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Description
Grabbing the branch in strong jaws, Ashfur thrust it past the wall of flame and into the ever-narrowing patch of ground where Hollyleaf and her brothers huddled. But Hollyleaf didn’t feel any sense of relief. There was a look in Ashfur’s eyes that she didn’t understand: the look of a cat who had just spotted an unexpected juicy bit of prey.

The branch made a bridge through the flames, but Ashfur stood at the other end of it, blocking the way to safety. Lionblaze nudged Jayfeather to his paws; Hollyleaf took a step toward the branch, then paused. She felt a cold weight in her belly when she looked into Ashfur’s glittering blue eyes.

“Ashfur, get out of the way.” Squirrelflight’s voice was puzzled. “Let them get out!”

“Brambleclaw isn’t here to look after them now,” Ashfur sneered.

I'm still on a bit of an illustration kick, and I figured, what better scene to illustrate than the most iconic scene in all of Warriors history? So obviously I had to draw the fire scene. I've actually draw this scene several times before, but most of those drawings never got past being sketched out on paper, and those were all done years ago. The only one I actually finished and posted was this ancient thing I drew when I first made my DeviantArt account . So it's definitely high time I gave this scene a proper illustration.

I had a lot of fun trying to get all of the details right for this scene. I've seen it drawn a lot of different ways, with a log bridging a gap over a hole/crevice, with the Three simply encircled by flames, with Squirrelflight herself in the fire, but I wanted to see how closely I could stick to the text. I went back and read the scene from Long Shadows, which shows the Three above the stone hollow that makes their camp, stuck behind a row of bushes that were caught on fire, with nothing but the long drop into camp behind them. The branch Ashur and Squirrelflight grabbed was shoved over the bushes so they had a way past the fire. Squirrelflight is badly injured during this scene due to a stomach wound she'd nearly died from in a recent battle, but I couldn't really show that given the angle she's at in this drawing.

I had remembered most of that, but what I hadn't remembered was that it was actually raining during this scene. It does seem that the rain stopped at some point, because after the Three finally cross the branch, it's mentioned that the rain started again, but it was still raining at least up to the point where Squirrelflight revealed her secret, so I figured it made sense to draw the rain along awith the scene. The cats are all described as having their coats slicked down by the rain, so I tried to show that.

Overall, I'm a bit unsure of the color and lighting in this one - I'm a bit worried it looks too bright and kinda garish with the colors not working super well together, but I'm not sure what the best way to fix it would be. I am pretty proud of it, even if I'm not totally confident with the end product. I like how Ashfur turned out, and Squirrelflight. And I'm pretty happy with how my first attempt at fire (at least, the first attempt in years) turned out. ^^

Description
Grabbing the branch in strong jaws, Ashfur thrust it past the wall of flame and into the ever-narrowing patch of ground where Hollyleaf and her brothers huddled. But Hollyleaf didn’t feel any sense of relief. There was a look in Ashfur’s eyes that she didn’t understand: the look of a cat who had just spotted an unexpected juicy bit of prey.

The branch made a bridge through the flames, but Ashfur stood at the other end of it, blocking the way to safety. Lionblaze nudged Jayfeather to his paws; Hollyleaf took a step toward the branch, then paused. She felt a cold weight in her belly when she looked into Ashfur’s glittering blue eyes.

“Ashfur, get out of the way.” Squirrelflight’s voice was puzzled. “Let them get out!”

“Brambleclaw isn’t here to look after them now,” Ashfur sneered.

I'm still on a bit of an illustration kick, and I figured, what better scene to illustrate than the most iconic scene in all of Warriors history? So obviously I had to draw the fire scene. I've actually draw this scene several times before, but most of those drawings never got past being sketched out on paper, and those were all done years ago. The only one I actually finished and posted was this ancient thing I drew when I first made my DeviantArt account . So it's definitely high time I gave this scene a proper illustration.

I had a lot of fun trying to get all of the details right for this scene. I've seen it drawn a lot of different ways, with a log bridging a gap over a hole/crevice, with the Three simply encircled by flames, with Squirrelflight herself in the fire, but I wanted to see how closely I could stick to the text. I went back and read the scene from Long Shadows, which shows the Three above the stone hollow that makes their camp, stuck behind a row of bushes that were caught on fire, with nothing but the long drop into camp behind them. The branch Ashur and Squirrelflight grabbed was shoved over the bushes so they had a way past the fire. Squirrelflight is badly injured during this scene due to a stomach wound she'd nearly died from in a recent battle, but I couldn't really show that given the angle she's at in this drawing.

I had remembered most of that, but what I hadn't remembered was that it was actually raining during this scene. It does seem that the rain stopped at some point, because after the Three finally cross the branch, it's mentioned that the rain started again, but it was still raining at least up to the point where Squirrelflight revealed her secret, so I figured it made sense to draw the rain along awith the scene. The cats are all described as having their coats slicked down by the rain, so I tried to show that.

Overall, I'm a bit unsure of the color and lighting in this one - I'm a bit worried it looks too bright and kinda garish with the colors not working super well together, but I'm not sure what the best way to fix it would be. I am pretty proud of it, even if I'm not totally confident with the end product. I like how Ashfur turned out, and Squirrelflight. And I'm pretty happy with how my first attempt at fire (at least, the first attempt in years) turned out. ^^