May 2020 "Grab bag" stories/poetry/art/etc....

May 2020 Grab Bag has arrived!

Stories, poetry, artwork, whatever your talent to share - must be ElfQuest themed - and may contain canon ElfQuest characters (Cutter, Leetah, Skywise, etc) or custom characters of your own (as long as it's in the "ElfQuest" universe).

Your submissions should include at least one of these things (for art), and at least 3 of the 5 for stories (but let's see you use all five!)

Stories can be as long as you want them to be.

The items for this month's grab bag are:

acceptance
a cure
trying again
feast
escape

I'll continue my line of "one line per theme" poetry.

Friendship’s Rise

Escape from tumbling mountain,
gives a chance to try again.
Acceptance can be
a cure for the disease of hatred.
And now let the feast commence!

The Mermay 2020 , day 2  contribution on DA: The Sea Raider elves are pirates for sure, but they do not need any ships. They only board ships, murder humans, loot everything that can be used by merpeople, especially  what they define as "treasures ". This does not include primarily gold and silver , but rather rum, food and clutter to decorate them. Today they "found" a barrel of rum , escaped with it and now the feast can start.
Of course there are more tribe members, but sadly the paper was full and I must go on with the next DA picture.  
On this picture Moonlight is grown up, Goldfish, the sprat (dumb since he lost his voice) can barely catch tuna but wants a big mug full of rum. Shinz` ,already drunk, won`t care about that, Silver and Ortega surely too. But Yeee will fetch Goldfishys mug and drink it all out by herself. Sharuk has no fun, he is serious as always.
That 's : FEAST and ESCAPE


And of course they party with a song:

That song fits for the tribes vibe , but they do not kill each other (could only occur by accident). The sentence "Dead men tell no tales" is meant for  the humans.

acceptance
a cure
trying again
feast
escape

“It’s strange, is it not?” Snowcloud asked, her white hair and green eyes sparkling beneath the twin moons.

“What?” Echo, son of Stillbreeze and Vineweaver, now a young man himself turned to face his female friend. “Is what strange?”

“All of this,” she gestured around her. “We make up several tribes now, as one. And among us is a human,” she pointed to Buren, who had become Stream’s lovemate and together they’d had a childlike never seen before. “Do you think their child, Stonecutter, will be accepted in the world? He has the round face of a human, five fingers like a human, but the ears and eyes are definitely elf-like.”

“He will be accepted in our tribe,” Echo said, his brown hair blowing gently in the wind, while his green eyes met with hers. “We all accept him already, no matter how he looks.”

“Do you think he will have magic? Like Stream? Be a healer?” she asked.

“I,” Echo paused. He hadn’t given that much consideration. “I don’t know.”

“I’ve heard the stories about the half-troll,” Snowcloud said, putting her hair behind her ear.

“He wasn’t a half-troll,” Echo corrected her. “His name was Trollblade – or Trollhammer, as he was called later. He even took up the name Trollforge after that. He was a High One. When the Palace crashed, he’d taken the form of a troll to hide among them. And found that years of being in a troll form, he could not shape back to his normal form. He began to quickly learn from the trolls, even aging slower than them. He learned their craft and became an expert. After many hundreds of moons had gone by and he made contact with my father’s tribe, he became the spokesman for the trolls and was the sole reason that the trolls and my father’s tribe learned to get along.”

“He Recognized your aunt, Purespring did he not?” Snowcloud leaned in close to Echo.

“Yes,” Echo remembered hearing the stories. “But she had not been able to Recognize him. His magic had altered him in such a way that when she saw him, she only saw the troll that he’d become. But for him, he ached for her – but,” he turned to her, his lips almost touched hers, to his surprise, as he pulled his head back slightly, “There is no cure for Recognition.”

“Do you think that Stonecutter will ever be able to Recognize?” she asked, trying again to lean close to him.

Echo scooted a little to the left to be further away, escaping what appeared to be her attempts to kiss him. They’d grown up as friends over the last few years – was she feeling something more now?

Just then, Stillbreeze road up the stony path, howling with joy, having returned from the hunt.

“Oh, perfect,” Echo said, clearing his throat. “It’s time to feast!” And he quickly stood up and made his way towards the center of Stonehowl.

Snowcloud heaved a deep sigh as she watched him walk away.



• Shadow (Male Soul Name: Tyru) – Black Hair, Tanned, Green Eyes (Elder brother to Purespring, Chief)
• Foxhair (Female Soul Name: Loun) – Red Hair, Green Eyes (Hunter)
• Snowspring (Female, Soul Name: Tylo – Black Hair, Green Eyes) – Nine years old. Daughter of Shadow and Foxhair.
• Spearclaw (Male, Soul name: Lren) – Brown Hair, Green Eyes (Scout) – Former lovemate of Stillbreeze (and Vineweaver), now lovemate of Windfetcher
• Vineweaver (Male Soul Name: Reyk) – Auburn Hair, Blue Eyes (Tree shaper, Soul Mate of Stillbreeze, Plant Shaper)
• Stillbreeze (Female Soul Name: Hewl) – Brown Hair, Brown Eyes (Soul Mate of Vineweaver, Tanner)
• Echo (Male Soul Name: Ayav) – Brown Hair, Green Eyes (Cub of Stillbreeze & Vineweaver, Magic)- About eighteen years old.
• Windfetcher (Female Soul Name: Burm) – Auburn Hair, Brown Eyes (Cub of Stillbreeze & Vineweaver) – About eighteen years old, formerly interested in being the next chief, now the lovemate of Spearclaw
• Snowcloud (Female, Soul Name: Mill) – White Hair, Green Eyes (based off white lions)
• Stream (Female Soul Name: Vree) – Red Hair, Green Eyes (Healer)
• Buren (Human, Brown hair, hazel eyes) – About 20 years old in human years
• Stonecutter (half elf/half human, son of Stream and Buren – brown hair, green eyes) – About two years old

Yeee wrote:

That 's : FEAST and ESCAPE

You definitely possess some amazing talent, Yeee! Very well done. Especially with so many characters, making them all fit, the perception, different expressions! (My favorite is the child near the center getting "kisses" from the animal).

Very nice all!

I realize I could probably actually roll last month's and this month's together but the length is getting... prohibitive.

Thaaaanx!!!
Yes the "kiss" is very slimy from the Easter bunny sea slug.
First I wanted to make the kid in the center to be Littleclam, but the timeline doeas not fit with that picture (Littleclam is the the small kid when the pod meets Vaeri and Embala) it will be another female kid with thick eyebrows and it should have red curls like Leetah. I have no name yet for her, but an image in my head , when she is adult.

Yay, I forgot the prompts from this month`s list. Here is something fitting from my sketchbook , produced in  this month, so I think it is within the rules, heh heh:
The Great White was very hungry and this little fish before him smelled strangely interesting. First it circled its victim to get a better look. It circles narrowed until its side fins with razor-sharp skin slit the right side of the elf boy`s face from ear to near nose and his tail fin . But the long three-pointed stick, that the fish-elf child wielded rammed into the sharks side. One part of it broke off  and got stuck in the side of the shark. With dolphin-like noises, the boy cried out in pain and horror. Fine sweet tasty blood poured out of the boys ripped skin. This and the pain of the stucked broken tip of the trident made the shark furious. It raced towards the boy for a bite attack. The latter thought at the last moment and scurried to the side, more instinctively than consciously trying again to thrust the trident into the shark. Fortunately, this time he caught the animal's eye.
The shark gave up,it was injured  too much.
Panicking the boy escaped from the shark, not realizing that escape was no more neccessary. He looked around , yelling after his mother, but she wasn`t there. She was never there, always hanging around with those strange landelves in these times. And he was supposed to watch out and guard all the sprats of the pod and his demented father!  But he could no more, he was shivering,  frantically yelling and swimming towards the shore.....


This is:
trying again and  escape

Yeee has no acceptance for Hakens misuse of his powers by shaping her into the size of a High One. He tries it again and again to get her, now that she is in the "right size" ...."Come to meeee!"


and..."Come with me to my tropical island..."


and so on and so on....
This is: acceptance and trying again

Last chance for escape, even when it looks like murder, Yeee rescues Rayek from the attacking human army. It is a horrible procedure to be shaped into a water breather, especially when lying on the back and when someone else is doing that with you and you have no control over it. The crystal shard of the elf palace enhances every magic user power as the whole palace does. Luckily that enables Yeee to use the self shaping magic upon other elves too.

In acceptance of the Den Hide Chad insisted to (once again), Yeee tries to make the best of it and temporarily raises her children in forest lakes and lily pad ponds. Although the sea elves are not freshwater fish, they can be content with lakes and ponds in some cases. Some children are a little afraid of water , even the fishy, and have to get used to the water in a playful way. Yeee tries it again and again to get the little ones into the pond. Those with lily pads are well suited for hide and seek games. That takes away all fear and is the perfect cure. But as soon as the fear is gone, Yeee breaks all rules of every damned Den Hide and escapes from it into the sea with all kids.
These are acceptance, a cure, trying again and escape

Wanna play?

... and it's a feast for the eyes, Yeee! ^^


I got so much ...

Grim cold was feasting on your delicate life
- oh why could I find no cure, dear little one?
Your parents found acceptance and let go
- allowing your spirit to escape and roam free.
We'll try again ... the four of us!

Not my usual contribution - but it helped to decide on the grab-bag banner theme!

Thank you Embala!

Your contribution is that poor little Cheipar story. It is Shenshen lamenting, right? Nice writing style!

I always think of that as a useless and unnecessary death , there was a preserver, always eager to put all suffering beings "snuggly safe"into wrapstuff.
This death leaves Rayek to be worse than he is because he is responsible for the absence of a healer.
I am certain that if Cheipar had been asked what he wanted, he would have chosen deep sleep with sweet dreams, awaiting healing.
(Aber genug, darüber hab ich ja eh schon im anderen thread genug gemotzt, grins)

I AM COME HOME

acceptance
a cure
trying again
feast
escape

_______________

"Steady, Chosen. I doubt she'll thank you if you drop her."

"Of course, my Lady."

Hoykar lifted Door --carefully, carefully--from her throne and cradled her safely, pretending she was Hawkmoon. She was very light, more like driftwood than an elf, and she was far too still to ever be mistaken for his little daughter. He lowered them both down to where Lady Winnowill waited on a bench and laid Door down beside her.

Door did not blink, barely even breathed. It made him think of the war, and the pile they had all danced round and round until Kureel had taken him somewhere quiet so he could retch, and then Hoykar made himself think of something else.

Lady Winnowill reached out and cupped Door's face in her hands. She got very quiet then, sinking down in herself as the light began to kindle where her skin met Door's; Hoykar held himself perfectly still, perfectly quiet, so that she could go about her work.

It went on a while; Lady Winnowill's powers weren't what they used to be before the Wolfriders came (he knew better than to say it, or even think it too loudly), but as far as he could tell it was going well. He watched Door's face intently, certain that more color was blooming in her cheeks with every heartbeat.

~*Send.*~

His Lady's sending startled him, and he glanced at her; she was deep in her trance, utterly still, and for a moment he could not distinguished between healer and healed. He looked at Door's face, which did not seem much different after all, and swallowed hard.

~*I will try, my Lady. I do not know if she will remember me.*~

~*Send. Blood to blood.*~

Hoykar leaned down and locked his eyes with Door's--he remembered gathering river stones as a child, hunting for the the smooth blue kind, and he would run and show his prizes to her, and she would always laugh and praise him--and he doubted this would work, but he would obey his Lady's command.

~*Hello. It is Hoykar...do you remember? You had trouble when we last sent, but perhaps now...?*~

The light from Lady Winnowill's hands flared brighter, throwing Door's face into sharp relief. Her eyes were blue, like the little flowers that grew in the shaded parts of the forest. Hoykar's throat felt very tight. He sent to Door of all that had happened since Lord Voll had led them North, of the terrible fighting and the Go Backs and the glory of the Palace, and young Tove who Kureel was training to fly hawkback, and of the long journey to Sorrow's End and Kureel and Moonshade and Strongbow and baby Hawkmoon.

~*She will be one of the Chosen when she is big, I think, though really that is up to Uncle. But she was born floating and she can mimic all sorts of birds already, so it's a wonderful start-- oh!*~

Door bolted up on the bench, gasping and flailing her wasted limbs, and it was just like when Hawkmoon came, so new and frightened. That day he'd been torn between joy and pity, had wanted nothing more than to hold his shield over where she and Moonshade rested and guard them.

"Innekah. Welcome back."

Lady Winnowill shifted to the edge of the bench and stood, stepping away. Door--Innekah--stared after her, then turned her head and looked up at Hoykar. He waited nervously, not wanting to startle her, not wanting to be disappointed again, but she was smiling at him, slow and bright like the sun coming up. She lifted a wasted hand and touched his cheek. It tickled, like moth wings.

"Hoykar...my boy."

His eyes stung, and he put his hand over hers, his heart suddenly too small to hold this moment. He smiled her own smile back down at her.

"Hello, Mother."
_________________

Hoykar and Kureel have actually been stealing the show in my massive AU, and I've decided that Hoykar is the sweetest, most wholesome Himbo in all of Blue Mountain. He's good at exactly two things: babysitting, and putting a spear through through a hostile organism at a hundred paces. He only really got onto the Chosen because he has freakishly good aim and because Voll's his uncle.

He and Kureel are devoted to each other (Hoykar is Tol Dumb Husband, Kureel is Smol Rage Husband),which confuses everyone else because they...are not at all alike.

Anyway I think I worked in three of the elements? Escape, a cure, and trying again.

Arill3.0 wrote:

I AM COME HOME
Hoykar and Kureel have actually been stealing the show in my massive AU, and I've decided that Hoykar is the sweetest, most wholesome Himbo in all of Blue Mountain. He's good at exactly two things: babysitting, and putting a spear through through a hostile organism at a hundred paces. He only really got onto the Chosen because he has freakishly good aim and because Voll's his uncle.
He and Kureel are devoted to each other (Hoykar is Tol Dumb Husband, Kureel is Smol Rage Husband),which confuses everyone else because they...are not at all alike.
Anyway I think I worked in three of the elements? Escape, a cure, and trying again.

I like this. I will be honest and say I don't remember Hoykar - so I am not sure if he's an original character? Or someone after OG/Siege or Kings (because after that my memory of new characters is a haze).

I would have liked more detail on this:
The light from Lady Winnowill's hands flared brighter, throwing Door's face into sharp relief. Her eyes were blue, like the little flowers that grew in the shaded parts of the forest. Hoykar's throat felt very tight. He sent to Door of all that had happened since Lord Voll had led them North, of the terrible fighting and the Go Backs and the glory of the Palace, and young Tove who Kureel was training to fly hawkback, and of the long journey to Sorrow's End and Kureel and Moonshade and Strongbow and baby Hawkmoon.

Mostly because it seems very crucial to bringing Door "back." And for someone who hasn't read it (or doesn't remember much of it, see my previous comment) - filling in some of the details would have helped really seal the impact.

And as a side note, I have no idea what a Tol Dumb Husband and a Smol Rage Husband is. So those details might have helped ignorant readers such as myself.

Thank you so much for the feedback Tymber! Hoykar is one of the Chosen Eight from OQ, and essentially the only defining characteristic in his official biography is the fact that he's the youngest of the Chosen, which I took and spun into "Himbo of Blue Mountain". A bunch of other authors and I decided to pair him with Kureel back on the old Scroll to maximize the fun contrast, haha.

Tol Dumb Husband and Smol Rage Husband are just bits of Tumblr slang I dragged into my post; basically it means Hoykar is big and strong and not overburdened with common sense, while Kureel is shorter than him and has a chip on his shoulder about everything.

Thank you for the concrit regarding the details; I'll come back and edit the piece when I have a better idea of where things are going in the AU I'm writing. This is a possible scene from it. I'll try to flesh things out a little bit before then, however.

Arill3.0 wrote:

Thank you so much for the feedback Tymber! Hoykar is one of the Chosen Eight from OQ, and essentially the only defining characteristic in his official biography is the fact that he's the youngest of the Chosen, which I took and spun into "Himbo of Blue Mountain". A bunch of other authors and I decided to pair him with Kureel back on the old Scroll to maximize the fun contrast, haha.

I feel ashamed. I am usually drawn to the more obscure characters, and swear I can't remember Hoykar.
Also, my ignorance shines again - not sure what "Himbo of Blue Mountain" means. (I mean I know what Blue Mountain is, just not what a "Himbo" is... what can I say. I am old. I don't know the new hip lingo!)

Arill3.0 wrote:

Thank you for the concrit regarding the details; I'll come back and edit the piece when I have a better idea of where things are going in the AU I'm writing. This is a possible scene from it. I'll try to flesh things out a little bit before then, however.

I enjoyed reading it, regardless! My mind could recall some of the details.
I always, when I write, try to keep in mind not everyone has the same image in my head.
So I try to detail things out, or at least link to the events (in case someone is like, "What's this guy talking about?")

I think doing that allows for a wider audience to understand and enjoy the story without needing to google it.

I am obviously not saying go heavy into detail; but a little about what each of those events meant or their significance, if any.

All of that said, despite my dreams, I am not a published author, so take my suggestions with a grain of salt.

Okay, after a week in a danish holiday-hut without internet I come back with the first page of the may-grab bag entry I wanted to do at first. The text is still in the rough version and I ask the English speakers to correct it, only the key points from the grab bag must remain. Thank you so much!
If the writing is not legible, you can read it again here:
1. panel: The Sea Raiders made a feast to celebrate the recognition of Embala and Sharuk...,  (Shinz` making drinking sounds) "Cheers Gloc gloc..., (Lilipad and Silver making eating sounds: Nyom Nyom Slurp munch

2 .panel: Moonlight: "Here is your gift from Sharuk, Embala.", Scarlett: "Yummy octo with seaweed."
Sharuk and Embala both  thinking: "Well I suppose there is no escape for me!"
the text-box says: Red seaweed as healthy as disgusting

3. panel: Sharuk thinks: "Sigh...have no choice...", Embala thinks: "Don`t show, don`t show!" , she makes a sound of disgust: " Urgh!"

4. panel: Sharuk thinks: "...or maybe yes?" , Embala  makes a swallowing sound: " Glupp", she thinks: " ...help!!!"


Edit: Page 1 contents: Feast, Escape

Those facial expressions are amazing Yeee!

Thanx, Arill!

Embala: *uugh... WHO has put beesweet on the octo?* ... "Vaaaeriiiiiie..."

LOL , that could have also been a mischievous Moonlight or Lilipad.

Poor innocent Vaeri! XD Those expressions are hilarious, Yeee! Love the giftie! ^^

thanx, Em! I have page 2 waiting for me to do the fine pencil details over the rough drawing, but momentarily I have some things to do in my household and the sea calls me in the summer at every sunny day, grin. It will take a little bit longer.

Arill3.0 wrote:

Thank you so much for the feedback Tymber! Hoykar is one of the Chosen Eight from OQ, and essentially the only defining characteristic in his official biography is the fact that he's the youngest of the Chosen, which I took and spun into "Himbo of Blue Mountain". A bunch of other authors and I decided to pair him with Kureel back on the old Scroll to maximize the fun contrast, haha.

Huh... it doesn't say anything about him being youngest on his Bio Page