Good morning, Fred.

　　"Good morning, Jim!"

　　What`s new for you?

　　"Lemme think. I got some new creatures."

　　I see. A Giant Spider. Oh, a Ghast! And you made a cemetery for it. Your artistic side continues to shine! And this& A Black Acid Jelly? So rare, well done!

　　"Well, I still didn`t do much, `cept make the lairs. Anyway, I also dug way upslope, and had a good look around."

　　So I see. So many trees!

　　"Yeah, and a couple small caves, and some ruins. Pretty old, though."

　　Expansion is always a good thing, Fred. I`m proud of your work.

　　"Also, I made two new towers for the humans. Oh, and I took care of the two demons. Well, three, really."

　　Fred proceeded to give Jim all the details about the demons, and the big human party. He didn`t spare any details, including how the killing of the demons made him feel.

　　You did the right thing, Fred, and I`m glad you found the strength. They aren`t done with you, and you know now that you can do what it takes to protect yourself.

　　"I guess. Still wish I didn`t have to."

　　So do we all. So, did Kumabaka find that sword for you?

　　"Not yet. I think he`s been trying to butter up a prince for it."

　　I hope he moves quickly. The humans need plenty of copies of such a weapon. There were three more demonic attacks last night. None successful, thank goodness.

　　"That sucks," was the only thing Fred could think to say.

　　I`m glad things are well here. I`ll talk to you later. Bye.

　　"Holy Tiamat, Fred! What new hell have you brought to my nose this morning?" Martin suddenly complained. Then he let out a gigantic yawn. Gold showered all around him.

　　"I dunno know what you`re talking about, Martin."

　　"That stench! I mean, your domain is a positive symphony of foul odors, what with all the humans crapping and pissing and bleeding&"

　　"Yes, I know all that! Nothing`s changed."

　　"Well, something has. Something new. Some new& creature?"

　　"Oh yeah. I guess. I`ve got a Ghast, now. It`s pretty ugly. Does it stink too?"

　　"Like a demon`s family jewels! And a dead demon, at that!"

　　"Hey, Kumbanaka, are you up? Can you smell that?" Fred asked loudly.

　　Kumbanaka was also yawning widely. "No, not really. Oh wait, yes, there`s a new foulness added into the mix. I do notice it, a bit."

　　If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

　　"Well, my magnificent nose notices it a great deal more." Martin groused.

　　"I just make lairs for creatures, Martin. What do you expect me to do about it?" Fred said peevishly.

　　"You`ve got command of the air. You boasted so yourself. So make a chimney, or flu, or something, and pipe that stench away from me."

　　"I said I know a lot about air. But I`m an Earth Spirit, remember?" Still, Martin had a point. Fred was quite capable of making the air inside his lair move any way he wished, and he didn`t see any harm in making Martin (and Kumbanaka) a little bit happier.

　　So he went to the Ghast`s lair, and made a separate chimney up to the surface. This started the air moving in the right direction, but not very quickly, and the little bit of light that shone down through the new chimney made the Ghast very unhappy. It turned yellow and hissed like a steam engine. So Fred changed the chimney. He made it longer, with a spiral in the middle. He also reused an old trick, and added some radiating heat to the rock wall of part of the spiral.

　　This did the trick; the light didn`t reach down into the Ghast`s lair, and the heated air started moving upward faster, pulling the Ghast`s stinky air out with it.

　　"Okay, I`ve got a chimney going. That should fix the odor soon."

　　"Thank you, Fred." said Kumbanaka.

　　"Yes, it`s very reasonable of you, Oh Air and Earth Spirit. I give you thanks." Martin dripped with condescension. Fred really wanted to cuss him out, to tell him where to go, but just didn`t want to bother with it right now. Instead, as he usually did to center himself, he did a survey of his entire domain.

　　The Front Zone was busy, with humans battling the confounding webs of the spider, and the surprisingly quick scorpion. The Ramp Zone had a human team that was busy thrashing around at the Beetle Bros. The Tree Zone was rather quiet. The ogre in the Ogre Zone was dead, and the humans had moved on to battling the Poison and Wind Drakes.

　　Nothing at all was happening in the Cave Zone, but in the Lined Hallway Zone, all the creatures were positively mobbed by humans. "I bet the bear and boar are wondering why they bothered moving," Fred thought wryly. No kids were in the Kid`s Zone Yet. And in the Maze, one lone human was being stalked by both of the minotaurs. "Good luck, buddy," Fred thought.

　　The healing temple was doing brisk business, with several injured people being treated. Fred was happy to see that more furniture had been brought in. There was finally an operating table under the bright center light. There were cots lining the walls, covered in new white cotton sheets. And there was what looked like a bird bath, near the exit. Fred looked closer. It was a container for donations, and had a pile of coins in it already.

　　Down in the town, humans were busy moving into the two new towers. And there was a commotion rather suddenly. Almost out of nowhere, a large group of armored and colorful humans rolled into town. Hot on their heels came a separate (but very similar) group. Suddenly the two groups took up most of the space between the towers and the Glass Citadel, and what was a busy morning was now chaos and shouting.

　　Fred was really surprised by these groups, and how suddenly they`d appeared. "It`s my vision distance. If I were human, I could see them coming a long way away. I need to expand down the mountain, and get more warning. What if that group were all demons?" Fred fretted.

　　Both groups had traveled on horses and with wagons, so the ground in town was being cut and gouged by hooves and wheels, and the feet of about two hundred new humans. A light rain began to fall just then, soaking everyone, and turning the abused dirt into mud. Fred wondered if he could fix that, which led him to thinking about asking for advice. But then his memories (either pre-programmed or long dormant, he didn`t know) gave him the answer.

　　"Sod over limestone," He thought. "Sod to keep everything from turning to mud, and limestone underneath it all to wick away the water. And mebbe some trees, to hold the topsoil together. There`s a bit of a slope here, after all." He didn`t want to bother the humans by starting the project right now; he decided that it was a night-time project.

　　Everything was normal; no emergencies. So Fred just sat and watched the new arrivals. There were two clear leaders, plus lots of men in fancy metal armor. "Oh, crap, Martin`s gonna have to start fighting again," thought Fred. He wasn`t looking forward to that, honestly.

　　As he watched, the two leaders, each surrounded by knights and attendants, came together and jawed to each other for quite a while. The fact that they did so in the rain, with all their people politely standing around getting cold and wet, didn`t make Fred think well of them. He could see water dripping off of beards everywhere he looked. However, the newcomers who hadn`t been trapped by the social situation were busy beavers. Most were unloading the wagons. A few were surveying the towers and the Citadel.

　　By this time the princes and their retinues had spilled out of the Citadel. The princes went to stand in the rain with the rest of the sad people. Their retainers made themselves useful, leading people everywhere and lending helping hands with the cargo and livestock. Fred noticed a number of berobed, bureaucratic-looking people also stepped out to join the soggy meeting.

　　Finally, after far too long a time, the two leaders broke up, and each went separate ways into different buildings. "Sheesh, good thing I made enough space for them," Fred thought.

　　Suddenly, Fred heard a screech, unlike any he`d ever heard. It came from the Tree Zone. He rushed down there, to see a large group of attackers penetrating Kumbanaka`s lair. The back row was mostly robed mages, casting spells that made them chant and sweat. Inside the room where Kumbanaka waited and cast mind magic on his prey, something had gone wrong for him. Several men were dead, but so was Kumbanaka, pierced by several arrows and spears.

　　"The kitty gets his first taste of death. I`ll wager he doesn`t enjoy it any more than I did." Martin spoke up. Fred was annoyed at Martin`s callousness, but he wasn`t wrong; Kumbanaka would be right back in thirty minutes, and would probably have something to say about it.

　　The humans, enjoying their triumph, quickly found the hidden tunnel to Kumbanaka`s second room. Then they turned it over like a hotel room in a spy movie. Bright clothing and nice books were scattered everywhere. Some big pieces of furniture were completely smashed. Even the bathtub suffered chips and cracks. Treasure Sprites were popping freely, but the humans seemed to think that much more treasure must be hidden in the room, somewhere. Although they all knew about the thirty-minute reincarnation rule, they stayed until the last minute, somehow certain that they would find something amazing with just a bit more searching.

　　As each human reached their personal threshold of risk, they left, carrying anything they could. Of course one human was simply too foolish to leave in time. As he tried to run out of Kumbanaka`s lair, he found a huge, furry, newly reincarnated Rakshasa blocking his way. Fred knew terrible things were about to happen, and Kumbanaka wasn`t breaking his rules, so he had to look away.

　　Outside, the few humans who were waiting for their last compatriot were frozen by screams of terror. Screams of unimaginable pain. Screams that would have gone on for hours, but Fred finally couldn`t stand it anymore. "Stop. Kumbanaka. Stop."

　　The screaming cut off quickly. "As you wish, Spirit," Kumbanaka said, perfectly neutral.

　　"Call out when you want help fixing up your place." Fred said. Kumbanaka didn`t reply, so Fred left him alone.