Painted flash design of three stylised wolves, one made of blue water, one of orange flame and one of green leaves, on white paper beside markers.

Three elemental wolves in water, fire and leaves

Colour · Flash

The drawing shows three stylised wolves arranged in a rotating composition. The blue wolf is formed from splashing water, the orange and yellow wolf from flames, and the green wolf from leaves and foliage, with a small pink flower among the leaves. The outlines are bold and the colour is applied in layered marker or paint with soft blends and highlights, set on white paper with marker pens at the edges.

Wolf Water Fire Flame Leaves Foliage Flower Splash

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Nobody in Harrowdale could remember when the wolves had last shared a hollow, and the old shepherd's wife said that was the trouble. The blue one, Tarn, lived where the water came off the fell, and he carried the river in his fur, spilling it over every stone he passed. The fire one, Ember, ran the hedgerows in autumn and set the bracken alight whenever she was bored, which was often. The green one, Moss, had no fur to speak of, only leaves that grew, dropped and grew again, and he never hurried for anybody.

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They quarrelled over a lamb in the wet March of that year. Tarn said the lamb had drowned in his stream, Ember said it had strayed across her hillside, and Moss said nothing at all. He only sat down in the middle of the lane and let the brambles climb over his paws until the other two had to stop shouting to pull him free.

The old woman found them at dusk, circling the stone wall with their tails in a knot. She set out a bowl of milk, a bowl of broth and a bowl of nettle tea, then went back indoors. Nobody saw them drink. In the morning the bowls were empty and the three wolves lay curled head to tail in the frost, each one warming a different side of the others, so that the steam from the water met the smoke from the fire and drifted up through the young leaves.

Shepherds still tell it that the valley never flooded or burned again that year, though nobody has ever found the lamb.