The next few days were hectic to say the least. Ambrose had spent the rest of the day after speaking with Ros fishing in an attempt to replenish theirs ailing food supplies. He had been successful but not enough to reduce the anxious pit in his stomach. The next two he had been spent rather still. Sitting in the spot Gro-Lag had found at the western edge of his land that tended to have deer wander in, his bow in hand and an arrow at the ready.

  The need to remain alert combine with the urge to fall asleep in the warm day led to Ambrose talking his thought quietly to himself.

  "How big a place would I need if I wanted to take in some children?"

  The idea had been floating around his head since he had met Sky.

  "We had bunk beds, eight to a room so sixteen each."

  There had been about sixty children at his orphanage at any one time. He had no ideation that he would be able to house that many but he did have so much space.

  "I could have a dormitory or two, I'm sure Rennie and Gren would like the company?"

  Thinking about the kids suddenly reminded him why he currently crouched in a bush.

  "I can barely feed the children on my land now."

  He doubted that the farm Ros was working on could feed that many, but a deer can feed a lot if they used all of it.

  "If enough of them will wander in?"

  In almost an answer to his question there was movement and Ambrose nocked an arrow.

  The blood slowly to a drip into the bucket he had placed below the deer that hung from the tree.

  "I see you were successful." Trelen said as they walked into their camp.

  "I guess, waited the whole morning and only managed to get one deer. It must have wandered away from the herd."

  Trelen walked over and looked at the bucket of blood. "Shame we don't have any oats, the butcher back in my village used to make great blood sausage."

  "You will have to ask Ros if she thinks she can grow some for us." Ambrose said, as he flipped the fish he was cooking on a rock.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  "You, ok?" The Slovèi asked, walking over and sitting opposite him.

  Ambrose let out a sigh. "Yeah, I haven't been sleeping too well."

  Trelen looked at him quietly, clearly indicating for him to continue.

  "I am just worried about the food situation. With Gro-Lag and you so busy it is down to me to make sure we are supplied." He picked up a bit of his fish with his knife and ate it.

  "And you have been, you're eating fish you got for us right now."

  "And it's pretty much all we have at the moment." He said, still chewing.

  "We have food, that's all that matters."

  The two looked up, following the voice that had spoken and saw Ros and Reenie walking over.

  "I like fish!" Reenie declared as she made her way over and sat next to Ambrose.

  He chuckled, picked a piece up for her on his knife; blowing on it before passing it to her. "I just feel bad that we don't have much variety, for a while there we really did."

  "It was inevitable we would run out of things to forage eventually." Ros said, taking a seat herself. "But with the coin Gro-Lag is bringing in and hopefully if we can become a settlement and can get deliveries; we should be able to order everything we need eventually."

  "That's if they grant it to us."

  "Well, if they don’t, we will just have to get a cart and horse so you can get what we need from the city." She said, with a wry smile.

  "And in an emergency, we could always eat the horse."

  They all looked round as Gro-Lag made his way over.

  "Finally taking a break dear?" His wife asked.

  He sat next to her and lent his head on her shoulder. "I am at the point where I can make the light runes perfect nearly every time." He stretched out his legs. "But I have to keep my work stone on my lap as still as possible."

  "I am nearly finished with the support rods; we should be able to start on you work shop soon." Said Trelen.

  "And then we can have a house." Rennie finished with a big grin.

  "Yes, we can." Her mother replied. "And apparently your uncle Ambrose has big plans for it?"

  Ambrose looked at her, his eyebrow raised quizzically.

  "Reen decided she wanted to look at all of your drawing this morning while you were hunting."

  "Ah." Ambrose felt a bit of heat raising up his face. "I hope I wasn't over stepping?"

  "Planning out our home you mean?"

  He tensed up somewhat and looked at the ground. There was a silence before Ros continued.

  "I mean, I was happy with the amount of rooms but it did seem all a bit... Flat."

  "Flat?" Ambrose asked, confused.

  "I mean, it was all on one floor. Don't humans often have homes with two floors?"

  Everyone was quiet for a moment, taking in what she had said.

  "I think we could do two floors." Trelen said, quietly.

  "We… could?" Ambrose asked?

  "I can't see why not."

  He nodded slowly. "Ok… I guess we could move the bedrooms to the second floor. That would mean the other rooms could be a bit bigger?"

  Trelen nodded and looked at Gro-Lag and Ros. "So, three bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen?"

  "Well, if you're going to have a room for each child, we might need four."

  Trelen's face lit up a good few seconds before the two men's brains caught up to what Ros had said.

  "Wait?" Ambrose said, elongating the word.

  "My love, are you?"

  Ros looked at her husband and with a wide grin, slowly nodded.

  A very toothy smile blossomed onto his face and he wrapped his arms around his wife, locking his lips onto hers.

  Ambrose was smiling ear to ear with the rest of them but he couldn't help the sinking feeling in his stomach. Another mouth to feed.