Fred was torn. He wanted to practice his drumming. But he also wanted to look at everything with his new magic sight. Being an Earth Spirit, he decided to do both. His practice session with Martin had taken all his concentration, which had interrupted his drumming. But now he went back to grabbing/striking his water drum, over and over. He still wasn`t getting any sound out of it that he could detect, but he was game to keep trying.

　　He also looked at everything, thinking "Show me your magic". The mummy was magical, as was the Jinpa, and the Beetle Bros, and the fairies. None of this surprised him, but the mummy`s room seemed to be glowing (faintly) like the mummy itself. It was as though the mummy was rubbing off on its room.

　　Really, all the creatures in Fred`s domain glowed with magic, but most glowed with a green and red magic, which matched the walls. Fred came to assume that was the color of his own magic; it made sense, anyway. The tree was super bright, of course. So Fred set out to see how far the tree`s magic went. He could see silver/gold highlights everywhere in his underground, and on the ground around the main entrance, and even a bit in the town. But he couldn`t see any all the way in the big building. "Huh," he thought. "I guess I could have built the building a little closer&".

　　Then he had a brilliant idea. Okay, a good idea. How about some sort of temple or shrine, within the influence of the tree, where the humans knew they could take their wounded or sick? But he immediately had lots of questions. Shrine to who or what? And how would the humans know it was a shrine, or even safe? So he decided to talk it out with Jim, and maybe Martin, before he did anything.

　　He continued telling things to "show me your magic", looking over the town. Lots of humans were carrying magical stuff, but few of them seemed magical. There were a few people who were obviously witches and wizards, just by their clothing, and the giant books they carried around. They glowed, a bit, but not as much as the domain itself did. Certainly not as much as the tree did.

　　The entourage of the Three Kings did their share of glowing. Fred could see that the Knights` armor itself did a lot of glowing, of several colors. They weren`t wearing the armor; each suit was hanging up on the racks they`d brought with them.

　　Fred also noticed that a couple of the humans in the entourage glowed weirdly. What he saw was that their glow wasn`t the same color as everyone else, but was a shade darker, and it seemed to& shake? Move a bit differently, anyway. "Weird humans with weird magic, I guess", thought Fred.

　　And that was all the looking he wanted to do, cause he felt like he was getting somewhere with the drumming. He now felt comfortable grabbing it and letting go quickly enough that it seemed as fast as hitting it would be. At least, as far as he could tell. So he focused more completely on the drum, and yanked again. But this time he put a lot more effort into it.

　　Boom. Fred`s head spun, and his only thought was, "This is so COOL!" He did it again.

　　Boom. Boy was it loud. It felt like he was using every ounce of his strength to yank the drum. But he had no muscles to pull or harm. So he did it again.

　　Boom. "Crap, what will the neighbors think?" exclaimed Fred, and he looked around. Most of his creatures were looking up, though Martin didn`t move. The humans all over were looking surprised and worried. They could hear it, obviously. Or maybe just feel it in their feet. He didn`t want to stop, though.

　　Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Fred had only yanked his drum seven times so far, but he felt like he`d never grow tired of doing it. It was just so loud, and deep, and authoritative, and& fun. But then he thought, "Okay, I guess I seriously have to learn to do this for real. And I need Jim for that. Hey Jim, you there?"

　　Jim didn`t answer until dusk.

　　The rest of the day was mostly quiet. Except that Fred would occasionally bang his drum, just because it was so cool. It gave him a huge smile. As Fred watched, the Three Kings were indeed packing up to leave. They`d stored everything, and brought their wagons around to the front entrance of the big building, and looked to be getting on the road before dark. "Good luck, guys. I hope Sir One-leg doesn`t die", Fred thought.

　　In the midafternoon, a small group of men came into the domain. Fred felt like he recognized the leader, and he noticed that the group of ten were all big strong guys carrying axes. When they went down the ramp directly to the tree, Fred realized. "Oh yeah, the tree harvesters." But unlike last time, they didn`t look like they were after bark and branches. Fred was sure they planned to chop the whole tree down.

　　The fairies didn`t like that idea. As soon as the men appeared near them, carrying their axes, the fairies squeaked in rage and started throwing magic. This was a big surprise to the men, who spent a minute dodging fairy blasts and retreating to the base of the ramp. They didn`t have any armor, or arrows, or anything, so Fred was sure they didn`t expect fairies, or any opposition, really.

　　Safely at the base of the ramp, the men had their own shouting match. Then, disappointed, they all trooped back up the ramp and out of Fred`s domain. They did stop to buy food from a vendor and check out the Escape Room. Fred figured they`d be back.

　　Good evening, Fred.

　　"Jim! Yay! I got my drum working!"

　　Just as Fred said that, Michaels` drum began beating. The quiet air of dusk seemed to frame the beats, and made Fred think of lonely canyons and windswept fields. Shaking off his sudden artistic ennui, Fred said, "I wanna talk, but I also wanna listen!"

　　Yes, let`s listen. First, ten beats.

　　Stolen story; please report.

　　Fred heard them. Then he listened carefully for Micheal`s "name". He made out that it was four beats, four beats, and two beats. So, SSSLSSSLSL. Fred kept listening, and the beats kept coming for just a minute, before going quiet.

　　It was a message for you, Fred. Michael heard your drum earlier today, and wanted to greet you while I was talking to you.

　　"What did he say, exactly?"

　　He exactly said, `Welcome, new us. I want you to speak. I hear you. Speaking is fun. I am lonely.` So now that you`ve heard him, you should give him an acknowledgement.

　　"I don`t know what to say yet!"

　　Just give him one beat. That`s enough to let him know you heard him.

　　Without another thought, Fred yanked his drum, as loud as he could. Boom.

　　Wonderful, Fred. This is the start of a new era, a time when you can finally speak to your peers.

　　"Should I say anything more?"

　　I think we can spend some time teaching you the drum language now. Would that be fun?

　　"Yes!"

　　So they did. Jim and Fred spent the next two hours discussing and learning the patterns Fred needed to know. Fred would practice by yanking the drum quietly, so it didn`t disturb anyone else. Well, maybe the naga could hear it, but he didn`t seem bothered by it. Fred found that he had no trouble remembering the patterns. He thought about asking Jim about it, because he didn`t think that was natural. But he knew that Jim had already copped to creating, and programming him. So bringing it up again wouldn`t be helpful.

　　They talked about Fred`s name. In the drum language. Jim said that only three Earth Spirits were advanced enough in the language to pick a name, so Fred could pick almost anything. He thought about it, and about how short the name "Fred" was. Eventually he came up with LLSSSSLL. It just seemed like a fun, simple pattern.

　　Fred wanted to say "hello", but that wasn`t a word in drum language. Since every statement began with an announcement and a name, "hello" was kind of implied. After thinking about it, he decided to say, "I am us", which was the easiest way to say, "I`m part of the group now." So he did. Boom. Boom. Boom. Sending out his first real message was exhilarating, and took concentration, but wasn`t hard. Afterward, he listened, and was gratified when Michael replied with a single beat.

　　You are amazing, Fred. But I`ve got to go now. I`ll talk to you later, okay?

　　"Okay. Thank you, Jim!"

　　You`re very welcome. Bye.

　　Fred looked over his domain. It was late in the evening. He suddenly noticed that, while he had concentrated on the lessons with Jim, the Three Kings had finished packing and had left. He felt a little chagrined that he hadn`t noticed. The rest of his domain was quiet, though in the big building, the humans were continuing to eat, drink, and socialize. Fred heard some very pretty music from two skilled human players. At least, to his ears they were skilled.

　　Shelley`s crew was quiet and content, as always. The kids were all gone. And all the creatures were quiet.

　　"Hey, Martin. Just checking in. You doing okay?"

　　"Yes, Fred. I`m fine. And I`m happy that those annoying armored humans left."

　　"You knew that?"

　　"I smelled that. Humans reek, in the best of times. They`re very easy to track, that way. And the one who`s leg I removed? His wound is quite foul. I wonder if he`ll die, on the road. Heh heh heh."

　　"Okay. Well. Did you hear me? I used the drums! To send a real message!"

　　"Yes, very good for you. I liked what you said. `I am us`. Very succinct."

　　"You understood what I said?"

　　"Please, Fred. I told you that dragons have exceptional language skills. And your little drum language is& simple."

　　"Okay. Umm. Hey. You said the naga had a name?"

　　"Regnoweit Bloody-Sands."

　　"Can you tell me more? I`d like to know."

　　"Regnoweit is a sand naga, from the Nagult Desert, quite a ways south of here."

　　"Really? How`d he get here?"

　　"It`s quite interesting, actually. He says he felt a call, like a longing in his heart, and began traveling north. And while one might think that the journey would take weeks or months, Regnoweit recalled traveling only a couple of days."

　　"What, he was in a trace?"

　　"That`s one possibility, but he also neither ate nor drank during the trip, and he didn`t die of dehydration. So, I`m forced to assume that your magic not only charms creatures into coming here, it somehow speeds the trip. Perhaps teleportation, or some other form of spatial magic."

　　"He told you all this?"

　　"And much more. Nagas have a beautiful language of hisses and ticks, very poetic, actually. Bloody-Sands is particularly poetic, in his language."

　　"Wow, I never heard any of that."

　　"Regnoweit doesn`t know why he`s here, or what you are. He feels like he`s been sleep-walking, ever since he heard your call. This bothers him. He`s enslaved, Fred, and he knows it."

　　"I`m no slaver! Every creature in here came to me."

　　"After your magic called them. Charmed them. Ensnared them. Like a rabbit in a trap."

　　"Well, he`s free to leave any time."

　　"I`m not. I`ve tried."

　　"Did you, ya know, hear the call? My call?"

　　"Yes, but I knew what it was, and I wasn`t so easily charmed. But the demons are coming, and I needed a refuge. So I came. I may be your only tenant who really did come of his own free will. More fool me."

　　"I can kick you out, if you want, Martin. Jim said I could do it."

　　"Oh, I`m sure you can, Great And Powerful Spirit."

　　"Stop it, Martin. I just wanted to know about the naga."

　　"All right. Nagas are proud, solitary people, Fred. They learn everything about themselves when they`re young, then run away and live by themselves as soon as they reach maturity."

　　"How do they make babies, then?"

　　"It involves egg sacks. And disgusting odors. Revolting. I will say no more."

　　"So if they don`t get together much, and don`t read or write, how do they know so much?"

　　"I didn`t say they knew everything. And I didn`t say they weren`t literate. But you can`t judge someone by your own standards. Nagas learn quickly when they`re young, and the language they share is passed down then. Naga children recite poetry like human children play in mud. Which is always. Some nagas overcome their natural instinct to be solitary. Some even enjoy the company of other civilized races. Regnoweit isn`t the first naga I`ve spoken to."

　　Is that enough? Because nagas like to recite poetry for every time they kill something. Great, gory details, too. I could pass along some of that."

　　"No, that`s enough for now. Hey, something else. I`ve been using my magic sight&"

　　"Mana sight."

　　"Yes, that. I used it all over. The tree`s power doesn`t reach to the big building, as far as I can see."

　　"What a shame."

　　"Yeah, so I was thinking of making a closer place, maybe a temple or shrine, so the humans could tend their wounded in a place closer to the tree."

　　"Are you supposed to be coddling the humans, or making them tougher?"

　　"Yeah, maybe it`s a bad idea. It just came in my head today. I was looking at all the humans. And looking at the wounded knight. Oh, and a couple of humans looked weird."

　　"How can you even tell them apart?"

　　"No, I mean their magic. Lots of them were carrying magic. But only a few WERE magic. And these two had a weird& shimmer, or something, to their magic."

　　"I couldn`t say. But keep an eye on them. Humans are always up to something."

　　"I think they left with the rest of the knights and their people. But I`ll keep a look out."

　　"Anything else, Oh Great Fred?"

　　"That`s all. Good night."