"Ew. And no, well, I guess I could try to talk to it?"

　　Noone answered. Fred decided to try. "Hey, demon! What do you want? Why did you come here?"

　　The demon didn`t answer, or acknowledge him at all. It kept marching until it had reached the Town Wall, which was about twice its height. Then it simply vaulted the wall, in one motion, which seemed far too quick for such a large flaming humanoid. "Crap, it`s inside the wall!" Fred blurted.

　　"Have you popped it like a boil, yet?" Martin asked.

　　"No! It won`t tell me what it wants!"

　　The demon`s long strides took it quickly to the Inner Wall, and again it jumped over without any trouble. "Now it`s really inside, guys. Where is it going?"

　　"Stop fooling around and squish it, Fred. You`re the mighty Earth Spirit. It`s a bug. Do it."

　　But the demon had stopped, and stood stone still, while its fire burned a patch into the grass around it. Fred looked closer, and saw two things. One, it was standing directly above one of the empty lair rooms in the Cave Zone. Two, it had turned red.

　　This was very hard to see, since it was red to begin with, and covered in licking red flames. But Fred could now see that it wanted to be a creature in his domain, as bizarre as that sounded.

　　"Uh, I think it wants to join me. I mean, join us. I mean, like, come live here."

　　"Preposterous!" Said Martin.

　　"Absurd!" said Kumbanaka.

　　"Could one of you come take a look? For me? Please?" Fred was plaintive.

　　"I`m still engaged with several humans, and what I`m learning is important."

　　"Oh, alright," Martin grumped and sighed. "Just give me a second." Fred saw him crawl out from under all his gold, clamber out of his lair, half-climb the tree shaft, and stick his huge head into the air. He looked around, and caught sight of the brightly-burning demon.

　　"Oh. Oh my, that is a big demon. You should still be able to crush him, Fred. I believe in you."

　　"He didn`t come here to be crushed. It looks like my magic brought him here. To live. I mean, that`s what it does, right?"

　　"Yes, that`s very true. And I wonder if, this time, your magic has bitten off more than you can chew. Heh heh."

　　The demon seemed to grow more impatient. It slammed its cleaver into the ground, and roared a giant roar into the night sky, loud enough to be heard all over town. Otherwise, it didn`t move. Fred noticed Martin shrank back from the demon`s display.

　　"Geez, shut up!" Fred told it. "Look, do I even want a demon in my domain?"

　　"Perhaps, Fred," Martin replied. "I`m starting to think better about this particular one."

　　"Why this one? Help me out, Martin. Please."

　　"What you have here is a Greater Dalron, from the sixth hell. Very big, very powerful,and very, very stupid. Stupid enough to get caught in your magic, it appears."

　　"But you said it was powerful. Can`t it just tear everything up? Wouldn`t it want to?"

　　"Normally, yes. These things are known for being indefatigable maniacs. No fear, no exhaustion, no stopping, no hesitation," Martin opined.

　　"But it IS stopping. It`s stopped right there."

　　"Because it wants you to let it in."

　　"And if I do?"Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

　　"You still haven`t tried crushing it like a bug. Which you very much can do. You`re supposed to provide sparring partners for the humans, yes? To train them to fight demons? Well, what better fodder for such an endeavor than an actual demon?"

　　"Could the humans even survive? It looks like it would even hurt you, Martin," Fred asked. "Do you want it here?"

　　"Of course not! Its odor is tearing at my nostrils even now. But it`s not up to me, Oh Mighty Spirit. This is your decision."

　　"Well& Well, shit. I guess you`re right. And I guess I can crush it later, if I need to." Fred shrugged.

　　In the matter of how to let it in, Fred didn`t have much of a thought. He just swallowed it into the earth, pulling it (in a pocket of air) down to the lair it had been standing above. When the pocket arrived, piercing the ceiling of the lair, the demon fell down to the floor, landing on its hooves with grace. Then it turned yellow, and shouted an inhuman snarl at no one in particular.

　　Fred did the magic thing, and saw that the demon wanted a suitable demonic lair. Dark, smoke and fire all around, some hanging chains. Also a big boiling pool of mud. Not fire, or lava. Mud. Boiling, though. None of this seemed hard, to Fred, and he made the basic shape quickly. For the fire, he stopped for a second. He wasn`t a Fire Spirit, of course. But he quickly reasoned that, if he set up some coal seams in the corners, the demon would ignite them, and that would give the demon the smoke and flame it wanted.

　　Just so the whole thing wouldn`t melt down, Fred made an exhaust tube in the ceiling of the demon`s lair, which opened just outside the Town Wall. He didn`t want the exhaust tube to be a weak point in his defense, but he left the problem for another day.

　　Back in the demon`s lair, he hollowed out a large area for the mud pool, and then filled it with mud. The mud was earth and water, but for some reason it was still easy to create. Then he just focused on the walls of the mud pit, and cranked up the heat output, to make the mud boil, hopefully.

　　The demon, seeing the mud pit completed, stepped forward and waded in. It immediately shrieked, and waded back out. It turned greenish-yellow, and Fred felt safe assuming that it would be much happier when the mud came up to proper temperature.

　　"Okay, it`s in its lair, now. I`ve got a frikkin giant demon in my domain. Didn`t think I signed up for this." Fred told Kumbanaka and Martin.

　　"And the overall odor of this place goes down again. Are you sure you don`t want to just bury it?" Martin asked.

　　"Trust your magic, Fred. And ask Jim about it. He designed your magic, correct?" Kumbanaka said. "But keep a keen eye on that& thing. It`s& terrifying, honestly."

　　Fred thought about that, still very ambivalent about the demon`s presence. He wished he could talk to Jim about it right now, and even called out to him, but got no response. He thought about how the demon was (hopefully, probably) confined to its lair, which made him think about his other creatures, which made him think about Martin.

　　"Martin, I have an idea."

　　"What idea is that, Oh Dangerous Demon Spirit?"

　　"I`m not& I really appreciate your help. And I recognise how much you feel trapped here. And I have an idea. About changing your lair."

　　"Changing it? How?" Martin asked carefully.

　　"Well, what if I moved it? Like, up the mountain? So it`s not right next to all the smelly parts."

　　"Interesting. Continue."

　　"I could give you your own cave, at the tree line, so you could see the humans coming from a long way away. And I suppose you could fight them outside. I mean, right around your lair. Just so long as you let them escape if they wanted to."

　　"I`d need more. I`d need a tower, big enough to rest upon, and survey everything in the area." Martin stated.

　　"How tall?" Fred asked, but then he realized that it didn`t really matter. He was kinda hoping that Martin could keep a lookout for him anyway. And he was pretty sure he could build a whole mountain for Martin, if necessary. Still, Martin had an answer.

　　"Five times my length. That`s how tall. Tall enough so I can see everything, and nothing can touch me."

　　Fred wondered about that. If Martin could go somewhere the humans couldn`t get to him, that would keep them from learning how to battle him. On the other hand, Martin would have to come down to guard his gold horde. And perhaps the humans needed to learn how to fight against Martin`s ability to swoop and pounce, things that Martin`s current lair inhibited.

　　"Okay. I agree."

　　"Then begin your building, Oh Greatest of Earth Spirits. Impress me." Martin spoke smugly. Fred wondered if Martin really thought he`d somehow dominated or controlled Fred into this situation. "I just don`t understand dragons, I guess. But I don`t have to. Thank goodness," Fred sighed.

　　First, Fred went upslope, behind his walls, all the way to the treeline. There he raised a large mound of rock. "You`d better come out and help me with this, Martin. It`s your new lair. I don`t want to mess up," Fred said. Looking back, Fred noticed that Martin had fully climbed out of the tree shaft, and was laying curled around its edge. Without a word, Martin lifted his wings and took flight in the night. He flew over to the large rock mound, and landed with a thump.

　　"I suppose this is as good a location as any, Fred. But it`s woefully small."

　　"I`m glad you like the spot. It`s just a marker. Now I`ll make your tower."

　　And Fred did. He simply built a huge stone platform, and pushed on it from below. It climbed higher and higher, an immense vertical column of gray stone, erupting from the earth as it went. It was seventy spans wide, and Fred intended to make it five times the length of the dragon, as requested. So he glanced down at Martin, who was conveniently stretched out straight.

　　"Have you gotten bigger, Martin?" Fred couldn`t help but ask. He did look bigger, and tremendously healthy and strong. Fred had previously wondered if the new big demon could hurt Martin, but seeing him like this, he now thought differently.

　　"You put a magic heath tree next to my lair, enticed a healing witch to set up shop just as closely, and you wonder why I`m so strong and lustrous?" Martin stretched and flexed himself, like a muscle model in a magazine.

　　"I`m just saying, your old lair musta been getting a bit cramped. Why didn`t you say anything? I`d have given you more room anytime you asked."

　　"Sometimes a small space is most comfortable, when you`re used to it." Martin replied. Fred shrugged to himself, and got back to work. He pushed the giant column of stone upward, til it seemed to be the length Martin wanted. This was very tall, taller than any of the trees behind it.

　　"What do ya think? Tall enough?"

　　"Yes, that will do. And the width is proper, at the top. Make sure the top is flat, and slightly sloped, towards the forest, so rain runs off."

　　"Okay," Fred said, and made the requested change. "So, I was thinking that your new lair would be at the base of the tower?"

　　"Yes, but first expand the base. I like the shape of the tower nearer the top; few humans will be able to scale it and bother me up there. But the tower is too narrow at its base. Fill it out."

　　Fred did that, too. With his changes, the tower now looked like it was erupting from a large rock hemisphere. "Yes, good," Martin directed. "Now, I want an entrance, like the one we made for the first lair. You make smooth stones, and I carve them. But this time, I want more. A bigger entrance, with more writing area."

　　"What do you want inside? The same thing? A big tree room and a smaller gold room?"

　　"No trees inside. As we can both see, there are plenty outside. For this lair, let`s make the inside more like a tunnel, and less like a forest. If they want to get my gold, I want them to have to come deep inside. Heh heh."