[Python] What does asyncio.create_task() do?

What does asyncio.create_task() do? A bit of code that confuses me is this:

import asyncio

async def counter_loop(x, n):
for i in range(1, n + 1):
print(f"Counter {x}: {i}")
await asyncio.sleep(0.5)
return f"Finished {x} in {n}"

async def main():
slow_task = asyncio.create_task(counter_loop("Slow", 4))
fast_coro = counter_loop("Fast", 2)

print("Awaiting Fast")
fast_val = await fast_coro
print("Finished Fast")

print("Awaiting Slow")
slow_val = await slow_task
print("Finished Slow")

print(f"{fast_val}, {slow_val}")

asyncio.run(main())


This outputs:

001 | Awaiting Fast
002 | Counter Fast: 1
003 | Counter Slow: 1
004 | Counter Fast: 2
005 | Counter Slow: 2
006 | Finished Fast
007 | Awaiting Slow
008 | Counter Slow: 3
009 | Counter Slow: 4
010 | Finished Slow
011 | Finished Fast in 2, Finished Slow in 4


I don't understand quite how this is working.

1. Shouldn't the slow_task not be able to run until the completion of the fast_coro because it was never used in an asyncio.gather() method?
2. Why do we have to await slow_task?
3. Why is "Awaiting Slow" printed after the coroutine appears to have started?
4. What really is a task? I know that what gather is doing is scheduling a task. And create_task supposedly creates a task.

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