Lineless art commissioned by zibeline of Furaffinity. Thank you Zibeline.

Deep Water

Slow breath through nostrils. A patient vigil through the night. Duenner's long ears swiveled slowly. Faint rustle of wind rubbing it's invisible flanks against the canyon walls. The weather spoke of no change. The night air turned dryer and chillier. The Spear vines had gone dormant earlier in the night.

Shadows and slanted light slowly upending towards vertical as a full faced Kurjak climbed to a starry Zenith. The sandy bottom's scent became that of moisture and rising damp. Linear patches of dark elongating, then merging. Glistening pearls of water bled up from the center. The dark band grew wider.

A tailed, man like figure with canid features strolled down the canyon's damp sandy bottom that metamorphosed into a slow flowing stream. Carved walls lit by the light of the gas giant shining down on her fourth moon. Reflected light from the above setting his retinas aglow in yellow. By the time he neared the canyon's mouth, the water became ankle depth.

He quietly waded out of the canyon mouth onto the Bitter Arroyo. Striding easily over water spreading out like a fan upon the rocky red sands. The emerging damp delta was too small to whet the appetite of the Bitter. It's progress halted and sank into the vaster dry channel.

Duenner turned and glanced back, fang studded mouth grinning at a delightful mystery revealed.

A seasonal drainage canyon fed underneath year round by a large spring. Hidden by day beneath the deep sands. Water level confined in the depths by the greedy suction from a capillary network of spear vine roots. Only at night, when the vines slept and the biological cage door opened, did the stream rise up to meet the night sky...