The rest of the day was quiet, for Fred. Men continued to battle his creatures, and much sweat and blood was spilled. The humans seemed to be more numerous than ever, but that made sense.

　　As dusk came, Fred got in touch with Jim.

　　Hello, Fred. Oh, my, a Rakshasa!

　　"Yes, his name is Kumbanaka. Jim, did you get me from the Well of Souls?"

　　Well. I assume this Kumbanaka said that?

　　"Actually, Martin did. And I know! He can`t be trusted, and he gets under my skin, and I`m sure it doesn`t matter where I came from, since I`m fine here now."

　　Yes, I`m very glad you came here, and that you`re fine now. I`ve never heard of a Well of Souls, but it`s very possible that your essence was retrieved from something like that. The details don`t matter, but when Aeru called me to enact this plan, I needed Earth Spirits from somewhere, and all Spirits are living sentients, and everything&

　　"Sentients?"

　　Yes, Fred. A sentient is a being who thinks. Like you and me.

　　"Oh."

　　Let me continue. I needed you, and I can`t make you. So Aeru found the spell somewhere, and together we cast it, resulting in the 500 Earth Spirits we started with. The spell was not hers, or mine, and while we were assured that the sentient souls were not otherwise spoken for, we were rather desperate.

　　"So you don`t know really where I came from."

　　Not as such. I`m just glad you`re here now.

　　"Me too. I just wonder if it matters. I mean, was I a cast off? Did no god want me? That`s why you got me?"

　　If no god wants you, I certainly do. Look at all you`ve done here, in such a short time. Don`t for a moment think that you aren`t worth anything.

　　"Yeah, I guess." Fred thought for another moment, and decided his ennui was pointless, and pushed it aside. "So yeah, a Rakshasa named Kumbanaka. Is it okay?"

　　Of course. Rakshasa are famously dangerous fiends, using illusion magic to cloud minds, and the strength of a tiger to break their foes.

　　"What about that? Is a fiend like a demon?"

　　Not really. Fiends do have demonic traits, and aren`t really native to Aeru. But after all this time, nothing and everything is native to Aeru. Fiends have nothing to do with the current invasion, and the Rakshasa is likely to be as loyal to Aeru as anything else.

　　So, this Rakshasa can talk to you? Like Martin?

　　"Yes, exactly like Martin. Well, so far he`s been very polite, and not a jerk like Martin. Loves to talk about his family."

　　Great! What a great addition to your creatures. And since he`s in the last available lair space you have, you might want to get started on a third level.

　　"Isn`t this enough? I mean, Martin only died twice, and those guys are long gone. I don`t know that the Naga has ever been killed. And now this Rakshasa. Don`t I have enough super-tough guys? I mean, the humans keep coming. I think my first level is overwhelmed. Shouldn`t I make more lairs up there?"

　　Make more in both places, Fred. I maintain that you simply can`t go wrong by digging more, anywhere you like. I agree your humans have gotten quite numerous. Rejoice! That means they`re all being trained for the coming fight! You`re doing exactly what you need to be doing, and doing it well.

　　"Okay. It`s what I know how to do, anyway. Hey, did you teach the magic sight spell to the other Spirits?"

　　Of course. It`s all I`ve been talking about all day. So far nine of your peers have figured it out, and I`m sure they all will eventually. You`ve really helped us all out.

　　This narrative has been purloined without the author`s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

　　"Okay, cool. Hey, I haven`t heard any drums in a while."

　　I know Micheal was planning to drum out a weather report tonight. You can listen for that.

　　"Okay, great."

　　Keep digging, Fred. It`s the best thing to do.

　　"Okay."

　　Fred looked around at his domain. Dusk was almost night. The humans had stopped fighting and started partying. He looked into his big cubical building, and saw that the humans had completely taken it over. Every floor had people living in it. Outside the building was a sprawl of ramshackle horse stalls, slapdash latrines, wagon parking, and dark places to discuss dark business. Fred was equally fascinated and dismayed. Once again he thought of his missing sense of smell, and how that was a good thing right now. But humans and horses had to expel waste; no getting around that.

　　Fred wondered if he should help in some way, but the drums started up. He yelped (in his own mind) with excitement, and focused carefully to listen. After the ten starting beats, Michael identified himself. Then the real message started. Fred listened quite hard, and managed to make out most of what was said. "Air slow, sky warm, no sky water." Then came a sentence that Fred lost track of. So he reached out for help.

　　"Martin! Were you listening?"

　　"Yes, Fred. It`s impossible not to hear the drums. Rather soothing."

　　"Well? What did he say?"

　　"You`ve been studying this language. Are you not yet facile with it?"

　　"Whatever facile means, no, I`m not good at it yet. I missed the last part. Can you help me, tell me what he said?"

　　"Of course. He said, `All good with 26 creatures and 258 humans. ` I don`t know why he felt that data was important, but that`s what he communicated."

　　"Oh. Wow. I wonder&"

　　"Sixteen. You have sixteen creatures that the humans are fighting, not counting the ten fairies and the ten little rodents you have in the small den with the children."

　　"Wow, I guess I never counted before."

　　"Obviously."

　　"Wow, Martin, your nose is amazing!"

　　"All dragons have excellent senses, Fred. Though my nose is particularly abused in this environment, all the humans sweating and bleeding and shitting everywhere."

　　"Okay. I didn`t know your nose was& so abused. I myself miss a sense of smell. But humans can be stinky."

　　Fred could tell Martin was in a mood to wax poetic about just how offensive humans were, so he cut him off. "I didn`t really put any latrines or stuff like that in my building. So now the humans have to make their own latrines outside. I`m sure it`s not good for anyone. Can you help me think of a better way? Make a better bathroom for them?"

　　"You can start by giving me better ventilation right here!", Martin grumped.

　　"Okay, sure. You want some more air? Maybe I can build a flu and chimney on top of your lair?"

　　"Yes."

　　So Fred did. He made an upward angled tube, from the top of Martin`s lair to the wall of the central shaft, very much like the tube he`d made for the Naga`s lair. It only took a second, and the air in Martin`s lair started moving.

　　"That`s better, Fred, but I`d like another tube above my bedroom, where I spend most of my time."

　　So Fred made that too. It didn`t move the air quick enough for Martin, so he first made it wider, then added some heat to the rocky inside of the tube. This extra heat rose upward, causing more suction, and thus more air flow into Martin`s "bedroom".

　　"Much better, Fred. Thank you."

　　"I still need your help to make the humans cleaner. But hold on a second."

　　Then Fred called out to Kumbanaka. "Kumbanaka, are you there?"

　　"Yes, Spirit. How can I help?"

　　"Well, I was just adding some airflow to Martin`s lair. Does your lair need any? Or anything?"

　　"It could get a bit stuffy in the future, but this far underground, the temperature is very moderate. Yes, I wouldn`t mind some more airflow."

　　So Fred repeated his chimney-building for Kumbanaka`s lair. The result was quick and pleasing.

　　"Very nice, Fred. You have a great mastery of your domain, both rock and air. Are you sure you`re just an Earth Spirit?" Kumbanaka praised.

　　"That`s what I was told. Now," Fred said to both Kumbanaka and Martin. "I need some ideas on how to deal with all the human waste. They aren`t handling it well; I want to change it."

　　"It is quite fragrant." Kumbanaka grimaced. "Usually humans start their towns in symbiosis with farming. Their waste, and the waste of their beasts, is immediately used as fertilizer. Well, not immediately. Often the waste is piled up, mixed with straw or sawdust, and kept in separated buildings until the planting season. In this brand new boom town, all the food is imported."

　　Martin spoke up. "Established towns have sewers, underground tunnels that run with water, and wash the waste into a river. There are no rivers near here."

　　"Could I get some farming started, somehow?"

　　"You have powerful control of the earth, so you could plow a field with ease, and even sow and grow the crops yourself. But that would also obviate the need for fertilizer." Martin opined.

　　"You could always be the janitor yourself", mused Kumbanaka.

　　"What? How?", replied Fred.

　　"Well, make a cistern; a big underground tank for the human waste. It`s practically earth itself, from a certain point of view. You could simply magically& get rid of it."

　　"Really? Well, yuck. But seriously, I don`t know if I can control& poo& with my magic."

　　"Give it a try. There`s plenty around for the experiment." Kumbanaka grinned.

　　Fred was disgusted, but Kumbanaka`s experiment did need to be done. He went down to the big building, and looked around at the latrines. Finding the closest, he found the piled up waste (in a shallow trench the humans had dug), and he tried pushing it into the ground, with his magic.

　　And it worked great. The waste disappeared as he pushed, until he`d completely erased the waste, and was pushing the trench deeper into the ground. "Huh," he said. "That worked. That worked great."

　　"Night soil is still soil, at least according to your magic," Kumbanaka cracked.

　　"And you have no hands to wash, Fred. You are a lucky Earth Spirit," Martin joined in.

　　"Har har, you guys. Okay, I`ll make the humans some cisterns."

　　This he set out to do. Right there at that latrine, he raised up the ground, flattened it, and turned it to stone. He dug a big cistern out underneath it, and like the cistern room he`d made in the healing temple, he put several holes in the "floor", leading down into the cistern. Then, considering the privacy of the humans, he quickly raised some stone walls, with a single door in one.

　　Now, roof or no roof, he wondered? Roof, he decided, and made a roof from a single thin slab of near perfectly flat stone, tilted at a 20 degree angle by posts at two corners of the room. The result let in lots of light and air (and probably bugs), while protecting the users from rain.

　　The whole thing was very easy, Fred thought, so he made the same structure-on-cistern building in four more places around the human town. At one build site, a human who was approaching with a handful of paper in his hands was startled by a building appearing magically in front of him. "Sorry, guy, but you`ll thank me later," Fred giggled to himself.