Panting heavily, Northwind finally reached the borders of the hostile pack's territory, yet he kept running, terrified, shocked. Never before had the Truce of the Wanderer failed to protect him. So long as he announced himself to the leaders of the local pack, he was allowed to pass through and to hunt in their territory. Often he was even invited to join in the hunt of the pack and rest awhile, telling the pups tales of his travels.
Yet he had entered the mountains and scented the borders of a wolf pack's territory. The area was large, plentiful. He probably would have not been noticed had he just passed through. However, out of politeness, he howled his entry to the Alphas, and instead of a welcoming response, he was attacked, and chased viciously through the length of their territory.
And the locals had enjoyed every minute of it. He dreaded to think of what would had happened had he failed to outrun them, and pictures of his bloodied corpse danced in front of his eyes, the sight already impaired by black flecks of exhaustion.
Blindly he crashed through the forest in no-man's land, slowing finally as he saw a purer blue light shine from the trees ahead. A nearly flat grey rock created a sizable ledge in the walls of a valley. He stopped, knowing that he was safe here, but the epic view did not register in his mind.
For Northwind had come to realize the truth of the world as only a wanderer does: The innocent, kind front that was put on by the Land was all a farce. At some time, the savage wildness would surface, sentient creature or not.
He stared into the sky and the puffy white clouds appeared black and writhing, as if the darkness of his realization had tainted the whole world. He had awakened from the dream of youth, and the found the waking world a cold, cold place...

Based off of "Awakening", music by Switchfoot, Lyrics by Jon Foreman.

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Artist's comments:
Whew, this was a challenge! I have delved again into epic landscapes. But this time I used a photo reference. :B

I wanted to work on trades and contest entries but once I got this image in my head, I couldn't draw anything else...

Do you think I should post it without the text? I think it might be too much....>_>

Art, story, and Northwind (c) Me.
Awakening (c) Switchfoot
Lyrics (c) Jon Foreman
Cloud tutorials by [link] and [link]
Brushes used: [link] [link]
Background reference (c) James Randklev [link]

Program used: Adobe Photoshop 7.0
Time Taken: 14-ish hours.
You're seeing...20% of the original image.

PS. Like the watermark?