Good evening, Fred. Wow, what a party!

　　"So much to say, Jim. I missed you this morning."

　　I`m sorry. The demon bombs hurt many of your peers in a coordinated attack, but no Earth Spirits were killed, so that`s good news. It would have been much worse if you hadn`t warned everyone.

　　"You warned everyone. I just got bombed."

　　And you survived to tell me. Don`t downplay this. You`ve become someone we can all rely on. You help your fellow Earth Spirits every day, and I want you to know how much I appreciate it.

　　"Great, but I`ve also got a demon inside me."

　　What? Oh, yes. Oh, my, Fred. How did this& I suppose& Your magic was never supposed to treat demons like other creatures.

　　"Well, Martin said that this sort of demon is super stupid. But everyone agrees it`s still super dangerous."

　　Martin is probably right. While I don`t know everything about demons, I know that demons like this one were sometimes left behind from the previous demon invasion, five thousand years ago. They can`t really die of old age, and they can`t find their way out of whatever hole they wander into. So they get trapped deep in the earth, until some unlucky miners find them.

　　It`s possible that this one was here for all those years, tucked away in a forgotten corner, and Aeru slowly claimed the demon as one of her own creatures. Which is how your magic works; Aeru`s creatures all have a magical signature that your magic uses to `unlock` and control them. Yes, it makes sense. After being trapped on Aeru for so long, it was acclimatized just enough to be susceptible to your magic.

　　"So it`ll be okay, as a creature in my domain? I mean, it`s not gonna get out and smash up everything?"

　　I hardly think so. But if it did, you`d be powerful enough to deal with it. You could just drop it into a deep hole, and it would be right back where it started. And as a training resource for the humans, it really couldn`t be better.

　　"Okay. All right. Anyway, I moved Martin."

　　Oh yes, I see. Such an amazing lair upgrade.

　　"It was the least I could do, after he got blown up trying to save us from the bombs. But now I`m worried. He drove a hard bargain, and the ring around his new lair. Well, he agreed not to kill humans outside that ring. But it`s so big. Too big, I think."

　　I assume the humans have been fighting him today?

　　"Yes, and that`s another thing. So, these magic birds showed up, and nested in the healing temple. And they have healing magic!"

　　Amazing, Fred. That does seem like a bit too much healing magic, all packed into one place.

　　"Yeah, and the priestess sang with the birds, and all the health magic went crazy, and all the humans got a golden glow, and they couldn`t really die, so&"

　　When was this?

　　"Um, late morning. So the humans have been rampaging all day, pretty much. And now they`re partying about it. And anyway, they killed Martin twice. Even though I`d given him permission to fly around and fight anywhere in the big ring."Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

　　That must have taken a great many humans.

　　"Yeah, and have you seen how buff Martin has gotten? He says all the health magic affected him too. He`s a lot bigger now."

　　No, I hadn`t noticed. Yes, he`s significantly bigger. I imagine he was getting cramped in his old lair. What do you intend to do with his old lair, by the way?

　　"I& I hadn`t thought about it. I bet some new creature will come along. That`s what they normally do, anyway. Have you seen my big lion queen?"

　　Oh yes. Very impressive. This is what happens when you listen to me, and keep digging. I`m very proud of what you`ve made here, Fred. You should be proud, too.

　　"Um, I am, I guess. Hey, the humans brought riding gryphons! That was my idea."

　　Yes it was. Amazing. Your town is going to be a city, whether you like it or not. The humans will need even more housing, and probably more water and food, too. I love the walls you built.

　　"They weren`t hard. Walls are walls." Fred said dismissively.

　　Yes, simple, tall and strong. That`s all you need, I think. I`ll tell everyone about your walls, and suggest that they make some too. Is there anything else I should know, before I go?

　　Fred told Jim about the feeling he`d gotten when the health magic went off. He talked about how Martin and Kumbanaka had felt the gaze of a god, too, but neither had anything meaningful to say about it. After thinking a bit more, Fred had nothing more to report, so he and Jim said goodbye.

　　A few minutes later, the drums began. It was Virginia, drumming louder and with more confidence. She talked about building her own wall. She talked about having trouble finding as much water as she wanted. She talked about getting a metal dragon of her own, as a new creature. Fred wasn`t sure what sort of metal it was, or even if it was an actual dragon. There were a few words for specific creatures, but the drum language mostly had generalized terms, and creatures were referred to by adjective combos, like "huge wings breath lizard" for dragon. And Virginia didn`t say what sort of metal her dragon was; she just used the word for metal.

　　After she was done, Micheal started drumming. He talked about building a wall, too. He said he had too much water, and said he would give Virginia some. Fred was fairly sure this was a joke; he`d never actually heard a joke in drum-language before. He also talked about his new creature; a giant duck. That sounded weird, but the way Micheal described it, it couldn`t be anything else but a gigantic bird that floated in a pond. He also said he had experienced a rainstorm at dusk.

　　After Michael, Fred started drumming. He spoke about his towers, and how gryphons with riders had come to live in them. He then spoke about the magic birds in his temple. He spoke about how the priestess had sung with them, and the magic went wild, and the humans couldn`t die for a day, and what happened after that. He complained about how the humans were still having a big party, and how loud it was. He thought about making a joke about demons sneaking up on the humans while the party was distracting everyone. But he couldn`t figure out how to say it without the listener believing it had happened, so he stopped himself.

　　Just a few minutes later, something showed up. Not on land. Underneath it. A very strange feeling for Fred, who was used to things happening on the land surface, or inside his tunnels. He focused on the feeling, and saw a huge creature literally digging its way through solid rock, heading into his domain from below. It was hard for him to get a good look at it, since it was so compressed by the rock it was piercing, and it was just entering his domain. But he knew it was big.

　　There wasn`t anything to do, but he did tell Martin and Kumbanaka about it. Kumbanaka was out among the humans again (in magical disguise), and Martin was holed up in his new lair. Both seemed unexcited by Fred`s news.

　　Soon enough, the digging creature broke through the ground. It had come up in an empty lair in the Cave Zone, almost as if it had aimed for that spot. It climbed out of its tunnel, and shook itself vigorously. Fred waited until the dust settled, and took a good look at this digger.

　　It was armored, gray all over, and looked (a bit) like a dragon, with four powerful legs, a long thick tail, and a long snout. But it was armored like a turtle. It wasn`t really round like a turtle, but all of its back, and down to its sides, were covered by one massive shell. There were spikes everywhere; along its back/shell, on its head, the tip of its tail, on its knees. It looked like a turtle that played dress up, of an armored knight. An evil knight.

　　Though it looked somewhat like a dragon, it didn`t seem to share Martin`s intellect. It didn`t make any attempt to communicate with Fred. Instead, it started digging all around its new lair. With its extremely powerful front legs, and its huge spade-shaped claws, it quickly tore up the entire floor of the lair, turning flat smooth stone into huge loose piles of spall and rock chips. Since the rock was also gray, Fred could see the beast camouflaging itself as just another rock pile in the room.

　　Then it turned green, and laid down to sleep. "Well, that was easy," thought Fred. He used his lair sight to double check what the beast wanted, but he saw that the creature was already quite satisfied with the lair it chose. Fred had nothing to do.

　　"Well, what is it, Fred?" Martin asked him.

　　"I dunno. A really big turtle lizard thing. It likes to dig." Fred decided not to say that he thought it looked like a dragon. He worried that Martin would be offended by the comparison.

　　"Has it joined your menagerie?"

　　"Yep, it`s green and happy now."

　　"Well, let`s hope&"

　　Martin was cut off by a crack of thunder. The air had grown thick, Fred now felt, and the wind was picking up. "Is it gonna rain?" Fred asked. He`d kinda meant to ask himself, but Martin and Kumbanaka both heard his question.

　　"It smells like a storm; a large one," Martin replied.

　　"It looks like one, too. Everyone is scrambling to get undercover. I`ll wager I should too." Kumbanaka added. But before he could, the skies opened up, and the first real storm Fred had experienced on Aeru assaulted them. Thunder cracked. Sheets of cold rain obscured everything. The storm went on for twenty minutes, before passing by, leaving a lot of water and a deep chill in the air. Fred looked around at the town, and saw that every human had found some sort of shelter. The only thing moving in the town was a thick layer of swirling fog.