The young girl walked in front of Nahma as he spoke, indicating various spinoffs of the tunnel with one of his antennae. "That is a passage further down, deeper into the tunnels. Do not go down there." In spite of himself, Nahma couldn't help but continue checking on her. He couldn't remember the last time someone had depended on him for something.

When Bain had been very young, he had depended on Nahma for everything. He could barely speak, he couldn't fight very well, and he couldn't even hunt rats without Nahma's help. It'd been a strange experience for him. While used to receiving the adoration and loyalty of his sheddings, Bain had been the first to offer his loyalty. To give his love.

Love was a difficult concept for Nahma to fully grasp. He was fairly sure he loved Bain, but it was hard for him to use the word with anything else. He didn't love the tunnels. They were cool, dark, and quiet, and he liked them, yes, but he occasionally missed the sun. He didn't love the taste of rat. He'd been eating those for centuries, and to say the taste had gotten old would be an egregious understatement. The odd rat with powers didn't mix up the menu all that much, either. Neither of those things could be compared to how he felt about Bain, young as the monster was.

On most days, Nahma couldn't remember how old he himself was. He had the vaguest impressions of being much smaller than he was now, but that was as far as his memory went. Even the sheddings were a relatively recent addition to his arsenal, probably a good four or five hundred years ago.

The young girl tugged on one of his legs, and he paused his train of thought, looking down at her. "Yes?"

Very quietly, she asked, "Where are we going?"

Nahma raised his head to the tunnels. "Wherever you want. What do you desire?"

She looked down, her bottom lip curling as she thought about it, her tentacle hair twitching. Nahma allowed her to wait. In the meanwhile, he cast his mind around the tunnels, seeking the thoughts of the sheddings. There had been ominous rumblings coming from underneath Bain's territory, and Nahma was under no illusions as to their feelings about Bain. They sometimes made plots to assist him without actually letting him know they were helping, some of which had turned out remarkably well-thought-out.

For example, on one occasion, Bain had decided he liked a specific type of magazine. As a result, the sheddings all over Centropolis started collecting issues of said magazine and depositing them in the place he looked for them in. Eventually, he'd ended up with every unique copy of the magazine in the city, and had never even noticed the sheddings acting strange around him.

Before he could scan through their recent memories, a shedding approached them with its head held high in pride. The young girl gasped quietly and hugged one of Nahma's front legs. He allowed it, addressing the shedding. "What is it?"

The shedding preened. "Bain has given me a name!"

Nahma grimaced inwardly. When Bain had decided to name a single shedding Gren, the entire brood had rushed to Nahma requesting their own names, and he'd turned them down flatly. It was months before they'd settled down, and Nahma had privately asked Bain to not name any more. It would take Bain more time than it had taken to raise him to name all of the sheddings.

And now he'd done it again. Even though Nahma had asked him not to.

He wasn't sure how to feel about that. Nahma always tried to respect Bain's decisions, even if he didn't understand those decisions. For example, not killing the lying corpse. He still wanted to. Quite badly, in fact, but he knew that if the corpse died again, then Bain wouldn't become a full-fledged hero and would be sad. He really didn't want Bain to be sad, because then Bain would stop talking to him and stay in his sanctum for a long time.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Now that he was thinking about it, Nahma wondered what Bain's real reason for asking him not to be a hero was. He'd been certain that Bain would be overjoyed at the thought of Nahma joining him in his battles and subsequent victories, but Bain... had asked him not to.

He still partially wanted to. It wasn't that he specifically wanted to be a hero, but he wanted to be as close to Bain as possible at all times, to see how he was doing and to see that big smile, and most importantly to keep him safe. Bain had been hurt several times in the short weeks he'd been a hero, and Nahma hated it when Bain was hurt. It made him want to crush the city and level everything until he killed the attacker and his bones were nothing but dust and forgotten memories.

It was getting increasingly difficult not to just send all of the sheddings to the surface and get rid of all potential threats, but once again, Bain had asked him to avoid killing humans!

A good chunk of Nahma's willpower was dedicated to not obliterating the race as soon as he could. If there were no humans left, then there were would be no one left to hurt Bain and his feelings. 

A flash of realization crossed Nahma's mind, a thought so worrying it made him pause. The young monster looked up at him curiously, and he briefly ignored her as he considered the thought.

Were his feelings hurt? Was he feeling bad that Bain didn't spend as much time with him as he used to? Nahma was hugely used to being the alpha wherever he was, used to destroying his opponents with ease, taking full advantage of his impenetrable carapace. Being hurt in any way felt just wrong.

Looking down at the young monster child next to him, he wondered... was it all right to ask someone so much less experienced than he was?

Folding his legs, he asked, "You have been hurt, yes?"

She froze briefly, then nodded sadly, staring at the ground. Nahma tilted his head. "What do you do when you are hurt?"

Her forehead scrunched together as she thought about it, then looked up at him and shrugged. He snorted. He hadn't really expected to receive an answer, after all. 

"What do you do?"

He glanced down in surprise. She didn't seem like the talkative type, but he could understand if she wanted to avoid getting injured. "I do not get hurt. I am unkillable."

Golden eyes wide, she looked down, then hugged his front leg. For whatever strange reason, it did make him feel better. 

Rising to his feet, he stated, "I will get you another rat, and then I will teach you how to make others fear you."

She smiled faintly, then stared away, embarrassed about something. He examined her intensely. "What?"

Touching her fingers together, she quietly asked, "Can I... can I try?" 

Thirty-seven eyes widened, the closest thing to raising an eyebrow Nahma could manage. "Try what?"

A slight red blush rising into her cheeks, she whispered, "Can I get a rat?"

Nahma beamed, even though he couldn't physically smile. Bain had never asked him how to kill a rat! He would get to show this young small monster how to annihilate her enemies! How to shred them into oblivion! How to make all but her fiercest opponents expose their own necks in resigned certainty of their impending demise!

He booped her on the head with one of his antennae. "Of course. But first, you have not yet told me your name." 

Her shoulders slumped in spite of the boop, and he frowned inwardly. Boops had always worked on Bain, though he'd had to apply a lot more strength to make sure Bain felt them. A dawning realization fell on him. "You do not have a name?"

She shook her head, shrinking as she did, and Nahma mused on the information for a moment. "If you do not have a name, I will grant you one. You have a head with many tentacles. It is what I see first when I look at you. So I will name you Heady."

Her eyes widened as she gazed up at him. "Hetty?"

He went with it. "Yes, Hetty. Your name is Hetty. Do you like it?"

Hetty nodded cheerily, and he patted her on the head again. The boop worked this time, and she laughed very quietly. A shiver of happiness rolled up Nahma's back, disappearing down the tunnels. 

Bain might not be here... but at least Hetty was. 

Maybe there were two things he loved.