Nighthawk Warriors

Sorry about the delay, the first Science Olympiad competition was yesterday, and I was gone from 6:00 in the morning until 6:00 at night.
I recently drew an idea that came from flipping through a bird field guide and deciding that I wanted to draw a nighthawk. Once I had the bird done, I added the inevitable touch of fantasy, and drew a little figure riding on its back with a tiny riding harness tethering it to the bird. I began to come up with little facts about the two of them, and soon the paper was filled with the scrawled beginnings of a whole new story....

I haven't come up with a name for the rider yet, but I know that he's a young boy of about seventeen, with a reckless streak and tendency to get in trouble. The nighthawk's name is Clip, and the two of them were partnered when Clip was just hatched and the boy was five. The long, hooked spear the boy's carrying is designed for aerial mounted combat, shaped to snag an enemy's armor and either pull or push them off their mount. The nighthawk warriors are nicknamed the 'sky tigers', and live amongst clans of the tiny Fey folk that inhabit our world without our knowledge. The clans often disagree, just like humans, and there's constant feuding between them. The nighthawk warriors are their elite fighting force. The most important time of the year for them is nesting season, when the nighthawks raise their young. The humanoid partners will stand vigil for months during this time and protect their birds.
My intention is to introduce a couple human characters who get shrunk down to the size of the Fey folk and thrown into the hidden world. I've yet to get much farther than that, and since this story is third or fourth on my list to work on, it may be awhile before I get to developing it further. I'm looking forward to it, though.

The next chapter of Centaur Ranch is up, and the e-book is online for anyone who missed the first chapters. I'm setting a deadline to get the printed copy up, so it should be ready by my next post. Merry Christmas, and let's hope we get some decent snow.