As the morning wore on, Fred saw humans discover the Maze entrance, and start to explore it. He was glad to see them exploring in groups, since some of them inevitably walked into the pit traps. There was screaming and shouting and broken bones, but the injured were all hauled out without delay. Fred still didn`t like to see anyone suffer, but he was proud that his traps had worked as intended.

　　At noon, even more humans had been informed of the Maze, and went off to explore it. Almost all the monsters were left alone, while the humans stampeded through the Maze (Fred felt that way, anyway). However, another group of humans had sighted the fairies, and were busy watching in awe. Every few minutes, another couple humans gathered at the base of the ramp, staring out into the tree shaft, entranced by the fairies` antics.

　　The fairies seemed to have limitless energy; they hardly ever sat still. They never really left the tree, though. The greedy humans who wanted to capture them knew they`d have to get close. One trio held blankets in their hands, presumably to catch and wrap a fairy, as they walked carefully towards the tree. They made it almost all the way before the fairies attacked.

　　Suddenly every fairy was blasting the kidnappers with magical bolts of every color. Beards were burnt off, hands were encased in ice, eyes burned with noxious acids. The three mighty blanket hunters turned and ran as fast as they could, smoke and fumes trailing behind them. The rest of the humans goggled, and then laughed at the show. The fairies joined in, laughing and jeering and making exaggerated and offensive poses. Nobody else was foolish enough to bother the fairies, and soon the humans all went back to their previous work.

　　In the afternoon, the Three Kings came back to Fred`s domain, but without their followers and sacks. They carried swords, not the wicked barbed lances that Fred supposed were designed just for dragons. Still, Martin smelled them coming, and got very tense. But they didn`t bother him. Instead, they stepped into the beetle brothers`s lair. They`d clearly been briefed, so they carefully went to every rock and mound, poking it to test it. Eventually they flushed the big beetles, who leapt to the attack all at once. Two of the knights made short work of their beetle opponents, stabbing them in a weak spot and running them through.

　　The third beetle managed to knock a knight over, and was busy mashing the man into the sand, while trying to bite through the guy`s metal armor. Said metal armor was up to the task, however, and the man eventually turned over onto his back and kicked the beetle off.

　　The remaining beetle and the knights faced off, the knights drawing together, while the beetle began beating its wings. It began to hover, a span off the sandy floor, and a great deal of dust and sand was kicked up, obscuring everything. The wings kept moving faster, the wings singing higher and louder. Fred was amazed. The Beetle`s wings were beating so fast, they were just a shimmer.

　　Then the beatle seemed to teleport behind the knights in an instant, taking them by surprise. A knight was knocked down. Then the beetle teleported again, and another knight was knocked down. The teleport happened one more time, but the remaining knight seemed to know exactly what to do, and his sword was ready to plunge into the beetle when it appeared behind him. Just like that, the dead beetle`s wings stopped, and the body hit the sand with a thump.

　　"Wow. If I hadn`t seen it already, I`d totally believe these guys could face a dragon", Fred thought. Several treasure sprites popped, but the Three Kings ignored them, and strolled out to face the mummy. As usual, the awakened mummy popped out of its coffin and charged right into them.

　　The knights didn`t seem to want to win with fire. Instead, they matched the mummy`s strength and speed, blocking its wild flailing and hacking at its limbs. A knight was knocked down a couple of times, but eventually the mummy couldn`t stand up on hacked up legs, and then a sword swipe lopped its head off, and that was that. The knights spent a few moments hugging each other. Once again, they ignored the treasure that appeared near them.

　　On the ramp, they stood and discussed their situation for a moment. Fred felt sure they would take on the Jinpa. But finally they moved up the ramp, and left the dungeon. Apparently that was enough for today.

　　That was fine with Fred. He watched the Three Kings stride back to the big building. Inside, he noticed more humans than ever. Nobody was braving the top floors, but several of the lowest floors were now well occupied. The humans had indeed hung wood and cloth walls and dividers, and all the hearths were burning and usually cooking something. Fred wished for a moment that he could smell the food.

　　That made him think about the stinky kids, so he checked on that part of his domain. No kids were in the pool, but several were back to gathering potatoes and onions. Shelley`s family looked just fine, too.

　　When dusk came, Jim`s friendly green words appeared before Fred.

　　Good evening, Fred. Everything okay?

　　"Yeah, pretty good. The humans like my new maze, and they really liked watching the new fairies. But when a few tried to capture the fairies, the little guys shot magic at them and ran them off. It was a big light show. You shoulda seen it."

　　I`m sorry I missed it. Only two other Earth Spirits have fairies anywhere near them, and they aren`t as colorful.

　　"Yeah, Martin said the same thing, that he`d only seen blue or green fairies, in bushes."

　　Interesting. I wanted to tell you something else. About your bear and boar. Twenty other Earth Spirits have seen the same sort of thing. Animals that normally don`t go together, getting very close together, and even snuggling. I have to agree with Martin`s assessment. It`s caused by your magic.

　　"Okay. But you made me, and my magic, right?"

　　Aeru did; I designed. And yes, your magic was designed to make all your various denizens get along and cooperate. But I never designed it so bears and boars would snuggle together. I fear I may have& overdone it.

　　"But not in a bad way, right? I mean, my bear and boar aren`t hurting anything?"

　　Probably not. We`ll see. All of the Earth Spirits have been bestowed with powerful and complex magic. Such surprises aren`t entirely welcome, because it means I didn`t understand exactly what I was working with. But what`s done is done, and the goal remains; train the humans so they can fight the demons.

　　"Well, have you seen the armored guys who killed Martin? They killed the beetle brothers and the mummy today, without much trouble. I`d say those guys have what it takes to fight demons."

　　Good, but we`ll need many, many more of them. So your job is far from done. Keep digging and expanding and doing the amazing things you`re doing. I`m very proud of you, but we need lots more like those guys.

　　"Okay, can do."

　　See you later, Fred. Bye.

　　The night was quiet, no trouble. At dawn, Fred felt something.

　　A deep and distant pulse, like feeling a giant take a step, but far away. Then another happened, and then a third. They kept coming, each about two seconds apart. Fred was entranced, and he quickly came to a conclusion.

　　"The Drums in the Deep! Jim! Is that what I`m hearing?"

　　Yes, Fred. You`re hearing another dungeon, speaking to you. Isn`t it exciting?

　　"Hell yeah it is! Who is it? What are they saying?"If you come across this story on Amazon, it`s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

　　Micheal is speaking. Drumming, really. He and Virginia are the two Spirits that are closest to you, geographically. They hold dominion over other mountains in this same range, called the Skdovians.

　　"Yeah, I remember you telling me that. But what is he saying?"

　　Fred could hear that the beats had been steady, once every two seconds. But now they weren`t. They seemed random.

　　Well, let me teach you. Dral Orate wasn`t helpful. But Bel`alfalion knew all about the Drums in the Deep. He was happy to teach me how to do it, and I`ve been teaching a few other Earth Spirits, to start.

　　First, the speaker sends ten pulses, at a regular rate. This is to warn others that she is about to speak. If two Spirits are trying to start speaking at the same time, this lets one of them stop, in favor of the other. I`m sure you can understand the confusion of multiple speakers talking at once.

　　Next comes a pattern that identifies the speaker. It`s different for every Spirit, but it`s always eight beats, some short, some long.

　　"Their name."

　　Yes, their name, as they chose to `pronounce` it in drum beats. Now, after that, the speaker starts forming words. These are formed from short and long delays between the beats. Different words have different patterns, and lengths. Some common words have just three beats, while others have more. It`s common to speak with an extra delay between words.

　　"Morse. Morse code. I remember. This& language was called Morse code."

　　Okay. I don`t know the word Morse, but I`m sure you remember that it was similar to this Deep Drums pattern. That`s fine. Now, Let me teach you a few words. The simplest words are;

　　I - LLL

　　You - SSS

　　We - SSL

　　They - SLL

　　Here - LLS

　　There - LSS

　　When - LSL

　　How - SLS

　　Does this make sense?

　　"Yes, S for short and L for long. I get it fine."

　　Before we continue, let`s listen to Micheal for a bit, okay?

　　"Sure."

　　Micheal`s pulses continued. Fred tried to listen very carefully. He felt he could possibly pick out the tiny pauses between words, but it was hard. Once he heard three longs, and he felt pretty sure the word was `I`. This was thrilling. Fred felt sure that (with a little practice) he would be conversing with other Earth Spirits very soon. But then he remembered.

　　"But what about the drum? How is Micheal making the sound?"

　　Just then, Micheal stopped. It felt very weird to Fred. He`d gotten used to the pulses very quickly, and then to have them stop, it was like the world was suddenly silent. Fred was hit by a mild melancholy, and had to stop and shake it off for a moment.

　　I`ll tell you. It`s a trick. What you do is, you make a pool of standing water. Then you make a bowl, an actual concave bowl out of rock or stone. You turn the bowl over, so it floats on the water, upside down. This works like a drum, when the bowl is slapped.

　　"Slapped? I don`t have a hand to slap with."

　　Yes, but that`s the trick. Since the bowl is made of the earth, you have control over it. It takes a bit of practice, but you can yank on it, just like you were slapping it. And that produces sound, that travels through the pool, and then through the rock around it. Another thing is, the bowl normally doesn`t want to float in the middle of the pool of water. So you`ll have to tie it in place with a cord, or otherwise restrain it. There isn`t any exact design for the bowl-pool combination. But that`s okay. Everyone makes their own drum, so everyone sounds different.

　　"How big should I make it?"

　　Micheal`s drum bowl is two spans wide.

　　"Wow, I could hear him just fine. I want to make it right now!"

　　Go ahead. I`ll check back with you this evening. Bye.

　　"Okay, Bye! Hey, Martin, did you hear that!?"

　　"Yes, Fred, I did, and you can stop shouting."

　　"Sorry. I`m just so excited. There are other Earth Spirits out there, and I can talk to them. Once I get a drum made. And learn the language."

　　"Okay, don`t let me stop you then."

　　Fred wasn`t even bothered by Martin`s attitude; he had a drum to make. He needed an underground pool, and he`d already found a couple of water sources. He didn`t want the drum to be right next to Shelley`s room, so he decided to tap the water that was filling the naga`s pool. He created a spherical room next to the naga room, and redirected the water into it. Like his previous water rooms, he covered it in an impermeable ceramic glaze, and it slowly started to fill with water.

　　He made an extra drain hole halfway up, so the room would always be half-full. Then, he created a big bowl from rock, and left it in the room. He saw that, at the rate the water was filling, it would take all day to fill. This was frustrating. He wanted to drum right now!

　　Fred widened the water from its source, but that only finished draining the original underground pool he`d found. There just wasn`t much water flowing from the spring. Once again, he wondered how silly it was that he couldn`t create water. Water and earth went together like rain and& earth, right? Grrr, he thought. But finally he gave up, and decided to wait for the drum room to fill up.

　　Looking around at his domain, he saw no humans around. "Uh oh", he thought. He looked into the big building, and sure enough, the Three Kings were getting all strapped up for battle, soldiers and bag carriers and barbed lances and all.

　　"Hey, Martin. Head`s up. Those armored knights are coming again."

　　"Thank you, Fred. I`m aware."

　　"Oh, okay. Well, good luck."

　　Fred wondered what he could do, but nothing seemed to come to him. Like last time, he was just a spectator. The knights took their time, but eventually they were ready, and the whole team trooped into the main entrance, and made their way down the ramp. They marched in good order past the tree and into Martin`s lair. The fairies didn`t attack, but they jeered and pointed and spat at the soldiers, while keeping well above them.

　　The playbook was the same. The archers spread out among the trees, while the Three Kings marched right towards Martin`s bedroom. All wore masks. This time, however, Martin didn`t breathe a giant gust of poison. Instead, the room was already misty with the stuff.

　　When the Three Kings came close enough, Martin made his move, but this time was different. A huge spray of gold coins shot out to hit the knights, who recoiled and stumbled. Martin had been waiting to throw them, and a dragon`s handful is a large amount. Martin immediately followed up by jumping towards the knights. But instead of trying to crash into them, he jumped close enough to grab for the barbed lances each was holding. One knight had dropped his, and Martin grabbed that one first in a mighty clawed hand. Then he shifted back, and threw the lance straight up, so it embedded itself in the ceiling.

　　"Ha HA! Now the odds are better!", Fred heard Martin crow. At the same time, the Knights heard Martin utter a triumphant roar. They spread out, and the disarmed one drew his sword. Martin breathed another billow of poison breath, and the arrows started flying at his face, so Martin ducked low, and swung his face to the side.

　　Now he charged into the trees around the perimeter of the cave. Fred saw that his intent was to go for the archers. Martin knocked down every tree on his way around the room, and when he`d moved far enough, he swept his tail at the knights. One was close enough to stab him deep in the shoulder. One was knocked across the room. And one was hit so hard he bounced entirely out of Martin`s lair, and was caught by the silver tree. The fairies were outraged by this, and immediately began pelting the knight with their magic.

　　Martin shrieked at the wound. Like last time, the lance was cruel and painful, and stuck in. But Martin stuck with the plan, and kept knocking over all the trees, while pushing his bulk around the perimeter of the room, in order to crush the archers hiding behind them. This was working, and almost half the human archers were now red smears underneath him.

　　Once Martin reached the entrance to his lair, his head got close to the knight that had been bowled across the room. The knight had stood back up, and still had hold of his lance, so Martin stretched his neck out, and grabbed the end of the lance in his teeth. Then he shook the lance like a dog shakes a stick. The knight refused to let go, so he went on a wild ride, until Martin succeeded in flinging him off. Once again, the knight went flying across the whole room.

　　Martin took the opportunity to lift his head, grab the lance with his tongue, turn it around, and embed it into the ceiling, like he had done with the first one. Unfortunately, this exposed his neck and chest to the closest knight, who ran up and stuck his sword deep into Martin`s throat.

　　While Martin coughed and groaned, Fred saw the treed knight finally slide out of the tree and land beneath it, covered in fire and ice and various disgusting slimy things. He started to try to stand, but the fairies didn`t let up their attacks for a second, and Fred almost felt sorry for him.

　　Now that both his sword and his lance were buried in Martin, the knight had no ready weapon when Martin twisted his neck around and bit down on him. It was like a dog biting a full water bottle. Martin had a hard time getting any purchase on the heavily armored knight, but the knight was also off the ground and relatively helpless. The knight would surely have died, except that the sword poking through Martin`s throat was rapidly drowning him in his own blood. Martin seemed to know his time was short, so he gnawed the knight around in his mouth, until he was just holding the knight by a leg. Then he shook his head violently, while biting down as hard as he could, and the knight went flying, leaving his entire leg in Martin`s mouth.

　　The knight under the tree was still not in a position to go anywhere, but the twice-thrown knight had picked himself up again, rushed back, and now plunged his sword deep into Martin`s side. That was almost it for Martin, who felt his life failing quickly. But with his last breath, Martin spat the leg out towards the stabby knight. Said knight wasn`t expecting that, and the leg beaned him right in the head, knocking him out.

　　And Martin collapsed and died again.

　　Nothing happened for a long minute. Then the treed knight finally managed to stumble back into the lair. As if he flipped a switch, the rest of the party got to work. The wizard who`d tagged along began saving Sir One-leg`s life with healing spells. The treed knight went to the beaned knight and got him back on his feet, but Sir Beaned was clearly in poor condition, stumbling and swaying constantly. Several packers scooped up bags full of gold, but they weren`t as efficient as last time.

　　What`s more, Martin`s body started sparkling and disappearing. So did six human bodies. And this time, a lot of equipment turned into Treasure Sprites, including the two fancy swords the knights had poked Martin with. The three lances also started sparkling, but Fred quickly grabbed them and moved them to a safe place. He reasoned that Martin might not like it if the lair`s magic copied dragon-killing lances for everyone.

　　The team knew that time was short, and they weren`t in the good order they were in last time, so they cut the gold-scooping short, and started dragging Sir One-leg past the tree and up the ramp. Once at the Ogre`s room, they chose to bypass it, and wait in the main hallway. The ogre threw rocks at them again, and the remaining two knights stood and took the punishment while the rest of the team shuffled by. But they didn`t look happy about it. The ogre did.

　　They were so slow, they`d only been in the main hall for a few minutes when Martin regenerated.

　　"Holy shit, that hurt. Fuck. Fred, did you see me? Did you see what I did to those mutherfuckers? I bit that fucker`s leg off! Damn! Shit! Tell me you saw that."

　　"I saw, Martin. Are you okay?"

　　"I guess. I feel& fine. Now. But all the pain is fresh in my head. In my memory. It`s so weird."

　　"I talked with Jim about your memory of pain. He said that`s not supposed to happen, but you`re the first dragon to join an Earth Spirit`s domain so far. And dragons are special."

　　"Yes we are, Mutherfucker. Yes we are."