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Nana Morri celebrating 10 years of Critical Role! This is my piece for the @artists-guild-of-exandria 10 Year Anniversary Celebration, featuring everyone's favorite Fatesticher partying it up. I like to think Fearne helped her with her outfit.

Thanks to @tealtumbleweed for the beautiful background art they did!

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I have now finished ‘Wings of Starlight’ and I have many thoughts, and I don’t know where to put them so it’s going here.

First of all, the book was great. Go read it, especially if you like the Disney Fairies movies. I was excited for the book - the Tinkerbell series of films are my guilty pleasure - but I also didn’t know what to expect. Turns out, it was fantastic. It felt like it’s own thing while still feeling like a continuation of the movie series. There’s so much attention to detail, such clear love for the world and an understanding of what makes the Disney Fairies movies work. It was all so sincere and earnest and very, very sweet. Also Pixie Hollow, as a world is just such a cool setup for many different stories and world building - I need more novels set in this world. Or at least some good fanfiction.

Anyway, spoilers below!

Thought, the first: This book is really sad, of course. I won’t lie - I got pretty teary-eyed multiple times. But I don’t think anything choked me up as much as Clarion and Elvina’s reconciliation at the end. The doomed lovers thing is great, it’s what we’re all here for, so I guess I wasn’t expecting the gut-punch that is Clarion and Elvina coming to understand each other, right at the end of Elvina’s life. Its it’s own sort of beautiful tragedy, and what a perfect way to end the story. Just the symmetry of Clarion being misunderstood, her finding Milori, someone who sees her as she is, and then giving that gift of understanding back to Elvina, who returned it - just closing that circular story thread with the most beautiful little bow. Perfect. That’s all love is at the end of the day, isn’t it? To just see someone, and fully understand and accept who they are.

Thought, the second: This really drove me nuts. So the book establishes that there once were dream-talent fairies who gathered up dreams from the auroras and kept the Nightmares at bay, but all the dream-talents are gone now. Got it. Milori is the Warden of the Winter Woods, he never met his predecessor but he knows his job is to just keep the Nightmares locked up. Cool. Clarion even asks Milori what his talent is and he’s like ‘eh, I don’t know,’ and she’s like ‘huh, that’s odd’. When I tell you I was waiting the entire book for the reveal to be that Milori is a dream-talent and it never happens! Unless some pages got stuck together and I missed it, I don’t think it ever says what Milori’s talent is. And this is driving me nuts! It was all set up for him to be a dream-talent. Chekhov is literally handing you the gun and saying ‘pull the trigger’! Clarion even looks at him and says something like him being a dream and I was like ‘that’s so on the nose, but I love it’ and it doesn’t happen!? Just imagine how deliciously gut-wrenching it would’ve been for him to only realize after the Nightmares were defeated. The aurora finally shows up again, and realization dawns, but by this point his wing is broken, and he can never fly through the aurora collecting dream threads like he was meant to. Oh, what sweet irony that would be! To be like a wolf with nothing to hunt; one day you look up to see the wild elk on the horizon, only to realize too late, the leash wrapped around your neck. Anyway, someone should write that fanfiction, because if not, I’m going to have to,.

Thought, the third: There are herald-talent fairies. It’s so oddly specific, it tickles me so much. I would think a herald would just be like a regular fairy that got promoted to the job, but the fact that it specifically says ‘herald-talent’ leads me to so many questions. What do they do when there isn't a party on? What about their magic makes them a herald-talent? How many of them are there? ‘Cause I can’t imagine you’d really need more than one or two, and I don’t know what I like more: thirty herald-talents just rotating out every half-hour or so; or one singular fairy who is just really, really excited to announce things. I’m gonna need a whole other novel just about this herald-talent, I swear.

Thought the fourth: At one point at a ball, wine in mentioned, and then the text goes on to specifically state how Clarion is given lemonade to drink, and I just think that is hilarious. We can have copious amount of blood and peril, and a literal battle, but heaven forbid an adult, ageless fairy woman so much as touch a mildly alcoholic beverage in a Disney YA novel. I loved how the book toed that line, swinging wildly between very frighting, life threatening danger where Clarion thought she or someone was going to die, and then “okay, but we can’t have characters actually die. They’re just sleeping.” Not only is that very funny to me, but I feel like it can’t be a true Disney Fairies story if someone actually dies. There is no death in Pixie Hollow, only lost things, and cycles of sleep and wakefulness.

Thought the fifth: Wishing on a star. That is all.

Thought the final: What a lovely and delightful read this was. I think this is the only Disney spin-off I’ve read where I’m genuinely interested in checking out the author’s other works. Everything was just wrapped up so neat and nicely. It reminded me again why I love the Tinkerbell movies in the first place, and that I really need to rewatch them more often. And I don’t know, maybe read some fanfiction. I’m sure there’s some good ones out there. If you read all this and have a good fanfic to recommend, please do.

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I'm currently reading through 'Wings of Starlight' by Allison Saft. I'm over half-way through, and some of the scenes left vivid images in my mind that I felt like painting.

Most of my feelings on this book boil down to: I can't believe this book exists and I'm so happy it does. I love the Tinkerbell movies, and 'Secret of the Wings' is one of the best. Let's be honest, the whole Clarion/Milori backstory is sort of the highlight of that film, and it's entirety takes up maybe two minutes of screentime. Never expected to be getting more of that story, and I'm very happy that we are!

The Fairies world also works really well in a novel, so... here's hoping we get more!

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I'm sick this week, so I only had the energy to doodle one little fish for this final Bestiary Posting.

I went with the Fatrihrukh because it seemed like the easiest. Just a fish with coiling legs.

Would've loved to do the whole lot. The sea creatures are really fun to draw. Maybe I'll revisit it when I'm feeling better, but for now this was all I could manage.

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This week's Bestiary Posting is a collection of worms! I opted to interpret 'worms' as wyrms (aka weird little dragons with six limbs), because drawing a bunch of legless, eyeless, boneless cylinders did not appeal to me. Sorry worms, I love ya, but there's not a lot I can do with a worm in a quick sketch like this. So we're going with dragons, some of which are at least a little wormy.

Labeled version and more detailed explanations below.

Lenggalgak - a "worm of the air" needed wings to fly through it. It also has four thin appendages for spinning it's web. Seems odd that an animal that makes a web, and thus stays in one place would need to fly, but maybe they use their wings like spiderlings use silk parachutes to float to new homes, and the sedentary adults just use their wings for display.

Khrezaroth - this was meant to be a frog/salamander type thing, and ended up looking nothing like those animals. Still, I like his silly face, and even curled up he has way too many legs (but it's still six - we've got a very specific body plan here).

Phlerotger - Mix between a leech, a tadpole and a cookie cutter shark. It's lost it's limbs and just has little spurs like you see in some snakes. One of the few actually worm-shaped worms here, since it apparently needs to slide down the throat. Absolutely horrible little creature.

Logkashgae - was thinking what could possibly make a bow shaped wound, and decided a thagomizer might do the trick. So horned lizard-stegosaur with a scorpion stance. It's middle limbs have evolved into spikes.

Burlebroth - the description said it was a leaf worm, therefor it must look like a leaf. A leaf-tailed gecko meets a katydid with a bit of chameleon for color.

Kholruntae - since it's said to curl up in leaves my mind went to the Honduran white bats who are very tiny and roost in leaves. Worth looking up some pictures if you want a smile - they're adorable. Basically drew that, but with scales that make it look like a leaf and a long tail.

Shmigwanog - it's a "wood worm", a little stick dragon with the head of a potoo. It's folded wings look like little branches, to help it camouflage even more amid the branches.

Feabladtae - okay, this one is inspired by something I heard from a vet many years ago, about how you can tear a Labrador's ear off and they'd still be wagging their tail. Said in reference to my own Labrador who was quite happily wagging her tail while being treated for an insect bite/sting that had her face swelling to three times it's size. She always loved the vet, no matter how painful the pokes and prods. So in honor of her can't-get-me-down attitude, I've drawn a lab lending their ear to their good Feabladtae friend. As a parasite it doesn't really need it's limbs, so it only has two stubby front limbs, and instead uses it's tail which is covered in little prickles to hold onto it's host's fur.

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My contribution to the @artists-guild-of-exandria Calamity project. The Capture of Desirat.

Proud of myself for pushing through some art struggles and finishing this on time.

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This week's Bestiary Posting features a bunch of fun sea creatures! The labeled image and my thoughts for each are below.

Alrittraes - my brain latched onto the idea of this creature being an anemone/sea squirt of some sort. Just this huge invertebrate siphoning so much sea water it creates literal waves on the surface. The description says 'it is alleged that the females conceive by intercourse', and I thought it was an odd thing to remark upon. But if it was a weird sea sponge type thing - yeah, that would be a very odd fact worth including in your bestiary. I don't know how you even begin to figure that out. Blochmokan - it's a sea slug/man-o-war that bobs along the surface. I imagine it can raise and lower it's 'wings' so it can also travel under the water as well as above it. I also drew it very small, when the description literally says it's a sea monster and has "huge wings" so just imagine I drew it very, very far away and it's actually enormous, which it would have to be to be spotted from a ship I would think. Kearmoltir - it's a flying fish, with a dolphin's face, and a serrated back like a stickleback - honestly, a very cool chimera creature. Flying dolphin-fish should be a thing. Meldilragg - I decided to take the term 'swine' literally, and drew a pig's snout, but then the description says they have their mouth in their throat so I did that, and got a very weird shape indeed. From there, I moved it's eyes to the top of it's head so it can see while digging in the sand, and gave it some tassels like the tasseled woebgone, and just gave it a vaguely sharky body shape. Olnranming - goblin shark if it used it's big nose spike for spearing the hulls of ships. Radwahrekh - I went weird for this one. I thought to myself - why would an animal want to saw through a ship? And then I remembered shipworms which burrow into ships. So I drew a spiky shipworm (which is actually a type of mollusk, not a worm) and it looked very unfortunate. So I added more spikes and siphons and frilly things to help. I don't know if it did, but it's certainly something. Shikwaewik - okay, I'm realizing the description specifically says this is a fish and I drew a porpoise. In my defense it "ploughing up the sand with its tail" just seemed like it'd be easier with a horizontal fluke, and I know some dolphins do purposefully kick up sand and mud this way. I then gave it a wolfish face. Gurnwatlea - a sardine, that can fly! Rather then give it a flying fish's big pectoral fins, like I did on the Kearmoltir, I gave a flying fish's big pelvic fins instead. Seems like a very bad way to fly in my opinion, but what do I know?

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This week's Bestiary Posting is a whole menagerie of mammals. Again, labeled version and short descriptions of my thoughts below.

Shmeashagg - needed to be mottled, I also gave it giant claws on it's forepaws so it can "kill at a single bound". Trying to make it look like it could be the parent of a leopard while trying to make it less lion-like. Goggaerker - a bit more of a dynamic pose of it being stuck in a bush; saw-tooth horns, and big fuzzy ears. Brotkarske - a tiny goat with a markhor-style horn, and long legs Revklogwat - I decided to draw a bird since it's feathered and has wings, but I turned it's wings into forelegs. I also gave it ear tufts like a praire chicken, because they're one of my favorites. Shrobshong - was trying to think how horns are supposed to protect you from falling. I went with big curling ibex horns so the animal can never land on it's head and die. Rest of the animal was a combo of a bull and a takin, with a big nose to warm the air up in it's mountain home. Biklanokyo - this one really turned out looking like an alien. Went with a pose/body reminiscent of a horse. Since it needed to carry a huge horn it needed a think neck, and of course, elephant feet and a deer tail Nutogsheag - I don't know where I was going with this one. Just slapped all the mentioned features on it and gave it a long neck for fun. It's got weird protruding cheek bones like an entelodont, or a warthog, but I don't know why - that's just what I was feeling. Raenwegguk - when I thought of animals that embody wildness to me, especially those found in forests, I thought of wild boar and wolves. Smush the two together and add some extra tusks and you get this noble fellow. Klosweisht - originally meant it to be a sort of hyena-like beast, and some of that is still there, but the mention of horns made me redraw the head and legs as more gazelle-like. It's terrifying when it opens it's mouth and I love it. Kregichmon - pouring through the 'what animal groups haven't I drawn' I happened on 'giraffe-moose with bull horns'. Thokragosk - just a puny little friend. Based on a rodent, but the face turned out a little more like a raccoon, which is cute. Kamyaweneg - just a weird little mole. I had the marsupial mole in mind with their weird fleshy snout and sort of extended it into a helmet for this little guy. I know it doesn't have eyes, but I put a dot where I thought an eye would be, because otherwise it's hard to even figure out what this thing is. Moles are just weird. Extremely successful, but weird. Ghrastasag - so the rest of these are primates and I'm gonna be honest: I don't like drawing non-human primates. Even humans-primates tend to be low on the 'things i love to draw' list. So we're gonna have a lot of sketchy stuff heavily relying on references for these last critters. The lack of real description beyond 'ape' for these also is not helping. Ghrastasag is just a fuzzy baboon. Rigfengtog - another baboon, but this one's showing off it's fangs and is significantly less fuzzy. Ngibealgul - a shaggy gorilla creature. This one looks very thoughtful and solemn for some reason. Gerskatrea - these apes are said to have attractive faces, and the two most attractive primates I thought of off the top of my head, are the mandrill and the emperor tamarin. Hence, mandrill with a mustache. No one can resist a curly mustache. Maerdradli - I was pretty burned out at this point so... more of a doodle then anything, but it's an ape, and it's got a beard, and a fat tail, and I also gave it a droopy mustache because I felt bad for it.

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I was planning on doing all the snakes in this week's Bestiary Posting, but most of the critters listed don't have any description, other then how you die if they happen to bite you. Not really the most helpful field guide, is it? I can just imagine some poor fellow getting bit by a snake and having only these bestiary descriptions to try and identify it so he could be treated.

Also, I was feeling lazy, so I just went with the four that I had a fun idea for.

For the Mlegtugwam, the idea of a snake moving with it's mouth always open, made me think of fish, so I decided to make them a sea snake with gills, so it always has it's mouth open to breath under water. The entry also says they live in caves much like eels do. Actually it might just be an eel and not a snake that I have drawn.

The Kramlengga, is just a cute little fella, based on a flying snake who's gone just a bit more extreme, their flared ribs becoming a sail similar to a draco lizard. I think he ended up looking like a very sad umbrella.

The Samgleshti has four horns, two of which are ram-like. It's described as burying itself in the sand except for the "part with which it catches the birds or animals it has attracted". Seems like a lot of words to say 'mouth' unless it uses some other mystery part to catch it's prey. I'm gonna stick with mouth, since snakes notoriously don't have many other parts for catching things. I decided to make it's head look somewhat skull-like so it can lure it's victims into thinking it's dead. I also made them very twisty, because it's said to be especially bendy.

The Krefemklog came from my thought of 'what if you combined and asp with a gulper eel?' Just a snake with a crazy big mouth.

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This week's Bestiary Posting led me to conclusion that lizards have too many toes. Their skinny little legs and itty bitty feets are way too small to have so many toes. How am I supposed to draw all those teeny little lizard toes? They can't possibly all fit on there. I think someone somewhere is playing a joke on me, and every reference photo I looked at is wrong.

Anyway, these three are pretty easy to identify so I didn't bother labeling the picture this time.

In the top left we have the frog-faced Nglushogog (what a great name). For inspiration I looked at the Australian green tree frog. I also thought it'd be fun to make it a little dragon-like. Like a big frog dragon.

Top tight is the Hrutdearya, which I based on the tuatara. It's technically not a lizard, but I loved the idea of it's third eye being used when it's regular eyes go blind to find the sun and restore it.

Bottom middle is the Rukhgarukh, which is just a gecko with stars on it's back. I feel like I've seen old drawings of lizards with stars on their backs, so I tried to evoke what I remembered of those. He ended up looking very silly.

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This week's Bestiary Posting is a doozy. We've got quite a collection of miscellaneous birds, and I decided I would just draw them all, for whatever reason. No color this week though, since I'm lazy, and also my computer is acting up, so I'm just gonna call it done before it crashes on me again.

Below I give a quick little blurb about each bird's inspiration, and under that the same picture with the birds labeled so you can guess for yourself which bird is which, and then scroll down to see if you were right.

Tluftasong - demon lovechild of an owl and a potoo Lokfotreag - a chickadee-type bird with a casque Hurrashbeg - a parrot that hangs upside down like a bat Konchilkuk - no real reason for this design other then I wanted a bird that looked smug Wobrahfmet - a corvid with a bald head Hrongnewit - a hummingird-kestrel creature on account of it 'hovering' around kitchens and meat markets Klomurgrae - an Egyptian vulture but with the long legs of a wading bird - I think he looks very charming Zagsmenrok - teeny little bird with a bit of a feather crest over it's eyes and beak like a helmetshrike Hreakgleav - a shaggy vulture with the posture of a bat Wahrembeag - a penguin-gull with a brood patch that has evolved into a marsupial-style pouch - might be my favorite of the bunch Sarbrufeat - bar-headed goose inspired, but with a hooked beak to fend off chick snatchers Keltrumram - a flightless pheasant/moorhen type of bird. Very round, very cuddly Grozfarwat - a little kildeer inspired bird Mortelgeng - if an albatross became an eagle for some reason Burngraega - a terrifying swan-heron beast - would make them bigger if it would've fit because I think the idea of giant stick birds with haunting voices is awesome Klethghrom - a crested pheasant with a beak like a snake's head

And that's all the birds.

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Struggling for words, These haikus are tough to end, Your mom eats pudding.

English class project, Seconds count down to finish, Your mom eats pudding.

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Sunlight catching dust, The stars of distant planets, Your mom eats pudding.

English class project, Seconds count down to finish, Your mom eats pudding.

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Leaves crisp underfoot, Ahead geese take flight southward, Your mom eats pudding.

English class project, Seconds count down to finish, Your mom eats pudding.

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Checkered tablecloth, Pies in abundance delight, Your mom eats pudding.

English class project, Seconds count down to finish, Your mom eats pudding.

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In the kitchen abides, A single silver spoon, Your mom eats pudding.

English class project, Seconds count down to finish, Your mom eats pudding.

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English class project, Seconds count down to finish, Your mom eats pudding.