The Three Kings and their group made it back to the big building, but the de-legged knight was completely limp, and they wound up dragging him all that way. Fred thought he might have died; he certainly wasn`t moving by himself.

　　Once again, the rest of the day was a ghost town. This time the humans had obviously gotten warnings about the dragon raid, and wisely took some personal time. They didn`t leave the big building, though. That place was quiet, but well-populated, and the humans went about the mundane business of washing, cooking, sleeping, and such.

　　At the top of the tree shaft, however, Fred saw some men with a different errand. He counted eleven, and a simple glance told him that these were the weedy wizards, back to try again. The last three had been elders, experienced and well fed. This group looked like the "A team", the best the wizards had. None were fat, or weak-looking, and they moved like they were well-trained. One was obviously the leader, with extra-fancy clothes and a silly hat. Fred was immediately worried.

　　The wizards gathered around the lip of the shaft, and started chanting.

　　"Fred, what`s going on?", asked Martin.

　　"Those wizards! The ones who attacked me, they`re back!"

　　"Wait, what?"

　　The wizards then jumped off all at once, plunging towards the tree. But their magic slowed them, so they landed a moment later, unharmed. They immediately pulled out the now-familiar feather charms, and starting chanting as one. Their leader held a feather charm in one hand, and a big crystal in the other. He held it high, and it pulsed with blue light. Fred noticed that the chant was just as absurd and whiney as the last time he`d heard it, though it seemed more impressive coming from eleven mouths in unison. He also noticed that each of the men (except the leader) was wearing a crystal on a necklace, and everyone`s crystal was pulsing with the same blue pulse as the big crystal the leader held.

　　Fred suddenly felt like throwing up. This was much worse than the other times, and came on much quicker. His head spun. His vision dimmed. He felt weak as a baby, and his perception rolled like he was on a ship in a storm. This was awful, and while a small part of him thought to dig pits under the wizards, he knew he`d lost the ability to do so. He could faintly hear Martin shouting, but couldn`t understand him.

　　Then the fairies attacked. They blasted the wizards with their spells, and a few were knocked off their feet. The chant was half-disrupted. The wizards were single-minded, but the fairies were clearly a big surprise to them. One wizard ran screaming into Martin`s lair, his whole head on fire. The rest gamely kept chanting, except the leader. He stopped chanting, and began waving his hands. A big green bubble appeared around him, and all the other wizards rushed to get into the bubble, which seemed to be providing some protection against the attacks of the fairies.

　　Fred could feel that the spell had been partially disrupted, but he still completely disrupted himself. He barely understood what was happening. He felt like he was laying on the floor with no arms or legs, helpless to do anything. The fairies` attacks were now frustrated by the green protective bubble, and all the wizards got back to chanting the anti-Fred spell. Fred felt desperate and sick.

　　But then the naga was there. It moved like lightning, and wasn`t troubled by the green barrier bubble. It was very tall when it wanted to be, but right now it wanted to be quick, so it attacked low and fast.

　　It had long sharp claws, but it didn`t use them. Instead it just struck at each wizard in turn, biting like lightning. Every bitten man instantly fell down dead, like a marionette who`s strings had been cut. It killed a third of the wizards before they even understood what was happening. When they did, they broke and ran in different directions.

　　This didn`t save them; the naga was so fast. And efficient. Before Fred really knew what was happening, the wizard leader was the only one left alive, and he had been trapped in the coils of the naga. Constricted tightly, he gasped and cursed and begged. The fairies floated around the naga, and jeered and cursed at the man. One picked up the silly hat he`d lost, and started playing with it. Then Martin`s head came out of his lair, filling the space and capturing everyone`s attention. Martin let out a low rumble, and the fairies became quiet and backed off.

　　The wizard kept struggling and whining for a few moments. Then Martin shifted his huge head, so his eye got really close to the constricted man. Martin apparently did something magical, because the human suddenly stopped and got quiet. The situation froze like this for several minutes, as Fred felt himself recovering from the terrible effects of the spell. Recovering was relative, though. Fred still felt awful.

　　Finally Martin relaxed, and pulled back. The man collapsed in the clutches of the naga, who released the man, and let him fall to the ground. Then the naga grabbed one ankle of the leader, and drug the unresponsive man back into the naga`s lair.

　　"Fred, how are you? Can you speak?"

　　"Yes. Holy hell, that was awful."

　　"Once again, I suppose I owe you an apology. I said these men couldn`t hurt you. I was& mistaken."

　　"I& I guess I`m really glad the naga was there. And the fairies, too.", said Fred.

　　"Oh, I would have helped, too, if needed. I could see everything. I promised not to kill the humans outside of my lair. I would have broken that promise to save you."

　　"Well, then , thank you."

　　The dead bodies were sparkling. Fred noticed more of the feathers, clothing, and the blue crystals were turning into Treasure Sprites.

　　"One of them did enter my lair. I ate him. Slowly. He tasted terrible. But eating him felt so good." A huge dragon grin slowly blossomed over Martin`s whole face.

　　"I also interrogated their high priest. Are you ready to receive my report?"

　　"Um& well& yes& no& I&"

　　"That`s a no, then. Rest, Fred. This assault was fierce, but they can`t repeat it. We seem to have killed all of them. All of them that matter, anyway. Just rest and recover."Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

　　"Okay, yes." said Fred, and headed for Shelley`s room. There he stayed, feeling very low and sick, for the rest of the day. He didn`t see the black clouds gather above, but he felt the cold, wet wind, and the rain that came soon after.

　　Fred? Are you okay?

　　"No. Not really." It was dusk, and Fred was feeling better, but still very depressed. The sky was still drizzling. He proceeded to tell Jim everything that had happened. His thoughts weren`t very ordered, but Jim was quiet and patient.

　　Wow, what a busy day! I`m glad you aren`t permanently injured.

　　"But am I? What was that magic they used? How do you know if I`m okay?"

　　I can perceive how you`re feeling. I`d know if you were sick or injured. I clearly see how this attack affected you, but trust me, it`s not permanent. As for that magic, I still don`t know much. But I know two other Earth Spirits have been attacked in a similar way.

　　"With the wizards? And the feather, and chanting?"

　　Yes, wizards and chanting. No, nobody else has seen those feather charms. But the attackers used other things. Leading me to believe that it`s more about the chant and the spell than the actual charm.

　　"Will it keep happening?"

　　When you feel up to it, ask Martin. It sounds like he has more information than I. Dragons often have powerful mind magic, so I bet he got some answers from his& interrogation. Don`t trust that he`ll share every bit of it with you, though.

　　"Have you warned the other Earth Spirits? I think I almost died today. The spell happened so fast, I didn`t have a chance to squash any of them. If my creatures hadn`t fought them, they coulda killed me."

　　Yes, I`ve been warning everyone. And I`ve been telling them just what I told you. Dig more, attract more creatures, and let them protect you. I know it was scary, but your creatures behaved precisely as I planned them to. They are bound by your magic, bound to protect themselves by protecting you. And that`s exactly what happened.

　　"How long til I`m better?"

　　I know you, Fred. You`ll bounce right back, good as new. I bet this will all be a bad memory, in just a few days.

　　"Okay. Bye." And Fred went back to laying next to Shelley, which was the only thing he wanted to do right now.

　　Then Michael`s drums started up again. It sounded exactly like last time, so Fred assumed it was Michael. Even though he didn`t really want to, he found himself paying close attention, trying to make out Michael`s eight-beat "name", at least. He couldn`t and that was depressing, but listening to the beats really was soothing, in a way, like Martin had said. The drums stopped, after a few minutes. And Fred lay there and watched Shelley breathing.

　　The night was quiet, but deep in the night, Fred thought he could "hear" drums again. It was faint, and didn`t seem to have a pattern. Was someone practicing? A part of him was interested, but his funk smothered it. He didn`t even notice when the rain finally stopped.

　　In the morning, Jim was back.

　　Rise and shine, Fred. It`s a new day. How do you feel?

　　Fred had tuned out the world all night, and now that he thought about it, he did feel better.

　　"I`m okay, I guess."

　　Well, I want to check, and I have an idea how we can do that.

　　"What?"

　　Your entrance is boring. You and your domain have grown a great deal since you created two simple stone pillars. I think we should show the world that you`re much more than you were. I think you should redesign your entrance. Make it something really grand.

　　"Do I have to?"

　　You should. If you want to make sure your magic wasn`t damaged. And I meant it, your entrance needs an upgrade. So get busy. Chop chop, as Virginia says.

　　"She says that?"

　　Yes. She also says `Get a move on`, ` times a wasting`, and `cows don`t milk themselves.` She`s adorable.

　　"Huh, okay." Fred roused himself, and moved to the front entrance. It did look quite plain, and some weeds were even growing into the entrance, giving it a dry, abandoned appearance. "So, what should I make?"

　　Entirely up to you, my friend. I`m sure you`ll think of something.

　　"Gee thanks.", Fred said sarcastically. But he was smiling. And he already knew how to start. To combat weeds, get rid of the dirt. So he compressed the dirt at the entrance, transmuting it into granite. Then he had a better idea, and transmuted that into black marble. Now he had a slightly raised flat platform of black marble, that humans would have to walk across to enter or leave the domain. The two old stone columns were removed, almost as an afterthought.

　　Next he expanded the platform, making it huge, a hundred spans wide. He wanted to extend it out from the entrance, too, but the ground was sloping down in that direction. So he started to make steps in the marble. This was all happening almost as quickly as thought, now. If Fred had a face, a smile would be growing on it, as it was clear his magic had not been damaged by yesterday`s attack. He seemed to be more capable than ever.

　　A part of Fred noticed that a surprised human scurried away from the entrance as he began to work, and there were other humans watching from a distance. But quickly he got caught up in the task at hand. He made steps as needed, while stretching the platform out away from the entrance, and the result was a huge, shiny, terraced area. Each wide terrace was separated by four steps, and was wide enough for the various stalls Fred had seen the humans erect.

　　Now he placed ten rough pillars at even intervals along each terrace. Each was quite wide, and five spans tall. Fred wanted them to feel strong, cause now he wanted to put a roof over them. He began creating it, but quickly erased and restarted, as ideas came to him. Sloped? Rounded? Terraced, like the base? Finally he shrugged and went with the simple sloped option. The roof wound up exactly covering the base, but unlike the terraced base, it was one perfect rectangle of block stone, slightly sloped, so rain would run off downhill from the entrance.

　　He sat back and looked at his work, and decided it was big enough, but too plain. And he`d made columns before. So now he made three, arising from the roof of his new edifice. He made them all the same height, 20 spans, but then thought again, and increased the center spire another 10 spans, and made it thicker. Still too plain. He shaped one of them into a point. Then gave it four sides. Then twisted it. No, that was all too much. He removed the changed spire, then recreated the simple column.

　　He considered a number of sculptural possibilities, like a big dragon`s head made in stone. But he had no talent or experience with doing that. He thought of making a stone arch, like Martin`s lair entrance, and letting Martin write/scratch something into it. But no, he didn`t trust Martin to write something meaningful, and not lie about it.

　　He thought of holes, and dimples, something to make the columns more interesting. That led to the idea of making BIG holes in the columns, so that the wind would make whistling noises through them. But then he reasoned that the sounds could be too creepy, and annoy the humans.

　　In the end, he decided to make simple connections between the three columns, out of stone, that curved, so they looked like ropes strung between two poles. But, ya know, stone.

　　Part of what was in his head was a roof over the humans, to make them feel safer. Safer from Martin. And sure, other things. But he knew that Martin could pretty easily knock over what he was building. And that gave him the idea of an escape room. Directly beneath the terraced black platform, he dug a huge rectangular area. He put it 15 spans deep, and with a 3 span ceiling. He then made stairs down from both sides of the terrace. Each staircase was relatively small, just big enough for one human. These stairs (he reasoned) were escape stairs, in case the humans right outside the Main Entrance needed to hide quickly. He didn`t want them to get the idea they could haul large equipment down the stairs.

　　Once the big escape room was complete, and connected to the outside by the two stairs, he made a tunnel at the back (towards his domain) that led to the top of the big spiral ramp, so the humans wouldn`t feel completely trapped in the escape room. Now that the escape room shape was complete, he went back and purposely hardened the walls, floor, and ceiling of the place,using the strongest rock he knew how to make. Something huge (like Martin) might crush the terraced entrance, but they wouldn`t be able to damage or collapse the escape room underneath. He knew it was strong enough, but just to make it feel even stronger, he made several stone support columns inside the escape room.

　　Of course, it was pitch black inside, and Fred wanted it to be a safe haven. So he lit up the ceiling, with a soft, warm glow. He thought about putting a water source inside, but then reasoned that the Escape Room (as he now thought of it) was only temporary; humans weren`t supposed to be trapped inside for a long time.

　　He was done. And now he remembered that Jim was watching.

　　"I`m done. What do ya think?"

　　Magnificent. Fred, your architecture is so distinct. It could have been much scarier, or more ornate, but instead it`s welcoming. You`ve made a statement here, and that statement is that you care.

　　"It`s not too much?"

　　No, just right. And you`ve shown us both that your magic wasn`t damaged at all. In fact, I`ve never seen you work so fast.

　　"Yeah, it felt good. It felt like I could just& do it, like I can make anything I can imagine."

　　You can. I`m very proud of your progress.

　　"Yeah, but that`s all magic. Which you gave me. I don`t remember being able to shape earth in my previous life."

　　Aeru gave you the tools. But you`re the sculptor. It`s all you, Fred. Don`t think we programmed your creativity into you. Okay, I`ve got to go, but you wanted to discuss things with Martin. So I`ll leave you to it. Bye.

　　"Bye."