Oh thank Human God he's not taking it personally. Popp exhales real deep and rolls over so he's looking up but does not remove himself from the floor or break into tears again. He really wishes Hyunkel could hear that himself.

Speaking of former generals:

"Let's see, Crocodine was also evil when I met him, but he's an honorable guy at heart, so once we earned his respect he decided he'd rather be side by side with people who acted like us than people like Zaboera and Hadlar. You might know about Zaboera, he's crazy old and evil and he uses dirty tricks like taking hostages and turning into your friends with the Morph spell and then stabbing you with poison. It sucks! I'd rather be beaten half to death by a big hulking beast king any day!"

A handful of established facts and feelings manage to collide in Popp's brain while drifting around and come to a solid conclusion. He fishes his pendant out of his collar and holds it up, thoughtfully. Just a little bit stronger, just a little bit weaker...

"Hey, I probably managed to stay conscious enough to get that Glimmer off because of this. I guess Crocodine's sort of your friend now, too."