[Branch looks thoughtful. He thinks about his grandma. About the sacrifice she made. About how it wouldn't have been an easy death. They all knew it usually wasn't a quick end and that those that we were taken had plenty of time to be terrified before it was over.]

[Branch had felt that personally now, during the time he and the others had been forced to cower, waiting for the Bergens to kill them all, before Bridget freed them.]

[And he thinks about the Trollstices where they hid him and the other children away but the adults stayed out knowing they couldn't hide too. Some had to be taken or the Bergens would look for where they were hiding and find the kids.]

[And he thinks about monsters.]

I don't know how it is for humans but back home protecting kids is seen as one of the noblest things someone can do.

Especially since, for a while, it was always so hard for my people to manage.

Most of those designs have you posed in a heroic way. If you're protecting them from terrible monsters or whatever, it could just be that people really admire you for that.

Who cares about bases or going to...wherever? When it's compared to one of the most admirable things someone can even do?

It might not even be the only thing they admire you for, just the one they admire you for the most.