Joint Venture by bigbraader
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Lúthien: "Look, it's seen us and will attack if we get closer!"
Bjørn:"Yes I see it now, easily. It looks terrifying. You know what it is?"
Lúthien: "Oh, yes, we call them Del-Hû, and they don't belong here, or, we don't want them here. They are of course fierce and dangerous predators, and hundreds of years ago they were still living in the forests around here. But we decided to drive them to the North, they don't mind the cold and snow. Their large size and long legs make it easy to roam in the snow. We killed many, and the rest fled to the North. Now a few are migrating down here again. We must find them and kill them..."
Bjørn: "...Del-Hû?"
Lúthien: "Oh, what would that be in your language...a Horror-Hound or something. In the old days they were also known as Anca-en-Gurth...the jaws of death..."
Bjørn: "Ooh, so I've heard of them, I thought they were only mythical creatures, no one had ever seen one..."
Lúthien: "Well, they are very much real as you can see. As you may know, we elves live for a very long time, so we have seen them, I have, and know their nature.
Now let's kill the beast. It looks like it's already fiesting on a prey. I see blood in the snow and a sort of human figure lying there..."
Bjørn: "Your eyes are certainly better than mine..."
Lúthien (smiling): "What did you expect...I'm an elf..."
Bjørn: "Well, I'll cut him in half with my sword."
Lúthien: "I suggest a little more cautious approach, they are very big and tough, don't expect to down him with one blow. I'll shoot him with my magic arrows, when he's down you can finish him..."
Bjørn: "MAGIC ARROWS??? You expect me to believe that?" Lúthien:"Well, OK, they don't possess supernatural powers as such. It's just something we tell the locals, to keep them in respect and awe. The arrow points have been dipped in a strong paralyzing drug, that works very quickly.
But don't be mistaken, magic, it's very much in the arsenal - REAL magic that is! But it's slow to use, always needs building up and incantations and such..."
Bjørn: "OK...eeerhhh...I suggest you shoot away NOW - it's coming at us..." Previous ones: "A Predator in Snow" "Ominous Tracks in the Snow" Vue, Poser and Photoshop. Items from DAZ, C3D, CP and myself. Thanks for viewing - comments always welcome and appreciated. Have a nice day - Lars
Comments (19)
legolie
Excellent scene !
odile
Superb. I love the little detail of the breath condensing in the cold!
aerodreams
Excellent scene
faroutsider
This has been an outstanding series - and now we're really getting to the heart of things... Excellent.
Ken _Gilliland Online Now!
nice work
lhumungus
Overall, excellent work. If I were to nitpick, I'd say the woman's head looks as if she's looking into the distance rather than addressing her compatriot.
drifterlee
Really beautiful. The tracks look great.
evielouise
outstanding series!!!!!!!!!!!!! and so very lovely,indeed lars wow
Josel007
Impressive scene & snow landscape... bravo!!!
adorety
Really excellent scene and what a gorgeous night. I love a full moon on clear snowy nights, you can almost see like day. Awesome work.
castaneda
An artist and a writer. That is some arsonal. Seriously, you play good dialogue. Your story is as keen as your artwork. Is there a novel on the way? Hell, you could do your own book cover. I'd buy it.
Jucce
Nice series and high quality renders. I like these snowy night scenes.
Domi48
Superb image.
lmx3d
Very good work on the snow ground! I want to make one with dino prints!!!!!
r6y6a6n6
Terrific scene
kobaltkween
and now i feel even worse for the hyena creature. :D it's a great image and composition (i absolutely love the trees and field), but somehow the creature looks too small. i realize it's not, but the impression that it's smaller than it is takes away from the drama. i mean you've got two people, on horses, with weapons and gear, and then this one animal in the distance. it's good storytelling with the other images, but as a stand-alone image and as the moment before battle, it lacks impact. to be honest, i have no idea how to address stuff like that. this is what the best pros are good at- bending reality to fit expectations while still retaining the illusion that reality hasn't been violated. so for all i'm writing about it, it's a small consideration. i still love the light and the sky. the horses look very naturally posed, though their calm isn't quite realistic in this situation (large beast in sight, smell of blood in the air, etc.). the materials are amazing, and even more importantly, very consistent. i love the snow on the feathers of the black horse. the sky is great. the writing is a bit weaker than the image(s). way too much explaining, with too many awkward questions to prompt the explanations. the dialogue seems like it's just there to tell us how powerful and impressive the combatants of the upcoming fight will be. both questions and answers seem stiff and contrived. if there were more sense of who the characters were, there would be more of a reason to care about who wins the upcoming battle and more drama. so far, all we have are some basic facts about the species. the hyena creature kills to eat (including people), and the elves kill to either wipe out a species or drive it from its native environment. there's not much to make us root for either side, beyond the manifest destiny principle. and magic is talked about as if it's just a meaningless tool. it would be great to get even a small sense of what it means to either humans or elves, or what elves are besides long-lived. overall, the writing is a collection of facts and statistics, while the images tell a story.
krickerd
I like all the details like the prints and the snow clumps. Great job and story!
WZRD
This is perfectly done. I disagree with kobaltkween's observations on the scale of the creature - the size of it's footprints testify to it's real size - it still looks pretty big a damned scary to me.
psyoshida
I think it's wonderful as well. The scene is gorgeous and the story follows perfectly from the previous scene. Your story has details on a tragic scene as well as humor. Wonderful all!