The afternoon went quickly. Fred kept an eye on the kid, who eventually scampered out of the domain like Fred hoped he would. Meanwhile the battles continued, and humans and creatures bled and died. No humans seemed interested in looking into the old potato room. But they were exploring down the ramp toward the second level. Fred watched a team make it to the Tomb of the King, and go inside. They looked around in wonder, but soon left. They then proceeded down to the second level, and saw the silver tree.

They were clearly in awe, and also clearly certain a creature would jump out from behind it. They moved very carefully and slowly, and took minutes to move closer to the tree. Once close, they tried to collect some of the bark, and the silver leaves. The bark refused to come off, but they did manage to break off several leaves. This swayed the branch, and as the moving leaves came together, the tree made a tinkling, bell-like sound. The humans were spooked. They immediately ran back to the ramp, and stood there whispering urgently to each other. Finally they must have decided they'd seen enough, and they climbed back up the ramp and left Fred's domain.

Fred had watched the men exploring the Tomb of the King, and didn't feel like its darkness really did justice to the king. He went back to the tomb, and made the sarcophagus glow with an unearthly blue light, which lit the whole room and made it feel very spooky. Fred grinned. He was really getting the hang of making the domain his own.

He also thought that the Tomb was kinda lonely, parked halfway down the spiral ramp, so he thought about making more rooms there. He carved out two rooms, one on either side of the Tomb room. Then he copied some of the writing from the tomb to the walls of the two new rooms. You know, for flavor.

The day was ending, and something caught Fred's attention at the main entrance. A man had come inside, dumped out a sack on the floor, and left. Fred examined the new loot, and realized that it wasn't swords or armor. It was plants. About a dozen examples of herbs and flowers, and even one orchid-looking thing. Fred knew that these items might turn into Treasure Sprites if he did nothing, and he bet the plants were well worth cultivating, so he "grabbed" them, and moved them through the ground to the second floor. He quickly made a little room, unconnected to anything else, and planted the plants there for safekeeping. "Another reason to find some water," he thought.

After that, it didn't take long for the humans to clear out, and for Jim to return.

What's new, Fred?

"Several things. I can use your help."

And I'm here to help. What's first?

"These plants. Let's figure them out."

Oh, Yeah. Where did you find these?

"A human left them for me."

Okay, good. I love cooperation! Let's see. These five are all plants used in potions. The humans will want as many of these as they can get. They aren't the hardiest plants, but that doesn't matter. Now that you've planted them inside your domain, they're nourished and protected by your magic. They'll grow quickly, wherever you plant them.

"That's exactly what I thought they were. So, plant them near the entrance?"

Well, your job isn't to coddle these humans. They need a challenge. I'd suggest that you place these in the dens of creatures. That way humans have to fight for them.

"Okay, what about the rest? I think these three are aromatic? Why do I know that word?"

Correct. Those three are used as incense. Very popular with clerics and mystics. And the three there are all food ingredients. Spices. Not strictly necessary, but valued and sought after.

"And this one?" Fred indicated the one that looked like an orchid. "I've got no idea about this one."

It's for love potions. For making new little humans. Always in demand.

"Ah. Okay, how about this final one? It looks like an onion to me."

That's exactly what it is. A northern great onion. Very nutritious. I've heard that they were created magically.

"Huh. Why would the guy give me all these specialty plants, and also an onion?"

I don't know. But it is still useful. You could put them in with your potatoes.

"Yeah, about that. Nobody was harvesting the potatoes. It's like the professional battlers weren't interested in food. Plus, there's this kid."

Kid?

"Yeah, one of the children. Of the original villagers. He's been crawling into Shelley's den and sleeping with the groundhogs. I think the kid's completely starved. So come see. I made a new potato room, and gave the kid an access tunnel. I was hoping he could feed himself and his family."

That's very thoughtful.

"You told me to support the humans. You didn't mean just support the fighters, right?"

No, I did mean all the humans. Everyone needs your support for what's coming.

"Okay, then I'll plant these super onions in there too, okay? Hopefully this could feed the villagers."

Fine with me. Aside from the plants, what else did you need help with?

"Water. And heat."

Okay.

"Yeah, this naga isn't happy. Its lair needs to be hotter, and I don't know how to do that. Also, it wants a little pond, and I don't know where to get water for that."

Okay, sure. I really like what you've done with the glowy "stars" in the naga lair. Very creative!

"Thanks."

So, you added light to the rocks here. You've added light to other parts of your domain too. It wasn't hard, was it?

"No. Easy."

Well, heat and cold are just like light. Just aspects of the stone that you can enhance with a thought.

"It's really that easy?"

Give it a try.

Fred picked out a large stack of "ruin" blocks, and willed them to release heat. And they did. In fact, they quickly started making a large amount of heat. Fred worried that the rocks might start glowing red hot, so he started trying to adjust them. A few moments later, he'd gotten the hang of it, and the ruined wall was hot, but not too hot.

"Okay, thanks. Now what am I gonna do for water?"

That's a bit harder. You are an Earth Spirit, not a Water Spirit. You can redirect any water you find, by moving rock around, but you don't have any direct control over the water.

"Seriously? The water's right here in the earth. It might as well be part of it. In fact, all the soil and dirt and plants I've been pushing around are moist. Otherwise all my domain would be dry sand, right? How can there be such a… difference? I mean, where do I go to get a Water Spirit certification, then?"

You're an Earth Spirit. You can't make water, so I suggest you find some. There's usually plenty of water on any mountain. Reach out with your senses. It's your domain. And try looking upslope. Okay, duty calls, I have to go now. We'll talk at dawn.

"Looking, huh?" Fred didn't quite know why he was feeling a little grumpy. Jim had only been helping him, like he wanted. "Am I worried about something? What am I bothered about?" he asked himself. Instead of meditating on this, he got to work "looking" for water. He "looked" outward, trying to feel as much as he could at the edge of his domain. It felt fuzzy, but in a hard way, like cotton fluff and leather all at once. If he concentrated, he could feel the earth and rock as much as ten spans from the boundary he felt around his domain, but concentration was hard and weirdly tiring.

He focused on the upslope direction that Jim had suggested, and eventually found something very promising. Fred dug a tunnel towards it, and quickly broke through to a dark little cavern, with mushrooms and moss and trickling water. The water wasn't much, but it had created a little pool, within which swam little sightless fish and some snails. Fred could see that a few of the mushrooms were magical and rather poisonous. "Still, probably valuable to some alchemist somewhere. And where did I learn the word alchemist from?" He thought.

So. How to get the water down to the naga's lair? ""Plumbing, of course," thought Fred. "I can make a pipe from a tiny, rock-lined tunnel, and run it down there. Long, but simple." So he did. The channel he dug (so easily and naturally now) ran down the slope, and Fred intentionally made it longer and made it loop around a bit. He figured that (in the future) he might add more branches, to move water to more places in his domain. Eventually the channel ran down to the second floor, and came out just at the right spot to make the "oasis" pool the naga wanted.

He made the pipe bigger than the trickle he felt he needed. He intended to make some simple constrictions at the top, to regulate the water flow. But now that the water was flowing, He saw some problems. First, plenty of water was flowing into the pipe, and out of the original pool. At this rate the pool would dry up. Second, no water was getting to the naga's lair. Looking more closely, Fred saw that the rock-lined pipe he'd made was actually permeable, and all the water was getting absorbed through the walls of the pipe, during the long trip down. He felt more comfortable with his magic, so he tried "adjusting" the permeability of the pipe, like he'd made light and heat. It worked, but it was a hassle. The pipe didn't seem like one connected whole, so Fred had to "seal" the pipe bit by bit. Still, after a couple of hours, the pipe was fully sealed, and the water finally trickled out of the hole in the wall, in the naga's lair. He went back up to the cave pool. It had been reduced to half of its depth, but it seemed like it wouldn't dry up soon. Fred thought he'd have to keep an eye on it for the next day or so, to make sure.

Fred looked again at the naga's lair. He knew he'd only experimented with heat, so he set about making the whole lair the right temperature. Instead of heating the ruins, he chose some of the underlying rock (under the sand). He heated up four big patches of stone, figuring that would heat the room organically and evenly. He had an idea, and instead of de-heating the original ruin he'd made, he made it hotter, so humans would get burned if they were foolish enough to hug it.

Then he remembered the spikes in the man-bat's room, and Jim's objection to them. Was it bad to make something dangerous to the humans? But it was such a neat trick. "Mebbe I'll see how the naga feels about it," thought Fred.

He went back to the oasis pool, and was disappointed to see that the pool was currently just a spot of wet sand. If he wanted an actual standing pool of water, he'd need to make a stone basin for it. That wasn't hard, and in a few minutes he'd made a round stone bowl in the sandy floor, about two spans wide, with an impermeable finish. The water began slowly collecting in it. Fred was satisfied. He looked over at the naga, who had been alert and interested in the changes to its lair. It was green, now. Fred felt triumphant.