"Umm...oh, yep, yep! This box...is an EVIL box! That destroys other boxes!" 

The sneevils gasp. 

"Box... destroys uvver boxes?!" 

      "Das bad."

"Das very very bad."

     "What's da ebil box look liek?" 

Elan remembers this one!

"It's black! And gold. And has a picture of a dragon head."

"Black an' gold wif dragon hed..." 

The two sneevils look at each other. 

      "Has you seed a box liek dat?"

"No. Has you?" 

      "Nuh-uh." 

One of them runs inside the tree and up through the interior, shouting as they go. "BAD BOX! We gotta find da EBIL BLACK BOX and get it outta heer!"

"Thanks for your help," Elan tells the guard who stayed behind.

These guys seem pretty nice, honestly. Or at least not too hard to deal with! It might be because he's talking to them one-on-one and has smaller demands (in a way) than "stop stealing all our stuff," but it still makes him hope that there's some way of dealing fairly with sneevils without getting boxes and other stuff stolen.

Oh, it's easy to get sneevils not to steal from you! You just have to not have any boxes for them to steal. (Is what the sneevils might say if he asked them.) 

Twilly's lie about the "evil box" seems to have really stirred up the ants' nest. Sneevils are shouting up in the branches, running along rope bridges to neighbouring trees, and generally raising a ruckus all over the tree fort. 

Eventually, the guard returns with some friends, each of them carrying a box which...sort of matches the description? One is black with a big gold lock on it but no dragon symbol, one is unpainted wood with a dragon symbol painted on it in white, and one has a gold lock in the shape of a dragon's head. 

"Iz any of deez teh evil box?" 

Elan… thinks that maybe it's the last one? He points at it.

"Can we take a look at that one?"

The sneevil carrying box #3 sets it on the ground so Elan and Twilly can get a better look at it. 

Twilly doesn't even need a full second before his ears droop. "Nope, not this one. Our box—I means, the evil box—was black, and this one is brown. Elan, I doesn't think the box we's looking for is here." 

Aw shoot.

"Man, finding evil boxes is hard! At least your guys' boxes will all be safe now."

He taps his foot.

"Before we move onto the next fort, do you guys have someplace we could rest for a couple minutes?"

There's a collective "???" from the sneevils present. 

"Why stoopid hooman need place to rest? Just rest here!" 

"…"

He can't actually think of a good explanation.

"Okay, I'm going to sit down then."

He… does that… and closes his eyes.

Consulting one's dramatic instincts is a bit of a crapshoot, for several reasons. First, it can be hard to tell the difference between a dramatically-significant Hunch and a wild guess that one's brain spits out because it wants to have some answer. There's also the issue of internal logic: in general, stories are better when the heroes act on information they get within the story, rather than just doing what the author knows will happen next. And finally, if the story involves a wild goose chase or other obstacle, checking the story logic won't circumvent that! Instead, one will find that one gets a very confident feeling pointing them directly at the obstacle they were trying to avoid.

But Elan's stumped and a little frustrated. He really liked the box inspector plan! And it's worked, since the sneevils aren't mad at him and Twilly. But it also hasn't found them the box they're looking for. And he's starting to worry that maybe he's supposed to fail here, that maybe the way this ends is with the Black Dragon Box falling into the wrong hands.

That's no way to think, though. Even if the Black Dragon Box falls into the wrong hands, Elan can't fall into the trap of thinking that all is lost. He's not supposed to fail, it's just supposed to look like he's going to fail until he doesn't.

He's not sure if it's his dramatic instincts or his optimism telling him that.

He feels a little better, though. Does he have a sense for where to go next?

Twilly plops down in the grass next to Elan. It's been a lot of walking for little legs! 

"I hopes we don't have to check ALL the sneevil hideouts on Sir Valance's map. How many more are there?" 

The map has 6 little X markings representing sneevil hideouts; they've already searched 2. Elan's dramatic instincts don't think he'll have to check all of them; that would be way too repetitive.  

...actually, on closer inspection, 3 of these X markings are tentative locations for the same hideout, so there are only 2 left to search. The label for this one says "Sneenja Dojo?" with arrows and question marks pointing in various directions. It seems the "sneenjas" are too stealthy for Sir Valance's surveillance. 

Elan shows Twilly the map.

"Looks like two… but we don't know for sure where one of them is…"

He hums.

"We could ask these guys, but that might be too suspicious," he says quietly. "Since if we were official inspectors we'd probably already know where the dojo is. We could… maybe try to get captured on purpose? I'm pretty good at getting myself untied."

Headscratch, headscratch.

"… I guess I don't have any reason to assume it's at the dojo, it just seems more likely because the dojo is super mysterious. Maybe we should go to the other fort first."

He points, then lowers his voice even further to a whisper.

"And maybe we should drop the inspector act and try telling the truth? Or at least the part where we lost something important to us. Except then maybe they won't care, or they'll wanna trade for something we don't have."

"Hmm...I don't know, Elan."

He sighs. "Maybe we should go back to Oaklore Keep for now and see if Sir Valance has any ideas what to do next?" 

Elan laughs, relieved.

"Oh, right! I kinda forgot that we could ask for help…"

This sounds like a really good idea, honestly… but probably he should think of ways it could go wrong first.

"Does the black dragon box have a spell on it so it can only be opened at the right time or by the right person? Or is there a risk that something bad might happen if the sneevils get curious… or someone else finds it first?"

"I doesn't know about any spells, but I's pretty sure it would be really bad if Drakath found the box first!" Twilly says. "But Sir Valance knows more about sneevils than anybody, so I bet Drakath doesn't have any idea where to look. And going back to ask for help might be faster than trying to find the ninjas ourselves anyways?" 

Elan nods.

"That's a good point. Do you know if magic that lets you look at people, places, or things that are far away exists? And if it does, would we be able to call someone who knew how to do it? Or maybe the box is shielded against that anyway…"

Probably a good thing, since an evil wizard wouldn't be able to scry on it.

"Hmm, I think Lady Celestia knows how to do that? Or Warlic, but he lives way up north and that would take even longer...and you're right, the box might be shielded. Hmmmm..." 

"We can ask when we get to the keep!"

Okay, this makes it sound like going back is a solid plan. The biggest risk Elan can think of is that someone else might steal it from the sneevils, or it might be moved… but if that's the case, they'll basically be working from the same information state they have now. So there's nowhere to go but up, really.

One last, important question:

"… they won't be mad at us for coming back emptyhanded, right?"

"No, I doesn't think so! Although maybe we should just check these boxes right here to see if there's anything we can take back..." 

Twilly thumps the box they're leaning on. It rattles like there's something inside it. 

Elan—

—remembers that there might be something dangerous inside—

—and cautiously opens the box.