"I'm glad the token was some comfort to you," he says. That's the reason he gave it, after all: so that even when they were apart Roland would have something to tie them together. It's serving its purpose perfectly.

"And he was given to me. I'm sure they would have culled him otherwise, considering he was just a party decoration." He feels compelled to defend the little creature, strange and aggressive though it is (toward everyone but him, anyway). "I wouldn't have wanted to be responsible for that."