Fred was in a lousy mood for the rest of the day. He kept watch over the town, but the humans had run and hid, and weren't showing back up. The humans who had gone into Fred's domain to fight the creatures were all gone somewhere, too. It was a quiet evening, and Fred didn't like it.

Hello, Fred. What's new?

"My new building."

Jim didn't answer for a couple minutes. "Jim?" Fred said cautiously.

This building is amazing! True art! A work of Brutalism married to Abstraction. I've never seen anything like it!

"It's for the humans. To live in. You like it?"

Very much. I told you to be creative with your powers, and you have been! I'm so proud of you, Fred.

"Well, thank you. But I was just following your advice. I dug down to see what the humans were doing, and their buildings looked kinda flimsy, and I thought I could maybe protect them better."

You could have made a simple hole in the ground for them; that would be protective. But this! This building. It's so unique and… you! It's obvious you put a lot of work into it.

"Yeah, I worked on it all day, really. I'm still not sure it's right. Do you have any ideas on how to make it better?"

I'm not an architect, Fred. It looks good to me. I suppose the real test will be seeing how the humans use it.

"Yeah, if they come back. Martin got out and came over to watch me work. He came right into the town! The humans were scared of him before. Now they know he can come to town anytime. I told him he couldn't do that anymore, and he got really pissy about it. He's really frustrating."

I'm sorry that happened, Fred. We talked about how Martin would push your buttons and press your boundaries. It's who he is, and not your fault.

"Yeah, but either way, I'm supposed to be helping humans, not dragons. Not MEAN dragons."

As we discussed earlier, if Martin becomes too much of a disruptive liability, we'll decide together to evict him. But I'm not sure he's too much trouble. And as far as the humans, I'm very confident they'll be back, and more than ever. You'll see. Who wouldn't want to live in such an amazing building?

"Is it normal? I mean, are the other Earth Spirits making buildings?"

A very few are. You are an outstanding Earth Spirit, Fred. No other Earth Spirit has made an edifice like this. Of course, other Earth Spirits are creative in other ways. Several Earth Spirits have very ornate domains, with carved art on every wall and ceiling. Other Earth Spirits have filled their domains with intricate and diabolical traps.

"Traps? Against the humans? How does that help them get stronger?"

Traps can make the humans get smarter. Especially if the traps are fair and clever. They teach the humans to stop and think, even while in mortal danger.

"I'm gonna have to think about that. I built squash plates to kill those evil wizards, sure. But I've never thought about putting something between humans and the creatures they want to fight."

You don't have to. It's okay to be you. You're an excellent Earth Spirit. I don't want you to start comparing yourself to other Earth Spirits; it's not helpful.

I want to talk about this glass! It's very strong and pretty.

"Yeah, actually, Martin helped with that. It was his idea. Potassium makes it strong."

And then you created it, and added it to the building in this unique way. Did Martin tell you anything else?

"Yeah, he helped me think about chimneys. And stairs. Oh, and doors. For a while there, it was kinda fun working with him. Then he started crapping on what we're doing. Said the demons were way too dangerous, and the humans were all gonna die no matter what we did. So I yelled at him. And he went back to his lair. And it pissed me off."

Recognise that this is one of his tactics. He wanted to get under your skin. He wanted to upset you. It's part of who he is. He can't be happy unless he's making someone else unhappy.

"Really? That's low. Of him, I mean. Why's he gotta be an asshole? I thought life was supposed to sand the edges off of people."

Different people have different lives. You've been handed a brand new life as an Earth Spirit. Martin's been stuck in the same life, probably a fairly abusive life, for thousands of years.

"Five, no no, six thousand years. At least that's what he told me he was that old."

That's… actually kind of young, for a dragon. Anyway, I was saying that you can't compare your life to his. He won't live by your standards, no matter how hard you try. That's okay.

"I guess."

I've got to go, Fred. But I can't wait to see how the humans make use of your new building!

"Me too. See you soon."

Now that darkness had covered the town, and his domain, Fred assumed it would be another quiet night. He didn't really want to engage with Martin any more, and didn't think anything else needed to be done, so he went to spend time with Shelley.

There he found three little humans, sleeping in the pile with the groundhog family. Looking them over, he thought they looked a little less mal-nourished. He was happy that they weren't run off by the presence of the dragon, but he also wondered why their parents hadn't kept them away (because of the dragon).

He also thought that they still seemed astoundingly dirty, even for children. Didn't they ever have a bath? That sparked an idea. A swimming pool. That was one way to get children to take baths.

He got right to work. FIrst, he reasoned that the pool room should be next to the potato room, so the kids wouldn't have to go far. He liked that the kids could navigate the small tunnels, which would also keep out any dangerous adults. But he realized that those tunnels were probably a big source of their filthiness, since they had to crawl through them constantly.

He got started digging out a space for the pool room. By now he'd started to have a good idea where the water flowed, in little underground streams throughout the mountain. There was one that would work well, but the pool would have to be dug lower, to ensure the water flowed into it. He did so, making a room about ten spans in every direction. The tunnel from the potato room to the pool room would have to be at a significant downward angle, so he carved little steps into it.

For most of the floor of the room, he dug the pool, a wide depression, a span deep at its deepest, with gentle slopes on every side. Then he dug the drain of the pool, a straight pipe that ran downslope and emptied into a tiny valley with two trees in the center. He reinforced the drain pipe, and lined it with the non-permeable ceramic coating he'd made to keep water from soaking in. Then he kept going, lining the entire pool room with the non-permeable lining. He added the lining to the stairs going up to the potato room. He went farther, adding the lining to the other tunnels the kids were using (to Shelley's room and to the outside). He hoped this would keep them a bit cleaner, after they'd used the pool.

The pool was still dry, of course, so Fred started to fix that. Initially he thought the water could come spilling out of the wall, creating a sort of shower. But then he thought of water slides, and his sudden memories shocked him. Colorful tubes with water running through them, kids screaming with glee as they slid helplessly through the tubes to an uncertain destination. How was that fun? Still, his memories told him that kids found it so.

He built a small ramp that led down into the pool. It had stairs from the side, and the water entering the pool room ran out and splashed down the ramp. Fred let the water flow, and adjusted the water angle and the sides of the ramp, 'til he got the water to move the way he thought it should. Then he covered the ramp, and every other exposed area, with the non-permeable ceramic coating.

Now the water was flowing, and slowly filling up the bottom of the pool, though it was also rushing out of the drain. But Fred examined the room and found it cold and dark. So he lit up the ceiling in a friendly warm color. He also carefully considered the ceramic surface of the pool, and made it hotter. Not too hot, but enough to (hopefully) warm up the room and make it comfy for the children.

To be certain, Fred sat back to wait and see how it worked. He saw pretty quickly that he'd need to make the drain hole smaller; the pool wasn't filling. He did so, and managed to put in a couple of ceramic rods over the hole, to help keep small hands from getting stuck in the drain hole. His adjustments paid off, and the pool began to fill. He waited for the next hour, and the pool still hadn't filled very much, but (he reasoned) it was a big pool, and might take a while. The heat that the pool gave off wasn't too hot, either. Fred was pretty pleased with what he'd made.

For the rest of the night, Fred watched Shelley, watched the sleeping children, and watched the pool slowly fill. He wondered idly about how he could make soap, if (if he did) how to get the children to use it.