Pepper didn’t know exactly how far he had gone. He had chosen a music playlist called nostalgia and many of the songs that played reminded him of his family. That was enough to keep his internal engine chugging along as he followed the curved roadway all throughout the area.

  Not only that, but whenever his body tried to encourage him to stop, he’d take a quick glance down at Amprage. His earphones weren’t loud enough to drown out the noise the metal paws made as the familiar trotted alongside him. The rhythmic clank was amusing enough, but it helped bring him back to the present moment.

  Just when Pepper thought it was time to slow it down and finish out the run, his mind would replay the comments he had received in his direct message bin. The scolding comments then brought his determination back and he’d lower his head down and charge forward. The length of his run extended every time it happened.

  It was his body which finally forced him to stop as his entire body finally seized up in excruciatingly painful cramps. Stupid… I should have grabbed a body of water before I left. A quick scan of his location and he reoriented himself with the direction he needed to travel to get back to the house. He practically had to hobble back all while his soaking wet clothes began to inform him of every tiny inch of his skin that was now chaffed.

  Pepper and Amprage had just crested the final hill on the street that led to their house when they caught the gaze of another running pair. Pepper first noticed the girl who appeared to be his age, but soon diverted his attention to the massive Rottweiler that had locked on to Amprage. The canine immediately began to growl as it launched forward into a sprint, the vector aimed straight towards his familiar.

  Pepper caught Amprage who immediately reacted with a defense position which indicated he would protect his bonded master. “Easy Amp… just stand down.”

  “I am programmed to protect you Pepper!” Amp rallied back in response.

  He quickly lunged to stand in front of his familiar and block the approaching threat. He extended his arms out to try and show the threat that he would not allow an unimpeded advance. Pepper quickly paused his music and could now hear the dogs owner yelling out for her companion.

  “Tank! No! Get over here!” She yelled.

  Her voice echoed across the pavement and Pepper noticed she was quickly chasing after the beast. Her efforts to catch him in time were clearly not going to work. The dog closed in and then to Pepper’s surprise the rottweiler began to slow.

  Tank was now hesitantly drawing near to Amprage. The hair on the back of his neck and ridgeline stood straight up while a guttural growl continued to reverberate out of him. Pepper quickly called to Amprage to remain calm and not react aggressively to the pet.

  “Hey Tank… what’s up big guy.” Pepper said in a soft but with a uptick of excitement.

  The dog finally came to a stop directly in front of Pepper’s legs. He glanced down to see that Amprage was directly behind him. Their two noses met directly off his left leg and Pepper side in relief as Tank seemed to slowly draw back on his aggression.

  The canine’s curiosity now continued and Pepper started to let his heart settle. He watched as Tank had now continued around Pepper’s side and investigating sniffed over his familiar. The pet gave small tasteful licks upon Amprage’s metal skin and his short stubby tail began to wag.

  “See Tank, it’s okay. There is nothing to worry about.” Pepper reassured him. He could just see the woman had now arrived out of his side view. He looked up to see her dark brown hair was tied back in a ponytail. She had dark brown eyes which showed an embarrassed look while her skin glistened with a small sheen of sweat.

  “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry about this! He rarely ever takes off on me like that.” She reached down and grabbed hold of Tank’s choker and attacked a leather leash. “Bad dog Tank! You should know better, this familiar is clearly not a demon, you block head.” She scolded.

  Her statement caught Pepper off guard and now he had not an ounce of concern but was filled with curiosity. “Your dog can sense demons?”

  She pulled back on the pet and Tank immediately recognized the command and sat down beside her. The canine wined and cried as it was clear he still wanted to investigate the metal creature there before it. The woman who had been focusing her attention on Tank now slowly shifted her gaze up to Pepper. “Not exactly.”

  She paused and brought her arm up to wipe her face with her sweatshirt sleeve. Pepper then quickly glanced down and saw a golden yellow print at the center of it. War Birds Academy was printed in an arched pattern. Centered directly below that was an emblem which looked like a phoenix. “He’s been trained to sense more concentration of essence. As you may assume, demons have a much higher concentration of essence within their bodies. So, Tank naturally will lock on and react with his protective training and instincts. Familiars such as yours, that utilize essence absorption to help power them, can sometimes confuse him… clearly.” She ended and whipped her head down and glared at him.

  “Wow… I never thought of using dogs in that capacity.” He replied. Pepper couldn’t help himself and his eyes dashed back and forth. His mind now racing with thoughts on how the process would play out in the aspects of training.

  “Yeah… pretty crazy what these furballs can do.” She sighed and then extended her hand. “I’m Elowen. I’m assuming you’re Pepper? You just moved in down the street, right?”

  Pepper couldn’t help but look down and saw that Amprage was staring nervously back at him. They both in comic fashion turned at the same time and gazed back at her. “Yeah… how exactly do you know my name?”

  She softly laughed under her breath. “I’m Elowen Gamble. I believe you met my dad earlier today at lunch?” Pepper could see that she read his expression and she then smiled and raised her eyebrows. “Yeah, let’s just say I got the full debrief on you when he got home.”

  “So, Tank is…” Pepper paused and allowed her to answer the obvious question.

  “Good old military trained guard dog. I can hardly go anywhere without security. Sometimes I just want to get away from it all, but that is practically impossible with the fur missile here.” She tilted her head and rolled her eyes at Tank. The rottweilers ears remained perked up in curiosity, all while his eyes remained glued to both he and Amprage.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  “Gotcha.” Pepper was about to ask another question but saw Elowen glance down at her holodex.

  She quickly looked back up. “I need to get moving. If I stay still any longer my dad will send the Navy Seals to come rescue me. Trust me, that is the last thing I need and one thing you certainly don’t want to experience.”

  Pepper chuckled but quickly stopped when he read her expression. He realized her statement wasn’t a joke, it was a warning. “Oh, okay, yeah we should probably get back home anyways. It was nice to meet you and Tank.”

  “For sure. I would stay and chat but, yeah… you get it.” She then turned and gave the command for Tank to follow her.

  They each waved goodbye, and Pepper returned to his painful stammered walk back to the house. Thankfully it wasn’t much longer they had to travel before they reached the house and he went about getting cleaned up. He popped another one of the pizza’s into the oven and found himself sifting through the movie options on the holoscreen.

  This is the life. He thought to himself as his body melted into the soft cushions of the couch. The warm meal recharged his depleted batteries and he found himself going in and out of a food coma. To Pepper’s surprise, the next thing he realized was that it was then morning.

  He lifted his head to discover he had slept perfectly still on the couch. The holoscreen had switched to a display mode which showed aerial footage of places all around the world. His eyes then carried over to see Amprage was laying on his back with all four limbs sprawled out in every direction. Even his metal tongue was draped out of his mouth. He couldn’t help but laugh as his familiar became more and more lifelike with every day that passed.

  He spent a few minutes of getting up and situated for the day. On his way to the kitchen to get breakfast going, he stepped inside the small laundry room and saw where his dad had stacked all the gifted cases of Big Duck Energy. He groaned, but reached for one of the cans. It was a second later he sighed in relief when he saw he had grabbed a flavor other than mango madness.

  His hands reached up and ran through his hair and that was when he realized. I don’t have to do anything today. Ha! A smile came over his face and he laughed. “I’m really started to dig this new lifestyle.” He said while patting his stomach with his free hand. “I could get used to this real quick.”

  A second later and Pepper had plopped back down onto the couch while he sipped away on the drink. He looked around the room though and allowed his mind to wander back to something his father had mentioned. I really don’t need all this space to myself.

  The through grew into curiosity and he quickly found himself loading up his Golem Chat account. His eyes immediately saw dozens of new notifications waiting for him. He ignored them and navigated through the application to the specific forum area. His fingers tapped away and entered Season 11 Southeast Conference Rooms into the search function. An instant later and he discovered the topic already had a thread with a multitude of comments.

  It was intimidating at first to see all the different individuals who were potentially his next level of competition. The one thing Pepper did enjoy seeing was that he was not the only one out of state that had decided to make the journey to the Southeast Conference. The more time he spent scrolling over the discussion thread, the more reality began to remind him just what the next level of competition awaited him.

  He finally decided there was only going to be one way he would get roommates, and that was to reach out to a few of his fellow gladiators. The next hour he spent investigating the profiles and tried to gauge who he felt would be a good fit at the house. A few people were narrowed down and Pepper then went about sending his direct messages inquiring if they were still looking for rooms to rent out.

  His list got even smaller as only two responded back that they were interested and still looking. Pepper then tried to ask a few more questions to get a better feel for each one individually, but he soon discovered their communication style didn’t work on his schedule. The realization then set in a little later that his two potential roommates were traveling across the country. That only left a small window of time when they were available to message back and forth.

  GolemSmasher_Elite, or otherwise known as Marcus was traveling all the way from Arizona. Marcus had posted in the forum just last night. There was still a full day of driving that he needed to complete, but the few direct messages he had sent Pepper, made it sound like he was desperate to find a roommate.

  Pepper had really wanted to meet both of his new potential roommates before he agreed to letting them just move in. But, he knew just how hard that could financially be on someone. Especially when the majority of gladiators making their way to the regional invitation seemed in similar circumstances to the one he was in.

  They had saved their money as best as possible for this one opportunity. The one chance to make the cut and be professional gladiators. Pepper couldn’t deny that times were tough for many, and every opportunity to save a few FLEX would only help stretch their resources.

  It was only a few more messages the two of them sent back and forth and Pepper finally conceded. He sent Marcus the address and a few minutes later he was sent the updated projected arrival time. Pepper couldn’t help the slight nervous feeling he had regarding it all, but he did his best to ignore it.

  To his surprise, it was only a few minutes after Marcus confirmed his projected arrival time that UltimateEmperorPenguin11 otherwise known as Wilson replied to Peppers message. Wilson was quiet to opposite of his counterpart and practically just said, Yes, I need a room to stay in. What’s the address, I’ll be there in two hours.

  The direct assumption that Wilson had secured the room wasn’t one that left Pepper feeling comfortable with the idea. But, he also reminded himself that this couldn’t only be for a month, maybe even two at best. It was still just over three weeks before the invitational tournament would begin.

  Pepper than assumed it would possibly be a month later when the Regional League season began that he would be getting matches. His mind began to populate the vision of him progressing onward. That would then easily propel him further down this career path and he could then look at truly finding a place of his own.

  The small voice returned within his mind. A soft reminder to not place himself above anyone else. He was there to compete just like the rest, and it was all an equal playing field. He messaged Wilson the address and then started the mental countdown for when his first roommate would arrive.

  “Well Amp, looks like we’re not going to have the whole place to ourselves.”

  His familiar looked back at him. “They’re not going to dress me up like a princess and put lipstick on me are they?”

  Pepper chuckled and mentally thought back to the torture Amprage had suffered at the hands of Meg. “No, they won’t be doing any of that. But… it will mean that there will be less couch space available.”

  The dogs eyes widened. “I call dibs!”

  “Amp, you can’t call dibs.”

  “Why not? Is that not how the game is played?” The golem tilted his head and perked his metal ears up.

  Pepper rolled his eyes. “I mean it is, but it doesn’t apply to you.”

  “And why doesn’t… you don’t love me.”

  Pepper shook his head and snapped it over and looked at Amprage. “How can you say that? Of course I love you.”

  “If you loved me, you wouldn’t be forcing me onto the hard, prison like floor.”

  “The carpet is far from prison conditions Amp. And besides, you’re a familiar…. Wait a second! Again, you don’t have nerves. There is no way for you to tell the difference between hard and soft. Or temperatures for that matter. Taste, smell… the only way you can hear me is through a microphone installed on your circuit board for crying out loud.”

  “I don’t know about that. I can certainly tell you’re being cold hearted, cold shouldered, and… again proving the fact that you don’t love me.”

  “Okay, seriously, enough with the guilt trip. You’ll be fine. Besides, it’s only for a short time. Who knows, we might even make a new friend or two out of the experience. Never hurt to be a little optimistic, now did it?”