Fred dug a dragon-sized tunnel into the base of the tower, sloped slightly downward. "What about that?" He asked Martin.

　　Martin stuck his head into the hole, and advanced down into it. "Not wide or tall enough. Also not deep enough. Also, the final area, with my gold horde, should be elevated, so it doesn`t get wet. And also, this whole tunnel should have a bend in it, so no one can see my gold from the entrance."

　　Fred didn`t wait for Martin to back out of the tunnel, he just made the requested changes. ""What about that?" Fred asked.

　　Martin replied, "Make the hoard area just a bit bigger. And make sure this whole tunnel is rock. Smooth rock, that doesn`t hurt my skin. And a soft dirt floor that`s comfortable for my feet." Fred bit back a smart-ass crack. This was Martin`s dream lair, and his reward for being blown to smithereens, so he could legit demand comfort, in Fred`s opinion.

　　Fred made the changes requested. Martin moved around a bit more, then exited the new lair. "Now the front facade, Fred. Big blocks of regular smooth stone, in a large arch." Fred added the arch of smooth stone blocks. "No," Martin said. "Bigger than that. A bigger arch, and also bigger blocks."

　　Fred changed the whole arch. "Good," Martin said. "Now I want three rows of these blocks, not just one. I have a lot to say about how great I am." By this time Fred was more amused than annoyed, and happy that Martin was fully on board with this project. He added two more rows of the huge arch. Now it was bigger than the tunnel entrance it surrounded, and it jutted above the stone dome it was supposed to be supported by. So Fred filled in the stone behind the arch.

　　"Good, good. Now leave me alone. This writing must be perfect." Martin dismissed Fred.

　　"Uh uh. We`re not done. We`ve got to give you new gold. And I want to make a fence for you."

　　Martin turned slowly. "Fence? What fence?"

　　Fred could see the storm brewing in Martin`s eyes, and he rushed to clarify. "I mean, you can`t battle the humans all over this hillside. You can kill them if they try to fight you, or try to take your gold, sure. I`m gonna let you fly around here all you want. But there has to be a boundary line."

　　Instead of trying to use words to explain further, Fred drew a circle around Martin`s tower. It was about 600 spans in diameter. Along that line, Fred drew up small rock outcrops, and planted trees, so that the edge of the circle was clear to humans and dragons alike. Martin must have figured out what Fred was doing fairly quickly, but stood silently until Fred had finished his entire circle. "See?" Fred said. "This doesn`t keep you from going anywhere. It just shows the humans where they have to go to escape."

　　"And if the attackers make it past this line, I`m not allowed to chase them? Unacceptable. I need double the area."

　　"Come on, Martin. This ring is already most of the way to the back of the wall. It`s lots of space! Humans can`t move that fast, can they?"

　　"More." Martin flew up, and landed again between the new ring Fred had made, and the westernmost part of the Town Wall. Closer to the Town Wall. "Here. I need this much space," Martin said, while making a big X in the dirt with his claw. It was fully night, but the waning moon was still bright, and the big dragon drawing an X on the ground next to a tall wall was a strange study in shadows.

　　Feeling stubborn, but willing to bargain, Fred pushed up a big rock to show his bid, between the current ring and Martin`s X. "I`ll expand the ring to here. That`s plenty."

　　Martin drew another X, closing the distance between their bids. "Here then. Humans are tricky and fast."

　　Fred threw up another rock marker, closer to Martin`s latest X. "No, even this is too much. But I`ll do it for you, because you need it so bad."This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

　　Martin blew out a huge stinky green sigh, and said, "Okay, fine. The ring can be there. But I want more gold, then."

　　"Deal," said Fred. He drew the new line, at the radius shown by the final marker he and Martin had agreed on. Like the earlier ring, he marked the whole thing with rocks and trees, to clearly show where the ring was. He didn`t want Martin to be able to say that the boundary wasn`t clear. The upslope side of the ring was now well into the forest, so Fred had to spend some time moving the trees around, to make the ring as clear as possible. After he was done, he erased the rocks and trees he`d used to make the earlier, smaller ring.

　　"Now I need to erase your old gold, and make new stuff in your new lair," Fred said.

　　"Oh no. No you don`t!" replied Martin. "Don`t delete a single coin."

　　"Why not? It`s all the same, right? I mean, I can make lots more."

　　"No it is not. That horde is mine. Every coin is my property, and I would miss each one you removed. No, move the gold without destroying it, or I will." Martin said sternly.

　　"Geez, okay, I didn`t know. It all looks the same to me, but I`ll move it all for you, sure." Fred did just that. He bundled up all the gold from the old lair, and drug the whole batch through the earth, straight into the new liar. "Done. Please verify it."

　　Martin immediately flew back to the new lair entrance, and ducked inside. "Yes, this is my horde, I can see and smell it so. Now you make me more, while I go back outside and start writing." So dismissed, Fred watched as Martin stepped out of his new lair, and sat down facing its entrance. As he had done days ago when he`d first arrived, he stuck out one long claw and began carving complex, beautiful glyphs into each of the oversized stones of the arch. Fred left him to it.

　　As asked, Fred dumped a large amount of new gold coins into Martin`s new horde. Gone were thoughts of protecting the humans` economy. Nobody else seemed to care about Fred`s infinite gold generation, so he stopped worrying about it, too.

　　"Fred, I am ready with my report," Kumbanaka spoke up.

　　"Yes, sure, please tell me."

　　"The bomber`s name is Shimbul, and he was desperate, so he accepted payment for the job of bringing the bomb to you from a masked man. He says he didn`t know what was in the bag, and if he had, he would have refused."

　　"Sure, right. So why was he running so fast, if he didn`t know it was a bomb?"

　　"He maintained that he knew it was somehow bad, so he didn`t want to tarry. He suggested that it might have been a monster egg, or some sort of disease carrier."

　　"And that makes it better?" Fred fumed.

　　"Not at all. Shimbul is going to pay for his crime, almost certainly with his life. He goes to court in the morning."

　　"Court? What court?"

　　"I`m not sure you`re aware. The King of A`wheriwe is here now, in your town. His son the prince has been here for longer."

　　"Oh, was he one of the guys who showed up in the rain, a couple days ago? Didn`t he kill Martin?" Fred asked.

　　"Yes, and the other king was from Riversond, the kingdom directly to the south. These two have quite cordial relations now, but the long history of their two small kingdoms includes bloody battles and hard feelings."

　　"I so don`t care about any of that. And I don`t care about the bomber, or what happens to him. I want to hear how to keep from getting bombed again."

　　"Well, the humans are of great cheer, now that the walls are up. The word is out; the demons are coming. We wanted the humans to get ready, and as far as I can tell, they intend just that. I`ve heard about the armies of Riversond and A`wheriwe gathering, and I imagine at some point they may show up here," Kumbanaka advised.

　　"Good! Jim said he was happy the humans were learning how to fight the demons. That`s what this is all supposed to be for, anyway."

　　"If I may, the fine doors you`ve made in your walls have no locking mechanism."

　　"What should I do? I mean, I can glue the doors shut anytime I want, pretty much instantly," Fred pointed out.

　　"Perhaps a simple crossbar? The humans want to feel in control, themselves. I`m sure they`d be very happy with a crossbar."

　　That made sense to Fred, so he went to do it. It wasn`t hard. He made huge stone crossbars for each of the double doors, and used his magic to "grease" them to slide easily. He thought about how the humans would react to the doors, which made him think about Kumbanaka`s earlier speech about how he controlled humans with his buildings and such. Which made him remember.

　　"Oh yeah, Kumbanaka. Could you tell the humans that the special swords need to go to all the other Earth Spirits? Jim asked me to ask you."

　　"The humans already understand that, Fred. The new demonbane swords are starting to be a common sight in your town, and everyone`s excited about them. Except the prince of Riversond. It was his sword, originally. Until it was won in a drunken game, to a scoundrel named Reil Amalyia. Who was me. Heh heh heh."

　　"Okay, good job. And also, could you tell them about the teleport temple thing in the forest?"

　　"What teleport temple thing?" Kumbanaka asked, with unfeigned surprise.

　　"Weren`t you in on that conversation? No, I guess you were out getting your token made. Anyway, Martin had a look at those ruins in the forest above my domain. He spotted an ancient, buried teleporter circle in the rubble. I dug it out, and repaired everything, and fixed it all up, so humans can use it."

　　"The teleport ring works!?!" Kumbanaka shouted.

　　"Well, no, Martin said the humans would have to use dozens of spells to get it to work again. But it`s there if they want to."

　　"Why here, of all places? Was there once a dwarven city nearby?"

　　"Why does everyone ask me that," Fred wondered out loud. "I`ve never seen a dwarven city. What do they look like?"

　　"Well, I never have, either. They`re deep underground, I know that. Well. Of course I`ll let the humans know about this teleport ring. If they can use it, they should waste no time."