Once the next day had come, Trelen seemed to be in lighter mood then they had been of late. Ambrose hoped this meant that their conversation about their sibling had helped take the weight of it all of their mind somewhat. Especially since their task today seemed to be more arduous than he had anticipated

  Trelen gasped as their head came back up above the water. Ambrose grabbed their arm to steady them against the current of the river as they stood.

  "Any luck?"

  They shook their head as they got their breath back. "The river bed is clay, but it's below a big layer of silt."

  They had spent the rest of yesterday cutting the logs they had fell into planks. Thinking that was the hard part, he and Trelen had begun the day full of confidence that they would be able to make easy headway in getting the bridge built. After the morning had passed into the afternoon and they had done nothing past get wet and cold, that confidence had all but evaporated.

  "I was thinking." Trelen said as they laid on the bank to dry to in the sun. "Even if we managed to dig deep enough to secure some logs, wouldn't they just rot eventually?"

  Ambrose staired at him blankly for a moment before resting his head in his hands. "I am not quite sure why I thought sawing planks and making a bridge would be tasks of equal difficulty." He looked at the section of the river they had been hoping to build over; it wasn't huge but it was wide and deep enough that to cross it did require one to swim.

  Trelen stood from the position they were in. They walked over to Ambrose and offered him their hand. "Come on, we can think about it over lunch."

  The two of them walked back toward their camp, the slowly rising smoke from the main fire and the smells of cooking meat guiding them as they went.

  "So do you want to put the bridge on hold?" Ros asked, bounding Gren-Lag as she did to calm him.

  Ambrose swallowed the bit of pork he had been chewing and sighed. "I don't know, we have so many things to do and I thought the bridge would be the best place to start."

  Ros nodded and then noticed that Greg-Lag had bought up some milk. "Gro, can you pass me a cloth?"

  "Can't right now."

  Gro-Lag was hunched, cross legged, sitting away from the rest of them, the flat rock that he used to lean on when carving runes on his lap, staring intently at the rune he was currently trying to carve.

  Trelen stood and walked over to the hut, reaching inside and returning with a small cloth.

  "Thank you, Trelen." The mother said as they passed it to her. "Well, you really only have one choice to make first. Do you keep throwing work at the bridge, or do you start on something else while you think over how to tackle it?"

  "I think the second option is the obvious one." He said flatly. "It's just what to focus on next?"

  A sudden noise made everyone around the fire jump, including baby Gren-Lag who began squalling at the surprise. They all turned to see Gro-lag standing breathing heavily.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  "Gro-lag!" Ros said sternly.

  The goblins eyes shot up to look at his wife. For a moment Ambrose was shocked at the rage in them, but they quickly softened as he seemingly remembered himself and noticed his baby crying.

  "Sorry my love, it's just these damned light runes."

  "Come and have a break." She said, beckoning to a space between her and where Reenie was now sitting looking sheepish.

  He stuttered for a moment as he tried to protest, before sighing and making his way over. As he sat, he took Gren-Lag from his wife's arms. "I'm sorry." He said softly as he rocked him in an attempt to calm the babe. he settled quickly and he turned to give his daughter give her a small but sorry smile.

  "Sorry if we were distracting you." Said Ambrose.

  Gro-Lag waved away the apology. "It's just these light runes, even with the beak tip they are just so intricate."

  "You have managed to make a couple though." Ros interjected.

  "You have?" Both Ambrose and Trelen said in tandem.

  Gro-Lag gave a half smile. "Beginner’s luck. I have attempted five and so far, two work as they should."

  "As they should?" Trelen repeated.

  Gro-Lag reached into his satchel and pulled out a rune. "According to the book a proper light rune should produce light bright enough to make a dark room look like it is in midday sun light." He lifted the rune and seemed to concentrate for a moment. The lines on it glowed slightly and after a second Ambrose noticed its effect. While he imagined it would have been much more noticeable in the dark it caused every shadow cast by the surrounding trees and rocks to brighten, causing them to almost vanish. As he watched them, they seemed to pulsate with light, slowly changing between being nearly invisible and only slightly brighter.

  "I am guessing it supposed to be a constant light?" He asked.

  Gro-Lag nodded. "I have tested each I have made and only two have seemed to be working correctly. "

  "Do you know what you did wrong on the bad ones?" Trelen asked.

  Gro-Lag folded his arms and scowled in frustration. "The layout on all of them is correct, the difficult part with these ones is depth is a factor."

  "Depth?"

  The goblin nodded. "On something like a fire rune, you just have to get the pattern the right size and shape and its works, but with these, a number of lines need to be a specific depth." He lent his head on his wife's shoulder. "And not having a solid, flat workspace is making that very difficult."

  Ros put her arm round her husband and gave him a small, comforting squeeze. "You're doing fantastic darling, even with how difficult it is."

  "But it shouldn't be that difficult." Ambrose said, firmly. Everyone around the fire looked at him. He looked at each in turn. "We have bricks, we have wood, we have purified clay. You four are living in a log hut and me and Trelen are sleeping on the ground. How's that going to look when the council member shows up. " As he was saying it out loud, he realised more and more how stupid he had been.

  "The bridge can wait; we are building homes."