“Why did he destroy my home? Why is he hunting us?” Eva furrowed her brow. She shuddered at the memory of Besteel eating the organs of the slain animal.

“Us? I don’t know if he’s after us, Eva Nine.” Rovender shook the dirt from the clutching roots of the moss. “I believe he’s after you. For some reason he thought I was luring you away from him.”

Eva let out an incredulous gasp. “After me! What?” Her eyes went big. “I didn’t do anything to him! This doesn’t make sense.”

“I wish I could tell you more,” Rovender said as he opened up his rucksack. “But there is nothing more to tell. Besteel is not one to disclose such things.”

Eva turned away. She could feel that coil of dread slither down and settle in her stomach. Disregarding it, she watched as the armored behemoth approached them at a slow, steady gait.

Rovender glanced up from rummaging through the belongings in his pack. “I think you have a new friend,” he observed.

“Oh, Otto?” Eva said, smiling at the behemoth. “He told me he’s watching over me in return for setting him free.”

“Ot-to? Told?” Rovender blinked in astonishment. “Does he speak to you?”

“Oh, yes. Can’t you hear him?” Eva fanned her ears with her hands. “His voice is like a soothing song in my head.”

“I cannot. But he told you his name was Otto?” Rovender eyed her, seemingly suspicious. He pulled out a ball of twine from his rucksack.

“Naw, I named him that,” Eva said with a smile. She gazed over at Otto as he scratched his ear with his back paw. “I have always wanted a real, living pet, and now I have one.”

“A pet! That?” Rovender exclaimed. “Eva Nine, I have heard stories of beasts telepathically imprinting onto others—like wild dargs becoming tame for frint farmers—but what you call a ‘tardigrade’ is no pet.”

“I didn’t call him that. I told you that’s what the Omnipod identified him as: a species of tardigrade, also known as a ‘water bear.’” Eva waved the Omnipod at Rovender for emphasis. It also said water bears are microscopic, she thought. Why is everything so gargantuan? Have I somehow shrunk in size? She dropped the Omnipod back into her satchel and pulled out a handful of nutriment pellets.

“Well, Otto should return to his herd. He’ll be safer there.” Rovender grabbed a bottle from his pack of belongings.

“I told him he could leave, but he refused,” Eva said, popping the pellets into her mouth, like candy. They tasted like potatoes. She glanced back over at Otto, who was now cleaning his wounded foot. Eva continued, “He said he was separated from his herd, and they have moved on, far away from here.”