MotC:: The Pact - Page 2

I suffer swoops and pangs of unending scientific torment at the hands of Dinosauria, but my knack for fantastic logic saves me every time. Some scientists have suggested the claws of raptors may have adapted them for arboreal living, so I put Lightstep in a tree. A slender, springy branch, until remembered that Utahraptor (which is what these guys are) weighed about 1000-1500 pounds. I hadn't inked, but I'd penciled, and was freaking out, until I remembered giant sequoias were a rather dominant tree species back in the Early Cretaceous. So all I had to redraw was the branch. But perhaps I've called attention to the improbable, regardless.

Although it can't really be embroidered here, the raptors have a strict code of honor, modeled after the bushido code of the samurai. Greenfeather is not quite bucking the system; his lack of seriousness will never gain him rank or any serious esteem. (Until he grows up, but he doesn't seem to mind.) Dawnleg, being female, is larger than her male counterparts, same as some hawk species. Lightstep is also not the true leader of the pack; his mate is. But she's back at the nest with her chicks and plays no important part in the story, so I'll digress. Man, it's hard to let the story tell itself sometimes!

I did an ink wash for the backgrounds this time, and it saved my markers some painful torture. And I'm exceedingly pleased with Greenfeather's expression in the second panel.

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