In the morning, Jim came, and exclaimed about the pool.

It seems luxurious! Fred, I'm not complaining, but why the sudden addition of a pool room?

"Cause the kids are filthy! I mean, look at them. I think my potatoes and onions are feeding them okay now, but if I had a nose, I'm sure they'd be stinking up my whole domain."

The children Fred was talking about were still fast asleep in Shelley's den. As the dawn broke, Fred could see that the pool was finally mostly filled, and the pool room had become a bit warm, almost a sauna. So he quickly considered the pool area, and dialed down the heat by half.

I love this. It shows how far you've come, in so many ways. I knew you could be clever with handling water in your domain. And also you understand that, while you can't directly make the humans do what you want them to do, you can build circumstances that result in the behaviors you wanted. I just hope you're right, and the children want to play in your pool.

"How could they not? Don't all kids like to splash around and swim?"

You'd be surprised how many children never get the chance to swim, or even immerse themselves fully in water. There are deserts where water is too precious for anyone to take a bath at all. In cultures or circumstances like that, often no one learns how to swim.

"Huh. I don't really have any memories of living in a desert. I guess I never did in my previous life?"

Don't let it bother you. Your soul is an old one, and it probably lived many lives before this one. You don't want to get stuck focusing on those old memories. You've got an important life to attend to right now.

"Yeah, I guess I'm feeling the time pressure. Are we sure this can work? I mean, is there enough time to train the humans to fight the demons?"

Yes, I believe so. Remember, you're not alone. Across Aeru there are two hundred and eight other Earth Spirits, like yourself. Every one of them currently has humans inside, battling and learning.

"Okay. I just went from making a big building, to making a play pool. I'm not sure how much either will help, though."

Both will help a great deal. You are being an excellent Earth Spirit, I promise you. Keep it up!

Fred thought about it for a while, and when Jim had nothing further to say, he assumed that Jim left again.

He decided to do a review of his domain, checking on everything and every creature. Now his domain included the town below. He could see a few more humans were back in the town, and two of them were busy exploring Fred's big building. Several fighters were back inside the domain, fighting the creatures, but several creatures were asleep and unbothered.

The bear and boar were snuggled up together. "So weird", thought Fred, and he decided to ask his new knowledge source for an explanation.

"Martin? Are you awake? Got a second?"

Martin was nearly completely submerged in his piles of gold, and for a moment Fred couldn't figure out where his big head was. But then he snorted, spraying gold pieces against the cave wall.

"Yes, I'm awake. I have a second for you, yes.", Martin said, without exposing his eyes.

"I think my creatures are all happy and normal. At least, as far as I can tell. But I have a bear and a boar. And they seem to be friends. I mean, good friends. I gave them separate lairs, but they stay together now. In the bear lair."

"Hmm, that is strange. Bears and boars should naturally have no affections for one another. And the 'normal' Earth Spirits carefully segregated their species, so they wouldn't harm each other."

"Well, I've got lots of different creatures, as you know. I've just been giving each one its own lair. I think the bear and boar were friendly from the start. Is it possible that they knew each other before they came to me? Are they a special sub-species in some way?"

"They don't smell special to me. Anything's possible, but I have no easy answer for you. Have you thought that this might be about your magic?" Martin shifted just a bit, causing small coin avalanches.

"How? I mean, I know my magic is complex. And Jim told me it picks the creatures carefully, long before they arrive here. But I don't know how my magic would make two creatures like each other enough to snuggle up."

"That's my point. You don't know enough about your own magic. It seems to me you've been doing this rather automatically. It seems to me that "Teacher Jim" is a poor teacher."

"Well, instead of crapping on Jim like a jerk, maybe you can tell me something useful about my magic. You said you would educate me."

The dragon gave off a big, performative sigh, and coins sprayed everywhere, as he lifted his head entirely out of the gold. "Okay. Let's see. Did you know you could take direct control of your creatures?"

"No! How do I do that?"

"You've been handling your magic in a very… instinctive way. I'm sure creature control would work the same way. Why don't you go take control of the boar, and lead it down here, where I can get a good long look at it? My eyes might see something my nose couldn't."

Fred didn't think that was a bad idea, and he was eager to see if he really had such a power. He turned his attention to where the bear and boar were laying together. He focused on the boar. He started by just sending it verbal commands. "Get up. Wake up. Come here." That didn't work.

He remembered he was supposed to try this instinctually, so he tried to think like a boar, but had no idea what a boar's thoughts were like. Then, he focused on the boar's head, and imagined "riding" it. He felt a weird sensation, as if he was jumping on top of the head and grabbing both ears. Then he felt even weirder. Suddenly a little bit of himself WAS the boar, and he could 'feel' the boar's body, its legs and tail and tummy. He also still felt like a rider on the head, and he could feel that the boar was still in the head, and he was sharing control of it. Finally, he was still Fred, and could still perceive every bit of his domain.

He felt fragmented. Like several parts of him were separated and yet working together. If he hadn't already been an Earth Spirit for a while, he was sure his mind would break altogether. As it was, he carefully did nothing for several moments, trying to get a handle on everything. The boar seemed to know it wasn't alone; it shook its head and snorted a few times. Even the bear looked up.

"Man, that is so freaking weird." Fred blurted.

"Have you asserted your control? Well, bring it down to me." Martin sent back.

Fred finally felt comfortable enough to try to move the boar. Now that he was "plugged in", he just decided to stand up, and the boar did so. Fred marveled at the feeling of strength and mass of the beast. It was a big boar. He then started to walk, moving out of the lair. He heard (and could see, because he was still Fred) the bear get up and start to shuffle after him/boar. He moved the boar out to the main hallway, and startled two humans, bruised and bloody, who were apparently returning from the man-bat's room. They froze in surprise, and Fred felt the boar want to smash them. But it was docile and controlled right now, so Fred kept it walking, past the ogre's lair, down the ramp, until it finally reached the tree. The bear still followed behind, clearly curious about what was happening to its friend.

Like a train suddenly shooting from a tunnel, Martin's giant green head popped out of his lair, and extended towards the bear and boar. Fred was controlling the boar, so he felt its muted alarm. The bear was not under control, so it shouted and lunged forward to swipe its claws across Martin's snout. This was truly impressive to Fred, but Martin's head alone was bigger than the bear, so Fred didn't think Martin was in any real danger. But that bear was fast!

"Ow! What… Get away, you smelly beast!" Martin was startled by the assault, and yanked his head back. Now there was a standoff. The Dragon's head just outside the huge entrance to its lair. The bear rising up on its hind legs, roaring as loud as it could, clearly protective of the boar.

"Hey now, everybody calm down. Nobody wants to hurt anybody." Fred said. He had the boar under control, and he doubted the bear could hear him. But he wasn't trying to speak only to Martin. "I think you scared them, Martin. You're just so big."

"Humph!" Martin blew out some stinky steam from his nostrils. "That's as maybe. I can observe them very well from here." He then focused on the animals under the tree. Fred was amazed to see Martin's eyes change colors, and almost spin with magical energy. "Hum, yes. What? Oh, that's clever. Humm."

The bear had calmed down a bit, but hadn't moved, and was still making a vocal fuss, and guarding the boar. Fred hadn't let go of it yet, because he was sure the boar would immediately go back to its lair. He really wanted to see if Martin had any insights into his magic.

As Martin continued to use magic eyes at the beasts, Fred noticed that the Naga had appeared at the entrance to its lair. It was leaning casually against the stone, clearly enjoying the show. Fred also noticed that the Nasty Bird was peeking around the corner, at the foot of the curved ramp. "I guess Bear versus Dragon is a popular fight card today.", Fred giggled to himself.

"Well, I've seen enough. You can release them now." Martin said. Fred realized that holding on to the boar was a bit tiring, and he'd never stopped controlling a creature before. So he instinctively stopped, which felt a bit like stepping away from the boar. The boar shook its head, and screeched at the bear, who roared back. Then they both turned from the dragon, and started walking back to the ramp. Seeing this, Nasty Bird disappeared back to its own lair.

Fred watched the boar and bear as they disappeared up the ramp. Then he turned to Martin, and said, "Well? What did you figure out?"

"It's your magic. And that's not… normal."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you're not like any Earth Spirit I've known before. Your magic is different. The effect you have. It looks like your magic is asserting itself in aggressive ways. Making the beasts behave exactly as you want. And that includes fighting with the humans. And liking each other. Even loving each other, in this case."

"You could see love magic?"

"No, you fool. Anyone could see how the bear feels about the boar. That part only takes normal eyes. But even if those two beasts were predisposed to tolerate each other, their current relationship is due to how your magic changed them, once they took up residence. Your magic is forcing us all to be one big happy family in your domain."

"Wow, okay. I didn't really know. Is it affecting you?"

"Phah!" An explosive snort of green jumped from Martin's maw. "I'm much too powerful and wise to be affected like a dumb beast." Martin pulled his head back inside his lair, and began to slither back into his giant coin pile. But he continued. "But I may have… assumed in error. Your story about being born yesterday seemed too outlandish to be anything but a rank lie. Now, I can see your magic is, not just different, but very different. I couldn't really tell what all the differences were. But it's much more plausible that you are a recent creation."

"Of Aeru, yes."

"Hah! I see no maker's mark on you. I still doubt the planet itself was your creator. But someone was."

"Okay. Well. That's good to know. So, will this love spell keep getting stronger? Will all my creatures wind up in one big pile, in the future?"

"Probably not. But I don't know for certain. Your magic is powerful and complex and multi-layered. I don't think you know a tenth of what you can do. But it appears to be designed to help you do exactly what you're doing. So I doubt it would make all the creatures live and fight together. Besides, I wouldn't want to get cozy with that Jinpa."

"Jinpa?"