A peaceful night was not to be.

　　The post-storm fog was still thick on the ground when Fred`s attention was drawn to some sort of commotion at the wall. At the eastern gate, guards were shouting. Fred looked closer, and saw blades flashing, people being attacked, and a familiar sack laying on the ground. "Shit, more bombs!" Fred shouted.

　　Kumbanaka and Martin were both a very long way away from the bomb this time, and it looked to Fred like it was gonna go off very soon. He didn`t think; he just manifested the stone hand, and picked up the bomb. Held in the fingers of his "hand" the bomb seemed rather small, but he knew exactly how dangerous it was. His hand was on the outside of the wall, so it slid further away from the gate, and turned around.

　　Then the hand threw the bomb out into the night. It wasn`t attached to an arm, so it really more "flicked" the bomb then "threw" it. But the result was the bomb flying off into the darkness, in a high arc. Only after the throw did Fred think about the three outer forts, which the bomb was flying towards. They were a long way away, but Fred wasn`t sure how hard he`d thrown the bomb, really, or exactly where it would land.

　　Booooom! The bomb exploded in the air. Once again everything turned white, and the humans at the gate were blown over. Fred felt the pressure wave again, but this time he knew what was happening, so he kept his head. He was glad the bomb didn`t explode close enough to any structures to damage anything. He checked the Town Wall and the gate, just in case, but saw no cracks or any other damage.

　　He turned his attention back to the humans at the gate. They were picking themselves up, and dealing with two humans that looked to be the bombers. One had already been killed, and the other was being sat upon by the biggest gate guard. It didn`t take long for more guards and fighters to run to the gate and help restore order, despite starting from the towers.

　　As the humans restored order (too many "helping" to restrain the bomber), they couldn`t not notice the giant hand very close to them. Fred had forgotten it as soon as he`d used it, and it stood motionless, twelve spans from the outside of the gate. Over the next few minutes, the bomber was carried off, and many humans carefully approached and examined the stone hand.

　　Fred thought about erasing the hand, but didn`t think it was necessary. "But if they start worshiping it, I think I`ll have to get rid of it. I`m not their god," Fred thought.

　　"I saw it all, Fred," Martin told him. "That hand you made; you could have used it last time, and spared me a death, I assume?"

　　"Well, I suppose," Fred replied. "Last time was crazy. I definitely wasn`t thinking those bombs would go off so fast."

　　"We knew nothing of those bombs, then, Dragon." Kumbanaka intervened. "You did exactly the right thing then, and Fred did exactly the right thing now."

　　"You didn`t see what just happened, Kitty," Martin spat back. "You`re inside where it`s warm and dry."

　　"Actually, I`m standing with a large group of humans, and some of them saw the bomb go off, and a stone hand. It`s easy to assume it was made by Fred, and for what reason."

　　"They waited. They waited for the storm to try to get the bomb in," Fred spoke up.

　　"Yes, and they were stopped at the wall, just as planned," Kumbanaka replied. "Your wall worked. Those clever, predictable humans protected you."

　　"I still shouldn`t have had to carry the bombs. And die," grumped Martin.

　　"I said I was sorry with a nice new lair!" Fred shouted. "I promise I won`t make you do it again. So shut up!" Martin buried his head in his gold, and said nothing more.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

　　Shouting at Martin always made Fred feel terrible. To try to forget about how he felt, he set to building more towers for the humans. His Town Wall had three big gates, and the humans hadn`t built anywhere near the north or south gates. So Fred felt comfortable building there.

　　Just inside the wall, near the south gate, Fred built two towers. These were a bit fatter than the previous towers he`d built, but otherwise they were the same design, so the new towers went up easily. After he`d finished them, he built two more towers (identical to the last two) near the north gate. All this work took him nearly the rest of the night, but more than doubled the living space for the humans.

　　Fred`s domain now had seven towers, one Glass Citadel, and an underground space (underneath the front steps) that humans could hide in. He assumed that would be enough for quite a while, but he would be proven wrong before noon.

　　About an hour before dawn, new creatures arrived. Three of them. One was a bit bigger, and golden. The other two were silver. They were all some sort of lizard creature, like the drakes or the lizard twins, but had no wings. They were big, but not as big as a drake. Like the beaked bear, they stopped at the wall, politely waiting to be allowed inside.

　　Fred opened temporary sallyports through the Town Wall and the Inner Wall for them. They then marched into the front entrance, down the stairs into the Cave Zone, past the pyramid, and stopped at the entrance to the final unoccupied lair that Fred had built there. As he had done many times, Fred looked at the lair with his Lair Sight, to see what these beasts wanted.

　　At first he was confused; the lair needed to be filled in with solid rock. Then he looked closer. These beasts didn`t want a big cave; they wanted to live in a maze. A maze of tunnels, including tunnels that flowed around and above each other. Fred saw a tunnel system that wound around like spaghetti, but with plenty of dead ends and branches. The tunnels would be barely large enough to fit the golden beast, and certainly would feel cramped to any human attackers. At the far end, the tunnels would connect to a larger den, which was still pretty cozy, Fred thought.

　　So Fred got to work. He was so experienced by now that he created the tunnels very quickly, filling in the original lair space as he went. The three beasts waited patiently outside. He kept his lair sight up while he worked, and tried to create the most accurate version of what he`d envisioned. It took about an hour, but finally it was done, and when Fred stepped back to check it, he saw all three of the beasts turn yellow, and step into their brand new lair/tunnel/system.

　　Fred watched them as they easily navigated the twisting tunnels, and finally arrived at the den. The two silver beasts sat down at the entrance, at attention, almost as if they were guarding the room. The big golden one moved to the middle of the room, turned around a few times, and sat down. Still yellow.

　　"Huh," said Fred. He looked again with his lair sight. He`d missed that the beast wanted a shallow bowl shape in the center of the den, and it wanted the rock of the bowl to be heated. Not a lot, but certainly warmer than the normal temperature of the rock.

　　Fred made the changes; they were trivial. Now the golden beast stepped into the bowl/depression, turned a few times, and lay down. It turned green at last. The silver beasts turned green a moment later. Fred got the feeling that the golden one was a queen, and she called the shots around here.

　　Fred turned his attention to the dawn, which was just peeking up, making the tops of the towers glow.

　　Good morning, Fred. How are you doing?

　　"Wow, good. Nothing but lizards, it seems. I got one that looks like a turtle, and it came from deep underground, if you can believe it."

　　Yes, I see him, a big Dragon Turtle. And what`s this? Three of& Fred& These are&

　　"Well, what? What are they?" Jim`s apparent stuttering was making Fred nervous.

　　A Golden Celestial Wurm.

　　"A worm?"

　　No, a Wurm. And not just any Wurm. Fred do you realize& No, you can`t.

　　"Explain it! Geez!"

　　Okay. A Golden Celestial Wurm isn`t too rare in these mountains, but Aeru and I never expected one to become part of an Earth Spirit`s domain.

　　"Just another creature wanting a lair, right?"

　　But these creatures are special. Very much so. Bear with me. This changes things.

　　"How?"

　　I`ve told you that the demons are opening seven gates, seven portals between their world and ours. And ultimately, to protect this world, those gates have to be closed.

　　"Yeah?"

　　There are several ways, several complex and& difficult ways to close the gates. Even if the humans were strong enough to kill every demon, they`d still need powerful magic to close the gates.

　　"And this Golden Celestial is a way?"

　　Yes. More specifically, her eggs. Each of her eggs could possibly be used, magically, to close a gate.

　　"Fine, but she hasn`t got any eggs."

　　She`s pregnant. I can see. With eight eggs.

　　"You can? Wow, it looks normal to me. I didn`t even know it was a girl wurm. Well, actually I think I guessed. But so, you think these eggs can stop the demons?"

　　With the proper magic, yes. Well, perhaps. And now these creatures are part of your domain. Fred, you still amaze me. Every day.

　　"Amaze away. But won`t the demons come for the eggs, if they find out?"

　　Everyone will find out. There`s no escaping that eventuality. And yes, the demons aren`t stupid. If the humans figure out how to use the eggs, the demons will surely find out what the humans are planning.

　　I wouldn`t be surprised if the humans already know about the eggs. But if not, they will need to be told. You can`t take the eggs across the world and close the gates. The humans can. I hope.

　　"You know these wurms won`t just give up the eggs. Humans will have to fight them."

　　Yes, I know. That`s how your domain works. If the humans are strong enough to defeat the wurms and collect the eggs, they may be strong enough to get the eggs to the gates and get them closed.