Bowmidge Talorn
| Species | Digguno |
|---|---|
| Title | Head of the gully post at Haberpaw |
| Home | Haberpaw |
| Companions | Gullys, including Nepsa |
| Status | Last seen alone with Demise |
| First appearance | Sacred: Eslura's Calling |
Bowmidge Talorn is head of the gully post at Haberpaw, the crooked house on the hill above the town from which the gullys carry Eslura's mail. He introduces himself with "Bowmidge Talorn, at your service" and a bow.[1] He grew up in Haberpaw with Alpin Loomin, has never left, and runs the post because it is the family business.[1] He appears in one chapter of Sacred: Eslura's Calling, at the end of which he stands between Demise and the mailroom door so that Beatrice Tidal can get out of a window.[1]
Appearance
Bowmidge is a digguno, a large brown dog-like creature who stands on his hind legs with four long arms above them, and he is more than two heads taller than Bea.[1] He has pointed ears, sharp teeth, claws, and white stubble on his chin, and he wears an old patchwork cap set between his ears, which he picks up and puts carefully back on whenever the gullys knock it off.[1] Four arms are enough to carry a mountain of muffins, to hold three of them out at once for gullys to settle on, and to lean two on the back of a chair while the other two hold a teacup.[1]
The bestiary appendix gives the species without naming him: diggunos are bipedal, four-armed and dog-like, come in all shapes, sizes and colours, and may not woof like an ordinary canine but will certainly sit down with a visitor for a cup of tea.[2]
Personality
Bowmidge is relentlessly, immovably friendly. He crosses a road to greet a man who is trying not to be seen, hops in front of him when he tries to walk on, slaps him on the back hard enough to stagger him, and reads a flat denial of homesickness as modesty: "We all get homesick at some point or another."[1] He does not stop talking, and he does not notice being insulted, which is the only defence anyone has yet found against Alpin Loomin.[1]
He is proud of two things and says so. The first is his position, which he announces proudly: he does "just happen to be head of the post here in Haberpaw", and Alpin asks how he manages that with a pea brain like his.[1] The second is the work itself. Asked whether he has really stayed put all these years, he answers "Well, of course! What else would I do? Give up on the family business? I could never!"[1] His word of honour is his species: he pounds a paw over his heart and swears "Digguno's honor".[1]
He is nosy, which is his one flaw as a postmaster. He pursues the identity of a hooded stranger at the roadside, tries to lift the boy's hood with a spare paw, offers to take his cloak indoors, and asks outright what the urgent letter says. Alpin's answer is that it is none of his business.[1]
Under threat he does not fold. He tells a Shadow Reaper who has put his feet on the table and knocked two teacups to the floor that "I will not tolerate such disrespect in my household", tells him "You dare summon demons in my house!", and lies to his face about who is hiding in the mailroom, with his paws trembling.[1]
Background
Bowmidge took the gully post on as the family business and lives in the crooked house at the peak of the hill, where the front room doubles as his kitchen, a staircase climbs from one corner of it, and the mailroom opens off the main space.[1] The job puts him at the door of a town he says has been lonely since Alpin left, and there is no other officeholder in Haberpaw for the books to name.[1]
He calls the gullys his babies, greets them with "Hello, my gullys!" and feeds them by tossing muffins at the ceiling for the flock to snatch midair.[1] He fetches parchment by the sheaf when one sheet is wanted, keeps quills on the floor under the table, and will not let a customer past the tea.[1] One of the birds, Nepsa, hissed at Mauz over a guest's head and was snatched out of the air, locked in an embrace and reminded that guests are treated with respect in this house.[1]
Story
Sacred: Eslura's Calling
Alpin Loomin came into Haberpaw around mid-morning with Bea and Barnaby Britto, meaning to send word to the Sacred Guard by gully that an Olphin was travelling with him, and then to move on.[1] Bowmidge came out of the bakery with an armful of muffins, recognised his old neighbour by smell before he saw him, and pulled him up the hill for tea, leaving no room for argument.[1] He accepted Alpin's excuse that the sun gave the hooded boy hives, brewed four cups of green tea, and handed over the parchment and quill.[1]
The house went dark in the middle of the afternoon, the lanterns blew out, and black smoke came in under the door. Bowmidge sent the three of them into the mailroom to hide, smoothed the fur on his chest, and opened the front door himself.[1] Demise walked in, sat down at his table and summoned Mayna and Ariz to search the house for Bea.[1]
Asked to step aside, Bowmidge said "Sure", and a whistle pitched high enough to hurt went up. The mailroom door flew open, the whole flock went straight at Demise's face, his claws stopped smoking, and the wolves vanished like smoke in the wind.[1] He shouted at the others to take the window. Alpin stopped halfway through the frame and called back to him, and Bowmidge sent him on with a wink and the assurance "I'll be all right."[1]
That is the last of him. Neither novel returns to Haberpaw or says whether he survived the afternoon.
Relationships
Alpin Loomin grew up with him in Haberpaw and spends the whole visit trying to get away from him. He hisses at Bea to keep moving when Bowmidge calls out, adds "Unfortunately" under his breath while explaining that the two of them grew up together, and rolls his eyes at him throughout.[1] Bowmidge takes none of it personally and calls him an old jokester. Alpin calls back to him from the window anyway, and is sent away.[1]
Beatrice Tidal had never seen anything like him and gave up trying to work out what he was, thinking only that four-armed dogs with muffins were more than she was going to attempt.[1] He handed her the muffins to carry and she watched him greet his birds.[1]
Behind the scenes
The pronunciation guide at the back of both novels gives the name as Bow-midge Tah-lorn, and lists Nepsa, his one named gully, as Nehp-suh. Digguno appears separately under SPECIES, as Dig-goo-no.[3][4]
Long Paws is the other digguno the novels put on the page, and Bowmidge is how Bea places her when she sees her across a Galecrest plaza: a big blue dog with four arms, only taller.[5]