A boy, 18 years old with a body of a 13 years old child. Barely an adult, yet responsible for over 50 children all younger and smaller than him. He never met his parents, they never named him, but the children, they all called him Big Boss. That used to be his name, until he had to interact with other adults, and they all laughed at him. Now, his name is John … Big Boss John, or Big John.

  Big John fancy himself the guardian of Hazen’s Street Urchin. He ran the biggest pickpocketing and begging ring in the portside of West Hazen. While they were not particularly good at it, they did well enough that Big John was able to gather enough funds to feed all his underlings and armed some of them.

  However, all of that was not enough to make him and his gang of street urchin to be a major player in Hazen’s gang scene. They barely had any influence among the portside gang. And now, he heard some worrying rumours, that some of his kids tried to steal from the Burhan gang and failed miserably. War is looming, an unwinnable war. Worst case scenario, they have to leave the portside, a lucrative area for pickpocket operation … No. Worst case scenario he might lose his life with one misstep.

  “John!, Big John!” a young boy’s voice disrupts his train of thought. He recognized this voice. It’s the voice of an average boy in his gang who always hangs out with two girls. They are nameless, but John remembers them because the older girl was particularly quite attractive compared to the other girls in his gang. He hasn’t seen them since yesterday, however that wasn’t that uncommon in his gang. There were 50 of them, so usually they spread out in clique and only go to meet him to pay their contribution to the gang or to get their ration whenever they are not able to secure any food for themselves. Considering their pick pocketing skills, he assumed the latter.

  “D’aka, grab some rations.” D’aka, a Taon adolescent, a race of large humanoid with bull horn, grey-skin, and their most defining feature, 4 arms. These traits made D’aka the strongest and largest kid in the gang. And with his obedient personality, D’aka made a perfect right-hand man. Funnily enough, even though he’s a right-hand man, D’aka has more left arms than right. His lower right arm was cut long before they ever met.

  “D’aka?” The normally obedient D’aka wasn’t listening to him at all. He was focused on the kids, or rather, the entity behind them. D’aka’s face went pale. John wasn’t paying attention to the kids before, but now he saw a small black figure, with hair so long it covered its whole body following the kids from behind.

  “What the?” John stepped forward, but he immediately jerked back. The smell, it was putrid. Even for a street urchin like John who never purposefully bathed himself, the thing's smell was so overbearing that it made him gag. While D’aka and John stood frozen, the kids approached them.

  “John, look at who we met.” Grigori excitedly introduces Regulus to John and D’aka. As Regulus draws closer, John and D’aka reflexively backs away. “What is that?”.

  Grigori looks at Eda and Azali, all of them quite unsure at what exactly is Regulus. “Uhm, his name is Regulus. His human … I think.”

  “Regulus …” John was quite befuddled that this thing has a name. “AND I’M AZALI”, screamed Azali, wanting to show off her new name. “Wha…”

  “Oh, that’s her new name. I’m Gregori by the way.” He said without missing a beat. “And I’m Eda.” She didn’t want to be left out.

  “You all, give yourself a name?” John was perplexed by the situation. Not only there’s a mysterious being, these kids happily gave themselves fancy names, and did the little one just call herself Azali?

  “REGULUS GAVE US HIS NAMES.” said Azali proudly. This was a bizarre situation for John, so he tried to look at D’aka to find out what he was thinking about the current situation. But D’aka was just standing there silently. He was always a taciturn kid, but he was never so subdued not to utter a single word when the little ones were being energetic.

  D’aka couldn’t take his eyes off Regulus. Cold sweat running down his cheeks. His whole body was tense. D’aka wasn’t even paying attention to John.

  Having enough of the awkward situation, John decided to take the initiatives. “Well Regulus, nice to meet you. I’m Big John.” John stepped forward and offered his hand to the ball of black hair.

  And Regulus offered his hand back.

  Seeing that black hand, D’aka drew two of his sword blades and rushed in. He planned to strike Regulus with his blade, but he held his sword. While strong, D’aka does not have enough fighting experience … Yet those experiences were enough for him to know that striking Regulus would achieve nothing but break his blades. He grabbed John by the collar and pulled back in an instant.

  If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

  “Hueg”, the force of the pull choked John and he fell to the ground. “D’a…” before he could complain, he saw D’aka posturing against Regulus. While Regulus just stood there,

  Still offering his hand. Unconcerned with D’aka.

  However, Eda, Grigori, and Azali were very concerned. D’aka was the gang’s big brother and enforcer. Whenever he got physical, it meant the situation was very dangerous. They understood why D’aka reacted this way. They too were deathly afraid of Regulus when they first saw him. They wanted to calm the situation, but they did not have the words to do so.

  D’aka was shaking.

  His instinct was telling him to run.

  He couldn’t.

  He has four things to protect.

  And his three arms wouldn’t be enough.

  So he steeled his heart and stepped towards death.

  “AAAAAAH” but the stress got to Azali first. Young she may be, she understood that one of her beloved protectors and elder brother was heading toward his death, trying in vain to kill her new friend that had shared her his precious name.

  That cries was enough to freeze D’aka. He had resolved to die with his charge, that cries distracted him, stopping his momentum to look at his little sister with worry. And that’s when he saw …

  Regulus stood next to Azali. His hand reached towards her.

  “NOO…” D’aka cried in panic. The smallest of them all, the one he needed to protect at all cost so close to death.

  Pat

  Regulus’ hand gently strokes Azali’s hair.

  “Hic… Uaaah” Azali cried louder. She sank into Regulus’, drowned, disappeared into his long hair. His hair muffled her cries.

  Seeing that, D’aka realized. As dangerous as he is, Regulus was at the very least not a threat to his little siblings. He decided to sheathe his blades. “D’aka.” he offered his hand to Regulus.

  ******

  Regulus was following his new herd member. They’re weak and young. He need to take care of them. They were talking about how they’ll introduce him to their herd.

  ‘Our.Herd.Grow.’

  He’s excited. The herd will get new members.

  “There they are. Hey, John. Big John.” Grigori ran towards the two smells.

  “Name.Big.John”

  There’s two smells. One of them smells of blood and iron. The other smells of copper, silver, and sulfur.

  ‘That’s.Big.John.’

  Based on the echoes, the one who smells of blood and iron must be Big John. After all, he was the bigger one. But the smaller one was the one who replied.

  ‘That’s…Big.John? … Not.That.Big.’

  Big John said some words. And small John smelled nervous. Heartbeat, fast. Small John was wary.

  And the youngling started getting excited. Big John sounded confused. Smelled confused. Small John … Heartbeat, faster. Sweat, smelled. Muscle, tense. Fight, or Flight?

  ‘Prey?Predator?’

  Regulus was quite unsure of small John’s next action. But Regulus was sure there was no predator nearby. Thus he lowered his guard around the Johns.

  “... meet you. I’m Big John.” Big John stepped forward and thrusted his hand towards Regulus.

  ‘Not.Predator … Social?Copy.’

  Regulus offered his hand back, copying Big John’s social ritual.

  And Small John leaped. He pulled his claws that smelled of Iron, Rust, and Blood. But then he grabbed Big John and pulled him back.

  ‘John’s.Social.Ritual?’

  Is that how the Johns do their species ritual call … No, Small John was scared. And he now bares his claws at Regulus … even with his claws out, he just stood there for a while … menacingly. But not enough to be a predator. So Regulus was unbothered.

  Then Small John took a powerful step, he was about to leap at Regulus. But he was stopped by the youngest youngling’s cry.

  ‘Hungry?’

  No, Regulus did not smell hunger from her. It was fear. Fear that Small John and Regulus would fight.

  ‘Silly.Azali.’

  Molrret don’t fight each other. Herds don’t fight each other. Azali’s herd, also Regulus’ herd. Regulus approached Azali. As the most experienced Molrret, he’ll do what all adult Molrret do to scared younglings. Huddle.

  Regulus moved his hand. He stroked Azali and huddled with her.

  It was very effective. Azali no longer afraid. Small John no longer afraid. Molrret’s wisdom never wrong. Small John retracted his claws and approached Regulus. He offered his hand to Regulus.

  “D’aka”

  ‘Name.Not.Small.John.Name.D’aka’

  Regulus now understood that Small John was in fact, not Small John. so he offered his hand back to D’aka. Their hands were both hanging in the air. D’aka smelled hesitant, a tinge of worry.

  Then he clasped his hand with Regulus’ and started shaking it. So this was the John's social ritual. “What’s your name?” D’aka asked.

  “Regulus. My name is Regulus.”

  *******

  Big John, ass on the ground, thought to himself. ‘What in God’s name is happening today?’