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The scholar and his dragon

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Meet Heimen and Juul, two characters from my story who really deserved some artwork. And after bumping into a dragon-related contest on facebook, I got motivated to draw them. (contest involves showing your favourite dragon - though you don't need to draw it. Sorry, it's in Dutch ;) www.facebook.com/events/243172… ) EDIT: Juul won! yaaaay!

Juul was designed by Featherys for my 'design a character' contest I organised ages ago. Juul has found a home with Heimen, an archaeologist with a bit of a lonely life who could use a pet. These two appear in only three chapters, but it was enough to fall in love with them.

Juul - contest entry | Featherys by Featherys


Juul copies everything. Not correctly, but he tries. He does the dishes (read: make mountains out of soap bubbles), drinks Heimen's coffee (and spits it out because he doesn't like it), and of course, helps Heimen with his work. Not that any of Heimen's archaeology team would give the beastie a real artefact, but Juul can entertain itself greatly with pebbles. He doesn't see the difference anyway.

Heimen has the honour of being the only character so far who is gay. Okay, maybe there are more, but Heimen is the only one who admits it out loud. Poor guy, since he lives in a world where homosexuals aren't allowed to have relationships. Luckily, he isn't persecuted either, but he can't see his lover as often as he would like to - hence why he has Juul to keep him company.
Heimen rolled into the story because he is a penpal of Orion. The two of them met a long time ago in a university library, where Heimen was working to earn some coin (he was still a student at that time, and student life is expensive ;)). Heimen never left university and became a professor, hence the white scholar robes (something that has evolved from labcoats. White means clean, but the colour has grown into the symbol of honest and objective research). The colours on the sleeve show the university the scholar is linked to. Red and green means Christmas Mheenmonde University. Some fields of research however are quite dirty, like archaeology. Heimen therefore doesn't like wearing those robes that much, and he is glad he doesn't have to wear them during digs. 

This was meant to be a quick sketch, but Heimen's face grew terribly detailed. And I love it. Really, aged skin is a joy to draw! You can add all kinds of spots and lines and it doesn't look weird! And is it weird to be proud of a pair of glasses? I like how they turned out too.



story snippet time


Lienne let out a shriek, turned around and stared at the person who had so suddenly sneaked up beside her. She saw no man though, just a large document and - was that a small drake reading it?

'Esselo, L. From Westergeest, twelve years of age?' a voice said from behind the paperwork.

'Yes - no! I mean…' Lienne replied, while staring at the gaze of that green, antlered creature shifting back and forth between the left and right side of the document. '… Only the name is right. I'm from Midoog, and I'm sixteen.'

The document was lowered. A pair of eyes, encircled by a thick black frame and looking much bigger than they should, peeked over the paper. A frown appeared above the glass-distorted gaze.

'I know…' Lienne muttered. 'I look younger.'

'Hmm…' The man pushed his round glasses further up his nose. 'And you were sold to a man called Faljec sec Lacor to pay off your mother's debt?'

'Huh?' What was he talking about? Her mother had died when she had given birth to Lienne.

'I take that as a no then. I always knew there was something fishy about slave documents…'

'I'm sorry mister, but who are you?'

'Oh, my apologies.' The man flashed her a smile. I'm Heimen Wasselink, professor at the Faculty of Archaeology, Mheenmonde University.' He put out his suntanned hand, enveloped by a large sleeve embroidered in red and green.

Lienne shook it with both hands - stupid shackles! - mumbling a soft 'hello' because she didn't know what else to say. Her own introduction would be so plain next to his. Besides, he already knew her name. She let go, but her hands ran into the front paw of the drake that sat on Heimen's shoulder. She stared at it with her mouth half open, unsure what to do. That creature seemed to want to shake her hand as well.

'That's Juul, feel free to ignore him,' Heimen said with a sigh. 'He is a drastag, a dragon species that has a habit of copying others. Juul is an extreme case though; he even tried to impersonate a trash bin at a grocery store once in a bad attempt to get throwaway carrots.'

Juul shortly turned his head to his master when he heard that last word, then focused on Lienne again. He stretched out his paw even further. Lienne took it between thumb and index finger and shook it.

'Nice to meet you, Juul,' she said with a small smile. The creature grinned in return, or tried to. Only half of his lips succeeded to curl up, but it looked cute enough.




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The prologue:

All shared artwork and literature:

Not-so-shared, WIP literature:

Story guide:

The super-duper official *snorts* site:
Image size
2991x3404px 3.54 MB
© 2017 - 2024 queenofeagles
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VictoriaFox2015's avatar
I want Juul, he's adorable. I think he and my dragon, Curie, would get along well. ^.^