Thanqol Learns To Draw!

[Thanqol]

Day 260: Dragon Month #2

"As with any good story, I shall start at the beginning and relate my first actual encounter with the science of Dragonology. It was my first day at the University, and I was both young and awkward. The wizard's hat that my mother had sewn for me was far too large ("You'll grow into it", she said. I suspect that the only way I shall 'grow into it', even today is to be the mistarget of an Enhance Appendage spell). My robes swept the floor, doing the janitor a kindness, and I stumbled over them every half-dozen steps. I clutched my notebook tightly to my chest as if it, alone, was going to get me through this unfamiliar world of wizardry and magic. In a way, it did.

"The University has a bit of pride to it, though, and in the entrance hall all new visitors are treated to the most impressive piece it possesses - the skeleton of a full-sized Draconis Occidentalis Magnus. You will note from the scale that it is fully capable of crunching a grown human in a single bite, and I was significantly less than that. There was substantial damage to the dragon's left-hand side, and I found myself mesmerised by the question of what being could possibly have dealt that kind of damage to a creature like this. The answer turned out to be, predictably, another dragon.

"The Draconis Occidentalis is what is referred to as the 'Western' dragon by laymen, and is by far the most recognisable. Fire breath, wings, four claws. The Magnus is a sub-breed, notable for it's distinctive horns, white scales, ice breath, small size and small intelligence. The common term is "White Dragon", or "Aussir Darastrix" in their own tongue.

"It was only after that I'd discovered that this terrible creature was one of the smallest and weakest of major dragon breeds was my fate decided. I, tiny first year mage who could barely croak out a 'dim heat' spell, was going to be a scholar of dragons. Because if the corpse of the weakest dragon was enough to steal the breath from my lungs, I wanted to know what a big one would look like."

This was all done with a single size 20 brush; I was following a suggestion from Dispo to work on precise control. It was great; you should totally listen to that guy.

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"I later discovered that the skeleton was animated with necromancy, designed to trigger should anyone attempt to pinch anything from the University."

Time: 1 hour
Music: Numb