So not so long ago a friend and I were discussing fellow fur  Skateryena. He's been in a bit of a slump recently in regards to submitting work to the site; amusingly enough he'd been pawing off to one of his favorite characters, 'White Wolf' from the movie Niko 2 when he sprained his wrist, which has made him very, very slow on coloring the past month or two. That resulted in the creation of a quick piece of condolence lineart for him that I then did an equally quick coloring job on. It also comes with a tiny bit of story because why not?

Get well soon squirrel, everyone misses your artwork.


White on White

It was a cold, bleak, empty, snowy, dead landscape. It was an eternal midwinter near the arctic circle; a land of ice and snow and midnight sun. One that spoke of lost hikers freezing to death, of avalanches and impenetrable snowstorms. Of packs of vicious wolves chasing down fleeing prey in the moonlight.

The last was most accurate in this particular case, as a large, snow-white wolf was making her way across the crisp powder underfoot, leaving a clear trail of pawsteps as she moved boldly ahead, fearing nothing and nobody. Behind her a smaller creature scurried, conspicuously brown and rather unsuited for the cold weather. The squirrel tried his hardest to keep pace, but kept sinking in the soft snow and tripping over his own paws. In theory he was supposed to be leading, which only made the situation more annoying. By and by the two reached a rocky outcrop, the top of a cliff that overlooked a snowy plain below. It would be an impressive sight, were it not for the fact that the entire landscape was equally awe-inspiring.

"Right, we're here."

"We are? Yes... we are. That was my line you know."

"I could care less; you insisted on coming out to this godforsaken spot, when we could easily be indoors for this stupid display."


The squirrel huffed, trying to fluff up his fur and make himself look bigger, to little avail. Eventually he was forced to hop up on a rock, where he sat vigorously rubbing his chilled paws together to try and get some warmth back into him. He rather felt like he'd lost the initiative; this had been his idea after all.

"It's not stupid! I demand to betaken seriously!"

"And I demand an entire elk carcass. Neither of us is going to get what they want."

"Hush." *Hem hem* "Arooo!"


There was a long, quiet pause. It was, if not shocked then certainly surprised. The white wolf stared in almost amazement, eyes wide as she tried to figure out exactly what had just happened.

"Did... did you just say 'aroo'? Was... was that your attempt at a howl? I walked for five minutes for this squirrel."

"What? No! That was just practice! Clearing my throat!"

"It had better have been. The last thing I need is to have trudged through freezing snow, to my pack's old calling place to hear a delusional rodent jibber like the idiot he is."


The squirrel's tail flicked back and forth with annoyance, but he held his tongue, not wanting it literally bitten off. He'd been practicing, in private, and was quite confident that he had in fact got a pretty good howl down. If there was one thing canines couldn't argue with, it was that; he was determined to be taken seriously at last... If only the air wasn't so dry and cold, his throat already feeling stiff and croaky. Maybe he should have performed it inside... No; a good howl was done at a clifftop, at the moon. ANd the moon was up, even if it was daytime. He was going to do this and finally prove himself as more than a trifling distraction.

He stood up straight, his rocky vantage point making him very nearly as tall as the canine beside him. He lifted his head to the sky, recalling the motions from his mind as he focused, shutting his eyes and blocking out all else as he felt the sound rise up from deep within his chest, up through his throat and out of his muzzle in a single, long note.

He howled.

Well, squeaked.

A very long, drawn-out squeak though. Very impressive, at least for a squirrel. Slightly disappointing perhaps; it had sounded much better in the rocky confines of home, reverberating off the stone walls. Here the big, empty landscape swallowed it, dried it out and scattered it on the wind. Still... he paused, to see what his companion would make of it. Once again there was a long silence. It was finally broken by an energetic barking; a hacking, wheezing sound that he only gradually identified as uproarious laughter.

"HAH! HAH-HAH! BWAH-HAH-HAH-HAH! That... that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard! Did... did someone step on your tail! That's a riot!"


The squirrel scowled at the large canine fell over, unable to stand as she rolled in the snow, legs kicking wildly at the air, struggling to catch her breath. It was as an annoying a response as it was surprising; he'd never seen the wolf laugh before.

"HAH-HAH! This... this was a joke wasn't it? Well played squirrel, well played... I did wonder why you wanted to go on this pointless little quest!"

"Uh... yes, yes exactly."

"Just... just let me recover... and we can head back."


The squirrel sat as the barking laughs continued, for a surprisingly long time. Of course it had been a joke, howling was stupid anyway.