Three helpless elves
Posted: Sat Feb 27, 2016 1:12 pm
Finally I am able to share something here. The sad truth is, during all the previous year I created only two QS-related drawings, and one of them was more like a slightly cleaned sketch. I am not sure what this year would bring me, but at least here is what I already created. This belongs to so-called "Damned planet", which you can investigate in my DA gallery: http://billie-bonce.deviantart.com/gall ... ned-Planet (don't hope to see much without having the DA account - most of the stuff is "adult content" in DA understanding of the term). Well, now to the picture and to the accompanying story.
(Again - please forgive me my mistakes, bad grammar and poor vocabulary - I live in non-English speaking environment... Had to speak English at work this week after maybe 10 or 15 years hiatus, but those guys were Chinese, so they would not help me getting better in English... At least we could understand each other...)
Also: if somebody is interested, there is a higher resolution picture on DA.
As usual at the end of summer the plains were scorched by the merciless sun. As it often happens in that season the weather changed rapidly. It started from a huge scary black cloud, fierce thunderstorm and hail. Then the rain was pouring for several days, flooding large area of the plains. The ground soaked up the water and turned into impassable mud. The elves who happened to be away from their forests became stranded on small islands of dry ground with no reliable shelters where they could hide. After the deadly thunderstorms and hail, the usual pouring rain seemed a relaxing shower.
And then the sun was shining again, bringing new wave of heat. The ground was drying slowly, and the girls' stocks of food were running low. The girls had no other choice but to find a way back to the forest. The air was hot and humid, the sky was covered by clouds formed by all that evaporating water, and each depression on their way was dangerous because of the deep mud.
The three girls hesitantly waded into a wide depression. They had to cross it - a kilometer of thick, sticky mud. The way around the depression would take the whole day or two. At first the mud was ankle deep, then it gradually reached the girls' calves. Walking in such thick mud was very hard. Of course the girls could not wear any kind of shoes - each step was a struggle to pull out their feet. The depression proved to be wider than it seemed, there were no dry places to make a stop for the rest.
But what was the worst - very slowly and almost unnoticeably the mud was becoming deeper and deeper. When the girls thought that they reached the middle of the depression the mud was still below their knees, and they gasped with relief - despite the tiredness they believed that now the mud should become more shallow. But that was not the case. The treacherous bottom teased them, lured them further and further, and only when they were in just two hundred meters from the dry land, the bottom decided to drop down. Still slowly, but now steadily the mud was becoming deeper and deeper. The girls noticed it when the mud reached above their knees.
They stopped to make a decision. The dry land was close, the shore that they left was far away, they were tired to exhaustion. Turning back would kill their motivation and would not bring them any additional powers. Most likely, they would not be ably to return back that day. The way forward was much shorter. The mud should not become much deeper, the only problem was the exhaustion - would they be able to reach the shore? Just one last effort - and they would be there!
Unfortunately, they were wrong. The mud did become much deeper, and the girls all of a sudden found themselves unable to make the next step. Myra (Mee-Rah), the curly blond, was carrying the only basket that survived the fierce hail when her legs suddenly sank all the way into the mud. Her brief struggle only made things worse. She quickly took off the basket from her shoulder and put it in front of herself to lean on it. Gangling Lana (Laa-Nah) rushed to help her friend, but her tiredness played a cruel joke with her - she stumbled on the deepest spot, possibly an old burrow filled with liquid mud. Dana (Daa-Nah), the always cheerful swarthy redhead, was standing on her left leg that sank to the top of thigh into the mud keeping her right leg on the surface. Seeing how both her friends got stuck in mud she tried to get closer to them. However all her attempts to pull her left leg out were futile. As a result of her efforts her right leg got stuck, too, She then tried to lay on the mud and crawl, but then her arm got stuck.
"Come on Lana, grab me and pull yourself out!" Myra said. "I am leaning on the basket."
"No way... I can't get my arm out..."
"We are so tired, we are not getting out of this," Dana said then. "Let's have a rest."
"If we stay still here for awhile, the mud would harden around us. We must try to get out now or we'll never do it."
"But Lana, we can't! Can you?"
"... sob ..."
Myra turned to Lana in surprise. Lana was the oldest and the most experienced of the three. Her tears were unexpected... and inappropriate...
"Lana... What's with you? Look, the shore is near. The girls will come here to look for us. If we won't get out themselves, we will scream - and they will hear us and rescue us. It won't be too bad!"
"It... is... embarrassing... so stupid... I had to foresee such a possibility..."
"It will be okay..." But the younger girls were afraid that if Lana was sobbing than it may be not okay... Could be, she knew something... It was not the best time to ask Lana though...
What the girls did not know, and Lana did not know it as well, the dry land in several dozens meters in front of them was not the shore. It was another island, which was hiding them from the actual shore. Their friends would not come there soon, and they had a very poor chance of being heard and spotted.
(Again - please forgive me my mistakes, bad grammar and poor vocabulary - I live in non-English speaking environment... Had to speak English at work this week after maybe 10 or 15 years hiatus, but those guys were Chinese, so they would not help me getting better in English... At least we could understand each other...)
Also: if somebody is interested, there is a higher resolution picture on DA.
As usual at the end of summer the plains were scorched by the merciless sun. As it often happens in that season the weather changed rapidly. It started from a huge scary black cloud, fierce thunderstorm and hail. Then the rain was pouring for several days, flooding large area of the plains. The ground soaked up the water and turned into impassable mud. The elves who happened to be away from their forests became stranded on small islands of dry ground with no reliable shelters where they could hide. After the deadly thunderstorms and hail, the usual pouring rain seemed a relaxing shower.
And then the sun was shining again, bringing new wave of heat. The ground was drying slowly, and the girls' stocks of food were running low. The girls had no other choice but to find a way back to the forest. The air was hot and humid, the sky was covered by clouds formed by all that evaporating water, and each depression on their way was dangerous because of the deep mud.
The three girls hesitantly waded into a wide depression. They had to cross it - a kilometer of thick, sticky mud. The way around the depression would take the whole day or two. At first the mud was ankle deep, then it gradually reached the girls' calves. Walking in such thick mud was very hard. Of course the girls could not wear any kind of shoes - each step was a struggle to pull out their feet. The depression proved to be wider than it seemed, there were no dry places to make a stop for the rest.
But what was the worst - very slowly and almost unnoticeably the mud was becoming deeper and deeper. When the girls thought that they reached the middle of the depression the mud was still below their knees, and they gasped with relief - despite the tiredness they believed that now the mud should become more shallow. But that was not the case. The treacherous bottom teased them, lured them further and further, and only when they were in just two hundred meters from the dry land, the bottom decided to drop down. Still slowly, but now steadily the mud was becoming deeper and deeper. The girls noticed it when the mud reached above their knees.
They stopped to make a decision. The dry land was close, the shore that they left was far away, they were tired to exhaustion. Turning back would kill their motivation and would not bring them any additional powers. Most likely, they would not be ably to return back that day. The way forward was much shorter. The mud should not become much deeper, the only problem was the exhaustion - would they be able to reach the shore? Just one last effort - and they would be there!
Unfortunately, they were wrong. The mud did become much deeper, and the girls all of a sudden found themselves unable to make the next step. Myra (Mee-Rah), the curly blond, was carrying the only basket that survived the fierce hail when her legs suddenly sank all the way into the mud. Her brief struggle only made things worse. She quickly took off the basket from her shoulder and put it in front of herself to lean on it. Gangling Lana (Laa-Nah) rushed to help her friend, but her tiredness played a cruel joke with her - she stumbled on the deepest spot, possibly an old burrow filled with liquid mud. Dana (Daa-Nah), the always cheerful swarthy redhead, was standing on her left leg that sank to the top of thigh into the mud keeping her right leg on the surface. Seeing how both her friends got stuck in mud she tried to get closer to them. However all her attempts to pull her left leg out were futile. As a result of her efforts her right leg got stuck, too, She then tried to lay on the mud and crawl, but then her arm got stuck.
"Come on Lana, grab me and pull yourself out!" Myra said. "I am leaning on the basket."
"No way... I can't get my arm out..."
"We are so tired, we are not getting out of this," Dana said then. "Let's have a rest."
"If we stay still here for awhile, the mud would harden around us. We must try to get out now or we'll never do it."
"But Lana, we can't! Can you?"
"... sob ..."
Myra turned to Lana in surprise. Lana was the oldest and the most experienced of the three. Her tears were unexpected... and inappropriate...
"Lana... What's with you? Look, the shore is near. The girls will come here to look for us. If we won't get out themselves, we will scream - and they will hear us and rescue us. It won't be too bad!"
"It... is... embarrassing... so stupid... I had to foresee such a possibility..."
"It will be okay..." But the younger girls were afraid that if Lana was sobbing than it may be not okay... Could be, she knew something... It was not the best time to ask Lana though...
What the girls did not know, and Lana did not know it as well, the dry land in several dozens meters in front of them was not the shore. It was another island, which was hiding them from the actual shore. Their friends would not come there soon, and they had a very poor chance of being heard and spotted.
Each of the girls looks special and has personality 
.
Beautiful work.