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Poised at the edge of the forest, Kyy stared at the twilit canopy of the autumnal woodland with trepidation. It had been over a week since he'd last ventured this close to Quinten's primal forest. The first couple of days since his last visit, he'd thrown himself into his work, trying to put the pangolin and hybrid's fate out of his mind... and then Quin had dropped him a message. It had been a short, friendly message, just checking to see if Kyy was ok, and inviting him for coffee.

The cheetah had agreed and met the hare at a small shop he'd discovered in his early town walkabouts. Surprisingly, the hare has turned up completely stripped of dye and ink, the dreads replaced with a simple ponytail just another sandy furred hare like so many he'd seen before. They'd talked for hours, Kyy furtively questioning, pointing to the local news reports about the missing pangolin and weasel, the tear-streaked faces of their mothers begging for them to just come home. Quin had been an implacable wall, calm, quiet, gently explaining his position and the forest's.

Quin was sincere in his belief that the pangolin and weasel would come to embrace their new life and family, just as their new family would embrace them in turn, and in the end they had damaged the forest. He was firm in his belief that they had been justly punished and given a new direction for their lives. He refused to accept that he had been anything other than quite benevolent to the little toe-rags desecrating his sacred forest, and that now the spirit of the woods would welcome them into itself.

Despite his protestations to the contrary, it was an argument Kyyanno could not ignore, and Quin's relaxed, warm hearted, cheerful demeanor had done a lot to soothe his troubled heart. They'd met for dinner a couple of nights later, and the cheetah had expressed an interest in experiencing Quinten's skills as an artist. They talked, and laughed, and before Kyyanno knew it he found himself shyly requesting Quin to use his powers to dye and style Kyy's fur.

Quin had eagerly agreed, offering his services for free. No need for hours of dyes, rinses, and airbrushing; Kyy would simply embrace Quin's ink directly. Apparently, that meant meeting the hare in the forest. So here he was, standing at the edge of the trees, trying to work up the nerve to walk into the woods on his own. Quin had assured him in his last email that someone would meet him to guide him to their meeting. But after the last time, and despite Quinten's soothing words, it was still not easy to walk in amongst those trees by himself, even as a guest.

Taking a steadying breath, Kyy strode forward. His bare feet left the stone of the parking lot surrounding Quin's shop, and sank into the rich grass between the trees. After not even a hundred yards, it was already impossible for Kyyanno to tell he was near the edge of the forest. Tall, ancient behemoths draped in vines surrounded him, and the crisp golden brown and orange leaves piled in drifts around each tree.

Beams of late sunlight glanced through the advancing columns of trees. The sun was setting, and Kyyanno knew there was only an hour until it was dark at most. Already, a cold breeze blew through the trees, cutting through his windbreaker and fur. Branches rattled in the wind, and shadows flitted across the forest floor as clouds flew across the sky. Kyy had initially planned to strip down as soon as he was alone in the woods, but there was something oppressive about the cold breeze and the darkening sky that made him hesitate.

Kyy slowed as he realised he'd essentially run out of trail. He'd been following the path of least resistance around the shrubs and trees, but now he found himself pushing his way carefully between two ferns. The small hollow he found himself in was surrounded on all sides by thick leaved ferns. They didn't really give any indication of what path he should follow, and the trees had tangled their branches together above his head, forming a natural roof above his head.

A nearby tangle of ferns started to rustle, Kyy turned to peer at them and caught a glimpse of something. A narrow pointed head, a flash of feathers... but then it was gone, and the silence closed in around him. The birds were quiet now, the darkness was growing and the cheetah tugged at the collar of his shirt nervously.

"Hello?" he peered at the ferns, "Did... Quin send..."

He was cut off as something bounded out of the foliage to his left. The cheetah twisted, but was too slow as the creature slammed into him. A pair of powerful legs kicked Kyy to the ground and then pinned him in place, sleek white claws curled around the side of his torso and legs. Breath coming in ragged gasps, Kyy stared up at the raptor holding him down and swallowed heavily.

Their body was a rich royal blue, smooth with a scale-like effect etched into the paint they were made from. White claws and teeth sparkled in the dim light, and their smooth, round dinosaur head was surmounted by a beautiful crest of navy blue feathers, each individual feather lovingly shaped out of living ink to make up the whole.

"He... hello there, are you the guide Quin promised me?" Kyy asked, somewhat nervous by those teeth close to his throat.

The raptor smirked and stepped off Kyy, bobbing his head from side to side as he circled the cheetah. He then stopped and turned, long reptilian tail brushing across Kyy's chest and stomach before stepping off toward a large group of ferns.

Standing back up and brushing the dirt off his back, Kyy followed, surprised to find the raptor's head barely reached Kyy's chest. Even so, there was something unnerving about the beast that set Kyy's nerves on edge. He moved with short sharp bursts of speed, before pausing to look back, his head constantly bobbing around, almost birdlike in his movements. Kyy followed as close as he dared, moving carefully between the ferns and stepping over small shrubs and sprays of flowers to avoid harming the forest.

The raptor moved ahead, constantly darting just out of reach, shifting on his large feet in quick bursts, occasionally vanishing into the undergrowth, leaving Kyy standing awkwardly. He always returned a couple of minutes later, emerging at a rush from a different direction, brushing past Kyy, before heading forwards again. It was a long walk, up and down, around trees and bushes, gently nudging vines aside and returning them to their place after he slipped through. Before long, the sun set and Kyy found himself stumbling through the darkness,. groping his way forward in the dark.

Thankfully, faint silver moonlight started to filter down through the canopy, giving him enough light to navigate by, carefully picking his way through the silver and gray landscape. The darkness only made his guide's rapid, circling movements even more alarming, the trail of rustling bushes, and the flash of that weaving, bobbing head setting the cat's nerves even more on edge. He was relieved when the trees suddenly came to an end, and he found himself at the edge of a large clearing.

The blue raptor came to a halt beside him, nuzzling its head against his side before darting up the slope. Ahead, Kyy could see the slope was the headland, advancing up over a hundred yards to a wide, flat space at the very tip of the land. The sea could be heard crashing down below, and the forest's edge walled off the headland. The flat space at the top was dotted with several ancient, moss coated monoliths of dark, ebony stone. As he approached, Kyy thought he could make out writing, but the moss coating and the dim light of the stars made it hard to tell for sure.

Cresting the hill, Kyy stopped and stared at a perfectly still, circular pool of water situated between the pillars, the reflection of starlight making it appear as a pool of stars. Waiting cross legged on a rock spur that thrust out into the water sat Quinten. His green eyes glowed softly in the darkness, focussed on Kyy, and the cheetah paused to observe the strange, enigmatic hare he called his friend. He was wearing just a pair of ragged shorts that stretched to his mid thigh. His body was green today and his ponytail had been replaced by a variation of his usual dreadlocks, the multitude of ropes replaced with a dozen thick tubes of rich orange hair.

He looked intimidating at first glance, but the smile on his muzzle and the peaked cap with a pumpkin pin badge perched between his ears broke the intimidating image. His fur was also covered in patterns, dark enough that it was hard for Kyy to make them out in the moonlight. But as Kyyanno squinted, he barely made out the vague shape of a variety of tattoos, many different species curled around his arms and legs. The various plants and animals shifted across his chest and stomach, curled around his neck and passed in rippling shades across his muzzle, vanishing behind his back and below the waistline of his short. Each tattoo evoked complex images, and dozens of pairs of eyes glinted at Kyyanno in the darkness, giving the hare an almost demonic appearance .

"Quin?" the cheetah asked hesitantly as he stopped at the edge of the pool, "What... are we doing out here?"

The hare looked up and smiled, unfolding his legs and gracefully swaying up onto his feet, "We're here to paint you, Kyy. You did ask me to do it the quick way, did you not?"

Kyy nervously shifted to look around the dim clearing with its looming monoliths then back at the hare, "I... thought we'd be in your studio?"

"Oh no," the hare smiled, "If you want me to use my ink on you directly, that requires all the forest's blessings, Kyy," he gestured with one arm at the clearing. "Here, in the heart of the woods, I can truly express myself. Those tin-can airbrushes, faux chemical paints, and chintzy baubles created by the technical "marvels" of the outside world are as chains that I shackle myself with in order to protect the forest. Here, tonight, I can create a work of art."

Kyy edged closer and frowned. The hairs on the nape of his neck rose, setting him on edge. there was an atmosphere to this place he could not quite describe. A feeling of power pervaded the place, an ancient awareness that spoke of sacred rituals, blazing fires ringed by dancing, writhing shapes, and imposed a sense on the cheetah that there had been a far, far greater meaning to his drunken request than he could have possibly comprehended. At the center of it all, Quin was the picture of serenity, , his warm, welcoming smile, the casual halloween theme of orange and green fur soothing his nerves.

Even so... "It... this... isn't quite what I had in mind when you said we'd be painting me today.What..." Kyy took a deep breath, clamping down on his fear, and pushed the words out. "What exactly am I getting myself into?"

"Well, before we can start, first I need to call the forest to ask it for fresh ink." Quin stood up, then turned and walked out to the end of the spur of rock. Standing almost in the centre of the pool, he turned to look back at Kyy. "After all, we want your new look to be unique, do we not? You want to be exotic, to stand out in the crowd, to turn the heads of everyone when you walk into the club, no? For that, I require new ink."

"And... how do you ask for new ink?" curiously Kyy followed the hair, his bare feet sliding over the bare rock, the water less than half a foot below their perch, "Last time... you melted that kid into ink."

"Yes, I did." Quin turned to look at Kyy, "Rest assured, there are other ways to ask the forest for ink. Let me show you..."

Kyy jumped back, unable to silence a started yelp as black liquid suddenly oozed out from Quin's feet. It rose up through his fur and oozed over his toes and across the spur of rock, draining down into the pond. The liquid swirled out across the surface of the water, snaking across the silver surface, a faint rainbow shimmer flickering in and out of view. Rising up above the trees, the first silver wash of the moon illuminated the hare, leaving Kyyanno staring in awe as the hare shifted his feet, held out one paw towards the cheetah, and began to dance.

As the hare's body moved, Kyy watched as a tattoo slid down the hare's leg, then slithered along the surface of one of the trails of ink now spreading out across the pool. Peering closely at the shape, Kyy realized it was the blue raptor that had guided Kyy to this place. Its two dimensional shape raced across the ink, pushing the tendril of darkness across the silver-lit pool, until it reached the shore opposite one of the monoliths. Ink slithered through the grass and pooled around the base of the ancient stone, until a second pool of flickering black ink swirled up the dark stone. The raptor followed the new trail, spiraling up the ebony stone, then bubbled and oozed upwards out of the liquid into a solid shape once more.

White claws clung to the top of the ancient rock, and the trail of ink it had left behind started to glow with an ethereal blue light. Kyy stared up at the dinosaur gazing down at them, and then blinked in awe as the glowing ink embedded itself into the hidden writing in the rock, setting the ancient runes ablaze in cool blue light, and a pallid glow cast on the clearing around them. Around the base of the rock, the pool of ink glowed its own muted shade of matching blue, and the whole scene seemed to erupt with an aura of glowing light.

"I... oh, wow..." Kyy breathed, too reverent to make more than a whisper, and watched in awe as Quin continued to dance, another tattoo leaving Quin's right leg as it swept across the stone floor, and another slithered off his left as he twirled, and a third slipping off his fingertips as be bowed low and grazed his hand across the shining surface of the spire, leaving behind living ink. The moon was rising as the hare's tattoo beasts departed his fur, each graceful motion leaving another beast behind, each racing across the silver pool towards a monolith. Each tattoo forged a pool of ink around the base of their own monolith, before racing up its surface to reform atop its peak, each casting its own unique colour on the scene before him.

There was the hyena Shy, his monolith glowing with a soft golden-brown light. His tawny, spotted body clung to his perch as he stared down at them all. Another monolith flared into bright, golden-white light that rippled with a rainbow glow, and Kyy stared at the serpentine, four legged creature, sporting a golden horn and rainbow mane clinging to the top of it's rock.

Shaking his head in disbelief, Kyy turned to watch the ink swirling up another monolith. The creature clinging to the top of this rock was a hare, his brown and white design reflected in the welcoming brown glow of the ink filled runes carved into its monolith. The hare clung to the top of the rock, long ears perked upright, slender body held in place by powerful feet finding an easy grip on the monolith's peak, his long, slender lapine torso standing proud and tall.

The third monolith erupted into soft blue light, moss-covered and even more ancient than the others. The ancient script was only just visible under the moss. The guardian who stepped into view was tall and ancient, covered in soft cream fur, bright antlers crowning its head and glowing like the stars above. Their fur was shaggy and old, drawn to a point off their chin like a goat's beard, and cascading around their bright silver hooves as fetlocks. Curiously, a yellow and white scarf adorned this creature's neck, trailing down their chest. Their eyes seemed to pierce Kyy's soul, and he shivered at the silent judgement and consideration of this antler-crowned king of the deep woods.

Turning as another monolith flared with grey light, Kyy gaped at a raccoon clinging to the top of the rock. His body was mostly hidden from view, his front legs clinging to the monolith so it's head was held high and it could stare down at them. His grey fur and signature black mask framed a pair of bright, playful eyes, a playful smirk playing across its muzzle, black ears topped by silver piercings glinting in the light like a pair of twinkling stars.

Turning to ask Quin if this was all of his guardians, he froze. The hare's body practically oozed ink, the hare's shape becoming featureless and vague. From the top of his ears to the base of his feet, thick waves of shimmering, silver tinged, rainbow gleaming ink welled up from his fur. Slowly, it pooled away, leaving behind clean, dry green fur as a final tattoo slid through the forest hare's fur. Kyy couldn't quite make out what species this final shape was, the beast circling Quin's torso before vanishing beneath his shorts in the blink of an eye.

Moments later, the shape slithered down his legs in a wave of thick, black ink, and poured itself into the pond. This time, the ink didn't race across the surface toward a monolith, but instead coalesced into a whirling mass of ink and frothing water in the very centre of the pond, a silver and black swirling together and bubbling. The ground trembled gently, and a final rock pillar rose up out of the pond. This rock glowed with a rich purple light, the glow combining with the others to form a pool of pure white light centered on Kyyanno. The purple light etched out each runic inscription one by one, until it towered over Quinten, and a figure bubbled and rose from the pool as the froth calmed to a swirling ying-yang, wrapping its mighty body around the monolith.

It was a teal and blue scaled oriental dragon, two powerful front legs, a swirl of water and purple-ridged tentacles forming a long tail that seemed to freeze like a wave ready to crash down atop them. Its beautiful, gleaming muscular frame clung to the rock of the monolith, muscles rippling under its lithe form, a crest of water running from just behind its purple horn all the way down to that magnificent tail.

Long, purple rimmed ears spread out from atop the dragon's head, and rich glowing blue eyes stared down at the hare from atop its draconic head. Long whiskers complemented its snout, and a long goatee of pure water surmounted the dragon's chin. The imposing creature turned to bow to Quin, and the hare completed its dance with a flourish, returning the bow.

"Thank you all for coming," Quin murmured to the creatures, and turned to look at Kyy. "Few have seen all of the guardians of the forest, Kyyanno. They are the reflection of the forest will, my ink given flesh and life."

"They are beautiful," Kyy whispered then sought Quin's eyes, "Why... are they here though?"

Quin walked toward Kyy, then stepped around the cheetah and pressed a hand to the small of his back and pressed his muzzle up against Kyy's ear, "They enjoy watching me work... and you've piqued their interest to boot. So much so that they wish to lend me some of their own ink so I can create a new design."

Kyy shivered at the intimate closeness of Quin, the warm breath on his ear, the touch of his claws against his spine. "Now what?"

"Strip..." Quinten ordered, "And then stand at the end of the platform. Let me handle the rest..."

Blushing heavily at the implications, Kyy tugged at his t-shirt and stepped out of his shorts. Some part of his mind was telling him that this was a bad idea, and wanted nothing more than to run for the woods babbling and screaming. But there was a pressure, a building presence all around that was watching. Kyy felt the weight of the whole forest bearing down on him, and it was emanating from Quinten most of all. Tilting his head back, the cheetah looked into the eyes of the dragon and then turned to watch as a slithering tendril of it's blue and purple ink snaked across the ground toward where Quin was waiting.

Kyy watched as a tendril of ink from each monolith's pool slithered over to Quin and pooled up his legs, a spectrum of colour weaving up his legs, through the waistband of his shorts, and up his torso, before spreading down his arms to pool in his cupped hands, forming a pool of shining white light.

Naked as the day he was born, Kyy gulped down a heavy breath, eyes fixed as the sphere of bubbling, swirling ink rose from his outstretched hands, floating in the air and taking on shape and colour above Quinten's hands. The hare's eyes glowed with a deep, rich emerald light and then with a flash the ink changed, settling into a deep, navy blue. Captured beneath the surface were glowing white pinpricks of light that swirled and shifted to a rhythm all their own.

"It's... it's beautiful," Kyy whispered, "...What is it?"

"It's yours," Quin walked forward, his emerald fur almost black in the moonlight, orange dreadlocks hanging in waves across his shoulders. Floating above his cupped hands, the ball of ink rippled and rolled, floating in place. "If you accept this design Kyy... reach out and take it. The ink will do the rest."

Kyy hesitated, then reached out with a paw. Tentatively, nervously, he poked a finger into the floating sphere, as if afraid it would burn. Finding it cool, he pushed his whole paw in, then slid his other paw in beside the first. The sphere accepted his paws effortlessly, rippling as it engulfed his paws and started spreading down his wrists.

Thick liquid surged up his arms. It slid through his fur, Kyy could feel it clinging to his skin, slipping around every follicle of his short fur. Within seconds, it spread across his shoulders and started to slide down his chest and back.

Gasping as fingers of ice oozed down his spine, Kyy staggered and dropped to one knee. It was such a strange sensation, the ink pooling, coalescing, sliding across his body. It engulfed his stomach and relentlessly swept across his crotch and rump. His thrashing tail was covered in seconds, and then it hit his legs. Collapsing to the ground, Kyy writhed on stone as , every inch of his body below the neck was consumed by the thick, liquid ink. Raising his head, the cheetah stared at Quinten who was standing nearby looking down at him.

The hare smiled, and Kyy's heart thudded inside his chest, his breath catching in his throat. the expression Quin's lips was triumphant, a sly grin spread across his lips as if he'd won a great victory. Kyy's thoughts were lost and scattered, and before he could say anything or recover his footing, living ink surged up his neck. Liquid covered his face, his vision obscured by ink and his hearing muffled as it slid into his ear canal, then bubbled up through his hair, leaving him coated from head to toe in Quin's living ink.

Kyy's heart froze as a vision of the hooligans' screaming faces flashed across his mind's eye, a wave of panic cresting as he felt the pain of betrayal. The liquid contracted, and Kyyanno convulsed as every part of his body was squeezed... but instead of hardening and squeezing him into a pulp, the liquid seemed to sink into his skin and was gone as quickly as it had come. Opening his eyes and drawing down a lungful of air Kyy gasped as the cool night air surged back in, fighting down the urge to scream, the terror swiftly replaced by shame that he thought Quinten could have betrayed him so. Lifting one arm, Kyy stared at the deep rich navy blue colour that had replaced his sandy yellow fur.

"It is done," Quin offered the feline his hand. "You look good. A proper star cheetah, if I do say so myself."

Kyy accepted that hand and pulled himself to his feet, then twisted around to look at his reflection in the pool of water. Gone was the light cream underbelly and chest, replaced with a singular shade of navy blue. It seemed dark at the core but lightened to a richer, lighter gleam at the tip of every hair. Upon closer inspection, Kyyanno found that his body was truly like the night sky.What appeared to be black at first was in actuality a deepening shade of violets, indigos and blues. His spots, once a dark brown, were now white, bright, incandescent luminous white that gleamed with their own radiance beneath the moonlight.

Finishing the look was his hair. What had once been a mop of dark brown-ish hair with a white fore-lock was now a pool of inky blackness, swirled with a deeper, reflective ripple of colour. The effect made it look like someone had caught the multitude of colours from a nebula and hidden it in each follicle, adding an opalescent shimmer to his hair that shifted and changed with the angle of the light from the monoliths reflecting off him.

"This..." raising one hand to touch his dark navy blue muzzle Kyy smiled, trying to find the words to express his awe. "This is... amazing, Quinten. I look... amazing."

"Damn right, you do," Quin linked arms with Kyy and smiled. "Tomorrow, we hit the clubs. But first..." he gestured at the pond and the watching guardians. "We must give thanks to the forest for this gift."

"How do we do that?" Kyy asked, somewhat nervous now beneath the gaze of Quinten's guardians. He couldn't escape the sense that there was a much deeper meaning to this evening than a simple dye job, but as he watched the guardians staring down at him, he found himself struggling to really care. He was distracted from the worrying thoughts by the lapine undoing the loop of his shorts, the fabric falling to the ground and pooling on the stone. As he stepped out of the shorts Quinten turned to smile softly at Kyyanno, emerald green body bare and soft beneath the light of the moon, hand outstretched towards the star cheetah in invitation.

Kyy was surprised, but took the hare's hand and met his inviting smile with a warming, eager grin of his own. The forest hare led the newly decorated cheetah into the cool water of the pond, the moonlight shining gently upon the scene. There, under the watching gaze of the guardians, the cheetah leaned in and softly kissed Quinten. As the two sank into each other's embrace, they eagerly showed the forest their appreciation for this marvelous gift.