Your first look at the Ancient Forest in Robriica - the country where Anna-Lu (Whisper) Elmwood grew up.
Deep inside this forest is The Village, a school/settlement/community for all and every Touched born in Robriica (and one or two from Paradisa - the desert country on the opposite side of the planet to Robriica - the country from which Becca-An hails) where Whisper lives from the age of five to seventeen.
These trees you can see are the smallest ones of the forest, growing on the outskirts of the state/county sized woodland, the further in you go, the bigger the tree's get, and the deepr the gloom. Directly in the centre, the Sanna family (the current Matriarch being En-Sanna, who, with her daughter Lin-Sanna, runs The Village) carved out a village sized clearing and built a community where the Touched children would be brought to learn how to control their abilites - so as not to harm themselves or others.
At the end of the eight years, the eighteen year old graduates move out into the world, trained up as healers, alchemists, warriors, mages and law-men/women. They travel in groups of four, combing the entire continent/country, stopping where they are needed, asking for nothing in return. Eventually, most settle down and start families of their own, some return to The Village to teach, other's set up small businesses or therapy centers, some join the Royal Guard.
So, yes - that tiny little figure down in the middle-bottom, is Anna-Lu at the age of five. She's been rescued from the village where she grew up by a Scout - Fully trained Touched in their twenties, who go out to collect the children - and this is her exploring the sheer size of the trees. She get's even more surprised as she walks through the trees with En-Sanna, as the trees get bigger and bigger - so much so, that she realises the leaves they are walking over are twice as big as she is.
Anyway - I did this in about two hours, with oild pastels on thick daler and rowney paper (A4) - and I'm thoroughly pleased with it. I may one day actually paint it in oils.
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