Elfquest: Not just for show

The latest page of The Final Quest: Prologue is published online first for the first time here at Boing Boing. First time reader? You're a few issues behind.

• [Tavie]

   Adorable.

• [Erika Westberg]

  Last frame – awesome!

• [kantis]

  What? Nobody saw it necessary to tell Sunstream that his spikes were poisonous?? Good thing he didn’t scratch  his new family by accident while doing upside-down underwater dancing with them, then!

  • [David Miz]

    I’m thinking the venom needs to be actively injected and that Sunstream was simply unaware of this functionality and how to work it until his protective, paternal instinct took over, and he reacted without thinking.  In other words, you wouldn’t envenomated simply by coming in contact with the fin-spines.  (This is how it works with venomous in the real world, at least.)  

    Also, I actually rather like the idea that Sunstream isn’t somehow now the aggressive, warrior type.  That his aggression was only triggered by new fatherhood and that it was solely instinctual rings true to his character. 

    • [kantis]

       That does indeed make sense, thanks for answering. :)

    • [Wyldenay]

      I agree with you. Like Brill said, he’s a protector. He has the wolf in him, that instinct to protect his pack, his family, give his life if he must, but he’s not a fighter, so he won’t offer a challenge out of aggression. It’s always been his nature, even as a cub, to want to help, to protect, to defend and it remains one of his most endearing traits.

      • [Emby Quinn]

         To those who read “Full Circle”, it should come as no surprise that Sunstream can be a scrapper when he has to be. He took on a pool of magic older than HIS ENTIRE TRIBE to protect them and by extension the rest of the planet.

        • [David Miz]

          Yes, Sunstream does not lack for courage.  Going into the darkness of “the void” to find Savah as a tiny child, doing it again through a mortal enemy (Winnowill), manipulating Rayek to help save Cutter from the troll trap, approaching Timmain in wolf form as she thrashed and struggled to regain her elf shape, trying to bear the High Ones’ cry, taking on the adventure in the Forevergreen, and obliterating the pool of High Ones’ magic turned dark by his grandfather Bearclaw and the Spirit Man….all of these show his bravery, even if that bravery isn’t always physical.

• [Penny Lehew]

  Last frame = priceless!!!  :-)

• [Candice Graham]

  Terrific as always! Very adorable

• [Margherita Tramontano]

  I love this page… <3

• [Tavie]

  How freaking ACCELERATED are these little elf babies? A few minutes old and she’s already mimicking adult behavior, eyes wide open. It really highlights how alien and advanced these beings are compared to us rough, lower forms…

  • [Nami Morningstar]

    That’s accurate except for the eyes thing, human babies have their eyes wide open too in the moments after birth, but in most places they put painful drops into a baby’s eyes shortly after so they have to keep them closed.  It is supposed to protect them from bacteria, but it may just make eyesight worse.
    ( http://childbirth.amuchbetterway.com/newborn-baby-eye-drops-explained/ )

  • [AmethystGilmour]

    Newborn humans mimic facial expressions minutes after birth, not intentionally, but automatically. They aren’t aware of their own faces, yet I think it’s an instinctive thing to gain more bonding with the parents, making the big protectors think “Oh, it’s a little version of me! Something to keep safe as I would with myself!”

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M82_GwN92mI

    • [Tavie]

      Oh man, babies are so adorable.

      • [Leigh Gregminster]

        Ha, my response to what Amethyst wrote was more like “wow, parents suck” if the child has to seem “like them” to bond with it. Still: interesting to know about mimicry.

  • [Wyldenay]

    Wendy reminded us a while back on Facebook that Elf biology isn’t the same as human biology. This baby is also even more physically advanced than Wolfrider cubs (also explained on Facebook) due to the longer gestation, 3 years vs. 2 years for wolfriders. So it certainly does make sense that, especially considering who her daddy is is, that she would be sharper than most newborns. I think baby Kora has many more surprises for us.

• [Wyldenay]

  I just LOVELOVELOVELOVE that his baby made the same face as Brill! It is, well, BRILLiant. I love that Brill has a sense of humor and isn’t afraid to use it on her beloved. They’re wonderful together, she and Sunstream. I also love that baby has grammy’s eyes.

  • [David Miz]

    Ha!  Leetah as “Grammy” — Love it!

• [Nikki G]

  I’m not sure I can take just one update a week at this rate.  It’s nice to see that Sunstream is just as protective of his baby girl as his father was of him

• [Kristin Hunt]

  Brill made me giggle. Korafay, just made me laugh out loud,l being so ADORABLE. I wanna hold her… Omg  Kora & Ishupek *Shuna & Bee’s kid)… that’d be CUTE play mates.

• [William Clark]

  Loving the final panel :-)  I wasn’t crazy about Sunstreams design before. I think because it was just so new an unexpected but now its actually beautiful and fitting.

• [Puffball]

  Welp, now you know how it feels, Sunstream :3

• [Francois Labarbarie]

  Aaaaaawww, she is soooooooo cute, it’s almost scary! From that pages, I know how humans feel when they encounter elves for the first time.

  I was wondering if Korafay could be our future Jink, but I read on EQ scroll of colors that Wendy confirmed Korafay and Jink are definitively not the same elf. She pointed that Korafay’s hair is green, not white.

  I wonder what power Korafay might express when she is older. She looks like someone born with a mission, just like her father :)
  She has 3 bloods: wolfrider, sun people, and wavedancers. Maybe her fate is to birth the utlim baby, when she mates with a half Go-Back half Glider ;)

  • [Francois Labarbarie]

     Where are all the Wavedancers by the way? This event surely lasted for long minutes, time enough to come and rescue Sunstream and Brill. But we see no trace of them (yet?) even though they were so worried. Brill looks so serene, so unlike her sea mates. “Not scared”, really? She is made of really strong stuff :)