New Blood #15 Elfquest: New Blood #15
Warp, Mar 1994, colour.
1 New Blood #15 cover FOREVERGREEN PART 3óKimo and Dart are in the rocks, spying on the humans moving up on them. Kimo swears one smells like a troll. The troll one tells one of the boys (this one in blue) that the evil spirits that live in the rocks are like the one that flew over them a few moons ago. The other boy has a red loin cloth now. The boys are initiates and the troll is called Thuggop. The older warrior is Bailon. Kimo and Dart on top a rock make as if they are one entity. When the four humans run off, Kimo laughs hysterically. Dart laughs at him laughing at him and playfully smacks him lightly. Suntop ins pink double robe shirt marks rocks that Windkin has been gone two eights of days. Chot is mad that the pup has the whole village bowing and scraping over his magic. Yun makes a red apple hit Chot on the head, sick of his bawling. She and Chot are Go Backsóóthey have had to fight for scraps all their lives. Chot claims they have it easy here...why leave? Yun tells him that he is especially eating food or having food tossed at him. Suntop receives a sending from a hurt, far off Windkin. Dart returns and holds Suntop's shoulders, "Look at me, cub." He needs to know what it was. Dart tells Yun they can only leave when they are prepared. Yun tells them they all sat here while the bird elf got himself into a fix just like they knew he would. She has a Go Back's impatience. Dart adds, "She has her chief Kahvi's temper too. I'd like to..." Kimo says, "Unh uh. That would take too long..." Another, with green eyes and head kerchief says, "But it would be fun to watch!" This is Jethel, barechested. Kimo sighs, "Jethel, for a cub who wants to be a warrior, you do try your hardest to stay a cub!" Jethel asks, "What? What?" Chot doesn't believe in magic. Savah tells Suntop that he will leave soon, even though he tells her he would never leave her. She knows his heart is to go. To ask him to stay would be to break his heart and her's as well. Dart asks her if she knows why he is going...she does and tells him, "...and in time, you will as well." Six of them leave, as Savah says. Savah wishes them a safe and successful journey, telling them they have set something in motion that none of them understand, not even her. Dart tells her that Chot is going with them, "I wouldn't dream of leaving Chot here unattended." Two boy guards hold Chot's arms and keep him from getting back under his blanket. He eats more than three times his share. Savah gives Suntop a knife to remember her by. He hugs her and she him, he cries lots of tears. Her lessons, he says, are the best weapon he could ever have. Suntop tells Savah he will return sooner than she thinks. Shenshen tells them she is goingtoo, not allowing her sister's child to go on a dangerous journey without someone to look after him. Suntop looks forlorn, "I'm not a child!" Suntop continues to cry as he has so many things he wants to say. They leave. Savah tells him, "Shade and Sweet Water, kitling." Shirtless but with his boots on, Windkin wakes up tied to an altar of the hand (as in the magnificent cover) and sees a boy with long dark hair, silky hair, with a jewel on a necklace, a neck band, and a long loin cloth. There are also other humans around, some with large pony tails sticking straight up. Aramek, the attained father of the Hungtsho wants to talk in equal grace with the spirits. The people are to hear the Sky Spirit's words through his lips. He winks at Windkin as he says this. Windkin arches his back, straining to be let go but he is tied up on the hand, his feet off the ground and by his ankles and wrists. Aramek is lying to the people about what the Sky Spirit saysóósaying Windkin is pleased. The alterations to their own bodies have lifted the humans to the Sky Spirits' tread. He has pointed ears and four fingers but is not an elf. He pushes two human boys in long head covers off the tower to their deaths. Windkin yells, "No!" The wolves and Kwoots of the rescue party lie down as Dodia, a female elf, tells Suntop, whose mouth is covered by Chot, who is making more noise. Four older humans ride past. Windkin sent to Suntop who complains about Chot treating him like that. Dart tells him, via mind talk that he has to control himself or he will have Chot sit on him. "This is real, Suntop! You're not in Savah's hut now. One slip and we're all dead!" A large body guard (with four fingers) takes Windkin by the arm and leads him down, telling two almost bare boys with black hair and dressed only in red loin cloths to be careful with him as they take him to the Worship House. He tells them to be careful with him: Aramek is looking for two more offerings. The guard calls them lazy round ears and he will go get the cage. The boy tells the other they should tell the Sky Spirit something but the other tells him they would be killed if anyone hears. They put him on a green mat, one boy saying, "He looks so small lying there. I feel sorry about what they'll do to him." The body guard returns and puts a large bird cage over Windkin. One boy in red loin cloth feeds him green apples. Windkin thinks, "Had I the wolf blood they say I once had, I could sniff out any poison in the fruit." He gets a sending of "Go on, youngling, eat the food. It is safe!" The two boys, now in blue loin clothes, and one now in long sided vest watch as someone sends these thought messages to him. Aramek does not want him dead. It must be that Windkin lives. The sender has been kept alive by these humans and Aramek's ancestors from the most distant days until now, "Thank you for answering my call, glider!"