As Azim walked his new animal companion back to the carriage, Leone stayed behind with Riva to ask her some questions. “What is that? Where did it come from? What the hell happened?”

The woman gently explained that the moss-covered creature had shown up unexpectedly and helped Azim deal with the borc with the goatee. She detailed how the robot had lost the upper hand for a moment, no pun intended, and had been pinned to the tree when the mosstail saved him. However, it turned out that the mosstail was the thing Azim had wandered off to check out earlier, and what he had given his right arm to. Apparently, the cat-like creature had grown an attachment to the metal man, though Riva was unsure why.

Nodding in minimal understanding, Leone took the opportunity to rattle off about his own accomplishments. “Well, since I know you’re so curious, I handled some pretty serious stuff, too,” the young man bragged.

“Oh yeah?” Riva said with a smirk, entertaining the kid’s pride. “And what kind of serious stuff was that?”

“Well, I must’ve taken out their right-hand man or something ‘cuz this dude could really hold out,” Leone continued. “Not that it was ever a challenge, of course.”

“Of course,” nodded Riva.

“But yeah, he had some cool magic, I suppose. Mine was better, but… still cool. He summoned like 6 earth minions for me to fight before him. Though it was clearly poor quality magic, or a spell which needed a higher level than he was in order to be more refined, because the minions could barely take shape. They just looked like muddy, rocky, amorphous blobs, ha, ha! They were still impressive enough, I suppose. I cut through them like butter, though.”

“Well… good for you, hun’, that sounds really impressive,” Riva concluded with a playfully sincere tone.

“So… is that thing gonna be going with us?”

“The cat? I think so, though I guess that’s up to Azim.”

Almost as if she had summoned him, the android emerged from the bushes a second later. In his quaint, robotic curiosity, the metal man asked his friends if they were going to be coming over to the carriage, and if the group was going to be heading out now that they had dealt with the borcs.

Looking around, Leone suggested they just spend the night in the borcs’ campsite. At first, Riva was taken aback by the idea, but the young man quickly elaborated on his idea. He explained that it was getting kind of late and they still had about a half hour to go to get through to the other side of the forest. Even if they did, he pointed out that if all there was ahead of them was a coliseum of fighters, they might have poor luck finding a place to sleep. And while they could turn around and go back to Milkwood, not only would it be a little over an hour until they got back making it even later, but they would be undoing all their work making it this far just to make the trek again the next morning.

Seeing that Riva was still a little unsettled by the idea of sleeping surrounded by the enemy, Azim chimed in to suggest they provide the woman reassurance that they would not be attacked by the unconscious borcs in their sleep. Agreeing that doing so would help, Riva asked what they could do. Azim told her he was happy to stay up and watch his companions through the night, but Leone offered to just dispose of the threats entirely. He then added the fact that even if the borcs didn’t attack them through the night, they might wake up and go after the town again.

The metal man did not feel it necessary to kill the borcs while they were not an immediate threat, but also acknowledged the threat they could pose in the near future. Before coming to any kind of decision, the robot asked if the group could canvass the campgrounds and look through the maroon red men’s stuff. With any luck, they might find goods or supplies that could help them before deciding what to do.

Leone and Riva liked the idea and started digging through some of the adjacent bags. Azim walked over to where the borc with the goatee had been sitting before everything went down and examined his setup. The large man had left a couple of olive green bags behind, which Azim hoped would contain something of value.

The three travelers rummaged through the supplies for a few minutes. Leone found a couple pieces of meat, a fur scarf, and a knife made out of the bone of some animal. Not exactly sure what he would do with them, the young man still appreciated the spoils. Riva found a small punch of gold coins, which had likely been kept hidden from the boss, and a few loose, tattered pieces of paper. Taking a closer look, they appeared to be pages out of a book. Out of a Spell Book. Finally, there was Azim. Looking through the boss’s bags, the robot found two more knives similar to the one the borc had wielded, though they were rusted and chipped. He also found some pieces of meat, a large, silver block, and, buried under everything else… a small piece of paper.

The scrap was brown, almost leathery, and looked as if it had been torn off from a large sheet. On one side of it, there was something written in somewhat withered ink, as if it had been written over a month ago and ever so slowly rubbed off. A strange diagram, with odd shapes and characters lining the legs of the graphic. While Azim did not know what the paper was, he assumed his friends might know and kept it along with the rest of the stuff.

Coming back together by the unlit campfire, the companions shared with each Peter what they found. Riva admired the scarf Leone had pilfered and offered to trade it for the book pages she had acquired.

“Yo, what?! Let me see those!” the young man begged excitedly.

The two traded the goods they had found and took a closer look at their new things. Leone read through the four loose pages, trying to make sense of them. They appeared to have all come from the same book but were not continuous pages. Regardless, he tried to piece together why these specific pages were in the borc’s bag, and what spells he could ascertain from them. Meanwhile, Riva admired her new scarf, and started thinking of a way to get rid of the doggish smell.

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Putting the food and money aside and saving it for later, the group looked at the last of what they had found. Some old knives, one made of bone, and the piece of paper that Azim had found. He referred his friends to the scribbles on the paper, mentioning that he did not know what they meant.

“I do, dear,” Riva replied. “That’s a Spell Card. Kind of like spell bottles, they contain a dormant magic that can be released when needed. This one… looks like a Save Point spell. Oh! Like that hawkling girl used a few days ago. You remember, hun’?”

“I remember,” acknowledged Azim.

“And how do you know all this stuff?” Leone interjected. “I thought you were just a fabric seller, going from small town to small town, where’d you learn all this?”

“Hey now, I had a bit more exciting of a life a few decades ago,” Riva retorted. “Though I suppose the past few days have been plenty exciting.”

Leone rolled his eyes, thinking he was talking to his mom. “Yeah, yeah, alright, so what should we do with this?”

Riva instructed Leone and Azim to pile all five borcs together so that they were in a joined space. The robot went to work picking up all the men he had brought down, one with the help of his new animal companion, while Leone ran back into the woods to retrieve the borc he had dragged off. Meanwhile, the woman studied the spell card.

Once the borcs were all together, laying on top of one another, Riva told the group to stand back. Azim asked why, to which Leone answered, “It’s ‘cuz save points like these tend to work on a closeness basis. If we’re too close to those meatballs when we send ‘em off, the spell will think we’re part of the group and send us with them!”

“I understand, thank you,” responded Azim.

Riva handed off the paper to Leone, figuring he had a better chance of activating it since his magic level was higher. Memorizing the incantation and hand sign needed, the young man walked over to the borc pile and tossed the piece of paper into the bodies. Stepping back a reasonable distance, Leone clasped his hands with his thumbs sticking out and chanted the words needed to trigger the spell, “Save Point Return.”

With a bright flash of white smoke, the paper glowed, before spreading the effervescent light to the bodies it lay on top of. In a moment, the glowing pile evaporated into nothing, leaving a faint smell of melting wax. All that remained of the borcs Azim and his companions had fought were the bags they had left behind, and the damaged scenery they had caused. “Tah dah!” Leone cheered, flashing his hands at the disappearing enemies.

Now that the borcs were gone, as was the paper, the group decided it was safe to spend the night. Azim went to go bring the carriage over, along with the mosstail that was resting in it, still nibbling on the metal man’s arm. The creature did not want to get out of the cart, nor did it want to give up the limb, but the android did not mind. He petted the mosstail gently between the eyes with his left arm and returned to his friends. Leone was finishing up the campfire, casting a quick Spark to light the firewood. Riva grabbed a few pieces of meat, but after looking over at Azim, figured she could put a couple back. Putting the cuts on a stick, the woman cleverly assembled a rack to rest the skewers on, leaving her free from having to hold them.

“Aim, dear, I didn’t grab any meat for you, because I assumed you didn’t eat,” the woman admitted. “Should I go get some more?”

“No, it is alright,” the robot responded. “Your assumption was correct, though I do appreciate the thought.”

“Oh, okay…” Riva mumbled before speaking up again. “So, what do you do instead of eating? Do you not need energy?”

“My body runs on a self-sustaining core contained within my chest. I function entirely off of this core, resulting in a lack of need to eat, sleep, or recharge. Though I can not read much or tell exactly why, I can read some of the details of my core. From what I can see, it is not intended for intense energy usage. I worry I may need to find an alternative source if I hope to rely on greater power during this journey.”

“That’s… neat…” Leone said in a confused tone, grabbing at a piece of meat as he did.

Riva piped up to answer the robot, “Well, I’m sure we’ll find something, okay, hun’?”

The metal man acknowledged the woman’s words, leaving the group sitting in silence. The meat was ready, so the woman and young man began to dig in, while Azim just watched. The smell of the meat must have been strong because the mosstail soon came to join the travelers. The petals of the purple flower on its face twitched and flickered as it took in the meaty aroma.

Noticing the creature, Azim picked one of the meat skewers off the rack that Riva had constructed. He held the stick of meat out to the dark green cat, letting the creature get close to him. Slowly and shyly, the mosstail grabbed the skewer in its mouth, somehow managing to not drop Azim’s arm in the process. It quickly darted away and sat back by the carriage with the horses. Reminded, Riva got up to feed them, too.

Staring at the lone creature nibbling at the meat while playing with Azim’s arm between its paws, Leone asked, “So, you got a name for the thing yet, or what?”

“A name?…” asked the robot blankly.

“Well yeah, buddy,” Leone smiled. “If the guy’s gonna’ be joining us, he should probably have a name. And he seems to you a lot so you, especially, are going to need something to call him by.”

“I… see…” the android seemed perplexed. “Not that I do not believe it needs one, but I do not think I will be able to provide it with a name. I am unable to be creative in such a sense, so coming up with a name of my own would be difficult. I know of names that exist, but I am not programmed to think that any given name is ’fitting’ to something.”

“Oh…” the young man sighed, looking back over at the creature. “Hmmm… How about ‘Roman’? He’s a pretty elegant little man, and he’s clearly a tough guy if he’s willing to keep your arm away from you. He needs a tough guy name. I think ‘Roman’ would be perfect.”

Walking back to the campfire, Riva chimed in, “I like ‘Roman’. That’s a good pick, Leo.”

As his friends finished up their meals, Azim stared at his new animal companion. While he could not evaluate the appropriateness of the name himself, the android recognized his friends’ approval of the idea. “‘Roman’…,” the metal man uttered. “That name will be sufficient.

The cat perked up, as if it had known it was being talked about. Turning around and crawling up the side of Riva’s carriage, it released the metal arm from its mouth and let it fall into the cart. Shortly after, the creature walked over to Azim and sat, looking up at the robot. Azim, staring down at the moss-covered cat, sat down in a relaxed pose for the first time in three days, sprawling his legs out in front of him. He flushed his cloak behind him, letting it drape onto the ground as he sat down. The ruffles in the cape folded in on his right shoulder, sheltering his missing limb.

In response, the mosstail picked itself up and stood over the robot’s stretched-out legs, before plopping back down on them with its full weight. The cat lowered its head and closed its eyes, feeling the warmth of the campfire and the cool of the android’s steel legs. Leone and Riva looked at one another with a playful gasp. Staring down at his new pet, Azim began to gently stroke the moss-covered creature’s back. The robot eyed the thick, metal collar wrapped around the green animal’s neck. The cuff rose up in the back, behind the cat’s head, opposite where the few chainlinks dangled from. There were two ends to the cuff, bent into rectangular shapes, which appeared to be secured to one another by two metal bolts. Surprisingly, the work did not appear to be magic-made.

Resting his steel forearm on the cat’s back so that he did not disturb it, Azim held his left hand up so that his metal palm was parallel with the heads of the bolts. They were secured tightly, but if they had been placed in there, they could come back out. “Scrap Return,” the android spoke softly.

In an instant, the bolts gently ripped from their holdings. The two meshed ends of the cuff cracked apart slightly. The moss-covered creature perked up momentarily, but the robot shushed it back to its lying position. Azim grabbed one of the rectangular ends of the neck collar and pulled it away from the other, opening the cuff wide enough for it to fall off entirely. The dark green cat sat up in surprise, partly due to the noise and change in feeling, but partly due to its awareness of what had just happened. It turned to look at Azim.

“Good boy, Roman,” the android muttered in a soft monotone, rubbing the space between the cat’s eyes. “Good boy.”