A scholarly man extracts glowing, colorful worms from an unconscious man's mouth in a rustic cottage, a detailed ink-and-wash fantasy illustration.

A whimsical, slightly eerie fantasy illustration in the style of a Victorian naturalist’s field journal meets a darkly humorous fairy tale. Scene: Inside a rustic cottage, a bearded man lies unconscious on the floor beside a wooden table set with half-eaten mutton and a wheel of hard cheese. A scholarly adventurer or eccentric doctor kneels beside him, holding the man’s jaw open with one hand and lifting his thick, purplish tongue with a pair of tongs in the other. Beneath the tongue, three small, ribbon-like creatures—the “Smokeworms”—are revealed: long, bright, multicolored bodies glimmering like silk ribbons, with faint smoke curling from them. Nearby, a stone fireplace crackles, where the worms’ faint glowing remains burn. The lighting is warm and flickering, casting dramatic shadows. Style: detailed ink-and-wash illustration, rich textures, muted natural palette with pops of iridescent color for the worms, reminiscent of 19th-century scientific illustrations blended with fantasy art. See more