Kumbanaka had left Fred with a great many ideas of things to do, but he still wanted to work on that stream to the north. He had an idea that he could use it as water for his town, and as a natural barrier to protect it, and he felt that he should focus on it now. So he got to work.

　　First, he reached out, trying to understand the North River (as he was calling it in his own mind, even though he knew it wasn`t a river), by following it upstream and downstream. Upstream, the water collected from the entire mountainside, and ran very quickly down cuts and waterfalls and tunnels to where Fred had found it. Downstream, the water calmed down and turned north (still underground), flowing quickly beyond Fred`s sight.

　　He`d originally thought about simply diverting the stream so that it would rise to the surface, flow close to the north part of the Town Wall, then rejoin its original bed. But now he was thinking about redirecting it entirely, so that it would flow by his wall, and swing south to cut through the area between his wall and his Tower Forts. Then he could redirect it downslope, where it would eventually find another waterway to join, or it would turn into a lake or swamp somewhere east of his domain.

　　As soon as he thought about how fun it would be to build bridges over the stream, he had to get started. And since it was all about the earth and rock, it was as easy as thinking.

　　First, he dug the stream`s path north to south, between his wall and his Tower Forts. The steam bed was three spans deep and six spans wide, and Fred filled the bed with rocks of all sizes, to keep the bed stable, and to make it harder to cross on foot. This cut through the road that went into town, but Fred wanted to make a bridge there anyway. He also planned to make two more bridges downstream of the road.

　　Now he worked on the end of the stream. As it went south from his town, he bent it gradually eastward, so that it kept going downslope, away from his domain. He kept making the streambed right up to the limit of his domain, but knew that he could push his domain further, and redirect the stream further, if needed.

　　Now he worked back upstream, starting at the north-most part of the stream bed he`d built, curving it west, upslope, and aiming it right at the actual stream, which was almost two thousand spans away from his town. This took a while, and before he knew it, dawn was slowly creeping up. Fred still loved the dawn, and wanted to stop and just look at it.

　　But he felt a new creature show up from the south. Turning his attention from the far north of his domain to the far south felt a bit weird to him, but he quickly saw the creature he`d felt moving around. And he shuddered.

　　It was a huge spider. Well, more than that, it had a woman`s torso and head, with pointed ears and long straight hair falling around its face. And it was pretty big, four spans long, even without the long, creepy spider legs. Fred still had a bit of a squick about spiders, but on the other hand, he`d had a big black and yellow spider in the Front Zone for a while now. Fred knew he hadn`t made any new lairs lately. "I wonder if she`s going for Martin`s old lair?"

　　Later, as she got to Fred`s walls (and climbed them easily), Fred would see that she indeed moved into Martin`s old lair, in the Tree Zone, next to Kumabanaka`s lair, and the lair of the naga. But now Fred was distracted by Jim, who spoke to him.

　　Good morning, Fred. What`s this trench you`ve built?

　　"It`s a river! Well, a stream, really, but a good one. I found it while I was exploring to the north!"

　　And you`re going to redirect it past your own town? Brillant!

　　"Yeah, let`s be real, I just wanna make some bridges. Bridges are cool." Fred grinned inside.

　　Fred then told Jim everything Kumabanaka had told him, about the papers in Hoffendaugn, and the needs of Priestess Sharfroen, and about the Priests of the Holy Northern Circle of Light. Jim agreed with all the improvements that Kumabanaka had suggested. Fred talked a bit about the plants that weren`t welcome near the bathing pools, and Jim seemed politely interested.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

　　I see a new creature is joining you, too.

　　"Yeah, a spider-lady. I`ve already got a spider, though."

　　Oh, Fred. This is a JorMgumo! An exceedingly rare beast. The name means "entangling bride" or "whore spider". She`s a shapeshifter, and can transform into a human woman to seduce and entrap humans to eat. It can not be killed by any kind of poison. Isn`t that amazing?

　　"No, you`re not selling it to me. Still seems pretty icky. Probably better than Micheal`s new beast, though."

　　Yes, I`ve seen it. It`s quite horrible and dangerous. Well, I`m sure you will make her welcome anyway. You treat all your creatures well.

　　"You taught me to do that."

　　And you learned well. I`ve got to go. See you later.

　　"G`bye."

　　"Fred, my tower is still too cold," Martin complained. Martin was still lying on top of his tower, yawning a gigantic yawn, the light of dawn lending him a golden halo.

　　"Okay, I`ll fix it," Fred said, and dialed the heat up on Martin`s tower again. As he did so, Fred watched Martin swoop down and land on the meadow in front of his lair. He stalked around, pawing at the ground in different spots. Fred didn`t pay much attention because he really wanted to get back to the North River.

　　His riverbed was almost connecting to the underground stream, so Fred got busy finishing that. In a few more minutes, the water was redirected, and began flooding down the streambed Fred had prepared. This was a great deal of fun, sort of like watching a rollercoaster going around. Fred watched the water rush down the bed towards the town. There he saw that some humans were already up, and had gathered at the edge of the streambed, looking at Fred`s new project.

　　These humans got to experience the brand new deluge of water race through the bed, past their position, as the redirected stream stretched out into its new path. Fred marveled at the fact that rushing water made a loud, distinctive sound that (he assumed) everyone probably took for granted, and rarely chose to hear. Fred laughed and cheered. It looked like his plan was working perfectly.

　　But now he saw that people were lined up on either side of the road, where it had been cut by the new stream. "Well, they need a bridge now, and I want to give it to them!" Fred thought excitedly. He got to work.

　　First, he noticed that the humans were in the place he needed to build the abutments of the bridge. So he turned the areas to stone, and slowly began raising them. This was more than enough to make the humans scramble for safety and leave the immediate area. Clear of humans, free to push stone around, Fred made a very nice arched stone bridge over the stream. It was as wide and as smooth as the road itself, with raised parapets, so wagons couldn`t accidentally fall off.

　　Once done, Fred moved downstream, and made two more bridges, exactly the same, across the stream. These bridges weren`t connected to roads, but Fred still tried to make them smooth enough for wagons to cross. By this time the water was flowing steadily, and had calmed down a bit, but was still muddy from all the dirt the stream had yet to wash away.

　　Fred watched the stream run for a bit. Then he looked again at the first bridge, and saw people on it. He cheered as the humans scampered back and forth on it, clearly excited about the new bridge. This whole work had put him into a tizzy of effort and energy, and he didn`t want to waste it. So he got busy making latrines.

　　The area between the Town Wall and the Tower Forts (now cut in two by the stream) was quite large, well over a thousand spans in all directions, and Fred decided that all of that space needed latrines. He`d already made several, so he didn`t need to do any designing, only digging and shaping. This he was now a master at. In fact, he used part of his attention to make latrines, while using the other part to observe the waking town.

　　The day dawned bright and cold, and Fred could see that the humans were pretty bundled up in overcoats and heavy pants or skirts. Of course, the fighters all wore lots of padding under their armor, so they were naturally warm. The mages and scouts of their groups wore loose overcoats that could be easily thrown off, to keep from slowing them down. But the town was full of non-combatants, from the pilgrims to the merchants to the administrators to the gryphon riders to the stablehands. Fred saw several places in town where a simple log fire kept people warm while they huddled around. He wondered if that was a service he could provide.

　　Fred looked down into Martin`s old lair. He hadn`t really paid attention to what the spider-lady needed (`cause he was distracted making the stream), but now he saw that she was green, and very busy in her huge spider form, weaving webs throughout the room that Martin used to call home. "Good. That couldn`t be easier," he thought.

　　He looked into the Healing Temple, and saw it was as congested as ever. Humans were still getting healed, but there were so many of them. Fred reminded himself of the expansion work he wanted to do here.

　　Fred noticed another large group of dangerous looking fighters and mages, gathering on the front steps, probably getting ready for another attack on Kumbanaka. Amongst them he saw the Four Tropes, looking hale and dangerous. Each of them seemed to have gotten some sort of upgraded clothing or weapon. The mage was now consulting TWO oversized tomes. The fighter, Val, seemed to have one of the anti-demon swords belted to him. "Good," Fred thought. "I got a sword from him, then he got a sword from me. The balance of life."

　　The group did indeed attack and kill Kumbanaka, and the token of the day was claimed by the humans, to be sold or brandished or whatever. Fred sincerely hoped the humans wouldn`t all kill each other over the silly jade and gold trinkets.

　　And like that, the great latrine production task was done. Across the whole eastern field, Fred had created more than a hundred latrines, each with a roof above and a cistern below. Even though he`d done it all himself, he kinda felt like he`d been an observer, and he marveled at his own capabilities.