Kelpie - Tumblr Posts
Creatuanary 8 - Water Bull
I think I went overboard with the waves on this one but eh, it's ok for what it is :D
![Saiorse Vangard, Member Number Two Of The Bone Thieves. Ves Hannus Business Partner [read, Best Friend]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/93910732c5de7ce78fcdab6aecc01b5b/b1672e163a2d5ebe-03/s500x750/2d6919f5b521801ffabc757e6f8f114153fc0b07.png)
Saiorse Vangard, member number two of the bone thieves. Ve’s Hannu’s “business partner” [read, best friend] and will regularly join him on bone hunts to gather more artifacts for his house museum. Saiorse is big friend. Large friend. Friend horse.
Saiorse is for the @halfstack-smp.
Some kelpie concept art for my fantasy series. (Also my first time using a drawing tablet.)
just a pair of babies, nothing else @halfstack-smp
my kelpie ass as soon as I enter the water:
Hi guys! So I’ve been working on a new AU which I’ve dubbed the Cryptid AU! so far its still a work in progress, but progress is actually happening. I will try to get some character pics out soon, but I can tell you who/what I’ve got everyone as so far!
Patton is a Kelpie (the scottish myth, not the dog, sorry!)
Roman is a Pegasus
Logan is a Mothman
Dee is a wyvern
and last but most certainly not least,
Virgil is a human!
Lil notes about Virgil though, he can actually talk to cryptids, like, they can understand humans but most humans (except Virgil) can’t understand them. Also Virgil’s one-legged because I thought that would be interesting. Uhh, feel free to ask me about this AU, I’d be more than happy to answer!
-Roma <3
Oh yeaaaah.. I forgot that I started writing again ¿?
The story is set in Jorvik, and, dunno. I hope it 's not too bad.
It's, uh. I can 't even explain. There is a kelpie. Go read it. Or don't.
Since October is supposed to be very productive or something, I can try to continue and finish this. I said try, ok.
If you're gonna read and comment this wierd piece then, you know, I love you.
"When thowes dissolve the snawy hoord An' float the jinglin icy boord Then, water-kelpies haunt the foord By your direction An' nighted trav'llers are allur'd To their destruction."
Robert Burns - "Address to the Devil" (1786)
Confusing feelings
Pairing: Abe Sapien x OC
Summary: Abe meets a creature he's only ever read about.
Warnings: Probably very long with grammar mistakes (English is not my first language), a little bit of violence
A/N: I've been thinking about making this into a full book on my Wattpad account. I already have one English book there, so if you're a Moomins fan, go check it out, the name is TheDarkSide019 .
* * * * *
Fridays never really meant anything at BPRD, apart from it being the most chaotic day of the week. I mean, it's not like they didn't have to work at weekends. They did. And that sucked, as Liz said many times.
The last few weeks were pretty calm, nothing big was happening and there wasn't any danger that could wipe out humanity.
That meant Abe, Liz and Hellboy could have more free time.
Liz finally accepted herself as she is and her and Red's relationship has been just great. They were spending most of their free time with the other, doing all sorts of things and going on all sorts of little adventures at BPRD.
Abe didn't have anyone he would be this close with and he definitely didn't want to be a third wheel, even though he thought that if he asked to, Hellboy and Liz would let him hang out with them. Of course, there were some agents that came to the library, which used to be dr. Broom's office, to ask him all kinds of questions, some more interesting than others, but as the kind-hearted soul he was, he answered them all with patience. If he could help, why wouldn't he do so?
But when the agents left, he was all alone once again. Alone. That word tasted bitter on his tongue. However, this alone felt different than how he ever felt before. He was so lonely it was distracting. Soon he couldn't even read books with how distracted he was. So his days were spent in his tank, just quietly thinking about what was it that he lacked.
However he didn't lack anything, it was his soul that was weeping. Every time Abe saw Hellboy with Liz, his soul cried out a little. He was happy for them, he really was, but there was something about the sight that made him feel a wide range of emotions at once. He was confused.
If you're confused, you can just ask someone, he told himself. So he went to the first person he thought could help him understand his feelings a bit more. Liz.
"You're jealous Abe." was the answer he got. It was simple, but genuine and said with care. She wasn't mad in any way, but she didn't see a reason to beat around the bush.
But that's ridicoulus. Abe thought. "What do you mean jealous? I'm not jealous, in fact I am very happy for you two." Liz laughed at his confusion. "You're not jealous of me or Red, Abe. You're jealous of what we have. Maybe you don't realize it, but inside, you want it too. A relationship, I mean." He didn't look much wiser than before and she shook her head a little "Look. I'm not saying I'm right, but from what you've just told me it looks like it. It's normal, everybody sometimes feels like this when they've been single for a long time. Just think about it and if anything, you can talk to me." she reassured him. He nodded and slowly stood up. He only managed to mumble out a 'bye' before slipping through the door. He didn't even notice Hellboy who was coming to see Liz in her room. Red said hi, but he didn't recieve an answer, so deep in thought Abe was. Red turned his head to look at him, then shrugged and entered the room of his beloved girlfriend.
"What's up with Abe?" he then asked Liz and pointed at the door with his thumb like the said man was just behind it. "He's lonely." Liz explained. "What do you mean? He's always been kinda lonely." Red didn't understand. Sometimes Abe would rant to him how he felt a little lonely sometimes, like there was no one that could fully understand him. But he almost immediately after said that he didn't mind and was grateful for everything and everyone he had. "Yeah, but he's that kind of lonely that you were when I left." she said, trying to light up the mood a little. Although, they both knew it was true. "Poor man." Red shook his head and sighed.
Abe immediately went into his tank after arriving in the library. How could one be jealous of a non-materialistic thing? That's ridicoulus. Although, he had to admit, it would be nice to have someone you can hold, trust and rely on, to share all the nice and bad things with and who would hold, trust and rely on him and want to share all those things with him too. Oh, that's how.
The next day his mind was still overloaded with thoughts. In the morning Red stopped by and asked how he was doing and if he wanted to hang out with him and Liz later. Abe politely declined, saying he needs to sort some things out. In my head. he added, but not out loud.
Unknown to him or the other two, who were a little worried about him, things were going to get exciting in just a moment.
Manning recieved a newspaper with a very strange title right on homepage. He was told by the agent who brought the thing, that the local police doesn't know what to do anymore. It was time to call the special agents.
Abe was forcefully pulled out from his thoughts by the library door opening. In came Manning with a few other agents, Liz and Hellboy trailling behind them. When Abe looked at their joined hands, his soul cried out yet again, but now he knew why. It was refreshing and frustrating at the same time, which left him as he was the days prior. Confused.
"What's so important that you have to pull us away from our day off?" Red asked and Manning decided to ignore him, because getting mad would not get him anywhere. "We've recieved an anonymus tip about paranormal activity going on in Scotland. Look at this." he handed Hellboy the newspaper. Red took it from him and looked at the homepage. There, in bold, capital letters was a title: TWO MEN DEAD AT A LOCAL LAKE. ONLY REMAINS FOUND ARE HEARTS AND LIVERS. "That's nice." Red commented. Then he came over to Abe's tank, where Abe was practically glued to the front glass wall, to show it to him. He watched as Abe's eyes scanned the title "What do you think it is pal?"
Abe thought for a while, blinking owlishly once or thrice. Just as they thought he maybe wasn't paying attention, Abe turned to look at them "I don't know. There are lots and lots of water creatures, but I can't recall a single one that doesn't eat a part of their victim."
His interest has been piqued. "A new creature perhaps?" Liz piped up, her gate set on the paper laying now on one of the tables. Manning sighed an annoyed sigh "Great." "Or a one we don't have much information about." Abe said. "Either way, I want you to catch it and bring it back for studying. The details will be given to you later today." "So wait, we're actually going to Scotland?" Liz asked excitedly. "You bet'cha babe." Hellboy smirked and wrapped one arm around her waist.
Abe was excited. Finally something distracted him from his thoughts. Try as he might, he couldn't figure out what creature could've caused this. He tried to narrow it to water beasts from The brittish islands, but that didn't really help, there were still too many options and too little information.
Another thing he didn't really like was how Manning said studying. Oh he was going to keep an eye on that. There will be no harmful experiments on his watch. No cutting, probing, chemical testing, nothing. That just wasn't right and even if he believed Manning was a good man, he knew how he treated those of different species.
They gave the trio all known information. The lake was near a small town that was build for people who worked in a nearby ink factory. It was that type of town where everyone knew each other.
They all left on Sunday evening and by Monday morning they were already there. It was necessary, all citizens will be at work or at school so there will be a near zero percent chance of someone seeing the trio.
The sky was grey as the water that reflected it, gentle breeze making small waves on the water surface. The lake was surrounded by reeds that swayed ever so slightly and rustled quietly. There were a few spots where the reeds had been cut, probably for people who wanted to fish. Strange thing was that there weren't any animals, usually this place would be full of water birds and insects, but here everything seemed dead. It was a little depressing.
Hushed voices of Liz and Hellboy could be heard with the rustling. Liz liked the idea of getting out of BPRD from the beggining and when they arrived, she fell in love with the place. Abe had to admit, the scenery all around them was beautiful. But he could feel that something wasn't right here.
A young agent called out to them to get their attention. He beckoned them over to where he was standing. They came to one of the fishing spots where remains of footsteps were highlighted by the police. "You got anything for us?" Hellboy asked. The agent nervously gulped "Well, you'll need to know what happened, before you start investigating." he said with a shaky voice. "And you know that?" asked Liz. The agent opened the casefile, which wasn't really thick "Well, two victims went to an inn after work. They were fairly tipsy, but didn't come in a vehicle, so the innkeaper let them go. And now this is where it gets interesting. The footsteps lead straight into the water, like they did it from their own will. Bodies were never found, the only remains are their hearts and livers which were thrown in the reeds over there." he pointed to the place where they had been found.
It wasn't much, but at least it was something new. "Thank you for your help." Abe thanked the young man. He then scurried off somewhere without saying anything.
There wasn't really anything to do now, Abe still didn't have enough information to figure out what exactly they were dealing with here. They decided it would be best to look around and hopefully find something new.
"Do we know where this thing could be?" Liz asked. "Well, because the victims were lured into the lake, I think it's safe to assume it lives there." Abe explained, even though he thought she could have figured that out on her own. "Well, if we won't find anything usefull, you're going to have to dive down there." Hellboy said and gestured to the lake with his head. Abe sighed "I know." Although he was excited, they still didn't know anything and he wouldn't like to go there unprepared.
As they were walking, Abe pointed out the lack of animals at this place. "Well, they could be just scared from all the people suddenly showing up." Liz shrugged.
Soon they were on the opposite side of the lake and nothing strange had happened so far. They could see meadows upon meadows everywhere and even those looked empty. There wasn't anything alive, only a horse on one of the meadows. Wait, a horse??
Liz softly gasped "Look, a horse!" and immediately started to go towards it. Red and Abe looked at each other uncertainly, not knowing if it was safe, but they trailed behind her nonetheless. What could a horse possibly do?
The closer they got to it, the worse feeling settled in Abe's gut. Liz was already standing next to it, petting it softly.
It was beautiful. But something felt off. It's fur was white like fresh snow and clean, even though it was standing on a meadow with no fence around it. How was it so clean when it probably didn't belong to anyone? If Abe could frown, he would. The horse was peacfully munching on the grass, until Liz touched it. It lifted it's head up, showing them the deepest dark blue eyes that they've ever seen. They looked almost...hypnotizing.
"Do you think it'd let me ride it?" Liz wondered. She was looking into the horses eyes and her voice sounded quiet and soft, like she was daydreaming. Abe found it strange for the girl to be so enamoured by a simple horse, but it seemed he was the only one.
Hellboy picked up his girlfriend and set her gently on the horses back. She sat there for a while, before trying to run her hands through its mane.
It was as white as the rest of its body, without any knots. "Somebody has gone for a swim, eh?" Liz cooed at the animal. And aparently wet too.
Abe stared at the horse, deep in thought. It didn't belong to anybody, it was beautiful and enchanting. It just encouraged you to ride it. Abe looked at its mane, small droplets still dripping down. If it went into the lake, it must have been before we got here. Wouldn't it be dry now?
It was just encouraging you to ride it. Encouraging....encouraging...luring...
And then it clicked.
"Liz, you need to get down. Now." Abe said, urgency evident in his voice. Hellboy registered it before Liz, who seemed in some sort of dreamy trance, sensing the tone he immediately felt unnerved and went to retrieve his girl.
"Give me your hand babe." he said gently. Liz blinked, suddenly confused. It took her a few seconds to process what did he want her to do, but when she was going to lift her hand, she realized she was stuck.
"Red." she said, her voice quiet "I can't take my hads off it." Hellboy looked confused "What do you mean you can't-"
It happened so suddenly. By now everyone figured that the cteature wasn't a regular horse and could in fact understand everything that had been said. Like a lightning from a clear sky it took off in a fascinating speed. Hellboy cried out his loves name while Abe's breath has been stolen. He finally understood what was going on and Liz was in deep trouble.
At this point both of them were running after the two. But they could never match the speed of the beast. Liz knew she had to do something when she saw where the creature was headed. She tried to concentrate on increasing the heat inside of her, until she burst into blue flames.
The creature let out a pained screech full of agony and fear and if it wasn't going in an unhuman speed before, it sure was now. Abe would later tell that it sounded nothing like a sound horses make. It resembled a human scream, but then times more terrifying.
All the agents looked from their work when they heard the commotion. And all of them jumped to their feet when a horse, that was on fire, ran past and straight into the water.
Liz could feel the water detaching her body from the beast. Even though she couldn't feel it anywhere around her, she still kept herself hot enough to boil it slightly.
Then she felt something grab her arm and pull her upwards. Thinking it was the beast she thrashed as much as she could, but when they broke to the surface and she could hear her boyfriend's shouts to try and calm her down, she stilled almost immediately.
Abe was surprised to see them both covered in some sort of black goo when they got out of the water. He pointed it out and told them it would be best to clean up. They didn't have anything against it and left him alone.
The next twenty minutes were chaotic. Agents ran all around the place, some tending to Liz, some questioning Abe and Red, some taking samples from the weird water and some looking for the Kelpie.
"A Kelpie? What's that?" Hellboy asked. "Well, it is a water creature living mostly in Scotland and Ireland. Because it's so far away from BPRD, we don't know much about it. That's why I couldn't figure it out for so long. However, what we do know is that in water it takes shape of a horse with a finn and on land of a beautiful horse or human." Hellboy grumbled "Well, I'm gonna kill it after they're done getting the information." if it was him it would go after, he wouldn't be surprised. But it dared lay a hoove on his Liz and that's a sin he can't forgive.
About thirty minutes later the trio joined the agents in looking for the Kelpie. They had to split up, which left Abe alone. Not that it was dangerous anymore, the Kelpie would be hurt. Abe was afraid it would die before he'd get his information and he scolded himself for feeling this way.
A few meters from him the reeds rustled and something dragging on the ground could be heard. That must be it. Abe thought. He stealthily crept to the spot and peeked between the reeds. And there it was.
It was a woman. She layed on her side, her back facing Abe. She was naked and covered in the substance from the water. Her back was badly burnt and she sounded exhausted, only shallow breaths and quiet noises of pain leaving her mouth.
He slowly came out of his hiding spot as to not scare her too much, but she was too weak to move. He came around her and saw her face. Without all the goo she'd be very beautiful. He didn't know if it'd be apropriate to calm her, so he just looked at her reasuringly, at least he tried to do so, and called to the nearby agents.
He felt strangely calm knowing the Kelpie was safe with the agents. He once again, couldn't understand his feelings. At least he could go home now.
* * * * *
Please leave a like and/or a comment if you want part two ;)
👆 10/10 did not initially notice what was wrong with this creature, would be dragged to a watery grave again.
This is my attempt at an "accurate" Kelpie.
"The kelpie is usually described as a powerful and beautiful black horse (...) One of the water-kelpie's common identifying characteristics is that its hooves are reversed as compared to those of a normal horse (...)" (wikipedia)
I had a hard time figuring out how to put the hooves backwards without it looking too clunky so what I ended up doing was reversing the pasterns as well.
Lunch time Kelpie! A few days late for this neighvember but maybe i will try to catch up!
Some sketches and explorations from my concept project based on the Scorpio Races! I’d love to come back to it and finish it one day. :)
Remember how I said I had Faas sketches. Well now I have a rendered and colored Faas drawing. Aren’t I fancy-
But ye, here he is with enya. He isn’t actually grumpy, he just doesn’t visually emote very much for trauma and autism reasons. I forgot to mention that Enya is a kelpie. The story takes place, as mentioned earlier, in Pennsylvania, (which had and has one of the highest Irish population densities in the US) so I was thinking that maybe kelpies were an “invasive species” since they can be dangerous and belong to the unseelie quart, and can be killed without any punishment. Enya’s mother was murdered when she was twenty months old.
Due to the traditional horse like appearance of kepies, she has horizontal pupils, (but golden eyes sort of like a frog. actually playing around with kelpies having a pollywog stage between birth, or maybe hatching, and 12-18 months. still up in the air tho) and horse legs and ears. She has fins as her ‘hair’ and tail tho.
Up until puberty hits, kelpies are physically unable to show anyone their true form, sort of like the way fawns don’t have a scent for the fist few days after birth, for safety reasons.
However Faas can see her true form because in many troll folklore, they are immune to certain types of magic, especially of the concealitory (apparently that isn’t a word but I don’t care) variety. Kelpies aren’t true shape shifters like changelings, the mask you see is nothing more than a shield of magic that tricks your brain into seeing a human, while they are still green and horsey underneath the whole time. This magic also effects photos, drawings, and mirrors and is especially strong when the person is young.
Anyway, yeah. You’re welcome for the ramble that no one asked for
I am so, so happy with how this turned out, I just- *vibrates* it’s been so long since I’ve done a full page
I sketched Enya’s new design a few months ago on what was planned to be a junk page because marker had bled through from the other side, but then I really liked it and I had a few new design ideas for Faas, so I drew him too, and then I realized I had enough space for Mable and-
So I colored them all and drew on random scraps of paper to glue on top of the marker bleeds. I don’t know why I’m so happy with it, but it’s one of my favorite art pieces in a while because usually I’m not particularly spontaneous, but things happened, so.
This was the traditional drawing I was referring to about Mable’s hair texture. This is what it’s supposed to look like. Also I’m still trying to decide whether it translates that she’s wearing tights, I feel like it sort of does, but idk.
This was originally a doodle I did during church with no pose reference (which, I’d like to add, I’m very proud of because it’s a weird perspective and it’s two people interacting and it actually turned out alright for once) and decided I really liked it, so I colored it.
And then proceeded to realize it reminded me a lot of this drawing I did two years ago, and it made me happy cuz I feel like I’ve actually improved which is nice.
Anyway. Yeah. My scrunklies which I love very much. Working on filling the rest of the page they’re on now.
I wanted to paint something yes i’m still hooked on the sol brush, leave me alone, but I feel like I’ve done too many headshot type things recently, so I decided to just do my main three’s eyes. ‘Cause eyes are half the fun of a headshot, so why not. I’ve also been considering doing some anatomical painting studies. We’ll see.
I gave enya like- pseudo eyelashes that are vaguely inspired by leopard geckos, even though she’s more amphibious than reptilian. Also, why are dark eyes so satisfying to draw? They’re just very nice. Anyway. Yeah. Eyeballs.