Adam sat facing the tree and began to spend all his energy reserves to create an earth fairy. He saw the tree gradually grow a fruit that looked like a fairy curled up, then light up with elemental earth energy, slowly bringing the fairy to life.
Just as his reserves reached a critical point close to zero, the fairy came to life. The light show was absorbed by the fruit, the stem disappeared, and the fairy, curled up in a ball, emerged like a butterfly from its cocoon.
The little fairy wore clothes made of flowers like Rose, but this time in an earthy brown palette.
The fairy slowly looked around her new surroundings before flying slowly towards Adam. "Hello, Father. I am delighted to now be part of your family."
Adam looked at the new fairy, who bowed her head delicately in front of him, clearly calmer and more reserved than her sister Rose. "Welcome, Terra. I look forward to spending the next days by your side. If you ever need anything, don't hesitate to come find me."
Terra gave a small nod. "I sense a lot of elemental stone life in the area, Father. Would you like me to take control of it?"
Adam chuckled softly. "No need, Terra. The golems you sense are my creations. They help us defend ourselves and build our home." He turned and pointed to the golems in the distance, one by one. "The big guys in armor protect us from the undead that attack us every night, and the little guys working on the wall over there are building everything we need to improve the house. Later, if you don't mind, I'd like you to help them."
Terra nodded again. "With pleasure, Father. Your creations are really great. I can't wait to work alongside them."
Adam walked towards the wall, from where a small voice could be heard rustling, and brambles and roses slowly appeared along the wall. "Come on, Terra, let's go see your sister. She was really excited to see you."
Approaching the wall, he called out, "Rose! Come see your sister."
No sooner had Adam finished calling Rose than a missile dressed in a pink flower skirt rushed towards them at full speed, shouting with excitement. "FATHER! Where is my sister? What does she look like?"
Performing an emergency stop, she came to a halt right in front of Terra. "Hi! Oh, you're beautiful. I love your skirt! My name is Rose, and I love flowers and helping my father. Did Dad show you the golems? They're really nice, especially Dem and Cer, who take care of the fields. They're super friendly, and they promised to help me create a flower field later! Primo too..."
Adam gasped at the sight of Rose fluttering around Terra, bombarding her with non-stop chatter. "Take a breath, Rose. At least let Terra introduce herself."
Calming down, Rose stood in front of Terra and bowed delicately. "Sorry, Terra. Let me introduce myself again. My name is Rose, and I love flowers."
Terra nodded slowly. "Nice to meet you, Rose. I can't wait to work with you to help my father."
She turned to Adam. "Father, please tell me where I can help. I don't like sitting around doing nothing."
"No problem, Terra." Smiling at the shy little fairy, he said calmly, "There are several places where you can help. It's up to you to choose. There's the wall right in front to turn into stone, the new stone wall to turn into a single block of stone, but that one isn't finished yet, the mine to build and check that everything is perfectly solid so that the base doesn't collapse on top of it, and the density of the ramparts and knights to increase to improve our defenses."
Scratching the back of his head, "There's a lot to do, I'm sorry, but don't worry, take your time to do what you want." Sighing, he added, "Don't forget that work and rest go hand in hand. Don't tire yourself out too much. After all, we're not really in a hurry."
"Hmm, Father, no worries." She nodded once more. "I'll go right away, Father. I'll do my best, don't worry."
"Me too, Father, I'm going back to work. You'll see, the wall will be lovely. " With that, she flew off toward the wall, humming a song.
Watching the two fairies fly off in their separate directions, Adam sighed, "Everyone is giving it their all. I really can't slack off. Come on, Adam, get to work."
...
Four days later...
On the day Amber's caravan was due to return, Adam looked at his base with pride. The second wall was finished. He had added three golems to the construction team, plus Terra's help, and a 7-meter-high, 3-meter-thick rampart now surrounded the base with a diameter of 300 meters. Thanks to Terra, it looked as if a circle of white stone had risen directly from the ground, preventing anyone from approaching the giant 50-meter-high tree.
Inside the circle were fields soon ready for harvest, wheat fields encircling the base of a sea of gold with a soft red glow. Seven medium-sized fields encircled the inner wall, bearing crops of potatoes, carrots, zucchini, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and cabbage, all bursting with vitality.
To the south of the circle, a large meadow was home to five oxen and 17 cows grazing peacefully. Crossing the pasture, a five-meter-wide path connecting the two walls, with apple and cherry trees in the center, kept it shaded from the sun.
Inside the inner wall, two warehouses on either side of the entrance were under construction. The hut against the world tree had become a real house of respectable size for one person.
Where the zucchini plants had once stood, a staircase descended nearly 1,000 meters to a cave used to harvest stone for all the base's construction projects. The mine still needed improvement; only three miner golems managed by the new group leader, Stone, were not very efficient, so workers had to come and help regularly. The blocks of stone were extracted and then placed on a hoist made of ropes and wood, which allowed the stones to be lifted without having to carry them up one by one.
Rose worked to constantly improve the giant rosebushes encircling the inner wall and a part of the outer wall. This plant, certainly magnificent, with its giant pink flowers and leaves decorating the wall like a beautiful princess's garden, was a terrifying defense. Once an enemy approached, the thorns twisted around them, catching their limbs and planting their spines into their bodies, the brambles tightened more and more until they broke their bones, even managing to bend metal armour.
Proud of everyone's work, Adam finished creating the three knight golems today, as he had done the day before, to strengthen the defense of the base, which was now far too large for the current team of fighters. Only the walls and thorns prevented damage to the fields each night.
Looking at the sun as much as possible, he knew that the caravan should not be long in coming. He was eager to see their faces when they saw the transformation of the small earthen base into a giant stone base with endless fields.