The first light of the sun peeked over Fred`s domain and the town. No one expected the dense veil of fog that covered the eastern fields. Now that he saw it, the fog made perfect sense to Fred. "Whoops," he said to himself. "I hope that`s not gonna be a big problem." The heat from Fred`s hot stones had turned the morning dew into a dense white mist.

　　Fred thought it was actually very pretty, especially where the mist wrapped around the three bridges. But no one from the town could see the road, or the three Tower Forts. Fred assumed that the people in the Tower Forts felt cut off from the town, too.

　　Jim checked in, and Fred showed him all the hot stones he`d made. Jim was non-committal about the idea, pointing out that, if an enemy army was controlling the field, they would enjoy the heat of the stones.

　　"In that case, I`d bury the stones again, no big deal," Fred said. "Besides, the demons aren`t bothered by the cold, are they? Yeah, are they? I actually don`t know."

　　Demons are very tough, with thick skin, as you`ve seen. You`re right, we don`t know if camping in the snow would hurt or even inconvenience them. But we`ll find out soon enough.

　　That was all Jim had to say this morning, so he left Fred to check around his domain. It looked like the priestess and her acolytes were happy with Fred`s big changes from the day before. They still looked busy and harried, but the extra space meant more room in general, and the big main hallway was a big success; it was a smooth, quick highway for all the business of the temple.

　　The battling began, and once again, Kumbanaka was attacked and killed by a large and experienced group of humans. Another large group went to the Ogre Zone and fought with multiple drakes, which took most of the day and wounded many of the group. An even bigger group trouped down to the Cave Zone and challenged the Dragon Turtle. Their strategy was to use an earth wizard to form big walls around the turtle, to trap it. The fighters all had long spears, with which they tried to skewer the turtle, while it was shredding the earth walls with its powerful claws. This took a long time, and the dragon turtle was too tough to really suffer a mortal wound, and the earth wizard ran out of magic. So the battle was a draw, and the humans retreated in good order.

　　Many other battles were happening everywhere, the merchants on the front steps were doing a brisk business, and the gryphons were flying to and fro. It was a busy and energetic morning. And late in the morning, Fred could see that the king was gathering riders, a large number, and Martin was the only logical target. "Oh boy," Fred said. He didn`t want to deal with a resurrected Martin again.

　　The large group of riders exited the north gate (riding by all the grouped pilgrims that hadn`t gotten inside the Healing Complex yet) and gathered at the line that marked the edge of Martin`s lair zone. Then, with the blast of a horn, the king got the group racing toward Martin`s lair at full gallop.

　　When the riders got well into the field, it all went wrong. Galloping horses started tripping and falling over (which, at top speed, was traumatic for the horse and its rider). Looking closer, Fred could see that the ground was criss-crossed by little trenches, furrows in the ground that were hard to spot, but just right for breaking legs in. "So that`s what Martin was doing!" Fred thought.

　　The king and his riders realized the problem, and the horns blew, and the group slowed down to a slow walk, but kept moving towards the danger. That`s when Martin swooped down, and the men did lots of shouting and pointing. But Martin didn`t come close to them. Instead, he flew low over the edge of his circular area, careful to stay inside the ring that Fred had defined for him.

　　As he flew, he breathed out. This breath was not his normal toxic cloud. Yes, it was green and noxious, but it was more of a liquid spray, and it covered the ground, instead of floating in the air. And that`s all it appeared to do, just covering the ground like oil or tar. The king kept his group on mission, and now they were getting very close to Martin`s actual lair. If they went inside, they`d be sure to steal a sackful of gold. Fred thought that (with the dragon still alive) this was a very bad idea.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

　　It was the plan, though, so the humans did it. Some ducked into the lair, while others waited outside for their turn. All of them kept an eye on Martin, who had completed an entire circuit of the perimeter, and was circling again. He had continued to breath out the oily green spray onto the ground, and now that he was flying the circuit again, he laid down another strip, closer to the center. The riders began firing arrows and a few spells at Martin, but he could dodge nimbly while flying, so he wasn`t hurt.

　　As Martin completed his second circuit around the edge of the ring, he was still spitting out his breath weapon, and Fred wondered where it was all coming from. Meanwhile, a few of the riders had hoisted full sacks onto their saddles, and were making a run for it. This was a real challenge, because of the hoof-trapping trenches that Martin had made, and nobody was looking forward to riding through whatever Martin had sprayed on the ground. But as the small line of riders approached the edge of the area, Martin stopped breathing, and flew higher.

　　Then the ground burst into flames. The oily substance Martin had breathed out was very flammable, and in just seconds the riders were all trapped inside a ring of towering flames, and choked by smoke. The smoke was very noxious, and though the riders all had masks, Fred could see that the smoke was hurting their eyes and skin too. The horses went wild, and a few of them raced into the wall of flames, heedless of their riders.

　　Now that the trap was sprung, the king and all his knights huddled near the lair entrance, shouting and wondering where to go. They knew that it looked like they were surrounded by walls of fire. A few magical knights cast spells of cold and wind, which blew the smoke away from the group. But then Martin came swooping in, laying down another long strip of the oily spray across the middle of the field. As the spray hit the ground, it also burst into flame. It was as though the dragon was pulling a rope of fire behind him.

　　Knowing there was no more time for indecision, the king blew his horn again, signaling a full retreat. All the riders rode as fast as they could in all directions. One by one, they were tripped, choked, or burned alive. Martin stopped breathing long strips, and started chasing down riders, squirting oily breath on them, and thus immolating them. The screams of the men and horses were terrible, and loud enough to be heard in the town. Despite the demonstrated danger, several brave humans were standing on the wall, watching the whole thing. They would have been choking, too, but for the wind out of the north, which pushed the smoke southward, instead of over the wall.

　　Fred could see right through the smoke, so he saw when the king`s own horse tripped and threw him into the fire. The king`s magical armor seemed to protect him from the fall and the fire and smoke. But just as the man stood upright, Martin was upon him. Martin didn`t land; he just grabbed the king in his claws and flew back upward through the smoke. Fred watched Martin fly up high, clutching the king in one claw while relieving him of his weapons with the other claw. After the king`s swordbelt and two daggers came falling from the sky, bits of armor started falling down, too.

　　Martin took his time in the air, cracking the king like a walnut, shucking the armor parts off one at a time. Once the king was bereft of armor, Martin flew a careful downward angle, and released the human king like an old-timey fighter plane had dropped a bomb. Martin flew away. The human king fell a few hundred spans, and impacted right on top of the stone wall, with a gigantic splat. There were humans on that part of the wall, but the king`s demise didn`t seem to (physically) hurt anyone else. Still, really gross.

　　The fires took almost an hour to burn out, and Fred was glad that the wind didn`t change direction during that time. In the end, every single horse and rider who accompanied the king was dead, most of them burned alive. The town was shocked into near immobility by the gruesome outcome. Some humans got Priestess Sharfroen to go see if there was anything she could do for the king. By the time she climbed the wall, and approached his flattened, jellied corpse, it was already turning into sparkles. She turned away, shaking her head and crying angrily. "Well, Martin certainly isn`t her friend," Fred thought pensively. "I hope she doesn`t blame me for this. It was Kumbanaka`s idea to kill a king, anyway."

　　"Well, now YOU"VE done it, Kumbanaka," Fred said to him.

　　"Done what, Spirit?"

　　"Martin has killed his king, because you suggested it," Fred said.

　　"Good. Martin wanted to stop the attacks. This was the way."

　　"Don`t you think this will all cause more trouble? The humans need to fight demons, not each other," Fred complained.

　　"Humans are always fighting each other. Especially kings. It`s what they do. Only now, none of those humans will want to fight Martin."

　　"They still want to fight you," Fred pointed out.

　　"If I wanted them to stop, I`d make it so," Kumbanaka said. "Unlike our scaled friend, I learn something new everytime I visit the afterlife. So I`m content with what I`m doing, and with what Martin has done. Is he okay, though?"

　　Good question. Fred went looking for Martin, and found him inside the Inner Wall, curled around the top of the tree shaft. He was wheezing, and seemed to be in pain.