Tales of Ækerin University and Beyond

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Note: The stories and comics are not being produced in chronological order. This navigation always keeps the stories in the intended chronological reading order though not necessarily production order. If you ever are confused about when a story takes place use the navigation buttons.

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Once again, I got myself involved in a massively complicated picture. This time involving my new gryphon, Ochil (or just Ochi for short). I swore I wasn’t going to do this to myself anymore, but I can’t help it. I love drawing giant massive background pictures like this. Something about them is so fun and I especially loved adding in all of the little background characters and vignettes. Some minor background cameos of the sonas of some of my friends and a special thanks to VoidDragonHUB on Picarto who helped me brainstorm some of these background scenes while I streamed working on it.

Edit: FA really reduced the size of this one and due to the small background details I'd suggest heading over to the post on DA for the full quality. :\

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Ochil sat bored out of his mind in the lecture hall. Professor Wurlderfin, a crusty dragon, ancient for even his own kind, droned on about the nature of magic. Thaumatology 11a was a class that all students were required to take open entering the college and the great lecture hall was filled with a menagerie of magical beings of every shape and size. Ochil was an anthropomorphic gryphon of a rather petite size for his kind. His fur and feathers were patterned off an ocelot though with a number of unnatural swirls across his front and sides that teased his arcane talents. Talents he wished to pursue but was at the moment trapped in a lecture so boring that he could count more students sleeping than he had talons upon his claws.

A single analog clock above the front right exit counted down the time. Its ticking was loud enough to cut through the professor’s drone and Ochil regularly found himself tapping his pencil along with the beat rather than notetaking. Today was particularly distracting as he had a date and wanted nothing more than to escape the educational torture and make his way to his romantic engagement. His thoughts turned to fantasies of what the night might bring: watching the sun dip behind the hills from the roof of the Gaizoth building, drinks at Jerry’s, dancing long into the night, a midnight stroll, and perhaps maybe even something a bit more intimate.

So lost in daydreams was he that it took a moment to register that the other students had begun to pack their bags and shuffle out of the hall. Orchil shook the dreams from his eyes and hastily shoved the notes back into his bag while the draconic professor’s voice boomed about an upcoming midterm. Ochil clipped his messenger back across his body. Sometimes he wished he lacked wings. They were just so large and inconvenient and added steps to something as simple as putting on a bag as he could not just toss it over it shoulders. Though clipping and unclipping the straps was far more convenient than attempting to thread his wings through them. Not to mention how much they hindered his fashion options.

“Hey Ochi,” the voice of Rhelki, a small arctic fox kitsune, popped up behind him as he began to shuffle out of the hall with the rest of the students.

“Oh, hey Rel,” Ochil paused to allow her to catch up. Rhelki winced a little she still seemed annoyed at the nickname she had garnered since starting college due to no one’s ability to properly pronounce her name. Ochil’s ability to trill his R’s meant that his pronunciation was closer, but she kept telling him it was not actually correct. Ochil, on the other hand had been called, both Ochil and the shortened Ochi interchangeably his entire life though his mother usually reserved the former for when he was in trouble.

“So, we were going to meet up tonight in the Viturin Hall to start working on our engineering homework if you wanted to join us.”

Ochil let out an exhausted sigh and rolled his eyes. This fox just never knew when to stop and take a break. “It’s Friday night. Even if I didn’t have a date, I wouldn’t spend it working on homework that isn’t due till next week. I spend enough nights slaving away for professor Igol already. I thought college was supposed to be fun from all the movies I’ve seen. Instead, it’s just been a stream of unending work.”

“Maybe you should stop sleeping till noon every day if you want to have more free time?”

“I can’t help it. I need my rest.”

“You also need to stop staying up till odd hours every night partying or whatever you do.”

“I have to. It’s the only way to relax after such a long tedious day of schoolwork. You should come with me one of these nights. It’ll be fun.”

“I’ll think about it.”

By this point, the two had escaped the hall. Ochil spread his wings and took off into the air. “I’ll see you around Rel,” he called back as he flew away. “Don’t work too hard.”



Ochil danced through the air. The inconvenience of wings was worth it for the freedom they granted for moments like this. The warm Indian summer air brushed through his feathers as he performed a series of loops and corkscrews before landing on the top of the Gaizoth building to await his date. He pulled off his bag and sat on the edge of the roof to bask in the setting sun. Below him students bustled across the quad to and from dorms and classes.

Ochil watched in amusement as he imagined what was going on between some of them. Couples and friends walking together. A polar bear hitting on a ring-tailed vontsira from a book of bad pickup lines. Valarie, Rhelki’s grumpy roommate, had opened her window for a smoke. Of particular amusement, a panicked Kaj, the school’s resident troublemaker and trickster, ran by while chased by Rhelki. Ochil can only imagine what the older kitsune had done to her this time, but it seemed as though her study plans had been interrupted by the other fox once again and if history repeated itself, she would spend hours attempting to chase him down an intact her revenge.

After a few minutes of basking in the evening sun the door behind him opened. It was finally time. Ochil turned his head only to discover that who he was expecting was not who arrived. Rather than his date, he was treated to a crusty old satyr wearing a tattered robe. Ochil stared at the satyr. The sides of his mouth drooped as he slowly reached for his bag. The satyr glared back at him for a good moment before shouting, “How many times do I need to tell you stupid kids to stay off the roof?”

With a squawk, Ochil quickly grabbed his bag and leapt as a flurry of spells flew overhead. This date night was off to a rough start.