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"Look at my newest invention, Cap'n!"

Azela sighed and put her magnifying glass down reluctantly, wishing there was some easier way to tone down Cupro's enthusiasm than simply giving in, but she knew that if she said "I can't right now, I'm busy", Cupro would be back every ten minutes saying "Are you still busy, Cap'n? Can you come look now?" No, make that every five minutes. "All right, I'm coming," she groaned, rolling up her map carefully and stowing it back in its case. She'd learned her lesson after the coffeemaker.

In Cupro's workshop, there was apparently nothing special to behold, just a shiny brown Spiral coiled up in a corner, apparently watching the action. Then Cupro triumphantly flicked a switch, and the Spiral launched into the air, flew over to them, and settled on his drafting table, looking around with an expression of alert interest as if waiting for something to happen. So what are your new assistant and I waiting for that's so special? Azela nearly asked, until she took a slightly closer look at the "assistant" and realized his scales were a little too precisely even...joined together a little too rigidly...his wings were a little too glassy...the magical runes on his sides were pulsing in a much more even rhythm than any runed dragon she'd ever met before, and was he...whirring a little?

"Cupro...are you telling me you built a robotic dragon?"

"Isn't it great?" he crowed, paying no heed to how thoroughly weirded out she was. "I'd have made it look like a Ridgeback if I'd had the parts to do it with, but the parts Triumph gave me made a Spiral the easiest design...I wonder if he did that on purpose?"