The terror in this forsaken place will no longer darken the skies over our land, I have come here -"

His monologue is cut short by a deep, raspy voice from the shadows,

"Good luck with that bullllshit."

He hesitates at the startling interruption, and moves to draw his sword while frantically looking for the owner of the voice. But before his could even fully turn his head or move his hand to his scabbard, he is blinded by a great flash of light, and deafened by thunderous noise.

The warrior is too stunned to notice himself tumbling over, and doesn't even hear his own scream as he's hoisted into the air. As he recovers, he finds himself floating upside down, with sparks of power visible in the air around him. As the ringing in his ears subsides, he hears the crackle of magical lightning,

At the edge of his blurred vision, a small badass looking wizard frog hops out from the swampy water, because why the fuck not. The frog's skin is so weather-beaten that it seems to have aged from green to blue. On his flat, broad head, he wears a knobbly flower with tiny petals and a stem that, by its colour seems young and fresh, and by its shape, seems gnarled and weather beaten. The frog's pure white eyes are similarly contradictory: appearing simultaneously as both clouded and glowing. The frogs displays an obvious annoyance that is not so much visible in its expression (if a frog could even be said to have such a thing) as it is emitted, like an aura.

The frog makes its aura redundant by speaking again.

"I was about to eat dinner and now I have to deal with this nonsense. What are you doing here?" The frog has the sort of impatient tone that might be expected from who is asking a question, but is going to deliver a lecture instead of wait for an answer.

The knight opens his mouth to speak, but no sound comes out. With a wiggle of his the wizard's front left second toe, a bright light suddenly erupts from the warriors chest. In an instant, he implodes into his metal armour. A bloody ball of sheer metal, tangled with leather and cloth and welded at the centre, falls to the ground.

The gem rolls into the swamp, sinking beneath the muddy water with an anticlimactic "shlup".

"Crrrrooooak." As he croaks the frogly wizard's eyes bulge out slightly, in opposite directions, and with a quiet "sput", the wizard hops into the water and slowly makes its way towards a nearby nest of ants.