A night passed, and then it was morning. Fred had decided to pretend he had a back, so he could lay in the room (on his back) and try to sleep. He couldn't really, but it was quiet and restful. Jim gave him the time, and didn't send any more green text.

The sunrise was nice. Fred couldn't see it, but the blossoming glow from the top of the hole felt very real and comforting to him. So much of what he was feeling seemed unreal, but the sunrise, seen from his vantage point, seemed very right and normal.

Then a groundhog poked its head in.

Well, Fred supposed it was a groundhog. Or groundhog-like. He knew enough that it wasn't a squirrel or fox or possum. And it was hard to miss, since it was currently scrabbling down the shaft that Fred had made one day before.

"Jim! There's a groundhog in here. What do i do?"

Good morning, Fred. What's a groundhog?

"That thing! You see it, right?"

I can, yes, but not as well as you can. It does seem like a forest creature is investigating your domain.

"Well, what do I do about it?"

Welcome it in. This is normal. You don't want to be all alone, do you?

Fred hadn't thought about it. Any of it. He'd not considered for a second that animals existed in this world, much less that they'd get inside his hole. But here it was, moving down the sloped shaft and into the original room Fred had spent the night in. It was very curious, sniffing around in every corner. Then it changed.

"It's red! It lit up red! What's happening???"

Perfectly normal. Deep breaths. It's considering moving in.

"Moving in? Am I a landlord?"

Kinda, yeah. You're a magic Earth Spirit. You nurture the earth, and the creatures that live within it.

"So I'm a zoo keeper? I thought I controlled the earth, not animals."

Indirectly. You know how hard it is for that little gal to dig her own nest? You do it so easily. You can make underground nests without much effort, and give her a safe place to stay.

"Yeah, but do I want to? Do I have to? Does it smell?"

Jim didn't answer right away. Fred got the feeling that Jim might have yelled if he hadn't taken a moment. Fred did feel a bit ashamed of what he'd said. He had no sense of smell that he could perceive, but he could feel pressure, and temperature, and the wind and the sun. And really, the groundhog didn't look mangy or sick. But it did curl up in the corner of the room, and changed color again.

"Okay, now it's yellow. It was red before. Jim?"

That means she has decided to live here. When she was red, she was investigating. Now, she's made the decision to stay. At least for a while.

"Why is it colored? Do animals in this world change color?"

No, animals inside your domain change color. This is all part of your magic. Can I explain?

"Yes. Please. Explain."

As an Earth Spirit, your job is to make homes for creatures. Homes under the earth. You want to make lots of connected rooms, and let creatures come live inside them. You said zoo keeper. Yes, that's very much the kind of thing an Earth Spirit does. There are a few

different reasons for doing this, but the most important is that you gain life energy from them, and thus continue to exist.

"I eat them?"

No, you get energy from their presence in your domain. Very different. No killing or eating involved. But you need that energy. Without it you'd waste away and die.

"That's weird. Magic is weird."

Yes, and I'm here to help you understand it.

"So I can be a zoo keeper? How does that help anything? Do these animals need a keeper? Are they threatened?"

No, it's not like that. Certainly, you and the creatures help each other. You provide safe homes, they provide you vital life energy. Mutually beneficial. But there's more to it than that. You have a bigger purpose, given to you by the magic of the world. You're a key part of a bigger plan, and you're gonna be helpful to more than just a few woodland creatures.

"Now i'm gettin chills. You're selling it. So what's the horrible part?"

It would be so much easier to let you find out for yourself, but I'm not that cruel. But I want to reassure you that I'm not asking you to do anything horrible or immoral, okay?

"But?"

Let me explain. Once you have some creatures in your domain, humans will come. They will call you a "dungeon", and the creatures inside "monsters", and they will invade and kill all the creatures that live in your domain. This is good, and normal. First, the creatures won't actually be killed. Or really, they will be, but they get resurrected by your magic, good as new. They won't even remember what happened.

The World of Aeru wants humans to become stronger, more experienced fighters, who can defend themselves from attack by the more fearsome creatures of the world. So Aeru made you, an Earth Spirit, so you can create a training ground, of sorts, for humans to come and battle creatures under more controlled conditions. Stronger humans protect the world, and you'll facilitate that.

"You want me to make a place where people can kill this little groundhog? Over and over again? That's messed up, right?"

You start with a groundhog, and keep adding creatures, until you get the most dangerous ones. You can even get dragons! If you want, you can make sure this… groundhog doesn't get hurt. But it's your job to make a proper "dungeon", and at the end of the day, everyone benefits, even the creatures you host.

Fred thought about it for a few moments. "Can I just sit here and think about it? In my hole? With my groundhog? I'mma call her Shelley."

Yes.

The morning passed, and the afternoon was well underway, when Jim wrote again. Is the creature still yellow?

Fred looked. She was. She'd seemed a bit restless, moving from corner to corner and scratching around, every hour or so. "Yes."

That means she's still not fully committed to living here. A perfectly content creature will be green colored, to you.

"How do I make her green?"

You don't have direct control over her. You have control over the spaces you make within the earth. So you have to build the perfect nest for her.

"How do I know what she wants? I don't speak groundhog."

Your magic. It will guide you. But you don't want to think about her, and what she wants. You want to consider a space, and imagine her living inside it.

"She's already living inside this space."

So make another space. You're gonna want more than one room anyway. Digging is your special power. So make a hallway, and then another room. Go on.

Fred picked a wall, and began to "push", creating a round tunnel big enough for the groundhog.

That's not what you need, Fred. make hallways big enough for humans. At least two spans high and wide.

"I'll make it wider later." Fred replied tersely. He continued pushing the dirt, until the tunnel was about ten spans long, then pushed in all directions until he had a round area about two spans wide.

Now stop and think. Look at this place. Imagine your creature living in here. What would it look like?

Fred did so, imagining Shelley living happily in the room. The room changed dramatically, in his mind. It was much flatter, the height only a fraction of a span, with several anterooms spoking off from the center. It also had three exit tunnels, and was slightly sloped. Fred realised that he understood why innately; the nest could better withstand flooding if it wasn't all the same level. In his mental image, Shelley was also not alone. She was one of about a dozen groundhogs.

"Do you have a family, Selley? Did you want to bring them here? That's okay with me", Fred thought. He wished he could tell her that, in plain speech.

Do you see what you have to do?

"Yes", said Fred, and he tried to get to work. And then stopped. "Jim? How do I fill in? I can push dirt out, but how do I put it back? What if I make a mistake and push too much out?"

Just what you said. Pull. Grab the wall and drag it outward. You'll get the hang of it.

And Fred did. Explained like that, it was easy. Soon the room was exactly like the nest he'd imagined, except that the exit tunnels didn't go all the way outside yet.

"This nest should have several exit tunnels, so the groundhogs can go escape or forage. Is that okay? I mean, if I make more holes to the outside?"

Sure. It's not bad or illegal to make more than one entrance to your domain. But I do want you to make at least one man-sized entrance to your domain.

Fred didn't answer, because Shelley was poking her nose into the new room, exploring the anterooms. Fred took that as a good sign, and hurried to finish the escape tunnels. When he did so, he cheered to himself. Shelley was bright green. She hurried up one of the escape tunnels, and out of sight. "Bring your family back soon, Shelley!"

Well done, Fred! You're fulfilling your purpose, and you're doing it on your terms.

Jim's text seemed a little condescending, but Fred knew text messages were rather poor at conveying exact meanings, so he let it go.

Don't stop. You can make rooms for many creatures, now that you know how.

But Fred didn't. He just wanted to wait for Shelley to get back with her family. So he just stopped, feeling like his chin was on his hands, and Jim didn't bother him.