…Then, above the noise of the river, he heard a distant barking. Rapidly it grew closer. The dark force had gained a voice at last, giving tongue as the pack bore down on the cats who had become their prey. The sound grew louder still, until it seemed to fill all the forest, and Graystripe appeared, streaking along with his belly almost flat against the ground.

Barely three fox-lengths behind him was the pack leader. Fireheart had never seen a dog like it. It was enormous, easily twice the size of any Twoleg pet. As it ran, its muscles bunched powerfully under a short black-and-brown pelt. Its jaws gaped to show a vicious set of teeth, and its tongue lolled. It barked hoarsely as it snapped at the fleeing Graystripe.

“StarClan help me!” Fireheart whispered, and sprang out of his hiding place.

He just had time to see Graystripe hurtling toward the nearest tree; then all he could do was run. The barking seemed to redouble, and he could feel the hot breath of the pack leader against his hind paws…

“Pack, pack! Kill, kill!” The words slashed at Fireheart like teeth.

Ah, nothing like drawing a terrified cat fleeing from a vicious, damn near demonic dog to get you in the Christmas spirit XD I was only going to have one illustrated image to post today, but I had the urge to draw another illustration, and I managed to get this done just a few hours ago, so you’re getting it now. XD

Soooooo, I held a poll asking which of the scenes I sketched as a kid people wanted me to redraw now as an adult, and this scene of Fireheart running from the dogs was the winner. I didn’t exactly draw the scene the same way pose-wise, and I waited two, almost three years to actually draw it after holding the vote, but shush XD

I had a sudden idea of how I wanted this to look, with Fireheart running from this massive dog looming up over him, while the rest of the pack comes up from over the rise. I was partly thinking of the scene in Wolfwalkers  (amazing movie by the way, go watch it if you haven’t) during “Running with the Wolves” where Robyn and Mebh are running together and we see the rest of the pack coming up from behind them.

I’ve drawn the Pack as several different breeds of mutts over the years, but after seeing them as Dobermans in the recent graphic novel, and how well it fits their description in the books, that’s what I went with. No hate to Dobermans, they’re often as maligned as pitties but they’re just dogs like any other and can be total sweeties <3 I don’t draw dogs as often so I leaned pretty hard on this as a reference.