Nahma awoke slowly, his senses dragging him back to reality in a muddy and strange chorus of tingling.

His eyes were the first to open, all seventy-four of them scattered across his monolithic hooked head. It felt like stars flickering on and around him, each one precise and sharp in their individual clarity, a confused mess until his mind drew their combined input into a single, distinct image.

Next was his sense of smell. Faint tinges spread across the inside of his skull as he inhaled deeply, the overpowering scent of rat flooding in, although underneath it were hints of human, pig, and Bain.

Curling his head around, he checked up on Bain. He was still soundly asleep, arms peacefully folded across his midsection with his head sitting on his chest. If he'd been capable of doing so, Nahma would have smiled. The thick ten-foot mandibles protruding above the maelstrom of teeth that composed his mouth did not allow him to do so.

A curious rushing sensation filled Nahma as his antennae flicked upward, twisting and flicking around at sporadic, evidently random angles. They were not random. Each and every knife-like gesture briefly linked him to a shedding, taking a quick glimpse through their eyes and absorbing the information they'd acquired during his rest.

From them, he understood that he had been asleep for only eight hours. A stunningly small amount of time, all things considered. There had been previous occasions where he had slept for centuries. Upon further consideration, he decided that it had less to do with his constantly adapting nature and more to do with the fact that humans didn't leave him alone nearly as much as they used to.

He missed those days.

An unusual sight caught his eye as he sped through his thousands of sheddings. There were three humans on the first layer under Fiftieth and Barack. One of them he instantly recognized as that stupid corpse with the fingers that made objects float and struck harder than they should. He was not familiar with the other two, a female that smelled of fire and a male who smelled of energy and explosions.

The corpse rapped a hand on the five-foot shedding, speaking. "Nahma? You there? We're looking for Bain. Have you seen him?"

Nahma turned to look at Bain, still tucked between his legs and fast asleep. His eyes narrowed as he caught a glimpse of the stump where his son's lower left arm should be.

He was not comfortable with the concept of permanently missing limbs. His own grew back in a very short time, and the cutoffs grew into sheddings after a short time. Creatures that did not share his own incredible abilities were inferior, in his opinion.

Barring Bain, of course. Bain was flawless.

He forced his mind over the reluctant shedding's, and its eyes flooded with white. The corpse smiled, standing back. "Oh goodie, you're here. Have you-"

Nahma cut him off, the mandibles of the possessed shedding twitching slightly as he spoke through it. "I will not allow you to pass unless you give me information."

The female walked forward, eyes wide in... interest? Humans were often terrified of him, and rightly so. Interest was not an expression he saw often. "Are you Bain's dad?"

He nodded, the motion forcing the shedding's neck into an uncomfortable position. "Indeed. You will not enter my tunnels until you grant me the information I seek."

The corpse scratched his head. "I dunno about that, Nahma. I can't really give you anything I think you might use against, you know, humanity."

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

The man spoke in an hurried, breathless tone that made Nahma consider the size of his lungs. "Dude, you're one scary bug! I didn't know 'bout you 'til Stitches said Bain was missing and his room was trashed. Ya look a lot smaller than I thought you would. How'd ya, y'know, have 'im?"

Nahma sorted through the questions and decided he didn't care enough to answer any of them. These people knew Bain personally and seemed to enjoy his presence in a similar, if not subpar, attitude as himself. Their friendly moods did not excuse them.

"I wish to know the name and location of the one who severed Bain's arm. Immediately."

The corpse winced, shaking his head. "Sorry, I can't do that. I know you're going to hunt him down and probably eat him, so as a hero, I can't allow that."

The shedding's eyes narrowed to slits. "I will speak in more blunt terms. I am going to make the person who injured Bain severely regret it. I am going to make his life's goal to end his life. And then I will satisfy that wish, and I will eat him. Whether or not you choose to tell me where and who it is does not matter to me. I will simply find his scent and destroy everything in my path until I find him. Conversely, you could tell me where he is, and I will go underneath him, do my business, and leave everything else alone. As a hero, what do you think the better choice is?"

Nahma had an immense amount of practice when it came to threats. Those half-naked humans that had jumped up and down and bowed to him from several millennia back responded very positively to threats. Albeit, they responded positively to just about everything he did that wasn't eating them. That culture had been... confusing. Eat the humans they shove into his tunnels, don't eat the humans wearing the giant red feathers. Their rules had been constricting. So he'd ended their country.

The corpse seemed conflicted, and the female put her hands on her hips. "You know, I really thought Bain's dad would be nicer. You're kind of mean."

Nahma turned his attention to her. "If someone cut your arm off, would you not want revenge?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, yeah, of course I'd be mad. But would I want to kill them? I don't feel like I would."

He nodded, absorbing the information. Humans really were incredibly strange. "What if they cut the arm off of someone you cared about deeply?" He frowned, straining to remember the phrases Bain had taught him about human family members. "Such as your... mother."

Her hands lit on fire, and she yelped, patting them out on her jacket. "Well, I guess that kind of makes sense now, but I'd still want to bring them to justice, not kill them. That's something that lasts forever."

Nahma snorted, a sound which was produced by rapidly shoving his mandibles together in a loud scrape. "That is my point. If they are dead, they can never hurt you again."

She seemed to think about it deeply, while the human male approached the shedding, crouching. "Wait, are you talkin' about Slice? He's in the Basement under the Tower, right?"

The corpse cried, "Mike! You can't just... oh, crap."

Nahma's shedding's mandibles were spread in the closest thing approximating a grin he could manage. "Thank you for your assistance. You may enter now. This shedding will lead you to Bain." He disconnected, sending a city-wide mental command for all of his sheddings to head for the hollow space under the humans' tallest building. The material there was tough, but not unbreakable. At least, not for him.

Carefully, he raised the row of limbs supporting Bain, and the monster woke up. "Huh? Whass... what's going on?"

One of Nahma's antennae patted him on the head. "Three of your allies have arrived. The corpse, a human female smelling of flames, and a very helpful exploding human."

Bain blinked, standing and working the pops out of his back. "What are they doing here? I thought Stitches - oh, right. I left my bedroom in a pretty bad state. It probably looked like I'd been hurt or kidnapped or something."

Nahma coughed. "You were hurt. I'm taking care of it."

Bain was clearly too groggy to appreciate the effort Nahma was going to in his attempts at revenge and yawned loudly. "Okay. What time is it?"

Nahma briefly controlled a two-inch long centipede on the surface, one observing the shadow-headed super he had deemed a potential threat. There was a glowing clock sitting next to him on a small table, and he squinted as he read it. "The time is presently nine forty-nine."

Bain nodded, still clearly tired. "Huh. Stitches is up pretty early. I wonder what Amber and Mike are doing here? I don't really... know them that well."

Nahma's eyes squinted. "Are they enemies?"

He shook his head, rubbing his smooth head as he stretched. "No, they're pretty great, actually. I'm going to get going, all right? I'll see you soon!" He was off through the tunnels before Nahma could tell him goodbye.

Not that he needed to. There was almost always a centipede watching everyone in his city, which was partly why it irked him that he didn't know who had cut Bain's arm off.

Oh well. That particular issue was about to be thoroughly rectified.