The barrel that currently connected the two shifted aggravatingly as they walked, due to the now extremely light salt contained within it.

  "So, you saved a magic rabbit and a small forest person gave you some land to say thank you?" Trelen asked.

  "When you put it like that it sounds silly, but yeah that is the long and short of it." Ambrose replied.

  The Slovèi nodded. "It probably not the most ridiculous story I have ever heard."

  The walk back to the camp Ambrose feared would be much more difficult than the journey to the coast, but surprisingly, the awkward silence that lingered for most of it and he desire to escape it, meant that they started to approach the border of his land as the sunlight was just starting to set.

  "Ok it's going to feel a bit strange when we cross on my part of the forest." He warned.

  He felt a tug as Trelen stopped walking and held the barrel in place.

  "Is everything ok? It's not a bad feeling, from what Gro-Lag and the others have told me."

  "That's what I wanted to ask about." They asked as they put down their side of the barrel. Ambrose doing the same. "So Gro-Lag is male and his wife, Ros is a female?"

  This question again prompted one of Ambrose's own that he had been wanting to ask, but wasn't quite sure how.

  "Yeah, that's right, so do your people not...?"

  "We don't have a separation in our people like yours and other races." Trelen confirmed.

  More questions than Ambrose could comprehend began to manifest in his mind, some of which we so personal that the thought of asking them horrified him.

  "Ah, ok. I had heard that but wasn't sure if it was true." He responded, awkwardly.

  "Honestly until I was taken, I had never met anyone who..."

  "Anyone who was a man or a woman?" Ambrose finished.

  There was a pause, as Trelen seemed to be considering their words. "Its... odd." They finally said. "The fact that you are one people but you have different..." They screwed their face as the trailed off, in an expression that Ambrose couldn’t tell was confusion or disgust.

  They gave a small shudder and then moved to pick back up the barrel, a gestured Ambrose gladly followed.

  Once they had paused crossing the border for Trelen to look at Ambrose, give a "huh" and a nod of acknowledgement at the knowledge of the ownership of this land that had magically confirmed itself in their mind, they made their way to the camp.

  As they approached, Ambrose saw that smoke was rising from the small hut Gro-Lag and his family where currently calling home. He was just about to call out to signal his arrival when a small green head popped out of the door.

  "Lord Ambrose!" Reenie yelled, gleefully, as she ran out of the hut. Her trajectory indicated that she had intended to run into him but she slowed as she noticed the unfamiliar individual who was also standing in fount of her.

  Ambrose crouched down so he was eye level with the small girl. "Hello Rennie, is your Pa or Ma around?"

  Rennie stared at Trelen, a blank expression of intrigue sitting on her face. The Slovèi stared back at her for a moment, before giving a small wave.

  "Rennie this is Trelen, a friend I met when I was at the ocean." Ambrose said, gesturing to them.

  Rennie slowly returned the wave, still not looking away from the new person.

  "Rennie, where did you go?" A voice called from them hut. Ros emerged looking groggy, baby Gren-Lag feeding at her chest.

  It wasn't the first time she had fed in front of him but Ambrose still cast his eyes slightly above her head to try to be respectful.

  "Sorry, did we wake you?" He asked.

  Ros; seemingly noticing the stranger standing with them, shifted the small cloth she kept on hand the wipe Gren-Lag's mouth, to cover herself. "Reenie come here." She said somewhat curtly.

  Rennie paused for a moment still staring at Trelen before quickly making her way back over to her mother.

  "Ros, this is Trelen they are going to be staying with us for a time. Trelen this is Ros."

  There was a tense pause in the air before Trelen spoke. "Where do you want the salt left?" They asked.

  Ambrose had almost the forgotten about the cargo that he and Trelen had lugged all the way from the coast. "Oh, umm I guess just by the skinning supplies." He said, pointing at the area he and Gro-Lag had been using for processing animals. They had actually been doing quite well, producing a fair pile of tanned and oiled skins but their salt situation had become quite dire, with what they had been reusing becoming so rancid, neither of them really wanted to touch it.

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  Trelen rolled the barrel over to where Ambrose indicated. As they moved Ros walked over to him, Reenie following at her heel.

  "Ambrose, what is that?" She said, quietly.

  "They are a Slovèi." Ambrose replied, a little taken aback by her comment.

  "And you think they can be trusted to stay with us?"

  "Yes Ros."

  "How do you know?"

  Ambrose went to speak but stopped when he realised, he didn't really have an answer to that question.

  Ros seemed to notice his silence as she spoke again before he could. "Ambrose, I have my children living here. It's not just you who you have to consider the safety of when inviting people here." She said, sternly.

  Ambrose looked away, shifting his eyes to the ground just behind her. He honestly hadn't even considered if his current residents would mind Trelen staying with them for a while. All that had really gone through his head was there was a person who needed help, which in hindsight may have been a bit short sited.

  "They needed help, I found them shipwrecked from a…" Ambrose trailed off from his explanation. He remembered how Trelen had responded when he had referred to them as a slave, he wasn’t sure if telling Ros why he was on the ship was a good idea.

  "A slave ship, I was captured to be a slave." Trelen finished. They were standing a short distance away from them and had clearly over heard at least part of their conversation. "I only planning to be here for a few days while I figure out what to do, but if you don't want me here, I can leave."

  Ambrose wanted to tell them that of course they didn't need to leave but remembering the situation turned and looked at Ros. She looked back at him and then at Trelen.

  "My husband Gro-Lag will be back soon; we should all be here to decide."

  It wasn't long before the goblin did return, with a net full of fish. He initially gave Ambrose a wide smile when he saw him, which morphed into a polite yet confused one when he noticed Trelen.

  Ambrose introduced them and Gro-Lag offered his hand which Trelen hesitantly shook.

  "Trelen, why don't you take a fish to cook for yourself, you must be hungry." Ambrose said, trying not to sound to pointed.

  The Slovèi gave him a confused look before nodding and taking a fish from the net Gro-Lag opened for him.

  As they were tending to their fish, Ambrose, Gro-Lag, Ros and the kids all gathering in the hut to discuss their decision.

  "It's lord Ambrose’s land; he can invite whoever he wants to live on it." Gro-Lag declared.

  Ros gave him a glare cold enough that it sent a chill through Ambrose.

  "Ros is right Gro, I shouldn't have assumed that it would be okay to ask someone else to stay here without asking." Ambrose replied. "But I honestly think we can trust them."

  "You keep saying them, are they a man or woman?" Ros asked.

  "Their people; the Slovèi, don't have men and women, they are just all the same."

  Both Ros and Gro-Lag paused and considered what Ambrose just told them. He assumed that some of the many questions that had popped into his own mind where now appearing in theirs.

  "Look that’s beside the point, we need to decide if they can stay." Ambrose continued.

  "How do you know they are telling the truth about the slave ship, they could have made the whole story up, or worse it could have been a slave ship and they could be a slaver." Ros said, a scowl forming on her face.

  "If lord Ambrose believes them, then I do too." Said Gro-Lag.

  Ros rubbed the bridge of her nose in frustration. "Gro, we need to considered the safety of Reen-Ge?n-Lüg and Gren-Lag." She let out a frustrated sigh. "We can't just let anyone move in."

  Ambrose considered for a moment, as Ros and Gro-Lag shared annoyed glances. "How many times have you been turned away because people assumed they couldn't trust you." He looked at the two who stopped glaring at each other and seemed to consider his question. "I have lost count of the times I was asked or threatened to move on from somewhere I was, sleeping, or even just sitting because someone didn't like the look of me, even times I was sick, or so hungry I felt like I might collapse." Ambrose looked between the two. "I won't let them stay unless we are all in agreement, but I don’t want one of the first actions I take on this land to be turning away someone in need."

  The three sat in silence for a while, the only noise being Gren-Lag's soft cooing as Reenie played with him. Ros let out a deep sigh and stood; she walked to the door and lent her head out.

  "If you have finished eating." She said in Trelen's direction. "You should probably come in so we can discuss the ground rules of you staying."