STOP! CHECK OUT THE ORIGINAL SUBMISSION TODAY!

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Leo opened his arms wide facing towards sun and basking in its warm rays as he wiggled his toes in the fairly hot beach sand. He smiled brightly while laughing happily and comprehending how he was lucky enough to be in such a warm spot at this time of year; it was hard for him to grasp winning a free beach vacation in a contest run by a friend of his named "Honeynuggets." And during the winter, too! After all the long traveling and escort servicing, he found himself on the sandy shores of a fun beach where furries can enjoy fun summer weather for a while rather than hang out in the cold all the time. Leo couldn't remember the name of the beach no matter how hard he tried, but it didn't really matter much as he was already too busy thinking to himself that this was too good to be true. But it was true. He was in warm, sunny weather instead of back in his village where it was still currently snowy. Bad stuff rarely happens in his village during the winter season, so he knew there was nothing to worry about. And besides, he's been running himself ragged what with all the dangerous ninja missions lately. He felt relieved to actually have this lovely vacation.

After taking in more of the sun's rays for just a little longer, Leo walked further ahead so he could find a good spot to place his towel, beach bag, cooler, and umbrella. He eventually reached an area where was fairly close to the shore but not too close so that the water could reach him. As he laid his stuff down on his spot, he looked around and took in enjoyable sights of other furries enjoying their vacation as well. From making sand castles to sharing conversations to tossing their friends around in the water, a lot of fun was being had; Leo enjoyed watching other patrons or beach-goers enveloped in smiles and laughter and having a wonderful time. He'd love to become friends with any of them. But for now, being the lion he was, he decided to start of his time under the sunshine by chillaxing and adding a tan on top of his already golden fur.

"Better start getting my tan on," Leo said to himself.

As he was halfway into lying down on his towel spread out on the sand, he paused. If he was gonna have interact and have fun with other furries - if he wanted to befriend any of them - he'd probably have to play games with them like volleyball or something. Fortunately for him, however, he had a better activity in mind. And he realised right then and there that he should probably tend to prepping something needed for said better activity now before he laid down for a rest. He turned to his beach bag and reached in fumbling around a bit. And then, finding what he was looking for, he pulled out the item in question with a flourish and admired his fun little toy: a giant water gun. Yes, no matter how young or old a furry may be, they are never too cool nor too old to play with water guns. It's indeed a fun device for summer enthusiasts or warm weather lovers; it's also an essential for all-out water fights and surprise joke attacks. And while the ninja lion was never one to use guns for fighting, he's never say no to using a water gun at a beach. Now for all he figured, he felt he wouldn't get to use it at all, but it was better to bring it along just in case.

Stopping just at the edge of the water washing onto the shore, Leo placed the water gun underneath the beach water and let it fill up. Pretty soon, the water gun got heavy being fully loaded. Now Leo was "armed and dangerous" just in case.

As Leo turned around to head back to his towel, some short dark figure bumped into him knocking backward. Thankfully for him, he caught himself before his bottom touched the water and stopped himself by putting his leg back, so he could steady himself.

"Oh, my goodness," said the figure. "I'm so sorry! Are you okay? Sorry I bumped into you!"

Leo looked ahead and laid his eyes upon an innocent figure. There stood an apologetic yet adorably sweet grey fennec fox bearing uniquely-shaped turquoise diamond stripes on parts of her legs, ears, and arms. She also had a stripe on each of her five fluffy tails. The fennec fox gal was also donning a lovely purple bathing dress adorned with yellow stars, and her neck was wrapped in a thick black collar complimented by a white star charm handing just off its chain. And speaking of stars, two white stars overlapping two dark lines shone brightly on her face cheeks. She silver hair complimented her sparkling turquoise eyes which helped add to her charming beauty.

The ninja lion laughed off the sudden encounter after briefly pausing to silently admire her presence. He still couldn't help but feel embarrassed for not knowing that he would be in the way of this sweet girl before him.

"No worries," Leo responded, chuckling. "I'm okay. I just hope I didn't hurt you or anything."

"Oh, not at all!" the fennec fox replied. "I was just distracted running about on the beach so happily when I thought I heard someone calling my name, and I quickly turned my head, but I didn't even notice you. My bad."

She innocently blushed while giggling. She had a nice, friendly carefree attitude about her that Leo adored. He laughed along with her.

"If I may ask," Leo said. "What is your name?"

"Oh, I'm Hoshi," she replied, offering a hand-paw. "Nice to meet you!"

"Nice to meet you," Leo said, happily shaking her hand-paw with his. "I'm Leo Nekozuki, and I'm a ninja lion."

"Ooh, ninja!" Hoshi exclaimed. "Sounds like fun! Odd that you don't look like one though."

"Eh, that's 'cause I'm on vacation," Leo replied giggling. "Truth be told, I'm here because I won a contest run by a friend of mine named Honeynuggets. You know them?"

"Absolutely!" the fennec fox said, cheerfully. "And that's so weird!"

"What is?" Leo asked.

"Well," Hoshi said, her face beaming. "I'm here because I, too, won their contest! And so did a few other new friends of mine here!"

She gestured towards a select few patrons who were too busy having fun with their beach activities to notice their conversation. Leo's eyes widened with surprise impressed. He had heard that there were other winners, but he figured they'd be at other locations or would be at the beach some other day. But all those colourful characters were there because of Honeynuggets and their contest. And judging by how much fun they were having and how sociable they were, he'd be having a fun vacation making many more friends than he thought.

"Well how do you like that? So many winners," he said. "That's pretty cool! So I gotta ask: are you enjoying your time on the beach, too?"

"Oh, you bet! But it's so hot out. And in all the rush to have fun here at the beach, I accidentally forgot to bring water with me."

Leo sympathised with her; he knew that even at fairly hot temperatures, furries like him needed to stay hydrated when running around a lot.

"Oh, dear," he said. "Hey, I know! I've got some water in my cooler you can help your self t--"

Leo suddenly thought for a moment and began to slowly smile a cheeky smile. It suddenly dawned on him that he had his water gun still in his grasp. Now he's not one to fight women, but if it's play-fighting for fun - and on a hot, sunny day, too - Leo couldn't pass up a hilarious opportunity. Hoshi, unsure of why Leo stopped talking, tilted her head in confusion.

"Okay, uh," she said. "So are we going to your cooler for the water, or...?"

"We could," Leo replied, smiling sinisterly yet playfully. "But I've thought of a faster way to cool you off."

Slowly, he lifted his water gun in his arms so that the barrel pointed squarely at Hoshi. She chuckled at first thinking it was a joke, but she could see the look in the ninja lion's eyes that he was - for the most part - semi-serious, and her large fennec fox ears suddenly rose upwards at the realisation of how she was gonna be "cooled off."

"Uh," she uttered, smiling innocently and nervously. "Wouldn't drinking some water be a better solution?"

"It would," he replied, playfully. "But this way, I can help you cool off, and we can both start having fun with our vacation at the same time. And besides, you did nearly knock me down just now. But I'm a good lion, so I'll give you to the count of 'run.' One... two... RUN!!!"

Before she could catch on and react, Leo pulled the trigger without hesitation spraying the grey fennec fox with fairly cold beach water startling her out of her wits. She shrieked as she turned the opposite direction upon being hit with that fast stream of water, and she put in all of her effort into running away. Too bad for her, however, that Leo's had experience in running, so he was able to catch up with no trouble and hit her many more times with blasts from the water gun, shot after shot after shot at her backside.

"Yeah, you better run, Hoshiiii!" Leo called out playfully, chortling with mischievously with glee as he kept pulling back the trigger and firing continuous shots of water at the poor fennec fox. Leo was truly starting to enjoy his time at the beach with this chase of sorts; the thrill of having a huge advantage over someone in a water fight filled him with joy as he kept laughing catching her with more water shots. And while Hoshi kept running trying not to get hit by that water gun, she couldn't help but laugh in between her pleas for ceasefire and her heavy breathing because of all that running. She never anticipated to have encountered such an outgoing lion meeting her at the same beach under the same circumstances as him and then being subjected to a one-sided water gun fight. She couldn't help but laugh with all the hilarity it brought her.

This fun continued throughout the day, even with Leo offering her the gun to chase after him at times, though she wasn't as successful. But they completely enjoyed each other's company. As you could pretty well guess, a friendship was developed between the two fun-loving furries.

It is said that good fortune will come into the homes of those who smile. And this was how they spent their day during their vacation: enveloped in laughter, however forced.

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Riiiight up in the back left (left-right):
(as Bastion)
(as Dominique[?])
(as Ibby)

The two kitties talking in the center (left-right):

(as Kitten)

The two in the back right chatting (left-right):

(as Kane)

The two playing with the water gun (left-right):

/ (as Hoshi)

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How is it that never ceases to blow my mind and wow me with their amazingly talented furry artwork?

Last December, they were holding a big-ass drawing raffle in honor of reaching the 1000-watcher milestone - a most honorable feat in my opinion - by offering any and all furries to enter and hopefully a slot of their choice. The catch, however, was that they could only apply for one slot and one slot only, so it was either go big or go home. As and as you can guess judging by this picture, I not only went big, but I won big, too! I was the lucky furry to grab the water gun slot, and it is a beauty! Then again, the artwork does is always magnificent!

In terms of the overall picture, I'm loving the linework. Excellent variety of characters, and lovely choices of poses and expressions. They're all naturally interacting with each other in ways that make the general mood/atmosphere seem pleasant, friendly, and fun.

In terms of my fursona, I'm loving his cheeky battle smile/laughter since he's got the water gun. It sort of looks like he's giving out a playful war cry as he chases her. lol Hairstyle's drawn quite nicely in their style while still maintaining that overall anime appeal.

And as always, you've done a spectacular job with the colouring. Everything seems to be in order as far as colour on my fursona, and I especially love how they've given Leo black swim trunks with a wicked-sick fire design akin to that of his trademark muscle shirt. Very creative! Also well done getting his Naruto-inspired "whisker" lines and black paw-print tattoo down-pat. Your colouring brings out Leo's badassery.

Plus as far as everyone else's colour designs, amazing job tapering off the colour lines smoothly and effortlessly; not too blunt and not too sharp at the ends of each line; they're all just right.

Again, I gotta say that the colouring is spectacular! The lighting and shading are exemplary! The way they took time to draw varying lines of lighter and darker shades to give the fur on all the beach-goers including myself actual "texture" really stands out! Great lighting reflections on the eyes; even the water on the beach - and even water coming from the water gun - looks like it's really glistening!

Another flawless picture you've drawn, ! I'm so fortunate to have won a YCH raffle slot, and I'm pretty sure my water gun target would agree as well. Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart for your amazing efforts! This was totally worth the wait! You are awesome, and you should feel awesome!

YOU HAVEN'T CHECKED OUT 'S AMAZING FURRY ARTWORK YET? HURRY! GO PRAISE THEM AND THEIR FURRY ARTISTRY TODAY, AND TELL THEM LEO SENT YOU!