Night Hoppers
| Classification | Nocturnal beast |
|---|---|
| Habitat | Not recorded; kept as pets and fighting beasts across Eslura |
| Size | Large enough to carry three riders; Aloeissa is about twice the size of Galabear |
| Notable traits | Knife-like teeth, hunched back, cutting tail, long memory, loyalty |
| Notable individuals | Aloeissa, Galabear |
| First appearance | Sacred: Eslura's Calling |
Night hoppers are the large nocturnal beasts of Eslura, also called havarraks, the name the bestiary appendix and most of the prose use. The bestiary appendix, which heads the entry HAVARRAK, describes them as giant rabbit-like animals that look far more squeezable than their knife-like teeth allow, and says that an earned trust makes one a companion for life, because a havarrak will do anything for someone who has helped it.[1] The books use both names for the same animal: "That's a havarrak. A night hopper", Tab tells Reagan in the stable behind Varaar Colosseum.[2]
Appearance
A night hopper is a large, black, furry beast with a hunched back, big yellow eyes and a long pointed tail that Bea thought could cut metal with a flick. It is bear-like enough at rest that she briefly wanted one of her own.[3] Full-grown, it has massive paws, dagger-like teeth and a reach long enough to swipe a person off their feet.[2][4]
Size varies widely between individuals. Aloeissa, caged at the colosseum, was about twice the size of Galabear and too large for the stable she was chained in.[2][4]
Their noises are a cat's. They hiss, growl, purr, roar and whimper, and they yawn out a stink of rotten fish and uncooked meat.[3][2][5]
Temperament
What a night hopper is depends largely on how it has been treated, and the books put the argument in the mouths of two characters. Tab calls the caged Aloeissa "a demon dressed in black fur" and says the species are natural-born killers who put on a good show in the ring; Reagan answers that they are not born that way but raised to it.[2]
The appendix takes Reagan's side, and so does the folklore. Fawn repeats a rumour that a havarrak remembered a boy who had fed it a piece of bread and saved him from falling off a cliff moons later, and says that "They form very special bonds with those who help them".[1][5] Their memories are said to be good, which Reagan credits for Aloeissa recognising her across a gap of many moons.[5]
They understand more than they are given credit for. Aloeissa stopped a charge at Reagan's raised hands, sniffed the rope binding her wrists and bit it off, crouched to let her mount, and nodded when told to leave the city.[4][5]
As mounts
Night hoppers are ridden bareback. Alpin Loomin rides Galabear with a paw on her fur for steering, and carried Bea and Reagan on her back with nothing to hold them in place; she reared, roared and threw all three when a stranger dropped out of the trees in front of her, then fled with her tail tucked.[3][6] She later half carried the group north through the forest toward Galecrest.[7]
Aloeissa carried Reagan and Aero Ellisvat out of the arena floor at Varaar, bounding with both of them on her back until a thrown spear tore into her hind leg.[4]
In the Varaar arena
The Gangs of Varaar keep night hoppers to fight. Aloeissa was held in a cage at the end of the pergonzia stable, chained to the wall by two chains running from clasps to a spiked harness around her chest, rigged so that the spikes dug into her whenever she moved. Reagan cut the clasps loose while Tab lifted her to reach them, and the beast licked its wounds and pressed its nose through the bars to sniff her.[2]
The cage was later found empty, and Reagan assumed Aloeissa had escaped to a meadow somewhere. She had instead been kept hungry for the ring, and was released into the arena to eat Reagan and Aero in front of a paying crowd. She recognised Reagan, refused the kill and carried them both toward the gate instead.[4] Once out of the city, Reagan set her free.[5]
Known night hoppers
- Galabear belongs to Alpin Loomin and lies about in the library of his house.[3]
- Aloeissa was a fighting beast at Varaar Colosseum, named on a small plaque nailed to the base of her cage.[2]
In Eslurian culture
Havarraks were among the shapes Elmryn raised out of the pyres at First Flames, the festival held at Zybersia that Aero compares to the High Moon Festival. Aero, who saw it as a child, remembers dragons, havarraks and sea monsters dancing across the sky in Elmryn's fire show.[8]
Behind the scenes
The bestiary appendix at the back of both novels heads the entry HAVARRAK and annotates the illustration "loyal to the very end". Book 2 reprints Book 1's page unchanged.[1] The pronunciation guide in both novels lists the name under species and gives the English name in brackets after it.[9]