Heat Original

I'm having a lot of fun with this and I'm going to give backstory again even though no one is interested. So there.

This is from the "To Become A Student. . ." thread between Grey and I. R'noku (center) has been recruited by the veteran Keza (bottom right) as a candidate for Enol-Tenmele, a secluded group of elite high in the mountains who act as keepers of the peace. Special circumstances force his initiation into the clan to be an unusually difficult test, where 8 others attack in singles or pairs to try and force him from a box drawn in the sand. R'noku is far from his northern home and the intense summer heat causes him to hallucinate when Sergeant Pazel (right) springs at him and he reacts with unnecessary force. She keeps coming back for revenge, but her anger makes her reckless. At the end of the day he has broken her foreleg, fractured a rib or two, punctured the top of her neck, and actually bitten off and swallowed her ear. You can see that foreshadowed by the way Pazel's pointed toward the rift in Keza's ear, which was also R'noku's handiwork. And as if her wounds needed any salt rubbed in them, she was once Keza's student. Oh, the drama!
The three in the background are NPCs. A LOT of those pop up in this thread.

You can read it here:
[link]

This layout will be called Heat. I'm thinking variations of deep sky blue for the background with whites/grays for the line art.

The text at the top says: "Suddenly his fur was thick gauze, mummifying him, sucking out moisture. In the heat, her lithe body, her hurricane gray, sizzled, and she melted to reveal the shape of an old foe beneath."

Overall I'm pretty pleased with it; what bugs me most is that Pazel looks more like a jackal than a wolf. And it's less violent than I'd like, but, you know, Proboards. Whaddayagonnado.