Nobody on the island–not even the adventurous Pono–has met the mysterious old lady in the woods.

Nobody on the island–not even the adventurous Pono–has met the mysterious old lady in the woods. Some say if you stand up on the cliffs by the castle on a moonless night, you can look out over the black waters to the tiny sister island and see strange lights waxing and waning. Magic from another age, maybe will-o’-the-wisps. Or maybe the myths about the Dragon Kings are true and someone does live out there–watching and waiting for some unknown purpose.

I actually had some trouble with this one, because I’d already drawn another old woman (whom you may have seen in the rolling gif and dialogue tests!). It meant I had to figure out how to differentiate them in a visible way other than just the obvious color change–I didn’t want just a palette swap. Lots of experimentation and redrawing finally led to a unique hairstyle, and everything branched out from there!

She’s actually one of the shortest NPCs I have (if not the shortest). She was originally made shorter in order to fit a hairbun on top, but even after I changed the hairstyle, I left her short. I like it because it makes her look hunched. Perfect for the character. :)