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Freddy was bored. Classes were done for the day. Since most of the teachers were recovering from the fun of the festival, the work load was pretty light. He had thoroughly cleaned his dorm room, even made his bed. He'd even given all his nezubats baths. Well, not Bravo. Bravo barely tolerated being held; a bath was out of the question. But he'd made sure to give them all plenty of attention to make up for the fact that he'd been gone a lot. They were a lot happier now that things had quieted down. They were all currently asleep in Freddy's darkened dorm, with full food and water dishes in case they woke up and got hungry before dusk when Freddy would let them out to fly.

He could always practice his invisibility some more. He was doing better at it, but it was still difficult to fade in and out on command like he wanted to. But he'd practiced all yesterday morning, and wanted to do something with a bit more activity. Since the weather was nice, he headed for one of the play areas set up outside. Maybe if he was lucky he could find someone who would play with him or a group he could join, but moving around would do him good regardless.

As soon as Freddy spotted Nef he perked up and his day suddenly seemed a lot more interesting. He waved an arm in greeting as he picked up his pace to a fast walk, aiming for the sandbox the Bakeneko had claimed. He clambered over the high sides that kept the sand in the box, and waded through the soft sediment towards his friend. "Hey Nef! Glad I ran into you!" He reached out and gently tugged on a lock of her long hair in a casual and friendly gesture, grinning broadly, then turned to squat next to the construction zone and look it over.

It seemed like Nef had only recently started, but he could see the outline of the ideas she'd been aiming for. He pointed at the dug out area surround the main part of the castle. "Is this a moat or a trench? We should probably have both, cause some people are good at swimmin' but not so good at jumping." He scratched his head, pondering. "Maybe a wall as well, to keep out the people good at jumping?" He started scooping some sand, making a mound in one spot and another trench on the other side of the mound, to show Nef what he was talking about and see if she approved.

Freddy made a slight eep (but a very manly eep!) when Nef pounced on him, though it quickly turned into a laugh. He'd learned his friend was very comfortable with touch, but he was still getting used to how quickly she switched tracks. He was just glad he hadn't gone insubstantial from the surprise, since that might have been a bit awkward.

He sat and watched as Nef traced out potential locations for the walls and trench. When she suggested sandodiles he beamed as broadly as if it had been his idea. "I like it! Too bad you can't really make sand fly, it would be cool to have sandbats as winged sentries." He was sure some of his own colony would help, but it was daylight and they were mostly sleeping right now.

He wiggled back to his feet and began to work on making the walls and trench, using the sand from the trench to build up the walls. This was going to be so awesome when it was done!

Freddy was very focused on his wall. The sand was able to be molded as though it were damp, probably due to magic, which was very awesome. Maybe he should put more of his focus into practicing magic when it got older, if it could do so many useful things! But while the sand was mold-able, Freddy didn't exactly have an artist or architect's touch, and there was only so high you could build a wall before it tried to crumble. He wanted these walls to be amazing, impenetrable and awe-inspiring to all who stood before them and thought to breach the castle. That meant they had to not only stand up, but look nice. He tried to make them good and smooth.

Nef's declaration broke through his focus, and he turned to see what she had made. It was probably time to take a break on the walls anyway. He walked around his half-finished wall and was instantly greeted by the site of a ferocious-looking creature. If it had been real instead of sand, he would have been quite cautious indeed!

"That's amazing Nef! We almost don't need the wall or the trench. I bet any thieves who think to steal treasure would be terrified if they saw the sandodile," Freddy exclaimed. He should know, he got up to a bit of mischievous thieving every now and then. Just little things which he always returned, but he was pretty sure it still counted. He got a bit closer to admire the sandodile. "I'm almost done with the walls. Should we put some scary monster in the trench as well, like a big sandsnake or something, or do you think the sandodile will get upset about sharing a scaring job?"

Freddy nodded. "Got it," he said cheerfully, then went back to finished the walls with renewed vigor, tendrils flickering in excitement. As he got closer and closer to finishing his circle, he realized there might be a small problem. How was he going to finish the wall without closing him and Nef in or out? He pondered over the problem for a bit as he patted the walls smooth. Oh, he had an idea!

He made the wall swing out just a bit, so that you had to go sideways to get past the wall rather than walking straight in like it was an open doorway or something. If you looked straight at the wall you might not even see the gap, though he couldn't do much about people seeing it who looked at it sideways. Then, he very carefully began to shape a tail coming from the end of the land bridge, using his fingers to make scales. Once it was completed to his satisfaction, he hopped over to the other side and crafted the rest of the body, going out and then coiling around so the head was near the land bridge. He made sure to give the sandsnake a very fierce expression, so that no one would want to come near it to investigate.

Finished, he stood back proudly to admire his work. It looked like the giant sandsnake was laying in front of the entrance, and that you had to step on his to get inside. Freddy thought it was quite clever, and hopefully Nef would think so as well!

Freddy grinned broadly when Nef hugged him, blushing quite a bit and going a little incorporeal at the edges, but obviously trying to brush off his embarrassment. "Well after that totally awesome sandodile I had to make sure the sandsnake was equally scary! Otherwise how else would they keep intruders away?" He was really quite pleased that she liked it though, since he had worked quite hard to make it look fierce!

He followed Nef back through the walls to examine the castle base. She'd done a really good job of laying out the foundation, and Freddy had to remind himself to behave and not poke a hole in that smooth stretch of sand. It was so very tempting though. Thankfully Nef chose that moment to ask Freddy a question, and thus he was distracted from his temptation.

He hummed thoughtfully, walking around the base of the foundation and scratching his head in thought every now and then. "How 'bout the bottom floor has nothing in it? I mean you gotta have a place to hold your balls and parties, and it would be rude to make guests climb stairs. That way if someone breaks in there's nothing to steal on the bottom floor, 'cept maybe a few places to sit or some food. Also if there's only one staircase to the top floors, that makes it easier to defend the treasures if lots of intruders get in. Maybe guest bedrooms and all that can be on the second floor so if guests do need to go up the stairs they only have to go up one set. Then bedrooms and all the treasure can be on the third floor, so no one who doesn't live in the castle will have a reason to be up there unless they're tryin' to steal! Also it'll be harder for them to get away with the treasures, cause they'll have to go down two flights of stairs to get out!"

Freddy followed Nef as she worked, acting mostly as an assist by moving sand to the right places and smoothing out the more simple bits. While he had ideas about castle construction he was no artist or architect, and let all those parts to Nef's vary capable hands.

He squinted at the foundation they were working on as Nef asked him questions, trying to picture the castle in his mind's eye. "We can probably leave lots of it open. I mean in all the story books with ball rooms and grand staircases the ceilings are super high up and the rooms look huge. That way all the rooms on the second floor are all over the kitchen and bathrooms and stuff, which don't take up much space anyway. Then the third floor can be bigger. Ah," he hummed, staring at the air where he pictured the third floor and trying really hard to think of good ideas.

"If the royal family's pretty small then one bathroom and some bedrooms should be fine. Maybe a study, cause adults love having studies." He squinted a little, then looked over at Nef. "Maybe a secret room on either side of the third floor, to hide treasures? Since they have all that extra space and all. That way if one room is discovered, they still have a second room to hide stuff in."

Freddy shrugged his shoulders, smoothing out some walls. "I'm not really good at makin' things pretty, so I dunno what a royal family would really like."

Freddy was more than content to let Nef do the leading in the work. It was awe-inspiring to him to watch how quickly she could make all the rooms and how nice they looked. He was certain he could never do anything that nice that fast! But that was fine. There were plenty of things he was good at, and all the better to have a friend with skills he lacked to help balance things out.

So he turned his attention to the first and second floors and focused his attention on making windows. He debated on the style for a bit, then began making long, thin windows. That way you could still see out of the castle and a nice breeze could flow through on hot days, but it would be difficult to get out of the windows. Not impossible, but it would require a lot of time and wiggling. The second story windows were a bit more square, so that you could actually lean out of them to look down or get a better view. Freddy was very, very careful as he sculpted the windows, only knocking out the tiniest bits of sand at a time and smoothing everything carefully. If he ruined Nef's work, he would never be able to forgive himself! It took him a while too; Nef was already working on the third floor while he was still finishing the windows on the first!

At the same time he wasn't so focused that he didn't hear Nef's questions. He deliberated while patting at a window. "I really like the bookcase idea! Royal families always have lots of books, or at least Geist royal families do. It'd be super hard to figure which one was the right one unless you knew!" He thought about the location of the second room, and had to agree that Nef's logic was on point yet again. "That sounds like an awesome place for the second hidden room." A thought occurred to him as he began to work on the windows of the second floor. It was a shame all the walls were built, because it would have been so awesome to have a secret passage from the secret room of the third floor with a stair case that led all the way down to the first floor. That was the royal family could have ways to travel through their castle besides the main staircases.

About to mention the idea aloud (they could always build another castle some day), Nef called out to Freddy to come look at something before he could say anything. He finished the window he was working on, giving it a couple pats to make sure it was nice and smooth, then went over to Nef to see what she wanted to show him. His mouth dropped open at the little bats drawn all over the room of the castle. Then he grinned, and reached out to lightly ruffle Nef's hair. "Smart! I wish I had thought of that! You're so good at figuring out how to make things happen." Still grinning, he circled the castle to see all five of the pretty sandbats Nef had made. "We could make a medieval roof if you want, just in case the royal family does need a guard, but I bet these sandbats will definitely make sure no one gets on the roof who doesn't belong!"