Ambrose and Gro-Lag spent the rest of the evening once Rea had left, planning. If Gro-Lag and his family were going to move on to the land, they were going to need to expand the living space they currently had. Gro-Lag had admitted that they were living at the moment in a cave not too far away, which was keeping them warm and dry for the time being.

  "We could cut down some trees, I have seen drawings of homes made from logs?" Ambrose suggested.

  Gro-Lag nodded "I have seen houses that were built like that in the village near where we used to live." He scrunched his face in thought. "I remember seeing one being finished, they were packing the walls with a mix of mud and straw I think?"

  Ambrose though for a moment "Rea said that the ground by the river is clay, that might work?"

  They both gave a general nod and mumble of agreement.

  "Ok then, we have one axe head already, so tomorrow if I get started while you make a second one then we should hopefully be able to get all the wood we need in a couple days." Said Ambrose

  Gro-Lag looked at him, a bit confused. "I am not sure we can get enough for two homes in that amount of time."

  "We only need to make one for now. I am assuming you and your family would be ok sharing one house?" Ambrose responded.

  "But my lord we couldn't have such a luxury unless you had a home too?" Gro-Lag said, abashed.

  Ambrose smiled and pointed to his small covered bed. "I'm fine for now, the more important thing is making sure your family are comfy."

  The goblin moved to protest, but Ambrose raised his hand to stop him. "There is no arguing, your lord has spoken." He said in an exaggerated tone.

  Gro-Lag sighed "Thank you lord Ambrose." He stood and walked over to the bag that Rea had left. He took out a few blank runes and the tools and book she had left.

  "I better get started then." He said had he sat down next to the fire.

  Ambrose went to protest, but realised it was probably pointless to do so.

  The next day Ambrose got to work before Gro-Lag even showed up. He was half way through his first tree when his friend arrived.

  "Morning my lord."

  "I really hope your family listen to me and just call me Ambrose." He replied with a smirk.

  Gro-Lag simply laughed and got to work crafting the second axe.

  It was only when Ambrose had felled his second tree that Gro-Lag walked over to show him the finished product.

  "Ah, great." He panted. Sweat was pouring off of him and his arms felt like they were on fire.

  "Maybe you should take a rest lord Ambrose?" Gro-Lag suggested.

  Ambrose shook his head. "If I take a break you will have to pick up my slack." He said, rubbing one of his sore arms. "And you need to have enough time to be able to finish the runes."

  At the mention of the runes, Gro-Lag seemed to have a thought, as he paused for a second, and then walked back to the camp. When he returned, he was holding the bag of runes that Rea had left. "My lord, I think I have an idea."

  Gro-Lad proceeded to take the axe he had just made, and took a few swings at a tree, until a knuckle deep cut was made in to its trunk. He then took one of the force runes and carefully placed it into the tree.

  Ambrose immediately realised what his idea was and quickly had a lot of reservations about it. Before Gro-Lag could swing at the rune, Ambrose spoke up.

  "Wait, let me do it, this axe is already getting wobbly."

  Gro-Lag looked at him, and then back to the tree. "Are you sure my lord, we can just swap axes?"

  Ambrose smiled at him. "I can't have you returning to your family missing an arm, can I?"

  He moved in to position and drew back his axe. He gave Gro-Lag a final look, and swung.

  As his struck the rune, it burst, forcing the axe to fly back and out of Ambrose's hand. This had the effect of terribly jarring his arms, causing pain to shoot up to his neck through them. The trunk of the tree exploded from the force, almost bouncing as the majority of the tree separated from the stump. It luckily fell away from Ambrose and Gro-Lag, who quickly made his way over to him once the calamity had stopped.

  "My lord are you ok?!" Gro-Lag yelled as he ran over to him.

  Ambrose winced as he sat up, pain shooting down his back, He slowly looked over at the now felled tree and gave small laugh "It worked, but maybe we should just try setting it off from afar."

  After a long break, and a few healing spells, Ambrose and Gro-Lag began attempting to use their new, rather crude method of quickly cutting down trees. They did the same set up, using there remining axe; since the other had been left in pieces, to cut an indent into the tree before placing the rune inside it. They then took turns trying to hit it with a rock. It was after many failed attempts that Ambrose realised, they were going to need to think of a different plan.

  "This isn't working" He said after watching Gro-Lag miss for what must have been the hundredth time "We are just going to have to hit it."

  "But won't that just destroy the axe… and maybe us" Gro-Lag asked.

  Ambrose thought for a moment. "It only hurt me because the axe was strong enough to absorb some of the force." He looked around, and found a thin, but sturdy looking stick "So if whatever we hit it with breaks easy enough." He pulled back the stick to swing it but Gro-Lag quickly protested.

  "Please lord, you got hurt from my idea last time, let me take the risk this time."

  Ambrose didn't want him to, but he had to admit, he was still in quite a lot of pain from his last attempt. He reluctantly handed Gro-Lag the stick and stood back.

  The goblin took it, and once he was sure Ambrose was at a safe distance, he swung at the tree.

  As the stick made contact, the rune burst, but unlike the first time, the stick relented easily and while he saw Gro-Lag's arm jar slightly, the force barely moved him. The tree seemingly stood for a moment before slowly creaking and falling with a loud thud on the ground.

  Ambrose looked to his friend and gave him a questioning thumbs up. Gro-Lag looked back and returned the gesture, indicating he was ok.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Now with a safe method of using the force runes, they were able to fell ten more trees in the rest of the day.

  As the sunlight started to fade, the two sat by the fire planning. They had picked a smaller of the trees they had brought down, and decided to use that as the length they would use for each wall. Looking at the average length of the trees they had around them, they were trying to work out how many more they needed to bring down.

  "For your family's home, we will probably need about an eight log high wall, so we need thirty two logs." said Ambrose.

  Gro-Lag nodded in response, but to Ambrose, he seemed distant.

  "You ok?" He asked.

  Gro-Lag looked at him for a moment before speaking. "Lord Ambrose, do you not have anyone you want to come live here with us?" He asked

  Ambrose shifted slightly in his seat, finding himself a little unsure how to answer. "I did actually ask someone from the city if they want to come, but they said no." He responded.

  "A relative?" Gro-Lag asked.

  Ambrose shook his head "No, the man who used to run the orphanage I grew up in."

  At the word orphanage Gro-lag's eyes went wide. "Oh, I'm sorry lord, I didn't realize you was an orphan."

  "It's fine." He responded. "It's not like I knew my parents, so I have never really been able to miss them?"

  "What happened." Gro-Lag asked, before he could seemingly catch himself.

  "I'm not really sure, all I was told was I was found in a destroyed house after one of the battles in the city." He replied.

  "And your parents?" The goblin asked.

  "Their bodies were found as well." Ambrose responded flatly.

  Gro-Lag looked at the floor "Oh, I'm very sorry."

  "It's fine, like I said I was so young I can't even remember them." Ambrose shrugged. "Besides, it not like it was a random tragedy, I was one of over two hundred orphans, and that was just in Lady Brampton House."

  Gro-Lag sighed "That is very true." He paused for a moment before adding. "My wife lost her family in the war."

  Ambrose raised his eyebrows in surprise "I didn't know the goblins got that involved in the war, we were told you just sent warriors to fight with the rebels?"

  Gro-Lag looked away, but Ambrose could see he was scowling. "The loyalists followed her clan after they retreated from a battle, when they found their settlement…" He trailed off.

  Ambrose lent over an put his hand on his shoulder. "It's getting late, you better get back to her."

  Gro-Lag thought for a moment and then smiled. They said their goodbyes and he made his way off.

  The next day the two started the process of cutting all the logs to length. They took turned chopping the logs using the axe, while the other got on with their other tasks.

  Ambrose took the first shift, while Gro-Lag continued to work on the runes. It was just as he was about to suggest that they changed tasks that the axe head cracked and broke. This caused them to lose almost a quarter of the day as Gro-Lag crafted a new axe head. While he was Ambrose gathered some of the clay and brought it back to the camp fire. He made his first attempt at crafting it into something, as he was able to form a small cup that he left by the fire to bake.

  That's a lot easier then carving it from wood. He thought as he was watched it bake.

  His ideas of ease were quickly diminished when he attempted to move from a cup to a bucket. It was on his fourth attempt, where it fell in on itself as he was forming it, that he gave up.

  Luckily it was also about this time that Gro-Lag had finished the axe head. As he was handing the finished tool to Ambrose, he also presented and idea.

  "We could try to use a force rune to break the logs down the size?" He suggested.

  Ambrose looked at his confused. "I thought we used all the force runes to get the trees down?"

  Gro-Lag reached into his satchel an pulled out what Ambrose thought at first was one of his bone medallions, but when he saw the design, he realised what it actually was.

  "You made some more?" He asked, taking the bone rune to examine it.

  "Reabeck pointed out the design to me in the book, and since I have been practicing, I thought I would attempt one. As you can see, I was able to not blow myself up." The goblin replied, with an almost cheeky grin. "I didn't want to use any of the blank runes she left for me to carve so I thought I would see if it would work on bone."

  To Ambrose's eyes the design looked nearly identical to the ones that had been on the runes they had been using preciously. If anything, they looked better.

  "Sure, I can't see why not." He said as he walked over to the log. He had already started cutting through it before the axe head had broken, so there was already a groove he could place the rune into. He walked over to the tree line to find a stick to hit it with when he had an idea. He bent down and picked up a small rock "One go to see if I can do it this time?" He said to Gro-lag.

  The goblin simply smiled and shrugged. "Might get lucky."

  Ambrose with little thought or aim, threw the rock at the rune, and the second it made contact with it he was blown backward as the tree exploded.

  The next thing he knew, he was on his back, pain radiating throughout his body, and his ears ringing.

  He wasn't sure how long it was before he was able to start to process what had happened, but when he was able to think again, one thought instantly formed in his head. Gro-Lag was closer.

  He quickly tried to sit up, but the ache in his back and throbbing in head cause him to stop and lay back down.

  "Gro-lag?" He croaked out. " Gro-lag can you hear me?"

  He listened for a response, trying to focus through the ringing, but one didn't come.

  Ambrose rolled on to his side and curled himself so he could see around him. Where the tree had been was now a forearm deep crater surrounded by splinters and dirt.

  He focused his eyes and was able to make out a figure crumpled on the ground.

  He flinched as he went to try to quickly get up, but remembered the state he was in and slowly got to his feet. The ground seemed to move under his feet at he did and he felt incredibly sick.

  He stumbled over and fell next to his friend. "Gro-Lag, Gro-Lag!" He shook the goblin, but he was completely unconscious.

  He sat and lifted his hand to the goblin. He wouldn't have been able to fully heal him if he was at his best, but at the moment he could barely keep his arm up. He shook his head, trying to clear some of the wooziness, and placed his hand over Gro-Lag's head. He focused his magic trying to keep it as controlled as possible. His hand glowed and Ambrose's brain pounded with pain.

  He was only able to keep the magic flowing for a few seconds before his concentration broke and Ambrose retched. He was just wiping his mouth when he heard a noise.

  "Lord Ambrose?" Gro-Lag said weekly.

  He looked round and saw his friend had managed to open his eyes.

  Though great effort, Ambrose helped Gro-Lag to his bed by the fire pit. As he was laying there Ambrose sat looking at him wondering what to do. As far as he could see, the only surface injuries Gro-Lag had was some small cuts, but he couldn't rule out internal ones.

  When he was training to join the Healer’s Guild, the instructor explained that the main benefits healing magic had over traditional medical treatment was the speed of recovery and the fact that you only need to know the general area to perform the healing. Though knowing a more precise location did allow for more efficient casting.

  Ambrose took a deep breath and looked as his friend. He picked up his waterskin and drank a mouthful of water, he then poured some of it over his head and rubbed his face. "Ok, Gro-Lag, can you tell me where it hurts, or where it hurts the most?"

  Gro-Lag slowly turned his head and looked like he was about to speak, but instead gave a week cough that caused blood to pepper his chin, and Ambrose's face.

  Ambrose quickly placed his hand over his friend’s chest and again channeled his magic. He tried to breathe deeply, trying to ignore the booming in his ears and the nausea in his throat. He managed to keep up the healing for about ten seconds before it became too much for his and he collapsed to the side. He could feel the darkness creeping in and his mind going blank as he began to lose consciousness. He wanted to embrace it, to rest, but just as he was about too, he remembered Gro-Lag laying in front of him.

  Ambrose gasped and slowly sat up. "I will be right back" He crocked as he picked up his water skin and began the arduous journey to the river.

  Until the sun started to set Ambrose continued a simple but painful routine. He limped to river, grabbing and eating any berries, or other plants he could see that were edible. He would then dunk his head in the river, the cold shocking him into more alertness, drinking from it and filling his water skin. He then made his way back to his camp, gave Gro-Lag a small amount of water, and then attempt to heal him some more.

  He was usually able to hold the magic for about ten seconds before the pain grew too bad, he would then drink or douse himself with the rest of the water from the skin, refreshing himself enough to channel healing for at least a few more seconds.

  Between the vomiting, and trying to remain conscious, he couldn't tell how many times he had made the trip, but it was when he was just starting to fine the strength to make his way back to the river when a hand grabbed his wrist.

  "My lord?" Gro-Lag croaked.

  Ambrose turned, but due to how dizzy he was he fell and landed in a sitting position. "Gro-Lag, your awake." he said with a thankful smile.

  The goblin slowly sat up, giving small groans of pain as he did. "What happened?" He asked.

  "The rune you made… was a bit…" As Ambrose spoke, the desperate need to make sure his friend was ok that had been driving him, was slowly fading from him.

  "Lord Ambrose?" Gro-Lag said sitting up quicker.

  "I'm just… really glad your…" The darkness started to surround Ambrose's vision. He tried to put down his arm to support himself, but he didn't have the strength and fell to the side. He didn't even feel himself hit the floor.