The Final Battle of the Dog-Wolf War

"The final great battle was to take place on a promontory north of a wide river. Skellion Broadjaw's forces outnumbered the wolves this time, by almost twenty to one. The evening before the fight was to take place, a messenger came from the wolf camp to offer a single combat to a warrior of the dogs' choice. He explained that, while the wolves were greatly outnumbered, and would possibly lose the final battle, a great many dogs would die. The wolves had resolved that not one of them would leave the battlefield alive. Each wolf would fight to the death and would take several dogs with him. Sheshta, the great wolf warrior, had therefore offered to fight any dog, and the winner of this single combat would carry the day. In this way, much bloodshed would be avoided.
By this time, the praise of his troops had gone to the head of Skellion Broadjaw- they had called him the invincible one, the dogday warrior of ten lives, hound magnificent- and his vanity was so swelled that he believed no animal on earth could defeat him. He informed the messenger, 'Tell her I'll meet her at One Tree Hill, at dawn tomorrow.'
So at the place of a single tree, Skellion Broadjaw met his death under the savage teeth of Shesta..."

"Foxes of Firstdark", pages 190-191

A little part of a book I got recently called Foxes of Firstdark. If you haven't heard of it...that's actually no surprise as it's been out of print for a while. But still, it's a pretty good book.
This particular part was one of the legends that the main character recalls in the story: the final battle between the dogs and the wolves before the dogs allied themselves with the humans and chased the wolves to the furthest corners of the world. The wolves were essentially the dominant canines and were viewed as highly intelligent and charismatic creatures, while the dogs were powerful, but often a little egotistical. The wolves and the dogs often resented eachother because the dogs were sick of being pushed around, and the wolves saw the dogs as nuisances. So, the dogs decided to declare war on the wolves and called a truce between all dog packs, and the leader of this new order was the cunning and strong, but cocky Broadjaw the hound (I don't think it ever specifies what kind of hound he was, so I made him an Irish Wolfhound since they're huge, powerful dogs). As the war progressed, it seemed like the dogs were about to wipe the wolves from existence. (The foxes, despite their species being the main focus of the story, had nothing to do with this conflict. Basically, they just said: "Your funeral, guys. We're just going to mind our own business, alrighty?") As a last resort, the wolves came up with a clever plan to turn the war in their favor by having the single strongest warrior of both sides fight. Their warrior, Sheshta (again, it's not specified what kind of wolf she is, so I made her a British Columbian wolf. I decided to slap some battle paint on her as well. So, I hope you don't mistake the battle paint for actual naturally-colored fur. ) was known for being a tremendously deadly fighter, but even so, the arrogant Broadjaw accepted the challenge to take her on, one-on-one. Because he underestimated her, Sheshta killed him almost instantly.

Anyway, I decided to draw this scene because I felt like I needed to do some fanart of this book. I'll probably do some more in the future, but as of now, I might want to read some more before I do any more artwork of the story.

And yes, I know it said that the battle was as sunrise, but who's not to say there was a thunderstorm that morning? Nothing like a little lightning to add some dramatic effect.

Foxes of Firstdark © Garry Kilworth and the publishers of the book