"Whoa, a bunch of those are different! We have necromancy, but as a kind of magic that any wizard or sorcerer can do, not its own thing. Warrior and mage sound like they could be different words for fighters and wizards. We definitely have paladins and rogues, and we have pirates and ninjas but I'm not sure if those are as their own class, but everything else is new."

"So you doesn't know...Technomancers, Dragonlords, Dragonslayers, or Guardians? Not having Guardians kinda makes sense because the Guardians are an official group with rules and stuff! And Technomancers have to learn from the gnomes...but it's weird that you doesn't have Dragonlords or Dragonslayers!" 

"Oh, so like paladins? Do they have different alignment restrictions, or just different rules?"

Elan thinks about the dragon thing for a second.

"Well, there are people who kill dragons. My friend Vaarsuvius killed one last year! But we wouldn't call them a special term for it. Are dragonlords dragons who are lords, or people who command dragons, or something else? Do they fight the dragonslayers?"

"Dragonlords are people who have a special magical bond with a dragon friend! I doesn't think they like Dragonslayers very much, no...and I guess Guardians are a little bit like paladins? I doesn't know very much about paladins, there aren't very many of them around here." He pauses. "Twillies not sure about the alignment part...is alignment the thingy your world has with Law and Chaos?" 

"Oh yeah, I forgot you didn't have that. Yeah, paladins are all Lawful Good. I always thought it would be cool if there was a paladin for every alignment, except then I guess there would be really mean evil paladins."

He thinks for a moment.

"I wonder why dragonslayers are so common. Are a lot of dragons evil? That's usually why people want to kill them back home. Also for the treasure, because our dragons have really big treasure collections, but I think it's really mean to do that. To kill a dragon just so you can have its treasure, not to have a really big collection of treasure."

"Some dragons who don't have human friends are mean! They tries to eat people and burn down villages! So if they doesn't stop when you asks them nicely then somebody needs to slay them." Twilly nods decisively. "But there isn't very many Dragonslayers, Twillies just knows they exist." 

"That's good!"

Elan lapses into thoughtful silence, looking at the plants they pass by.

After a bit more walking through the forest—and a random encounter with a wolf that was easily scared off—they come to the Boxopolis. Its entrance, in the side of a massive hollow tree, is an archway of barrels guarded by two sneevils with spears. 

"Who goez dere?" 

Deep breath. He's going to lead with politeness instead of getting straight to the demands.

"Hi, I'm Elan and this is my friend Twilly!"

Suspicious squinting. 

"What you want?" 

Hooray, a natural segue!

"We're looking for something that we think might be inside one of your boxes."

"AHA!" Now the spears are pointed in his direction. "Knowed it, all hoomans the same! Yous just want sneevils' lovely lovely boxes!"

Dang it!!

"No, no, we don't need the boxes! We just want to open some up and see if we can find a thing that we left inside. You can have someone watch us, if you want?"

The sneevils continue to be SO suspicious of this. 

"Mebbe yous tell uz what yous look for and uz look in boxes," one of them counteroffers.

Elan's about to agree when he remembers something Twilly told him.

"Would that be OK?" he asks.

"Hmm...Twillies thinks maybe we should see if they have the Black Dragon Box first. And then...it would probably be okay if they open it for us?" 

Elan nods, then addresses the sneevil.

"Twilly says that should be okay. If you find a black box with a dragon's head on it, can we watch you open it at least?"

Which isn't a description of the contents of the box, but oh well.

"Black box wiv dragonz head...has you seed one of doze, Niblet?" 

"Hmmmmmm...mebbe us shud ask da gate boss." 

"Oooo, da gate boss, yeah! Good idea." 

Niblet runs off, presumably to ask the 'gate boss' if they've seen a box matching the description. 

Elan crosses his fingers. Hopefully this won't turn into a game of telephone where "black box with a dragon's head on it" turns into "flat art piece shaped like an animal's head" or whatever…

"So," he says to the sneevil who stayed while Niblet went to the gate boss, "what's it like living in Boxopolis?"

Because asking questions sounds easier and more friendly than getting frustrated.

"Boxopolis is da BEST boxfort EBER! We iz da COOLEST sneevils in da whole forest!" 

It's great how Elan is basically always right about fun things!

"What makes it the coolest and best? Is it the king?"

"No, stoopid hooman, it's cuz it da biggest!" 

"Ohhh," Elan says, "that makes sense. I'm not from a big place like Boxopolis, I'm from a little town where my mommy runs the only inn."

"Doez it has boxes?" 

Elan should probably have been prepared for this very important question.

"Yeah, a few," he says, thinking. "We use them to hold things, like vegetables or tools or clothes, especially when they're being sold or delivered. So if you went to the cellar of the house I grew up in, there would be boxes of potatoes and carrots and things."