Another year winding down, and another autumn illustration finally complete. It’s past time Hu-Hov made an appearance in the gallery!
“Hu-Hov’s Debut” is one of my oldest completed short stories, with the first draft written in 1998. It’s also the last story I wrote by hand on paper. It describes eleven-year-old Hu-Hov coming with her parents to the Council of the Races, because she needed someone to sponsor her attendance at the Caverns of History. Her family were horse breeders living in a remote northern location, due to her ancestors relocating after the events of “Wildfire.” That meant Hu-Hov had no loremaster near enough for regular tutoring, but nothing would deter her from her dream to become a historian.
It so happened that the Council meeting Hu-Hov first attended was the autumn meeting of 402 AK, during which the results of the recent Landfall census should have been publicly released. Instead, Hu-Hov received a front-row seat to a clash between Princess Hu-Hael-ik and Chief Judge Harek that set political precedent, a precedent having crucial influence on events decades later in Geren’s time.
The sweet-tempered chestnut mare nuzzled her, and Hu-Hov stroked her long mane. Today she walked through the open door of her future. At least one familiar, beloved face would go with her.
– “Hu-Hov’s Debut”
Hu-Hov and Sungleam
From the essay “Of The Hyarmi”:
The pony is the one animal that the hyarmi have domesticated. They are valued as a beast of burden and as mounts, for their hair, and also for their milk, which is used to make cheese. While individual hyarmi in any district may keep a pony of their own, and while collective herds are often maintained near district center posts, the raising and breeding of ponies (and horses for trade with humans) occurs primarily in the northern grasslands and tundra regions. The hyarmi pony is a small (11-13hh) and very hardy animal. They are not as coarse-featured as the wild tarpan, due to years of careful breeding and infusion of warmblood lines from the Changer’s Gift. They have been bred over the centuries to display a wide variety of colors, sweet temperaments, and four to six gaits, including, in some lines, the rack or tölt.