My skin is too strong for their stingers to penetrate. They don't even try anymore now that they realize I am very gentle and won't hurt them. They never attack anyone who is calm and gentle, and never go after kids. My little yellow and blue protectors have kept many the overzealous paladins from taking my horned head. -- Anon Guest
[AN: I tried some elementary diving into the interwebs to see if this was in reference to anything, but I couldn't nail it down so... inventing a critter now.]
A Hellkin's average life expectancy is thirty-two years. That's not how long they can live, it's the average of how long they get to live. The polite way to phrase it is that their infant mortality rate is very high.
Lots of people share the opinion that only the desperate or the insane keep the devilborn in their house.
Skram was one of the ones lucky enough to remember someone who cared for him. Old Ren had definitely been in the 'insane' category. Ze had not named Skram anything more than 'baby child' or 'dear one' before some holy bigot slaughtered them as a witch. When the banishment spell failed, Skram earned his name from attempting to survive in the alleyways of the town.
It was the paladin hunting him that sent him into the wilderness, and the little opening in the stones, and the surprisingly large cavern beyond. It was Skram's desperation to escape that lead him to the bees.
They weren't bees. Not exactly. Neither were they wasps, nor spiders, nor jellyfish. They were certainly some wizard's abomination set loose in the world, and it was only Skram's lack of height that saved him from their wrath. The following paladin ploughed headfirst into their hive. After spending half an hour enlarging the entrance with lever and shovel.
Skram had spent an anxious hour waiting for the swarm to turn on him, but they never attacked.
They may be magically-created creatures, but they became his friends. Skram learned that keeping some of their comb tied between his horns kept a small flock of them nearby. Which let him forage or hunt in peace.
It even discouraged adventurers sent to "eliminate the scourge" that Skram apparently visited on their home town. Or to recover the "stolen" children that Skram helped escape their abusive homes. The swarms of bright blue and yellow buglike abominations kept most at bay.
Until the Wizard turned up.
The Elf arrived in relative silence, the epitome of calm. Ze was not a typical Wizard, with the hat and robes patched so much that it was hard to tell if there was original fabric to them. Even the Everlast Boots were wearing thin.
"You've come to kill me," said Skram.
"I came to investigate the 'great scourge' of Little Remonstrantz. Though I don't believe you're that great a scourge."
"No scourge. Just a devilborn doing what he can with what's to hand."
"And the stolen children?"
"Not stolen. Freed." Skram took a risk, showed this Wizard the cavern. "They can go wherever they wish, whenever they wish. They'd rather dine with a demon than go back to their families."
"And you manage to feed them all," said the Elf.
Skum gestured at the small hive on his horns. "Our little friends give us some interesting... sort-of honey. That and whatever we can get from the forest. We do fairly well."
"Better than what we had," said one of the kids.
The Wizard did eliminate a scourge. Just not Skum and his foster-family.
[Photo by Lenstravelier on Unsplash]
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