Once they had eaten the liver he cooked, Gro-lag spent the rest of the day going over the best ways to prepare and cook some of the other parts of the pig that Ambrose had been ready to throw away. Once the evening had started to set in Gro-lag made his farewells and agreed he would try to get back in a few days. He didn’t say what he would be doing in the meantime, but Ambrose didn’t want to pry

  When he had next returned, Ambrose was in the process of butchering a deer he had hunted managed to hunt and had already skinned. Gro-Lag helped him finish and they shared a meal of some of the freshly cut meat cooked to a char over the fire.

  "So how long does it take to make some of those bone tools you have? I only have the one knife and I think I should save it for when I really need it." Ambrose asked.

  Gro-Lag swallowed the mouthful on venison he had been eating and thought. "Three or four hours of grinding to make the blade, though that is after you have managed to break the bone to size, that can be the hardest part."

  He took another bite of meat "you need to use some of the thicker bones to make most tools, the smaller ones can really only be used for arrow heads and jewellery."

  Ambrose cocked his head slightly in interest. "Jewellery?" He asked.

  Gro-Lag nodded am pointed at the pendants that were attached to his necklace. They were small white circles with intricate designer etched into them.

  Ambrose looked closely at carved bone. "Did you make these?"

  Gro-Lag nodded "My mother taught me how, before the war she would cover her face and trade them with travellers for food and supplies"

  Ambrose sat back and looked at the carcass of the deer that was still hanging from the tree. "How long do they take to make?" He asked.

  "To shape the bone and carve and design? I can probably make two or three in a day." Gro-Lag responded.

  Ambrose was just about to respond when a chew of his food caused pain to shoot through his mouth. He reflexively spat out the chunk of meat and gripped his face with his hand.

  Gro-Lag jumped up and quickly made his was over to him "Lord Ambrose, are you ok!?"

  Ambrose focused his magic into healing and directed it at the tooth, after a few moments the pain faded to a tolerable level.

  "It's just my tooth; it's been giving me issues for a while now." He said, breathing heavily from the shock of the pain, and effort of the magic.

  "Did your magic fix it?" Gro-Lag asked, a look of intrigue at what Ambrose had just done, clearly on his face.

  Ambrose rubbed his face. "It has made it less painful for now, but I can't fix it completely" He looked at the deer skin he had drying on a rock, and then to the pig skin he had placed on his shelter.

  "I guess I could take a skin or two, and maybe some meat to the city to sell"

  He actually had no idea how much it would cost to get his tooth properly healed. Considering how long it had been hurting, he doubted it could be fixed magically and he would probably need it removed, which wouldn't be cheap.

  He looked back at Gro-Lag's pendent and the idea he had been having before he was distracted by his tooth came together in his head. "Gro-Lag, if you can make me some of those pendants, I could take them into town and see if I can sell them as well? I will give you most of the gold of course, I just might need to borrow some to help pay to get my tooth fixed."

  Gro-Lag considered for a moment "I would be happy to lord Ambrose, but I think you should keep all the money, you have a lot that you need here."

  Ambrose went to protest before Gro-Lag quickly continued "You will need a pot for boiling to make soap, and some barrels and bottles for storing fish and oil."

  Ambrose had to admit that he was right, he didn't have the ability to get glass or metal and so couldn't make either of those items.

  "Ok, but you have to take some of the excess meat as payment, I insist"

  Gro-Lag smiled "OK if you insist my lord."

  Over the next two days Gro-Lag showed Ambrose how to strip the fibres from tree bark, and by using a rock to hold one end of them together, weave them around each other to make twine. Gro-Lag also managed to over the days to carve four bone pendants. He told Ambrose he had hoped to have gotten five or even six finished, but cutting the sections of bone had taken him longer than he had expected.

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  The night before Ambrose was going to travel to town, he and Gro-Lag were enjoying an evening meal when Ambrose had a question that had been bugging him.

  "You know you can sleep here at night right; you don't have to leave every evening?"

  Gro-Lag looked up from the piece of meat he was eating and nodded "I know lord Ambrose; I simply enjoy the area I have set up my own camp."

  Every day that Gro-Lag had come to visit him had ended the same. Either Gro-Lag had shown Ambrose how to cook a strange part of the deer or pig or Ambrose simply cooked a piece of meat he knew how to and the two ate together. Then at the end of the meal Gro-Lag would take some of the extra meat and head off to his own camp for the night.

  "Ok as long as you’re sure?" He sat back and drank from his water skin.

  "Are you sure you don't want to come with me to town, I know you are worried, but we might be able to report what happened at your old camp?" He added.

  Gro-Lag gave a sad looking smile "No, I don't think that's a good idea. Besides, considering I met a kind lord I think it has all worked out well."

  Ambrose smiled and somewhat blushed at Gro-Lag's comment.

  Once Gro-Lag returned the next morning, Ambrose packed up the deer skin, some of the extra meat he had been keeping in his larger sack, and the pendants that Gro-Lag had made.

  "You should be completely safe here Gro-Lag, I just need you to keep an eye of things. I am not sure if." Ambrose made a vague gesture around with his hands. "Whatever this is, will stop someone from taking anything left in the camp." He walked over and put his hand on Gro-Lag's shoulder "While I'm gone, you're in charge." He said it almost as a joke, but he, and by the look of it Gro-Lag, both seemed to feel a strange sense that it had much more weight behind it.

  The journey to Bramptonburg was a lot more pleasant than Ambrose's last. While the bag he was carrying wasn't light, it was by no means heavy enough to need to cast feather on it.

  As he walked down the wide, yet rough path towards the city, he took in a deep breath of the forest air. He had been trying, despite the constant low-level anxiety of trying to work out what he should be doing, to enjoy just how beautiful and peaceful the forest was. A part of him still couldn’t believe that he had been given a home in this wonderful place.

  The road was quite busy today, multiple carts passed him as he walked in, most of them carry lumber and animal carcasses from outside the forest, the latter of which didn't add much hope to Ambrose chances of getting a good price for the meat he was hoping to sell.

  This was confirmed to him when he finally arrived at the butchers, and there was a line of traders with freshly skinned animal carcasses waiting for their turn to sell.

  Instead of joining the queue to try to barter with his merger product, Ambrose decided there probably something better he could do with it.

  He made he his way through the familiar run-down streets and alleys that made up the city outskirts, until finally he made his way to an open brick yard. He walked up to the window to find old Tyrus with his back to him, organising some crates of cooking supplies.

  "Sorry we are already out today." He said, without turning around.

  "Well, it’s a good think I have come with a restock then" Ambrose replied with a smile.

  Tyrus paused for a moment, before standing and looking round. "Ambrose? Oh, thank the gods, where have you been, I was worried sick, you haven't been here for over a week." The older man said, a mix of frustration and relief on his face.

  He paused and looked Ambrose up and down. "Though I have to say you don’t look like you have been short of food."

  Ambrose gave a small laugh at his friend’s comment. "I have a lot to tell you."

  They sat together for a while as Ambrose regaled Tyrus with the details of where he had been and what had happened, including showing him the meat he had brought and now had decided to donate to the alms house.

  "I am sorry I didn't come see you the last time I was in the city" Ambrose said "But so much happened it just slipped my mind."

  Tyrus waved away Ambrose's apology. "Don't worry about it lad, as long your safe I am happy. Plus, with this donation you have brought we will be able to feed double the folk we would normally be able to"

  Ambrose paused, he knew what he wanted to ask, but he felt he already knew the answer. "Tyrus, why don’t you come live with me?"

  The older man looked at him, a look of surprise softly shifting in to a warm smile. "Ambrose, I can't, I am needed here."

  Ambrose thought this would be his answer "Tyrus you have been working all your life, you were a cook for the royal house before the war, and you ran the orphanage for years after. Just come and stay on my land, we are really starting to get set up, I could even give you your own plot."

  Tyrus sighed but continued to smile. "I can't lad, there are still kids like you who need me, we all can't save a magic rabbit."

  Ambrose laughed at his comment. when said like that, it did sound a bit ridiculous. He thought.

  "Anyway, there is something I want to give you" Tyrus said, turning as he did. When he turned back, he was holding a blackened metal pot containing a variety of tarnished metal and wooden cutlery.

  "Tyrus I can't take this; you have so little here already." Ambrose protested.

  "But one thing we do have is better equipment." Tyrus finished. "Look."

  He pointed behind him to the creates he had been going through when Ambrose had first arrived. Looking closer at them, he could see that they contained sets of cooking equipment, that while not being new, looked in a lot better shape than the ones Tyrus was offering him.

  "Some fancy restaurant has gotten all new cooking gear made, so they decided to donate their old stuff to a good cause." Tyrus explained.

  "Some of the kids nicked them when they were throwing them out you mean?" Ambrose replied.

  The older man laughed "Same result either way, I was trying to see if I could make room to keep the old ones, but I think you would get much better use out of them."

  Ambrose looked again at the pot full of cooking equipment that he was being offered. He could really use them, a pot especially.

  "Ok, as long as you're sure?" He said as he took the pot. "Thank you Tyrus, and if you change your mind my offer is always valid."

  "Maybe one day kid, but I still got a lot to do. But anyway, you better get off. You got a home to build."