"I spent the night telling the humans about water, and rain, and how it`s a weakness of the demons. Sometimes I masqueraded as a seer, explaining the future. In other instances, I pretended to be a veteran adventurer, who`d fought demons before," Kumbanaka said boastfully. "I especially focused on gryphon riders, since they have the best chance of disseminating the information. I believe I have gotten the word out."

　　"That`s great, Kumbanaka. Thank you!"

　　"But the refugees all tell the same story. The demon army fell upon Hoffendaugn three days ago, and razed it to the ground. The humans who survived were few, and fled in all directions, which is why we`ve seen so few refugees."

　　"So few?" Fred mused. "I thought there were a lot."

　　"Not nearly as many as could be. The demon army is moving fast, too fast for many humans to outrun," Kumbanaka replied.

　　"Aren`t the gryphon riders keeping track of the army?" Fred asked.

　　"The demon army has its own flyers. Wicked and fast. Any gryphon that gets too close gets killed."

　　"That sucks. But the demons will be here, what, tomorrow morning?"

　　"Sometime tomorrow, yes," Kumbanaka explained. "We have a full day and a night left to prepare."

　　"Hoffendaugn is north of here, right?" Fred asked. "So that`s where the demons are coming from?"

　　"A bit north-east, actually," Kumbanaka replied. "Yes, when the demon army comes, I expect it to come right up your nice heated road. But they might choose to stay closer to the mountains, and come at you from due north. They could sweep around, ignore you, and attack the Forest Temple and Martin`s lair first. We`ll just have to see what they do."

　　"Bah," interjected Martin. "Demons can go anywhere, but their siege engines certainly cannot. They will move them through the plains. I agree that the army will come by road."

　　"What about these fliers?" Fred asked. "How do we fight them?"

　　"The humans have arrows and spells, for what that`s worth," Kumbanaka answered. "And some humans have been boasting about arrows with demonsbane tips; Orichalcum with Sharpness Blessings."

　　"They have those? Yay humans!" Fred said.

　　"But all demons have that nasty habit of throwing fireballs around," Martin responded. "The fliers will also be fast. Not easy to kill."

　　"Said fliers will target you, Martin," said Kumbanaka. "You are the biggest flier on our side, and a threat they will want to neutralize quickly. Do you know what you will do?"

　　"Things fly using wings. Destroy a wing, the thing stops flying. I intend to rend the wings of these things, while protecting my own."

　　"That`s a good idea," Kumbanaka replied. "You killed a king using careful planning and clever magic. May I suggest you use the same tools here?"

　　"May I suggest you attend to your own schemes, Kitty?" Martin got testy. "Are you even planning on fighting?"

　　"Oh, yes, Dragon," Kumbanaka breathed. "My deaths against the demon army will be the climax of my book. Many die one glorious death in battle, and leave lesser beings to fashion songs about it. I will die as many times as I can, and live to give it all the detailed epic each death deserves. The things I will learn&"

　　"The only thing you`ll learn is new sorts of pain, you weirdo cat!"

　　They went on like this for a while. Fred thought it was cute.

　　Then the magic changed.

　　It was a bizarre feeling, like suddenly feeling a pressure change in the room. Fred expected his ears to pop, and didn`t stop to wonder why. Instead, he looked up to the Forest Temple, and saw something amazing.

　　The teleporter was working.

　　Well, Fred assumed so. The teleporter stones used to be an empty plaza with a pretty design and two stone pillars. Now there was a big glowy magical thing in the center. It was mainly blue, a bit swirly, and made the magical part of Fred a tiny bit queasy. The new wall blocked the rising sun, and cast the teleport pad into deep shadow, so the whole place was drenched in the swirling blue light. Fred also saw the wizards cheering and dancing around it. "Well, they sure think it`s open. Good job, guys, I knew you could do it," Fred thought.The author`s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

　　As if to agree with Fred, Martin said, "The humans did it. They opened the portal. Imagine that."

　　"So, what? Now people come through it?" Fred asked.

　　"Soon, Oh Spirit," Martin replied. "They have to connect this portal to another one. When they do, it will change color. They`ll probably run several tests, too, before they let a human come through. I`m sure it`ll take all morning."

　　Fred heard the normal singing of the acolytes, like they did every morning. But hearing that while watching the new magical blue portal felt like a revelation to him. Well, not a revelation like he suddenly knew something. He was just caught up in the moment. He felt like a turning point had been reached. Like he`d just realized that the end was near. What end he didn`t know, but SOME end was near.

　　Fred also wondered why he hadn`t heard from Jim this morning. He knew that there were other Spirits under attack, and Jim was trying to tell them what Fred had found out, so he was inclined to just try to not worry about it.

　　"Hello, Spirit of the Mountain. Can you hear me?"

　　Fred heard a new voice calling him. Someone was speaking. Someone completely new.

　　"Yes, I can hear you. Who are you?"

　　"Hooray, I`m glad. Now, I`m Tabitha, the Earth Mage, and I`m very happy to make your acquaintance." Tabitha`s voice was much like Martin`s or Kumbananka`s, in that it was magical, like thoughts. But it sounded faint, compared to the others. Still, Fred heard her voice clearly. It sounded like an old woman.

　　"You`re a human?" Fred asked?

　　"Yes, last time I checked. Hee hee hee."

　　"Who is this, Fred?" Martin inserted himself into the conversation.

　　"A human?" Kumbanaka also spoke up.

　　"Oh, my, a party line. Hee hee hee." Said Tabitha.

　　"She says she`s Tabitha the Earth Mage," Fred told Martin. "Where are you, Tabitha?"

　　"I`m here, in one of your lovely white towers. I arrived last night, and these priests have been treating me very well."

　　"Tabitha, it`s not safe here," Fred said. "The demon army is attacking tomorrow. You should have gone somewhere else."

　　"No, this is where my old bones should be."

　　"If you`re old and frail, this is especially not a good place to be," Kumbanaka said.

　　"But your healing magic is famous. There`s really nothing like it anywhere else. And I was dying. So you see I had no real choice."

　　"Why do you die, woman?" Kumbanaka asked. "What ails you?"

　　"Old age is my curse. Who are you?"

　　"Introduce us, Fred," said Kumbanaka.

　　"Um, okay, sure. Tabitha, that was Kumbanaka& Hidi. He`s a Rakshasa, and he`s living here with me. The other person you heard is Martin, a& True Green Dragon from the Clan of the Eastern Marshes."

　　"Oh, my, such powerful friends you have, Mountain Spirit."

　　"Call me Fred, please."

　　"And you said you are an Earth Mage?" Kumbanaka asked.

　　"Oh yes. The magic of the earth has bound me my whole long life. Of course, my magic is a drop in the bucket compared to the earth magic of Fred. I can feel your magic all around me. It`s rather overwhelming. You know, I was told you redirected a river overnight!"

　　"It was just a stream."

　　"Still, it would have taken me years to do that. But I make wonderful clay pots. Do you need any pots? Hee hee hee."

　　"This is& Human, your communication spell is a dragon spell! Where did you get it?" Martin suddenly said.

　　"Why, my grandmother taught it to me, Oh Mighty Dragon. I didn`t know it was a dragon spell. Though I suppose that makes sense. It`s a very hard spell to say. Quite a tongue twister."

　　"Where did SHE get it? Dragons don`t share their magic with humans."

　　"She never told me. But she was a real scamp, in her younger days. I wouldn`t be surprised if she stole it. Hee hee hee."

　　"Preposterous. Dragons don`t leave their spells lying around like scrolls, waiting to be stolen."

　　"Wherever she got it, I`m happy to talk to you, Tabitha," Fred stepped in. "But I mean it. Now is a bad time. If you can`t leave town right now, you`ll have to hide with everybody else in the bunker I built. The demon army is coming, and they want to kill everyone."

　　"You won`t let that happen, Fred. You and your powerful friends are just the protection I need."

　　"I wish I shared your optimism, woman," Kumbanaka said. "But these demons are fearsome and dangerous, and they are legion. Even if we succeed against the army that is imminent, there will be more. Fred is correct, you`ve come at a bad time."

　　"I`m very tired, now, gentlemen," Tabitha said. Fred noticed her voice was even fainter. "I`ll just sleep for a while. Good night."

　　"Tabitha?"

　　There was no answer.

　　"Well, so that happened," Fred said, to no one in particular. "Hey, I just had an idea. Can they send Tabitha somewhere else, with the teleporter?"

　　"The old mage is unimportant, Fred," dismissed Martin. "Even if the teleporter is open, they`ve got better uses for it."

　　"Yeah, but&" Fred started to reply, but his attention was caught by activity on the Front Steps. A very large group of fighters and wizards had gathered, clearly for some specific mission. Fred saw over a hundred adventurers (all veterans, with scuffed armor and fancy equipment) working together. They cast spells on each other, checked equipment, and generally got ready. Fred saw that the Four Tropes were part of the group, so he wished them well.

　　The group went down the stairs, and moved into the Wurm tunnels. Their target was the Celestial Wurms. "Do they even know about the eggs?" Fred wondered to himself.

　　The battle was long and furious. Like before, the humans were all protected from fire and lightning, and moved as quickly as they could in the confusing and confining tunnels. The Silver Wurms took advantage of the tunnels by rushing the humans and attacking savagely. Multiple human fighters went down under the claws of one wurm, while the other Silver Wurm hung back to protect the Golden and the nest.

　　This turned out to be a tactical error. By itself, the Silver Wurm was suddenly trapped by magic, and set upon by warriors with flashing blades and long pokey spears. Unable to get away, it finally expired, leaving human and wurm blood covering the walls of the tunnel it had died inside. Now there was only one Silver Wurm, and it refused to move from the entrance to the nest.

　　This also was advantageous to the humans. They carefully advanced, brushed aside the lightning attacks, and used the same spells-and-spears method to trap and kill the second Silver Wurm.

　　Only the Golden Wurm was left, and she wailed out a warning as the humans gathered at the den entrance. She breathed a huge jet of fire into the entrance hallway, engulfing the dozens of humans who`d gathered in a tight line. The fire was terrible, white-hot, but when she stopped, almost all of the humans were unscathed. A few who weren`t got shoved backwards, and treated by the support healers.

　　Now the humans rushed into the room. First came the spear-fighters, poking at her and keeping her from moving towards them. Then came some wizards, who cast spells that shoved her with great force. Once, twice, three times the spells crashed into her, shoving her against the wall of the den.

　　Then a magical net was cast upon her. Like the Silver Wurms, this net arrested her, pinning her against the wall. Her neck was also pinned, and twisted at a cruel angle, so she couldn`t see as the rest of the fighters rushed into the room and grabbed her golden eggs. The eggs went into sacks, and were carried out of the den as fast as the humans could go. All seven golden eggs were away in an instant, and the rest of the humans retreated quickly, and in good order.

　　The magical net faded in only a couple of minutes, but before she could look, she knew what she had lost, and she howled out her pain. Fred was watching, and felt terrible for her. He knew that the two Silver Wurms would be reincarnated in thirty minutes, but (he correctly assumed) the eggs were gone to be used by the humans, and would never come back. "I`m so sorry," Fred whispered over and over.