Whispering Jerboas for Illustration Friday

The prompt this week for Illustration Friday is whisper. I had a lot of ideas, but the one below got sketched out first. It's one jerboa whispering to another jerboa.

(A jerboa is a small rodent with big ears and long tails with a fluffy bit at the end, sort of like a kangaroo+mouse+bunny - yes, it's a real animal.)

I wasn't completely satisfied with that sketch. It looks like the words the jerboa on the right is saying (whisper whisper whisper ...) is actually a tongue. Then I remembered that I started a picture last year of a jerboa that looks like a dragon, who had accidentally stepped on a smaller jerboa. I remembered it because the background color is purple too. The dragon is whispering that he's sorry, and the smaller jerboa is whispering, "ouch!" I cleaned up the sketch a bit and decided to post it too (it saved much lighter than the original).

It's a bit hard to see the smaller jerboa, so here's a close-up:

I think this might be my favorite part of the image, other than the fluffy clouds, because even though he's smashed, you know he'll be okay ... eventually. None of these images are going into my portfolio, but that doesn't mean there won't be a jerboa in there somewhere!