Pictures from the Cold Time

[Petrie.]

I don't remember this picture from years past....

The look on (Ali's?) face is pure terror.    I can see why she yelled "Come on!"

[Malte279]

The look on (Ali's?) face is pure terror.

Ali is the right of the longnecks (right from your point of view). You can differentiate her from Littlefoot by her slightly more reddish color and her blue eyes, while Littlefoot has brown eyes. Their terror can be seen only for the fact that their eyes are opened wide (which in another context might be understood as a sign of surprise, though here I suppose they have meanwhile "gotten over" the surprise of seeing a sharptooth rushing towards them). They are not screaming or so in this picture. They probably did instants before when reaching the edge of the rock. Is is the very same edge of rock from which Petrie fell before and on which they commented:

“If the river wouldn’t be frozen...” “...I still wouldn’t jump down here!” Ali finished the sentence Ducky had begun.

Now because of the fire the ice on the river running past below that rock has melted away. Nevertheless it still is a very scary jump. Littlefoot and Ali agreed on jumping just with that look (the apparent alternative to jumping was probably helping to make a quick decision ).
The smoke is not as hazy in this picture as in the last one, but still it is rather thin considering how very high the flames must be if they reach over the edge of the rock (in fact if they were that high Littlefoot and Ali would have probably been grilled on top of that rock no matter the direction of the wind). I probably exaggerated unconsciously for the sake of sensationalism  

I don't remember this picture from years past....

I don't remember for sure which pictures I sent you already Adam. This one is the last I painted for "The Cold Time". It dates from July 8th 2003.

[Threehorn]

Malte279 how come I can't post up LBT images and you are?

I like the artwork but I have to give links now to my site to let them see it and then I am not sure if they go on it is there any way to post it up as a link from my site?

but all in all the drawings are creative

[Malte279]

Hi Wayne!
If you have hosted your pictures elsewhere you can enter the url of the picture in your message, then mark it and hit the image button (IMG) which you will find above the window in which you enter your message.
It should be made sure that the pictures are small enough so they won't require a horizontal scrollbar to be viewed completely. Once one of my pictures couldn't be displayed into my message like that and to this day I don't know why that was.

[Malte279]

This one is titled sign of hope and I think it is my personal favorite:

The gloomy mood hadn’t passed. Littlefoot didn’t really understand the cause for it, but he noted that it had affected everyone. They were struggling up to the top of a very high mountain to, as Littlefoot had suggested, look out for a suitable sleeping place from up there. It was an exhausting climb through deep snow, although the mountain was not very steep. Ducky had taken seat on Spike’s back again, as the snow here lay higher than she could handle. Cera wasn’t exactly helping in terms of lifting their spirits.
“How do we know at all, that it is warmer in this direction? We are so long on the move since we’ve left the Great Valley, but still it is not any warmer.” Cera pulled a face.
“We’re nearly on the top”, said Littlefoot just to change the topic.
The sun was not far above the western horizon anymore, when they reached the rocky summit a short while later. The view from up there was great. The snowfields glistened and shone in blinding bright where the dwindling light of the sun fell onto them, while the every place in some mountain’s shade and the steep snow free slopes seemed to be very dark, almost black. If the mountains hadn’t blocked the sight in every direction Littlefoot had not been surprised if they had been able to see their parents from up here. Behind the mountains to their rear a column of black smoke rose to the sky and showed roughly the position of the valley they had left behind. Suddenly Ali jumped up and stared at the horizon. “What’s the matter Ali?” Littlefoot asked surprised. “Over there! Do you see it too?”
Nobody knew what Ali meant. “Do you mean the rainbow?” Ducky asked finally.
Far ahead in the direction in which the sun had its highest stand during the day, dark clouds had gathered and when they looked carefully they could recognize a colorful rainbow that vaulted from the clouds down to the earth.
Ali nodded. “Yes, of course I mean it.”
“And what’s so special about it?” Cera asked irritated.
“Did you ever see a rainbow without rain?”
“Yes! Two even, at the waterfall in front of the cave to the land of mists.”
Ali rolled her eyes impatiently. “Yes, but there was water in the air too.”
Chomper seemed to understand suddenly what Ali was aiming at.
“You mean...” Ali nodded again. “Exactly.”
“Would you mind telling us what’s up?” Cera required angrily.
“If you’ve never seen a rainbow without water in the air, and if you now see a rainbow over there, what does that mean to you?”
“That there’s bad weather ahead?” Cera asked bored.
Petrie suddenly jumped up and fell down from Littlefoot’s head where he had sat so far.
It seemed he too had picked up the point.
“That it is raining over there!” said Ali, and now it was her who sounded impatiently.
“And if there’s rain over there, then it means that it has to be warmer over there.”
Nobody spoke for a moment. Then Ducky uttered an exulting cry, jumped on a small boulder that towered out of the snow aside Spike and hugged her “little brother” as far as possible. Petrie made his way out of the snow into which he had dropped and flew in circles and loops on the sky until he was done up and landed on Littlefoot’s head again. Littlefoot embraced Ali and Cera romped wildly around in the snow with Spike, forgetting all about her previous defeatism. The low spirits were gone without leaving a trace.

[Malte279]

As I said, this one of my favorite pictures. I like the mountain landscape and the little color contrast in the black and white that is added by the rainbow. One tiny detail that may by overlooked easily is the dark spot on a rocky wall on the lower left side. It marks a cave of which you are going to get an inside view in the next picture I'm going to post.
As for criticism it is striking that Spike is slightly smaller than Cera in this picture (he is distinctly bigger). Also there is a total absence of footprints in the snow. Other than that I'm quite happy with this picture, but always most eager to read your opinion (plead).  

[Malte279]

Sorry, again the link of the picture isn't working to bring up the picture   If you want to take a look at it you'll have to use this link:
Petrie's narrow escape
Petrie's narrow escape

Petrie was aroused when somebody shook him out of his sleep fierce and roughly. Even before he had opened his eyes he had grasped that he had to be fallen asleep in the eggeaters cave and that those who shook his shoulder had to be one of them who had just discovered him. With a frightened outcry he cast his eyes open and looked for his boundless relief into Ducky’s face. “Be quiet!” ordered Ducky and looked at him dismayed. “What are you still doing here? You wanted to fly back to the others.” Petrie made a helpless gesture, shuffled Ducky’s hand from his shoulder, jumped up and said quietly: “Me must fly! Maybe it’s not to late yet!” And he ran towards one gap between the stones. But Ducky kept him back: “Stop! They’re already awake, oh yes they are!” “Petrie must sneak out very silent. Maybe they’ll me no see!” Because of his dither Petrie spoke nearly even more wrong than usually. In this moment instant they heard the voice of the eggeater with the scratched nose saying: “I’ll take a look what our little grasseater is doing!” Ducky’s and Petrie’s hearts stopped beating when they heard the approaching steps of the eggeater. They held their breath and when the hands of the eggeater seized the flagstone Ducky saw how every muscle in Petrie’s little body strained. Bright sunlight fell from the cave entrance in to them when the eggeater shove the flagstone aside. But in the next instant the eggeater’s shadow lay above them. Petrie seemed to have waited for that moment when the face of the eggeater with the scratched nose appeared over them. Like being shot from a sling Petrie pounced vertically up into the air and inflicted a fierce strong beak peck on the scratched nose when he flew past it. The eggeater howled up, began to hop wildly around and waved his arms wildly around in the air, before he pressed both hands on his nose. It was a funny sight. “Stop him Strut!” cried the eggeater, but Petrie had already flown past the other eggeater and had reached the cave entrance. Ducky didn’t dare to imagine what the eggeaters would do with her when they would have recovered from their surprise. She had to escape as long as the eggeaters paid no attention to her. With one leap she was on one of the stones that lay around her. But Ozzy pushed her back with one of his fingers and she landed so heavily on her back that she couldn’t breathe for a while. She didn’t dare attempt another escape, when she had regained her breath. Ozzy blasted because of his nose and although she hardly dared to stir with angst Ducky felt malicious joy. But then Ozzy did something that bewildered Ducky completely. He laughed. Ozzy laughed with might and main and didn’t seem to be able to stop at all. Whatever Ducky might have expected, it was not that. This eggeater had to be annoyed and not happy. Ducky’s fear ceased  and instead of it she became angry. Had this eggeater become crazy? Also the other eggeater looked at his brother as if he would have doubts about his reason. “Ozzy he has escaped”, he said finally low spirited and seemed to expect any punishment, but Ozzy laughed even more. “Is everything okay with you Ozzy?” Strut asked even more dejected. “Of course!” Ozzy called happily. “Everything goes according to our plan. Apart from that...”, he added yet with an angry voice, “...I haven’t planed to let this flying mini grasseater peck at my nose.”

[Malte279]

This picture of Petrie's spectacular escape dates from August 1st 2002 ("Sign of hope", the previous picture February 16th 2003). Altogether I'm quite happy with this one. Ozzy's arms are perhaps a bit too long, and Petrie is difficult to make out in front of the dark background. However, I like the effects of light and shadow and the expressions, respectively posture of the characters, all of whom are freehand. Petrie has (barely visible in the scan) gritted his teeth flying as fast as he can to ge out of the cave. Ozzy looks a bit like he was trying to shoo away insects (which may have been what I had in mind when I drew him). Strut is looking utterly perplexed. He will not be an obstacle to Petrie. Ducky is cowering to jump onto one of the rocks which make her prison for her doomed attempt to make an escape.

[Malte279]

Here is the next one... And again for some strange reason it won't be linked to this page so I can only give you the link to open it yourself. I really wonder why the board won't accept all pictures. They don't differ considerably in size or the like  :angry:
http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte279/10.%20Oz...rrow%20miss.jpg

Petrie trembled with coldness in his coverage behind the rocks above the cave. To go into the cave itself he didn’t dare anymore. He wasn’t here for very long, for the slight snowfall, that had stopped meanwhile had hindered him. On his way he had seen nothing of Littlefoot or Ducky and he had already given up the hope that they could have escaped. The eggeater who had just returned into the cave carrying some boughs of conifers and some frozen grasses had dispelled even his last doubts concerning that. But at least he knew now that Littlefoot and Ducky were still alive; for whom else should the eggeater have fetched the green food?
Petrie knew actually what he had wanted to find out, but he stayed there nevertheless.
Before he would fly back to the others he wanted to wait in the, as he had to confess to himself, probably vainly hope to set his eyes upon Ducky and Littlefoot yet.
He waited vainly for a while and became colder and colder. He was already nearly about to fly back to report the others what he had seen when he was startled by the sound of steps.
The next instant the eggeater with the scratched nose came out of the cave closely followed by Littlefoot. First at the second sight Petrie recognized that the eggeater had tied one end of a liana around Littlefoot’s neck. The eggeater held the other end firmly in one hand.
On Littlefoot’s head flaunted an ugly bump, but apart from that he seemed to be well according to the circumstances. Now also the second eggeater came out of the cave and he clinched Ducky in one hand. It appeared as if the eggeaters wanted to go a long distance. Petrie was surprised that they let Littlefoot and Ducky out of the cave at all. Littlefoot and Ducky should know that he and the others were nearby thought Petrie. It would surely encourage them a bit. He loosed from the shadow of the rocky wall and let himself drop. Immediately he spread his wings and set on to a glide above the heads of the eggeaters.
Not only Ducky and Littlefoot but also the eggeaters would see him surely, but what should they do? They couldn’t fly. Ducky in Strut’s fist saw Petrie first. She uttered a surprised yell that directed the attention of Littlefoot and the eggeaters on Petrie too. Ozzy reacted quickly as lightning. He bent down and snatched up some stones with his free hand. Littlefoot recognized immediately what Ozzy intended and that he wanted to hit Petrie with a stone in the air. And that he was able to hit him was out of question for Littlefoot. He had experienced Ozzy’s accurateness by himself. “Look out Petrie! Fly away!” Petrie hadn’t recognized the danger himself, but he reacted at once. He began to climb steep upwards. That way he gained highness, but he became slower and was an easy target. A stone whizzed closely past his beak. If he would have started to climb only fractions of a second later, then the stone would have hit him and he would have precipitated surely. Petrie flapped quicker with his wings to come out of range. Ozzy had already lifted his arm for the next fling and he simply couldn’t miss Petrie who hung seemingly motionless in the air. Littlefoot threw himself to the side violently and felt how the noose around his neck tightened smarting and tied off his breath, but Littlefoot had gained the wished success. Ozzy stumbled. Only very slightly, but the stone he had hurled in that moment whizzed past Petrie’s wing. A stone thrown by Strut couldn’t have missed further and then Petrie was too high to hit him. “Petrie! We go where the bright circle stands the highest!” cried Littlefoot as loud as he could before Ozzy silenced him by pulling violently at the liana. Petrie saw this with apprehension, but he knew that he alone couldn’t do anything for Littlefoot and Ducky at the moment. He nodded at Littlefoot, as a sign that he had understood, and disappeared in a wide bow behind the next mountain’s ridge. Ducky and Littlefoot looked after him as long as he was recognizable without paying attention to the eggeaters. Littlefoot didn’t listen to Ozzy’s now following tirades and he nearly didn’t notice how he pulled violently at the liana several times. He smiled slightly at Ducky. They had played a trick on the eggeaters and they hadn’t caught Petrie. That was everything that counted.

[Malte279]

As my scanner is smaller than the size of the canvas I made these pictures there is always a thin stripe from the pictures missing in the scanned versions. This one is the only where it truly matters. If it wasn't for that missing stripe you would see the stone whizzing past Petrie's right wink (it's what he is looking at). Also you would see Littlefoot's feet.

[Malte279]

Does anyone even realize I'm posting these?  

“Get ready!” said Cera and everybody took position behind the boulders they had placed providently at the edge of the shelf. When the eggeater would arrive there down below, then a real hail of boulders and stones would patter down on him. Cera looked again over to the eggeater who went on slowly, but purposively. “He probably doesn’t want to get a too big start his brother”, thought Cera, Littlefoot went, just as if he would anticipate anything as far apart from the eggeater as the liana allowed. So he and Ducky wouldn’t be in danger to be hurt by the “hail of stones” they had earmarked for the eggeater. “Everything goes like clockwork”, thought Cera satisfied. The time and with it also the eggeater seemed to advance plainly as slow as a snail. Finally only a short piece of way separated the eggeater from the rocky ledge. Chomper grinned and whispered quietly to Cera: “That’s great. That with the scratched nose waits probably already impatiently for us.” “Or he is getting hungry now”, whispered Cera back quietly grinning likewise. “Or maybe he ponders already if we might have taken another way that doesn’t lead into his ambush”, whispered Ali chuckling. “Or maybe he already ponders whom of you he shall eat first!” Cera’s, Spike’s, Petrie’s, Ali’s and Chomper’s hearts stopped beating for a moment. Their blood seemed to freeze in their veins and they could neither breathe nor speak and it cost all their strength to turn round. It had been Ozzy who had spoken and his face appeared not only because of the scratched nose, but far more because of the bestial triumphing grinning sheer disfigured. “How…?” gasped Cera and tried to regain her breath. “You should better not be so loud if you eavesdrop on us at night”, said Ozzy and sparkle maliciously at Petrie who starred back like being paralyzed. “And if you’ve to cry around, then you shouldn’t do that when we are nearby and can hear you. Especially if you leave so distinct tracks behind, but why do I give you advices anyway? You won’t be able to follow them anymore!” Ozzy guffawed and waved at Strut. “I got them Strut! They’re up here”, called Ozzy. “No!” cried Littlefoot and Ducky desperately like out of one mouth. Ozzy stepped towards his victims whose only way of escape was cut. They couldn’t do anything but screaming. Screaming at the tops of their voices as loud as they could. They screamed so loudly that it resounded dull from the mountains. And for their surprise this seemed to impress Ozzy anyhow, for he stopped and snapped: “Be quiet! Shut up! Stop crying or there’ll be an avalanche!” But it was to late. A loud pealing and rumbling like of distant thunder sounded and then the snow above on the steep slope set in motion. A giant snow slab detached from the blanket of snow and slid, driving a big cloud of drizzling powdery snow ahead, down the slope and towards the shelf on which Ozzy, Ali, Chomper, Petrie, Spike and Cera were. “Ozzy look out!” called Strut and starred terrified at the snow banks that slid towards his big brother. Strut had let the liana go with fear, but it didn’t occur to Littlefoot at all to run away while an avalanche slid towards his friends. He himself, Ducky and Strut were safe for they weren’t in the way of the avalanche. “Behind the rock!” shouted Ali and ducked behind a small rocky cone that was tightly connected with the shelf below. Cera, Spike and Chomper followed her. “Fly!” cried Cera at Petrie who still starred at the eggeater and the snow banks that tumbled at them behind him like being hypnotized. Petrie began to flap fiercely with his wings, but he came maybe because of his hurt wing, maybe because of the fright not as fast away from the ground as usually. Ozzy jerked round and looked out for a cover feverishly, but nowhere was a rock or anything else that would have been big enough to offer him cover at least nothing that was near enough to reach it before the avalanche was there. And then it was there. With huge force the avalanche swept Ozzy from his feet, down the shelf and buried him below snows. Petrie had only just escaped the most violent scope of the avalanche, but the force of the drizzling cloud of powdery snow that crimpled in front of and above the avalanche was enough to tear Petrie along and to hurl him on the ground, fortunately not into the way of the avalanche. Chomper felt unpleasantly remembered to the tidal wave, that had them separated him from his parents when the snow tore him from his feet. The snow swept on both sides around the rocky cone that had taken away the force of the first impact, but offered no cover now anymore. Cera, Chomper, Spike and Ali were simply swept along. They fell some meters, but then their bounce was softened by the snow that had slid over the edge of the shelf shortly before them. Further snow banks buried them below. But despite its effect it had been a comparatively small avalanche. The snow slab that had detached from the upper steep slope had decomposed to a mass of loose snow that stopped sliding on the plain stripe of ground already after a few meters and came to a standstill.

[action9000]

Does anyone even realize I'm posting these?

I have a bad habit for not stopping by the fanart board very often, so I often forget that you consistantly update this section

This one is titled sign of hope and I think it is my personal favorite

I Very much like this one, Malte.  I must say, it's one of the most beautiful works of yours I've come across

I have little critisism with this picture, mate; you've done an excellent job at capturing the moment here.  As far as my experience goes, you have taken great care in maintaining the personalities of the characters in your story.  I am very happy to see that

Petrie's narrow escape

I have to say it; I love your use of colour in this one!   Fantastic atmosphere in the background and foreground.  Petrie is slightly hard to see in all this heavy colour, but aside from that, this picture has a lot of life about it.  Well done  

Narrow Miss

The characters are clear and true-to-life, which I like very much!  Ozzy and Strut's shadows are very believeable.  Your use of texture and colour in the background really brings it to life.  Like the others, I have few criticisms to offer about this one.  It clearly shows what is happening, and the entire scene is lively.

----------------------------------------

As for your latest pic: It's unfortunate that the characters needed to be made so small, but for such a wide perspective, there isn't really a way around it.  At first glance, I didn't see exactly what was happening, but upon reading your portion of the story, the oncoming avalanche becomes clearer in the image.  

The perspective of this image had me just *slightly* confused at first, but it may because I only had 4 hours of sleep last night   I didn't realize how the mountain was built until I read the story and understood the context of the image.  Now, it is very clear.  I now find it hard to describe what I saw before I read the story, because now I see it for what it is, and actually it is well done :
My eyes were probably just playing tricks on me.

Despite the characters' small size, you managed to capture good detail.  I am impressed

[Malte279]

Thank you for your reation Tim!  

As for your latest pic: It's unfortunate that the characters needed to be made so small, but for such a wide perspective, there isn't really a way around it. At first glance, I didn't see exactly what was happening, but upon reading your portion of the story, the oncoming avalanche becomes clearer in the image.

You are perfectly right about this one. In the scanned picture it is even more difficult to identify the avalanche for what it is, but the original is also not too clear on this. The characters are tiny on the one hand to capture the large scen (including Strut with Ducky and Littlefoot some distance away). I made planing sketches for all my drawings. Most of them look very much like the outlines of the pictures I'm posting here, which is why it would make little sense to post them here at all. However, in case of this picture I had one alternative draft which showed the whose scene from "the avalanche's point of view". I decided against that draft as the character's were even tinier in that one and also it would have been a very white picture with not even a thin stripe of blue sky.

The perspective of this image had me just *slightly* confused at first, but it may because I only had 4 hours of sleep last night I didn't realize how the mountain was built until I read the story and understood the context of the image. Now, it is very clear.

This is not for lack of sleep Tim
What I meant to show there is a steep slope with just a small rocky crest peeping out from under the snow. That crest looks very much like some distant mountain chain, which sure is confusing. The ledge on which Cera, Ali, Spike and Ozzy are also appears kind of "attached" not quite like it belonged to the slope.

[Malte279]

I will never understand why in some cases the pictures show up just fine while in others I have to post the link instead. Do you have any idea Roger?
http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte279/12.%20Oz...9;s%20offer.jpg

Ali shuddered when she felt the claws on her back. Chomper climbed on her head and she felt as if her neck would break below the weight, but still she made with all her strength to crane her neck far up to whereby she had nearly lost her balance. Chomper made to grasp the edge of the ledge, but with his thin arms he had big difficulties to pull himself up. Ali shoved him on as well as she could, then she let herself down on her four legs. Chomper had made it. Ali ducked behind the boulders that were of course not approximately big enough to conceal her. When Ozzy reached the end of the gorge a few seconds later he discovered Ali immediately. A malicious grinning was on his face when he approached exaggerated slowly towards Ali who had no chance to escape. But when Ozzy stood in front of her and looked around searching the grinning made room for a furious, hateful and threatening look. Slowly he bent down to Ali, who fell back even closer to the rocky wall upon that, and hissed: “Where is the other one?” Ali believed to hear a dragging sound as if stones would be dragged over another. “Who?” she stuttered and tried desperately not to look up to the rocky ledge. Every muscle in her body seemed to astringe convulsively and it was an effort for her to breathe. “Don’t pretend to be so stupid!” snarled Ozzy and made a leap towards Ali so she thought in the first instant that he would assault; she receded even closer to the wall. “Of course I mean the sharptooth”, growled Ozzy. “Besides I can really be only ceaselessly speechless that you associate with this dregs.” He wiped over his nose with the back of his hand. Ali remained quiet. Again she believed to hear the dragging noise, but Ozzy didn’t seem to notice anything. Whereat did Chomper wait? And did he wait at all? What was he going to do? Was he going to do anything at all? Thousands of questions flashed through Ali’s mind and prevented her from conceiving a clear thought. “Where is he?” The tone of Ozzy’s question let Ali understand without doubt that Ozzy would make short work of her if she wouldn’t answer at all. “He is gone”, she said elusively and since her answer obviously didn’t satisfy Ozzy she added hasty: “We have separated.” Ozzy sighed quietly, shook his head and advanced another step towards Ali. Ali touched the rocky wall with her back when she tried to fall back one step. “No”, said Ozzy calmly. “That’s not true. We eggeaters don’t have as shrivelled senses as you leafeaters. I know the sharptooth is nearby. I could smell him if my nose wouldn’t be so injured at the moment.” Ali gulped. She shuddered. Again she believed to hear the dragging sound. The eggeater would kill her. What would Littlefoot say and the others? Why did Chomper nothing? Or… wasn’t he nearby at all anymore? “It appears that the sharptooth has forsaken you?” said Ozzy and his voice sounded pretended compassionate. “That’s how sharpteeth are. You’re only useful as food for him or to help him to reach warmer regions or…”, now Ozzy grinned again, “…to scarify yourselves for him while he flees.” “That’s not true”, said Ali very quietly. She hardly dared to admit to herself that she almost believed what the eggeater said. Simultaneously she didn’t want to give up the last hope and admit that
Chomper had really fled. “You know it’s true”, said Ozzy who was sure now to have found a sore spot by Ali. Ali kept quiet. “But now about you”, said Ozzy suddenly with a completely different tone. Ali thought her heart would stop beating when Ozzy began to click with his claws threatening. Ali’s stomach seemed to change to a heavy stone suddenly. “I make you an offer”, said Ozzy and advanced another step. Ali leaned against the rocky wall as if she would hope that the rocky wall would give in behind her. Of course the rocky wall didn’t give in, but Ali lost her balance and fell hard on her back; Ozzy was over her immediately. She closed her eyes. Ozzy sniggered. “Don’t you want to listen to my offer at all?” Ali opened her eyes again. Ozzy stood over her and bent over her. His face with the injured nose was only a tiny distance from Ali. Again she heard a dragging from a seemingly endless distance. “Do you see my nose?” asked Ozzy. Ali became sick of his bad breath. She nodded only. “The sharptooth shall rue for it. And that is for the instant more important to me than to kill you.” Ali didn’t say anything. Did the eggeater mean what she thought what he meant? “Tell me where the sharptooth is, then I’ll let you go for this time.” Ali opened her mouth to say anything, she didn’t know what. She thought of the promise she had give to Littlefoot. Chomper hadn’t done anything to help her, it would be no more but fair if she would betray him to survive herself. Them she would be able to go back to go back to the others, to Littlefoot. But would the eggeater keep his word at all? And would she be able to look Littlefoot ever into the eyes again? Would he understand if she would tell him what had happened into this gorge? And had Chomper really forsaken her? “No!” answered Ali all this questions to herself and only a moment later she became aware of that she had called out this answer loudly. Just as well. Every trace of a smiling or grinning disappeared from Ozzy’s face that suddenly looked like being petrified. “Well”, he said and his voice sounded cold and cutting. “Then say goodbye!” Ozzy raised his head and lowered his arms instead. He spread the claws and moved his hands towards Ali’s neck. Ali closed her eyes. “Littlefoot that’s it”, she thought when she felt Ozzy’s claws at her neck, “I’ve kept my promise.” She heard a hollow knock and opened her eyes. Was it already over? But Ozzy stood still over her. His arms sank down strangely slack, without the claw grating her neck. His face had lost every feature. He reeled. Ali rolled herself to the side with a surprised outcry and made barely to come away in time before Ozzy’s heavy body impacted on the ground. Down from his head slid a big boulder that had obviously hit Ozzy with its full weight. Ali looked at it with wide opened eyes. Then she looked up to the rocky ledge where Chomper just spitted in his hands grinning broad. “So much concerning better senses”, said Chomper. “I’ve already feared that he would hear how I have shoved this pebble there in position.” By these words he Chomper pointed at the boulder that lay aside Ozzy and for which “pebble” was a boundless understatement. “I’ve heard it”, said Ali and she sounded pretty tired. “But I didn’t know what it was. I didn’t know that it was you.” Chomper looked at her surprised and jumped down from the rocky ledge onto the highest boulder. He bent in his knees slightly and climbed down to Ali then. “So…”, he said and smiled by it, “…you didn’t betray me although you didn’t know if I would do anything for you?” Ali nodded. Chomper became a bit more earnest: “So you have not believed me before?” Ali shrugged. “I don’t know”, she admitted. Chomper nodded. “Chomper. I want to apologize for some things I’ve said.” Chomper nodded again. “Yes. I want too.” And suddenly the ice was broken. Both had to laugh. “What about him?” asked Ali and pointed with her head at Ozzy who still lay there unconsciously. Chomper went over to him with a few steps. “He’ll recover”, said Chomper after he had examined Ozzy shortly. “We should make that we come away from here.” “Yeah”, mumbled Ali still a bit faint and turned to go. What they had experienced had worn her out pretty much yet. “Wait!” called Chomper after her. Ali stopped and looked back. Chomper grinned a bit sly. “I want to give him a lesson!” with that he lifted one of his arms, spread the claws and slashed at Ozzy’s nose. Ali shuddered a bit by that view but she shared Chomper’s malicious joy too. Now they hurried to go in search of the others.
From there Ali and Chomper were friends. There are some things you can’t experience together without becoming friends. And what they had just experienced is surely one of these.

On this picture I got the most embarassing feedback ever. When my aunt (who doesn't know anything about LBT) saw it she said: "He looks like he means to rape her."
Of course that is not what he means to do and of course this is not what I had in mind when I made that picture! Nevertheless I must confess I see where my aunts spontaneous impression came from (we are lacking a blushing smiley here).
It might have looke less ambiguous if I had had Ozzy standing beside rather than above Ali, but that would have contradicted the text. I probably had the LBT 2 scene in mind where Ozzy is standing in exactly that way over Littlefoot. Well, not quite exactly for in the movie they had the correct size relation between Littlefoot and Ozzy while in this picture Ozzy is way too small. Small as he is it appears almost comical that he should be so intimidating to Ali, it looks like she could just knock him over if she meant to. In a pencil draft I made for this picture I had Chomper pushing the boulder by leaning against it with his back. I prefered this version though which allowed me to have Chomper look grimly at Ozzy as he listens to how he tries to convince Ali that Chomper left her in the lurch.

[Petrie.]

I will never understand why in some cases the pictures show up just fine while in others I have to post the link instead. Do you have any idea Roger?

 

I do....rename your pictures before you hotlink to them.  Spaces seriously make a difference in determining if your file will load or not.


For instance your last picture:

12. Ozzy's offer.jpg


If you rename this to 'ozzysoffer.jpg' I can bet you'll have no trouble.  Avoid . and ' in picture names as well as spaces.

[Malte279]

Maybe it has to do with the ' every picture with a ' in it's title doesn't show up while a spacious title such as 03. A rather rough reunion didn't cause any trouble. Thanks for your help Roger.

[Malte279]

All in all her prospects where not as gloomy as they had appeared initially at all. Cera drew a deep breath and wanted to set out when she froze in motion all of a sudden. Along with the air she had sucked in a strange smell as well. Cera knew this smell. She has had it in her nose often enough. And then there was this pond in front of which she stood. Looking more carefully she noted again the strange longish shape of the deepening in which the water had gathered. The one side was round shaped while the other tapered in three points. Her whole optimism vanished without leaving a trace when Cera discovered the rows of deepenings that that all looked exactly like this one and that led along the river bed to the gorge through which her further way should have led. She was afraid for in her present condition she wouldn’t be able to shake off a sharptooth if it hunted her and that the deepenings were sharptooth tracks was out of question for Cera, although the footprints were not very deep in the stony ground. Although the smell that seemed to be mere distinctly in the air with every second came doubtlessly from a sharptooth. Cera knew this smell really well enough. Suddenly she felt a slight shook running through the ground and she saw the vibration on the water surface in the footprint in front of her. Another shock ran through the ground, a bit more distinctly this time than the first and Cera could hear the clacking that was caused by small stones vibrating from the shock.
The sharptooth came back!
Cera jumped up as fast as she could and tried to bring with her strange “hop gait” as much distance as possible between herself and the gorge from where the sharptooth had to come. Cera’s fright could not be expressed when the sharptooth appeared instead in front of her between the rocks. A giant dark green beast that seemed to be as surprised at Cera’s view as Cera herself, but of course it was not in the least frightened. Cera uttered a shrill yell, jerked round and leaped away with a speed she would have taken for impossible few instants ago; still she was of course considerably slower than usually and her closely drawn left foreleg began anew to hurt; Cera ignored it. She could hear how the sharptooth behind her started the pursuit with rumpling steps. But she made to reach the entrance of the gorge, maybe she had a tiny chance to shake off the sharptooth there. Within seconds she brought her new gait to a perfection as if she would have never walked differently. In the gorge were several branching and Cera soon left the broad riverbed and ran instead through the narrowest chasms she could find, to make the pursuit as difficult as possible for the huge sharptooth. Nevertheless she still heard its steps behind. With the time she heard them more and more quietly and when she didn’t hear them anymore at all she dared to stop and to rest for an instant. She had hardly any feeling in her overstrained right foreleg. Breathing heavily Cera looked around. She was at the moment in an a bit broader gorge whose ground was sandy. At warmer times a river floated here too probably and had deposited the sand. Suddenly Cera felt again a slight trembling of the ground. The sharptooth closed up. Cera jumped onto her three legs and ran off as fast as she could. But for Cera’s surprise the trembling of the ground seemed to become fiercer the further she ran. And then she got after Ozzy and the sharptooth a third time a shock she wouldn’t forget so soon. Again a sharptooth appeared in front of her although she had expected it behind herself. It was not the same like before. That one that appeared now in front of her was far brighter than the other. Probably it had been tracks of this sharptooth she had discovered before at the stream. Nearly mechanically, without pondering Cera jerked round and leaped away. She panted and her heard beat up to her throat while she ran back through the gorge through which she had come before. But Cera’s run of ill luck didn’t end. She had not even the energy left t outer a cry of fright when the other, the darker sharptooth appeared now in front of her. In the corner of her eyes she saw a side gorge. It was the last, the only loophole for in front of her was the darker and behind her the brighter sharptooth. Cera rushed into the side gorge. “Maybe…”, she hoped, “…the two sharpteeth will go at each other and fight for the prey.” Then she would at least win a lead once more. But there were days on which everything went awry. The side gorge ended in a small box-canyon without any way out. The walls rose perpendicularly on all sides; Cera had run into a dead-end.

[Petrie.]

I'm not sure if this last one was done much later than the rest.....but the progress is amazing....the legs don't look so blocky anymore (as some of the very early stuff showed).

[Malte279]

Err... don't they? Personally I considered this one one of my worst examples for overlong and thin legs. I remember I made the first draft for this one during my students exchange. The final picture is basically a mirored version of that first drawing. It dates from August 13th 2002.
What I do like about this picture are the red and blue "stains" on Cera's broken leg and also the look on her face.
I'm not happy with the look of the sharptooth in this picture.
Thank you very, very much for your response Adam! I really do appreciate this a lot!  

[Malte279]

[...]suddenly Ducky uttered a surprised call from Spike’s back at the head of the column. “What’s the matter Ducky?” asked Littlefoot immediately. “Come on, come on!” called Ducky and waved at them. “Look at this!” The others followed her invitation curiously. Spike had reached the highest point of the gap that was at the same time the end of the rocky labyrinth through which they had erred since the morning. In front of them lay a long snowy slope that led down into a pretty big valley whose ground was largely covered with a dense mixed forest of conifers and bare deciduous trees. At the ground of the valley lay distinctly less snow than up here and at some spots they could even see the withered grass. A small stream came forth from the mountain. For their surprise it was not frozen. “Finally!” sighed Ali relieved. “I began to fear we would never come out of this awful rocky solitude.”
“Don’t be unfair Ali”, rebuked Littlefoot gently. “Had it not been for this rocky solitude the eggeaters surely would have caught us.” Spike starred like being hypnotized at the green conifers and the others too noticed now that they could hardly remember their last meal. “There is water!” called Ducky charmed when she noted the small stream. “I can even swim there!”
“You no be silly!” croaked Petrie. “Water certainly far too cold for that.”
“We are on the right way”, mumbled Littlefoot dreamy.
“Not all of us”, Chomper reminded him gloomy. “Don’t forget Cera again!”
“We sure will not!” called Ducky. “No, no, no, we will not!”