The sun was just starting to rise as Gro-Lag filled the last gap in the roof with a handful of their clay mix.

  He climbed down and he, Ambrose and Ros look at the finished building.

  Once Ambrose had realised that by digging out only a small part of the needed holes, that could set a fire in the logs which would eventually burn through enough for them to much more easily carve them out. All they needed to do was make sure to wet the area around the hole that they didn't want to burn. A need they realised after one of their first attempts nearly went up in flames.

  While it took a good while for the fire to burn through, they were able to set them on all the logs they needed at the same time and once that was finished, it only required one person to monitor them, allow the second to start cutting down the smaller trees they planned to use for stakes.

  "If we set a fire inside, it should help the roof dry faster." Said Ros.

  Once they had gotten the walls up, the sun had been starting to set. They were going to call it a day and make a start on the roof the next, but Ros had other ideas.

  "I have to admit my love." Gro-lag said wrapping his arms around his wife. "You were right, it was worth getting it finished today."

  Ros had gathered an impressive pile of clay, especially considering she had baby Gren-Lag attached to her in a wrap the whole time. She had also had the good sense of mind to consider what needed to be done to prepare it for use on the house. The mix of dry twigs and leaves that she had combined in with the clay having made it much easier to pack into the walls of the cabin.

  "We are hopefully still a few weeks away from the start of the wet season, so it should be nice and sunny tomorrow." Said Ambrose. "So as long as the roof doesn't fall in, you lot should be good to move in."

  The roof had been easier than Ambrose had expected. They had brought down some more of the thinner trees they had used for stakes and laid them across the top of the walls, packing clay around the to keep them in place. They then laid branched over the top of them, allowing for enough of a base that they could pack more clay onto it. They had gotten into such a further with how much progress they had been making that they had all lost track of time.

  "We should probably head back to the cave for now." Said Ros, as she walked over to Ambrose's ground bed where little Reenie had been asleep for a good couple of hours. She had been enthusiastically slapping handfuls of the mud mixture onto the walls of what was to be her new home, but eventually as the moon rose, she started to yawn, so Ambrose offered for her to sleep in his bed while he and her parents worked.

  Ros tried to shake the girl awake, but after much groaning, Gro-Lag simply picked her up.

  "I will come straight back after taking her and Ros-Ge?n-Lüg home." He said.

  Ambrose waved his offer away. "Go get some sleep. I will set a fire in the hut and then will be getting some myself."

  Gro-Lag open his mouth to protest, but a yawn took the opportunity to escape instead.

  "Ok, but I will make sure I get the last few runes finish before I do."

  Ambrose's eyes widened when he remembered that Rea was meant to return today to collect the runes she had requested.

  They gave their farewells, and the family of goblins left.

  Ambrose was worried that he would oversleep as he put his head down on the skin he was using for a pillow. When he was woken by a cheery, but very loud. "Good morning!" He realised that wasn't going to be a problem.

  "Sorry my lord, I did tell her to wake you quietly, but she insisted she wanted to." Gro-Lag said looking a bit guilty.

  When they checked on the hut the small fire that Ambrose had set had burned down and a good amount of the clay had started to harden. They set another one and each started working on their different tasks.

  It was as Ambrose was trying to work out the best way to get the oil out of a fresh catch of trout when Reenie came bounding up to him.

  "Mr Lord, can I pick some flowers for Maa?" She asked.

  "Of course you can Reenie." He replied, smiling.

  He looked around the area by the camp.

  "Though I'm not sure you are going to find many here?"

  "There are some nice ones over there, I saw them when we walked here." She said, pointing back towards the main path.

  Ambrose looked where she was pointing and furrowed his brow in concern.

  "That's fine, but give me a few moments and I will come with you."

  "Daa said I can go as long as you said it's ok." She said, with a pout and crossed arms.

  Ambrose was still not sure but he guessed she would be safe as long as she stayed on his land. "Ok, if you Daa says it's ok."

  The young girl gave a toothy grin and ran off in the direction she had just been pointing leaving Ambrose to get back to trying to figure out how to turn fish into oil.

  He was wiping guts off his face from an attempt at using a rock to break down the trout, when Gro-Lag came over holding a bag of food he had foraged.

  "I managed to find a berry bush we seemed to have missed Lord Ambrose."

  Ambrose was about to ask him again to drop the title when Gro-Lag's head started to dart around.

  "Where's Reen-Ge?n-Lüg?" He asked quickly.

  Ambrose paused for a moment as he slowly realised how much of a moron his was. He was about to start profusely apologizing when his senses pricked. "Someone's here."

  A high-pitched scream pierced through the woods, causing both Ambrose and Gro-Lag to freeze momentarily, before they both began running full speed towards it.

  After a few moments of blind panic, they both met Rennie running towards them, clutching the flowers she had picked in to her chest.

  Gro-Lag skidded to the ground, grabbing his daughter and wrapping his arms around her. "Are you ok, are you hurt?" He wheezed.

  "There was, there was a person." The girl said between sobs.

  A rustling came from the brush where the girl had run and Ambrose stepped forward, drawing his hunting knife as he did, his entire body tense.

  It was only when Reabeck walked through the trees that he felt he was finally able to breath.

  A short time later he was handing the dwarf a steaming cup of tea.

  "I am really sorry I scared the little one." She said as she took the tea.

  "You can stop apologizing, I know you didn't mean to." Ambrose said, curter than he meant to sound.

  Reabeck looked over to where Gro-Lag and Rennie were sitting. The girl had been quite shaken and he was still calming her down.

  "I'm not too sure Gro-Lag's gonna see it that way." She said, scrunching her face in concern.

  Ambrose understood her pain, the same gnawing guilt that was currently making its home in her belly, had already eaten though his and was running rampant around his body.

  After a moment of silence that threatened to become awkward, Reabeck pointed at the hut.

  "I see you guys have been busy." She said.

  Ambrose nodded. "Yeah Gro-Lag worked out we could use the force runes you left us to quickly cut down trees."

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Rea looked confused for a moment before she seemingly realised what he meant, at which she looked impressed. "I never thought they could be used like that, maybe I can actually market 'em back at the shop?"

  "Hopefully not." Ambrose said with a smirk. "We could probably use some more."

  "Could Gro-Lag not make any?"

  Ambrose raised his eyebrows and sighed as he remembered the result of Gro-Lag's bone rune.

  "Well-" He started to say.

  "Too big a boom?" The dwarf quickly asked.

  "It nearly killed both of us." Ambrose finished.

  Ambrose looked at Rea for a few seconds, before both of them slowly started laughing. As they did Ambrose winced as pain shot through his chest.

  "You, ok?" Rea said, still laughing.

  "Not really, I have several broken ribs." At his comment he started laughing so hard that he lost the ability to speak. Reabeck quickly following, laughing so hard she had to support herself by putting a hand on the ground to stop the hysterics from causing her to roll onto the floor.

  "What's so funny?"

  Both of them stopped laughing so suddenly that they both visibly winced.

  After Ambrose awkwardly explained his and Rea's laughing fit, Gro-lag presented the bag of runes that he had made.

  Rea took a number of them out and one by one examined them, her smile growing wider as she did.

  "Gro-Lag my friend you are truly gifted. These. Are. Perfect!"

  "I'm glad they are good enough." He replied, his happiness at her praise present, but subdued.

  She counted each one and a mild look of confusion crept onto her face.

  "I thought Ambrose said you made a force rune? From my count these are all the rune bases I gave you accounted for."

  Gro-Lag though for a moment and then walked to the bag of crafting supplied Rea had left him. He took something out of it and walked back, presenting it to the dwarf.

  "I had some bone medallions I had not carved yet, so I thought I would practice using them."

  Rea turned the carved bone in her hand. "And it worked?"

  Ambrose raised his shirt and showed the bruises that still covered his torso. "I wasn't joking about the broken ribs."

  "Is that surprising?" Gro-Lag asked. "Does the materials the rune is made of effect its use?"

  The dwarf cocked her head and look up in thought. "I actually don't know. Back in Nortok we just use stone, and the guild provide me all of my blank runes." She looked back at the two. "I guess it doesn't matter." she said with a shrug.

  Reabeck made her way back to her cart, placing the runes she had collected into it and coming back with a small pouch of coin and a large cloth bag.

  "Here." She said tossing the coin pouch to Ambrose. "Advanced payment."

  He slowly bounced the pouch in his hand feeling the weight of it. He could honestly say, he didn't think he had even had this much money at one time.

  He blinked as he pulled himself back to the moment. "Are you sure? The agreement was that you would give us a cut after you sold them?" He asked.

  "Take it as a gesture of good faith, in commemoration of a hopefully long business partnership." She said, smirking. "And trust me, from what I saw of Gro's work, it's gonna be a happy one."

  It is Gro-Lag's work. Ambrose thought.

  "Gro-Lag." Ambrose called to get the goblins attention.

  He turned and flinched as Ambrose threw the pouch to him, catching it with both hands.

  He looked at Ambrose and then at the gold and then back to Ambrose.

  "My, my lord, I'm not sure, but this is for your land?" He stuttered.

  "Its money from your hard work." Ambrose said, smiling. "If you chose to use it to support us building this place up, I would be very grateful, but it's for you to decide."

  Gro-Lag stared at Ambrose for a moment, a blank shock still on his face.

  "Though if you would be so kind, could I please borrow a gold coin to get this tooth fixed? it feels like I have bitten down on a force rune." Ambrose added.

  The goblin continued to stare blank at the request, before he slowly started to laugh. "Yes Ambrose, I will give you a gold coin."

  After a moment of basking in the glow of both of them experiencing there first time having significant coin, Ambrose turned his attention to the larger bag Reabeck had brought.

  "So, what's that? because if that’s all blank runes I think Gro-Lag is going to need an assistant." He said, with a grin.

  She looked down at the bag. "Oh yeah, well." She opened the bag and pulled a small one out. "This is the blank runes I brought."

  She handed the bag of small shaped stones to Gro-Lag.

  "And this is some stuff I thought you guys could make use of."

  From the bag she produced a shovel and trowel, as well as what looked like a wooden box.

  Ambrose took the box from her. It was about his forearm’s length long and about half as wide, and why he had thought of it as a box, it was open on both sides.

  "A brick mould?" Gro-Lag said looking at it.

  "Oooh." Ambrose said, as his brain caught up.

  "I have some time today so I thought I could show you guys how to make best use of that clay you have." Rea pointed at the small house they had built. "That should be good for now but when the wet season starts, one good storm and that will be a pile of fire wood."

  Ambrose had to admit; he had been worrying that their masterpiece may not hold up to the wrath of the storm goddess.

  "Yeah, that might be a good idea."

  They all made their way over to the river, Gro-lag carrying Rennie who still seemed a bit shaken.

  "I am really sorry I scared you little one." Reabeck said to her as they were walking.

  "It's ok." Rennie responded, sheepishly. "I thought you was going to make us leave."

  Gro-Lag looked down at his daughter, clearly pained by what she had said.

  "What does she mean?" Ambrose asked Gro-Lag, softly.

  The goblin looked at him and sighed. "When the people who lived in the village near our camp found us, it was because a few of them found her after she wander a bit away from the camp." He paused for a moment, swallowing to contain his anger." It was my fault; I got distracted by some work and lost sight of her. They made her show them where our camp was. When they arrived, they basically threw her at her mother, and then threatened us all with weapons until we left."

  "Bastards." Reabeck swore, under her breath.

  The anger that had risen in Ambrose’s gut made him feel like he was going to vomit. He took a deep breath to quell it slightly and stopped turning to Gro-Lag and looking at Reenie in his arms. He walked up to her and lowered his head so he was eye level with her.

  "This is your home; I promise that you will never have to worry about anyone making you leave. Ok darling?" Ambrose said, attempting to sound reassuring.

  The girl looked at him, her bright eyes locked onto his. "I'm not darling, I'm Reenie." She said after a moment, with a giggle.

  Ambrose rustled her hair and gave a small laugh himself. "Yes, you are."

  He looked up a Gro-Lag, and smiled. He returned it, but swallowed as a few tears appeared in his eyes.