New Friends

"Oh hey, it's you! The one who saved me from the river the other day!"

"Huh?" Todd looked up. It was that little gator from Gatorville... Stubby, wasn't it? "Oh, hello..."

"What're you doing here? Are you looking for fish too?"

"No," Todd answered, shaking his head. "I was merely out for a walk. I didn't expect to run into you here though."

"I come here all the time to get fish with my snail buddy!" Stubby started rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "But uh, Mr. Pudgy said he was napping at home today, so I came with him instead."

"O-Oh," Todd gulped, wondering if this Mr. Pudgy was the same gator he and his brothers ran into some time ago after Twig and Trey harrassed Stubby. He never really wanted to be in that situation, but he could only surmise that the bigger gator remembered who they were, and there was no doubt that they'd be dead meat if they ever met each other a second time.

Hopefully not, Todd tried to convince himself.

"So uh, where is this Mr. Pudgy a-anyway? You said he was with you, but I don't see anyone else?"

"Oh, he went back for his bait box. He left it at the spot we were fishing at. He told me to wait here, so I did. It's been a while though so I think he'll be back soon."

"Oh, I see."

"We caught a lot of fish today. Like, thiiiiiis much!" Stubby stretched out his little hands as far as he could go. "When we get home we'll have lots to eat and my buddy will play cards with us. He's gonna teach me how so I'm excited to get home and play!"

"Your buddy?"

"Yep! My one and only bestest friend gator buddy! He's always taking good care of me. He doesn't leave the house much but whenever I'm in trouble, he's always there to help me!"

"Hey, Stubby!" A voice called out from down the riverbank and the pair turned to see who it was. A chubby gator with a straw hat and carrying a bunch of fishing materials was waving towards their direction. Slung over his back was a twine rucksack filled to the brim with freshly caught fish. "I got my stuff now! Let's go back to the house, okay?"

"Oh, it's Mr. Pudgy!" Stubby waved back and, upon turning towards Todd again, he suddenly had an idea. "Hey, I should introduce you to him! Mr. Pudgy is a really nice guy, so I think you'll like him!"

"What?" Todd blinked. "Ah... No, there's really no need to..." He started shaking his hands in front of him. Being with any more gators wasn't going to end well for him. "Besides, I do need to be goin--"

"Come on! You can even join us for cards!" The little gator grabbed one of Todd's hands, and before the beaver could say anything more, Stubby dashed over to where Pudgy stood, waiting. "It'll be fun, trust me! Let's go!"

However, to the now fear-stricken Todd, whatever events that were about to transpire were sure to be anything but.

---

(Edit: Changed some minor details on the painting.)

Prequel to this piece.

Holy wow, fam. Since that one art piece I made of Sylvette, I've never felt more proud of myself. Not only have I managed to trudge out of my months-long artist's block, but I've managed to make another full-blown digital piece in color and without any lines. And with such a gorgeous background that wasn't completely half-assed either. I'm just... Wow. Holy shit. I love this.

As simple as it looks, I actually incorporated a lot of new techniques into this piece after looking up tutorials on Pinterest again. I'm especially proud of how the canopy and the bushes turned out; until today I always just made some kind of blocky shape and thought, This isn't how I want this to look like but it'll do. So seeing actual bushes, actual leafy trees--oh man. Shit looks hella good. And with that kind of art style too. Just awesome.

This was incredibly fun to do. It's also nice to be able to feature more Gator Buddies too. This has been in my mind for a while, so it's surreal to see it a reality.

I look forward to making more digital art again. For real this time. 😅