The Deep Drums started up. Micheal and Virginia both spoke up to talk about the nice weather, and the humans. Both Spirits reported more humans than ever. Virginia said that her metal dragon was repulsed by the smell of them.

　　Fred drummed back, and talked about latrines, and the Brown Slimes that had come to live in them, but he didn`t know where they`d come from. He talked about the baths he was making. He kinda felt like talking about everything else, but he knew everyone (including dragons and demons) would be listening, so he censored himself.

　　After that, nothing happened. Fred had a restless night. He kept looking around, waiting for some trouble, or shouting, or bombing, but nothing did. The humans` evening party even seemed muted. What with the attacks on Kumbanaka and Martin, plus Martin`s breath "accident", plus all the regular battles in Fred`s domain, there must have been an above-average number of deaths, Fred assumed. So it was a quiet, cool night.

　　Before dawn, Kumbanaka reminded Fred to replace the gold token, and he did so. When dawn lit up the tops of the towers, Jim checked in, but he didn`t have anything new to say either, so it was a short conversation.

　　Just after dawn, lots more people came up the road to the town.

　　Fred quickly saw that there were two groups. One group was more pilgrims, sick, infirm, carried in carts or on stretchers. This group was not as big as the very first group of pilgrims, but it wasn`t small, and stretched on for hundreds of spans.

　　The second group was quite a bit richer-looking. In fact, dozens of the men riding in the front had clean, expensive robes, and very silly hats. Fred assumed they were bigwigs of some sort, but they weren`t knights or fighting people. They looked like priests or government officials, and Fred wondered how he`d tell the two types apart.

　　As the people got closer to the town, Fred was pleased to see that his town was much better prepared. People came out to welcome both groups. The pilgrims were herded by a few dozen people into a camping area just outside the Town Wall, near one of Fred`s latrines. The fancy priests were shown into town, where they were met by one of the kings. Much jawing happened then, and everyone had to stand around for a long time, but at least it wasn`t raining. And it was cold, but warming up.

　　Fred again saw how the tread of so many feet and hooves turned the common areas of the town into a muddy mess, and he reminded himself to fix that soon. Fred also saw that the area in front of the maze entrance had continued to be used as a triage area for the priestess and her disciples. Even now, some of the disciples were organizing various patients on litters, even as more patients were being carried through the east gate on the Town Wall to join them.

　　The town woke up, and everyone got to work. The front steps were once again filled with potion sellers and food vendors. The sky overhead was decorated with Gryphons flying to and fro. The fighter teams stepped into Fred`s domain to battle the creatures. Fred assumed that a large team would attack Kumbanaka soon, but he didn`t see such a group forming.

　　The new group of silly hats didn`t seem to want to disperse and enter the towers. Instead, after interminable discussions with the king and his courtiers, the group mounted their horses and wagons, and left the Town Wall by the north gate. Now that they were separated from the pilgrims they had arrived with, Fred could see that they had quite a large train of wagons in their group, so it took a while for the full group to leave through the gate.

　　Then the group traveled west, upslope into the trees, giving Martin`s area a wide berth. "Of course. " Fred thought to himself. "They`ve come to take over the Forest Temple. Well, good, I guess. Mebbe they can make the teleporter work."

　　Fred`s attention wandered, and he glanced down into the lair of Mr. Box. A group of fighters and mages were slowly setting foot into the room, and apparently they knew what to expect. Several of the fighters had brought long poles, and they were poking and shoving and testing the various boxes stacked throughout the room. Even Fred would have had trouble identifying which box was Mr. Box, if he didn`t have his magic sight. Using that, Fred could see exactly where Mr. Box was.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

　　So Fred watched while Mr. Box played dead, not responding when a long pole shoved the creature forcefully. The group of humans moved through the room, staying grouped together, hearts hammering, as they hunted the creature, and it hunted them. One of the mages kept throwing what Fred assumed were firecrackers into the corners. Apparently this was another tactic to startle Mr. Box and get it to give itself away. But Fred could see that the bangs were also driving up the anxiety of the humans. He wondered if the tactic was worth it.

　　Finally, as the group stepped past Mr. Box, it made its move. Its lid popped open, its long purple tongue grabbed a mage by her hair, and just like that the mage was half-swallowed. She would have been completely swallowed, but the fighter next to her moved quickly to shove his big metal shield into the box`s mouth. Now the mage and the shield were jamming up Mr. Box`s lid, while its tongue stuck out the side, whipping around and bludgeoning all who got close.

　　Half the team made with the stabbies, using swords and spears to try to mortally wound Mr. Box. The other team members grabbed onto the mage`s legs, and were pulling as hard as they could. They all got clobbered by the thrashing tongue, and soon only a couple of burly fighter-types were still upright and near Mr. Box. One was still stabbing a long spear into the open box. The other still had a grip on a mage leg.

　　Then Mr. Box whipped its huge muscular tongue around and snapped the long spear in two. It used the tongue to dislodge and spit out the large shield. Finally, it slammed its tongue into the ground so forcefully that Mr. Box threw itself halfway across the room, with the mage legs still flopping out of the lid, and the fighter still hanging on to those legs. Mr. Box landed with a bang, and so did the fighter, who let go of the legs and lay still. But the rest of the team didn`t let Mr. Box get away, and raced towards it to continue the fight.

　　Boom! Some sort of explosion went off inside Mr. Box, loud despite being muffled by the box`s body. Its lid flew wide open, and the mage inside went flying back across the room. One of the mage`s teammates reflexively reached up to catch her as she sailed overhead, trailing smoke, but she was moving too fast to be caught.

　　The closest humans to the box (and the explosion) reeled back, but other rushing humans got close and plunged their weapons deep into the wide open box. Mr. Box expired with a rattle. That left the team with the task of working to save everyone. They examined the poor fighter who`d been drug along by Mr. Box`s leap. After a few slaps and a potion, he seemed to come around.

　　The half-eaten mage was now half-cooked. Her entire top half was burnt black, and her hair and shirt were almost completely gone. But after a tense few minutes of emergency attention, she too sat up, wide eyed and coughing out smoke. The team cheered and shouted. The mage raised a tired hand in triumph. Then she fell unconscious again. Her team waited around for the Treasure Sprites to pop, and cheered again when many of them did. They even collected two of the anti-demon swords. Then the whole troop collected their people and left to boast on the front steps.

　　Fred had been immensely entertained. He had no idea that Mr. Box`s fights would be so tense and challenging. And explosive. If he had a face, it would have had a big grin on it.

　　Fred turned his attention back to the new priest-types who were approaching the Forest Temple. They were greeted by the small team of occupiers that had laid claim to the area so recently. Much handshaking and talking went on, then all the silliest hats got a walking tour of the place. This took the rest of the morning, as the priests were astounded by the teleport pad, and then the wall with the fresco. Many of them had to sit down. One of them fainted. This reminded Fred.

　　"Hey, Martin," Fred asked. "You looked at the fresco wall, the one in the Forest Temple. What did you think?"

　　"What does it matter, Spirit?" Martin sounded depressed. "Death every day, in exchange for immortality? I got a raw deal, and I hate it."

　　"Hey now, hey now, no humans have come to kill you today. Besides, I thought you liked killing humans?" Fred cajoled.

　　"Yes, I like it when I kill humans, not when humans kill me. Which they are doing entirely too much."

　　"I get that, I do. And I`m sorry it`s so painful."

　　Fred let the silence between them stretch.

　　"So, what about that fresco? You know about these things."

　　"Yes, I know. Not that my vast knowledge keeps me from getting killed. By humans."

　　"The fresco?" Fred tried to keep Martin on topic.

　　"It`s much older than the most recent occupants. I`d suggested, suggested mind you, that the Dark Order of N`rgoan Acolytes most recently occupied the area, because they were so prevalent here in that era. I mean, around a thousand years ago, when I thought the temple area was collapsed."

　　Here Martin paused; he sounded tired. Fred pressed him. "Neat. Go on."

　　Martin sighed. "The teleport ring is older. I believe it`s about two thousand years old. The wear on the stones, and the style of the mortar suggests that it was built early in the reign of Queen Bionchott, a conqueror who controlled a majority of the continent back then. The fresco, however, is even older. Much older. The designs on the wall are very mathematical, which means it could only have been created by a religious order called the Frequent Mu."

　　"The frequent what?" Fred asked.

　　"The Frequent Mu. They were& It doesn`t matter now. They are long gone, crushed and erased by the last demon invasion. Just like we are destined to be."