"A soft sound made [Rincewind] look down. He'd almost stepped on a fish.
It was some way from the water line, and squirming across the mud towards a pool of brackish water.
A kind man by nature, Rincewind picked it up gingerly and carried it back to the sea. It flopped around in the shallows for a while and then, to his amazement, inched its way back on to the mud.
He put it back again, in deeper water this time.
Thirty seconds later, it was back on the beach.
Rincewind crouched down, as the thing wiggled determinedly onwards.
'Would it help to talk to someone?' he said. 'I mean, you've got a good life out there in the sea, no sense in throwing it all away, is there? There's always a silver lining if you know where to look. Okay, okay, life's a beach. And you're a pretty ugly fish. But, you know, beauty is only sk-- scale deep, and... ' "

~"The Science of Discworld", Terry Pratchett (with Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen)


Part of a trade I did with . Quite a while ago she made herself a wonderful Rincewind hat, complete with the word "wizzard", sequins, patterns and a star at the top. I expressed a strong desire to own a similar hat myself, so she agreed to make me one in exchange for some Discworld fan arts. We're both big Rincewind fans, so I was happy to have an excuse to draw some of my favorite scenes.

I've always loved this scene in the book but never got around to illustrating it until ~rhianimated asked me. I just can't help giggling at the thought of Rincewind meeting the ancestor of all land-dwelling mammals, mistaking it for a suicidal fish and trying to talk sense to it.