source: https://pdimagearchive.org/images/135cbac2-529b-431a-8074-b23e82c425eb/
There were sounds that she couldn't understand for the Nest-Keeper. The soft ones could make the sounds with their strange round mouths. She wondered how they could exist without mandibles, though it was an idle, unspecific thought that she grouped together as a long list of othernesses the soft ones had. Though she recognized the differences, and somewhere deep inside she wondered at it, she still saw them as part of her Nest. Different, but useful. Likely not as intelligent as she was, what with their need to scurry about hither and tither all the time... but they weren't very long and only had two legs so it was reasonable that they would lack an understanding of the world.
She clicked and chirped at her newest brood, telling them that this one with his strange mouth sounds and fuzzy mandibles that don't work was the Nest-Keeper. A friend to be treated as though he had many legs. Far greater than the other soft ones, on the social ladder. She clicked out a soft rhythm as he approached with great buckets of nutrient-dense food for the broodlings. She uncoiled her many legs from them, letting them spill into the larger enclosure that was the domain of the Nest-Keeper. A safe place, but deep instinct still urged her to limit their exposure to wider areas; to wrap them in the armour of her many legs and segmented body. They hadn't needed to fear many predators in lifetimes - the memories passed down from brood-mother to brood-mother told her that she must be ever wary. Outside of this sprawling nest created by the soft ones were ancient enemies.
The soft ones provided a level of protection and security, and in turn, she and her kind provided them a means of traversing their domain, by allowing them to ride upon her and her kin. Ancient memory told her that once upon a time they didn't have convenient seat-like ridges for the soft ones to sit upon built into the carapace of her back, but over the generations it had emerged to benefit both her and her kind by making them harder to swallow, and the soft ones by making it possible for them to climb up and sit.
She allowed herself to slip into sleep as the Nest-Keeper spread food for the young. She knew when she woke they'd be curled up within the protective circle her body made, and that the Nest-Keeper wouldn't let any harm come to them as they ate. Such was the tradition.
This is a prompt reply for Monsters Monsters! and is through the POV of one of the Giant Centipedes that the city of Modnae uses for transportation.
Join the Worldbuilding Community!
Nice work ! I love the symbiosis between the soft ones (humans ?) and the brood mother. It would be interesting to see how it started, it cant' have been an easy or obvious beginning.
!BBH
!PIZZA
Soft ones in this case encompasses the whole gamut. Dwarves, humans, halflings, elves orcs... Modnae is a pretty diverse city, but they're all squishy and stand on two legs.
Yeah, I definitely haven't fleshed out a lot of that initial "how did this happen" but it would be fun to do some time!
I'm trying to picture a setting where social standing is based on how many legs you've got. The entity with the most legs gets to be in charge 😁
Ahhh, the Ancient Enemy thinks so as well. Those damned giant millipedes. Nothing out-legs a giant centipede until those buggers get involved.
The ultimate humiliation would be punishment for a crime (or by a criminal gang lord) by amputation. But I could see back-street surgeries fitting undetectable prosthetics would do a roaring trade.....
Man, that's a great idea that I totally might steal and explore! lol