Earth, Again
V.G. Bond for Harlan
40s-50s, any ethnicity, he/him, dry and laconic.
Harlan is a horseman, a former high school history teacher, and the group's quiet heart. He speaks in short sentences, plays the harmonica by the fire, and has a hunting dog named Keeper who is his only surviving family. His daughter died before the collapse — the dog's name comes from her catchphrase. Harlan bruises three ribs in an ambush early in the journey and never fully heals, but he carries his sixty-pound dog through chest-deep snow over Snoqualmie Pass anyway. He knows birds by their calls and horses by their moods. He whittles an ax handle by the fire while everyone else argues about the future of humanity. When the group has to abandon their horses at the mountain pass, it nearly breaks him. Harlan says less than anyone and means more.
(All 10 episodes, ~467 dialogue blocks. Lead role.)
(carving an ax handle) The grip end - swell it out a little. So it don't slip when your hands are wet. Or cold. Or both, which is what we've got.
Kingfisher. Fishing the shallows. Hear him rattle? Means we're close to a river bend - they like the slow water.
All good. That's the thing about horses - you take care of them at the end of the day, they take care of you at the start of the next.
