"While we are talking, I`d like to discuss some& I want some help." Kumbanaka said to Fred.

　　"Sure, anything," Fred replied quickly. He found that he could keep track of Martin as he flew, though as he flew higher, he became less distinct to Fred. Still, it seemed that Martin did have more than enough space to fly, now. Over the next hour, he flew a circuit over all three of the tower forts, turned back west over the town (quite low, Fred was displeased to see), and upslope, over the big forest. Then he`d make the circuit again.

　　"As I said, I`d like not to have to repair my home after every& unsuccessful battle." Kumbanaka continued.

　　"Well, I could put a big door in the way, and you could lock it."

　　"No, that WOULD place me in a cage. I don`t feel it`s the correct solution," Kumbanaka replied.

　　"Okay, should you use your illusions? Make your stuff disappear?"

　　"My magic wouldn`t survive my death, no."

　　"I`m sorry they smashed up everything. What all did they steal?"

　　"Trinkets, really. They took nothing of value. I have some actual valuables, some things that are priceless to me, but those are carefully hidden. The humans didn`t get them. No, what I`m most upset about is the vandalism. As I am a visible adversary, I doubt the humans will avoid such vandalism, in the future. Unless we change something."

　　"Well, I`m all ears." Fred blurted.

　　"What a strange thing to say. You are an Earth Spirit. You have no visible ears, though I suppose you can hear in every corner of your domain. Was that what you meant?"

　　"No, no, I just said something I remembered from.. I dunno. It just means I`m listening to you."

　　Kumbanaka nodded. "Fine. I was thinking about putting something in my lair that would capture the humans` attention, keeping them from searching and damaging everything else."

　　"Like what," Fred asked. "Like& a statue?"

　　"Like a safe. Like a lockbox that would obviously contain my treasure, if I had any."

　　"Oh yeah, so they`d spend time opening the box, instead of wrecking everything. I get it. And you could put it right in the middle of your room, so it`s super obvious."

　　"Yes, just so." Kumbanaka agreed.

　　"Okay. Well, I can make the box, sure. Nice and big and steel. And I can fund the treasure. Gold is easy. I made a ton for Martin."

　　"I appreciate your funding offer. Some sort of treasure would be useful. But If we put an armored box in my room, I fear the humans would be tempted to blow it up. No, a magical box, with a magical lock, would be better."

　　"You said your magic goes away when you& if you die."

　　"Yes, I did. But I can obtain magical amulets that will work for me. They are NOT my magic; they are designed for this purpose."

　　"You can? Sweet, that`d be perfect, then."

　　"If we can get to work, I`d like to start with a pedestal, that the treasure would rest on. Can you make that for me?"

　　"Sure!" Fred went to the center of Kumbanaka`s second room, and raised a stone pedestal, one span tall.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

　　"That`s a good start, Fred. Now let me show you&" Kumbanaka proceeded to guide Fred in a large number of details. Under Kumbanaka`s guidance, Fred made an amazingly ornate pedestal, containing five different colors of stone, tiny waves and patterns, and even a simple face on the front side. It would surely capture the attention of anyone who walked into the room.

　　By the time they were done, Martin had flown a dozen laps of the domain, and had decided to land at the base of the tree line, about 700 spans upslope from the town. There he had a pretty good view of everything downslope, and Fred could see him, head held high, carefully observing everything.

　　"Hey, Martin?" Fred asked.

　　"What?"

　　"There are some ruins in the forest. I didn`t see much good about them. Very old and broken. But mebbe you could take a look? You could spot something I didn`t?"

　　Martin let out a hugely theatrical sigh. "And so I go to help my gaoler build a better gaol." Fred didn`t think he had to reply to this. But Martin got up, and started stepping through the trees, towards the ruins Fred had found. He was sinuous, and surprisingly few trees got pushed over as he stalked through them..

　　Kumbanaka said, "Now, for some treasure."

　　"I thought we were gonna make a lockbox to go on top of the pedestal."

　　"No!" Kumbanaka replied. "The lockbox will be magical. We need to show the invaders what they could win. The treasure should be displayed in full view, upon this ornate pedestal."

　　"Okay. So, gold?"

　　"Perhaps. What we really want is artificial scarcity. Something that only a few may own, will be coveted even more."

　　"Do we really wanna do this, Kumbanaka?" Fred asked. "If they get better treasure, they`ll just want to come kill you more."

　　"Exactly. I do not intend to let this blessing go to waste." Fred understood that to mean that Kumbanaka was looking forward to dying more. He would have objected more strongly, but he didn`t think Kumbanaka was depressed or resigned, and since his were the only creatures that could remember their deaths, nobody knew what was right or proper about all this.

　　"How are you at shrinkage, Fred?" Kumbanaka asked.

　　"What!?"

　　"Can you shrink stone?"

　　"I& I guess. I dunno. I guess I could try?"

　　"Let`s try this. Make me a soft clay tablet to write on, one span square. Right here on the floor is fine." Kumbanaka asked.

　　Fred shrugged, and produced the tablet.

　　"Good. Now, I`ll write, `Bigger isn`t always better` on it, like that." Kumbanaka did so, with his claw. "Now, please turn the tablet into hard stone."

　　Fred did that. Easy enough.

　　"Now, I want you to make the tablet smaller."

　　"How small?" Fred asked.

　　"As small as you can, Spirit. Can you do so without it cracking?"

　　Fred did it without thinking about it, and rather suddenly the tablet was the size of a thumbnail.

　　"Perfect!" Kumbanaka crowed. He picked up the now miniscule tablet, and peered at it carefully. "Marvelous. Jaya!"

　　"Wow, okay. I never thought& Could I go the other way? Could I make a tiny stone into a huge one?"

　　"If you haven`t, you should try. I`ve got places to go and humans to see tonight. Thank you for your help, Fred." Kumbanaka moved to leave his lair. Fred watched him go, but was also distracted by a new creature approaching. Oh, well, two creatures.

　　Both creatures were traveling into Fred`s domain, and trying not to be seen by any humans. One, from the north, was a frog. And a man. A man-frog, Fred guessed. With nothing but a wooden spear, it slipped into the Front Zone, and sat down in the last available lair (alongside the wolf, the twin lizards, the big spider, the giant scorpion, and the gortragg). "This is the first time the Front Zone has ever been totally full," Fred thought to himself.

　　He looked with his magic sight at the man-frog`s lair, and saw that it wanted a swamp. It was yellow, and didn`t seem agitated, but Fred didn`t want to do a poor job. So he covered the floor in a thick layer of wet clay, and added lots of big grasses. This was good enough for the man-frog, which turned green and plopped over to the corner to hide down in the grass.

　　Fred turned to the other new arrival. It was a box. A wooden, iron-bound chest, scooting along on many little feet, a bit like those of a centipede. It came from the south, and entered Fred`s Tree Zone through the central shaft. Its multitude of little feet glued it to the wall of the shaft, and it had no trouble getting down to the tree. From there it walked up the ramp. A healer was just walking out of the temple entrance when the walking box passed by. The healer gave a start, and a squeak, and ducked back inside.

　　The box continued, walking all the way into the Lined Hallway Zone. It chose a lair right next to the Ghast`s lair. As with his other creatures, it stopped in the middle of the lair, turned yellow, and waited. Using magic, Fred saw that the box wanted to be among many other boxes. He saw a large attic, filled with boxes of all shapes and sizes. "You wanna get lost in all the other boxes, Mr. Box." Fred thought. "So you can jump out at people, I bet. I know your type."

　　Fred started making a box, intending to make several of all different sizes. But then he said, "I should try out this new thing I can do." So he made a single box, a perfect one-span cube. He made it from solid wood and metal, and wondered (a little bit) about his control over wood, since he wasn`t a Wood Spirit. He felt he did a pretty good job making it look like Mr. Box.

　　Once he had it, he could copy it very quickly. Now he had two dozen of the boxes, and he set about changing their size. A few he shrank, but most he made grow bigger, and this turned out to be trivial, so long as he just did it, and didn`t try to think about it. He tried making one bigger as fast as he possibly could, and it did grow very quickly, but he was kinda comforted that there was a speed limit. He couldn`t turn a pebble into a mountain instantly.

　　The one he`d experimented with was now way too big, so he shrank it back down to a reasonable size. Now he had two dozen boxes of various sizes. He stepped back, and felt that, for the size of the room, he still wanted more boxes. So he simply copied all the boxes, and now he had four dozen.

　　Mr. Box turned green, and began running around, pushing all the other boxes. "You wanna do the arranging, Mr. Box?" Fred asked. "Okay, be my guest." Mr. Box stopped to stack one box on another. It did this by opening its lid. A gigantic slimy purple tongue popped out, and grabbed the box in a sticky embrace. The tongue was very strong, and had no trouble moving the boxes around.

　　Fred marveled, but only for a moment. Mr. Box was surprising and delightfully weird, but Fred had seen a lot of that, in his time.