Valentin paraded triumphantly through the longhouse the following day. He had helped everyone by getting Morna to amend Guin’s petty cruelty. Finally, he had done something to ease someone else’s burden. It took everything in his power not to come forwards and brag when Darri looked incredulously into the full ration basket. His body felt warm with the joy of doing the right thing.
For the next several days, the children enjoyed full bellies and slept well. No longer did nervous faces and humiliated looks permeate from the three elder children. They felt the rare sense of security and Valentin’s heart beat with silent pride.
However, there had been something that Valentin had overlooked. When Morna had mentioned to Valentin that she had a conversation with Guin, he had expected that she had terrified him about his misdeeds. In actuality, Guin was of a higher station than Morna was. Even if she could snap his neck without much effort, she was chained down by the Deggan who was in temporary charge of the warriors and by Ferron’s edicts. Instead, all Guin received was a reminder to not reduce rations without proper cause. She had insinuated that there was a witness to Guin’s lies. In Guin’s eyes, there would only be one group of people that could say that, the aggrieved children themselves.
Guin’s solution was as simple as it was petty. If he had to be present to administer food reductions, then it would be all that he did during the time that the refugees worked. Any mistake made, any imperfection no matter how small would result in deductions. There would be no complaints petitioned against Guin now, it was now his word against theirs. In truth, it was now just his word.
“It shows how little he actually does most days if he could just stare at us clearing out flood irrigation for hours,” Darri complained, ripping some bread with his teeth. “Who drove such a huge stick up his ass anyways?”
“He’s just looking for justification for his actions. He’ll stop eventually,” Bassett explained, calming his friend’s fraying nerves.
Off to the side of the group, Valentin stood nervously, his mind overrun with negative thoughts. Has his meddling caused this issue? Did Morna’s involvement just make Guin worse? He held on to hope that Bassett’s words were true, that this was simply a test to make them trip up.
However, Guin didn’t stop. Every assignment that Darri was given, Guin was there, staring him down with eyes that burned with indignation, two simmering coals that burnt into the back of Darri’s tunic. Watching, waiting for someone to slip up and let him deliver punishment. And if they didn’t, he would just make one up.
There was a constant target of Guin’s demerits. A child that held the others back and made them suffer the most. A person that always looked lost and had to glance at others to know what he was doing. A person that made the most mistakes and gave Guin the most ammunition against Darri.
Valentin.
The affluent child moved too slowly and earned a demerit. He took too long to complete a task and earned a demerit. He tried to hasten his pace and knocked over a bucket to earn a demerit. Even when a dog coughed up food because it had eaten too quickly, Valentin earned a demerit for not feeding it right. It was not so much that Valentin made the most mistakes in Guin’s eyes. It was that his mistakes made Darri the angriest. If a small child moved too slowly or tripped or made a mistake, Darri would reassure and encourage the child.
Valentin’s mistakes started that way. Darri would help him and explain what to do and encourage him to do better. But as the punishments racked up, Darri’s patience towards the boy wore ever thinner and thinner. Guin was no fool and he noticed quite quickly who he should pile all the blame on to receive the response he craved. He no longer went after the small children or Darri. He went after Valentin.
The boy had made improvements, but it was irrelevant. Guin had already made him the ideal target and refused to let him go. Guin could tell that it was eating at the boy. His face was always on the verge of tears whenever Guin said his name. Darri’s face contorted in frustrated rage, boiling near the edge of overflowing but could not outburst. It was a demerit after all and Darri had to swallow it and let it build up inside. However much satisfaction Guin was obtaining through these actions, he still had yet to uncover the information that he actually wanted to know. It was time for the reveal.
The children were replacing the straw in the chicken coop with a fresh layer. For the first time in days, Guin was not present. A wave of relief and uncertainty swept over the group. It was not meant to last long as strolling from the longhouse came the ember eyes of the rations master.
Valentin turned away from the approaching man. He couldn’t bear to be the cause of the children’s suffering yet again. Since Guin started directly supervising the group, their rations had dwindled to near half of what it had been. The hungered cries of the children had torn Valentin up inside. Darri looked like he wanted to tear out Valentin’s insides whenever he was near them. Even Bassett could only offer an apologetic look as he ate from his meager rations.
It had been far too many days for this to be simply a test. Bassett’s theory was woefully incorrect. This was a personal vendetta. It was clear at this point that there was some wound on Guin’s pride. Deep down Valentin knew that it was his fault.
Morna calling out Guin hurt the Elder’s son’s pride. That these no name worthless refugees could dare try to tell him what to do. To use others to call him out in front of the other affluent villagers. They giggled at him as Morna walked off. Something broke inside Guin’s mind, a damage to his pride that he had never experienced in his life before this moment.
Valentin was too scared to come clean about his error. He was ashamed of the pride he felt when he approached his friends the morning after speaking with Morna. He didn’t want to be hated. He just hoped that soon, Guin would feel satisfied with his revenge and move on.
Guin carried two baskets. One was the full rations of the group and the other was empty. He placed the two baskets at his feet and stared into the chicken coop. His discerning eyes moved from child to child.
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“Why are you looking at me instead of working? Valentin, demerit,” Guin barked. He reached into the full basket, pulled out a loaf of bread, and placed it in the other basket.
Everyone had been looking at Guin but only Valentin was punished. He knew it was unfair but defending himself would be another demerit so all he could do was look away. He knew that Darri would be looking at him with murderous intent. Darri was too furious and short sighted to think about the fact that Valentin was being purposefully targeted. All that Valentin could do was keep his head down and get through the day.
“I want to finally get to the bottom of something,” Guin spat at Darri’s foot. “Which one of you was it?”
Darri narrowed his eyes, “What are you talking about?”
Guin moved some more food to the other basket. “Which one of you said that I lied about you not finishing your woodcutting on time?”
“Woodcutting?” Darri asked with a confused tone. “That was over ten days ago and we were already punished for it. Why are you bringing it up now?”
Guin stepped towards Darri and had to tilt his head up slightly to look Darri in the eyes which only made him angrier. “I’ll give you one chance. Which one of you little fucking rats complained about me?”
Valentin started shaking. His worst case scenario had come true. Guin was always after the person that had caused him to be told off. What should he do? Come clean now? It felt far too late to tell the truth, but he had to say something or Guin might deny them more food.
He opened his mouth to confess but the words that he had intended to say were said by another.
“I complained because you never showed up to the woodshed,” Darri admitted to Guin. “I thought maybe you had misremembered.”
“Is that so?” Guin scowled. “Then you wouldn’t mind telling me who you complained to? Who was it that approached me?”
Darri’s mind scrambled to think of a name to offer to Guin but his face betrayed him before he could find an appropriate choice.
“I knew it,” Guin stated coolly, dumping the contents of the first basket into the second and walking off with it, leaving the empty basket at Darri’s feet. “Rats don’t get to eat human food.”
“What the fuck is going on?” Darri roared inside the longhouse with an empty basket between his feet. His eyes looked sunken from a lack of proper sleep. He rubbed his face with his hands. “We didn’t do shit to him.”
The assorted children around him were desperately trying to hold back the tears of empty stomachs. They held their tiny bellies in the hope that the pressure might fix the pain. Bassett stood next to Darri and looked into the empty basket with eyes lost in thought.
“Did someone actually complain or is he just making it up?” Bassett questioned. He was never with the main work group and had no perspective of how the interactions were truly like.
“I’d like to say that he’s making it up,” Darri admitted. “But it’s been too many days and his eyes were too angry to be an act. I don’t know what’s happening but I don’t think it’s a bluff. I am worried that he’s going to try to starve us out until he gets the answer he wants. So we need to get to the bottom of this.”
Valentin couldn’t take it anymore. Guin was pushing things too far and Valentin couldn’t bear the thought of prolonging the suffering of the people that watch out for him just because he was afraid of their reaction.
“Well,” Valentin spoke up, gaining the attention of the group. He explained to them the frustration he felt. That he empathized with Darri and didn’t want them to be hungry because of the casually cruel personalities of a man tasked with providing the community with rations. He told them of his conversation with Morna and said that she would remind him of his responsibilities.
“Why would you do that?” Darri ordered a response, rising to his feet. “Don’t you know that it never works?”
“Morna said that he wasn’t upholding his end of the agreement with the Armée. It was a mistake that needed rectifying,” Valentin explained, still believing that he had done the right thing. “And it worked, didn’t it? You got full rations the next day.”
“And then never again!” Darri spat.
“Valentin, why hadn’t you mentioned that you had done this? It would have been the obvious explanation for Guin’s behavior,” Bassett tried to be understanding with Valentin but the boy could tell even Bassett wasn’t happy.
“I thought that he was doing what you suggested, Bassett. It wasn’t until today that I realized it was about that. I promise.”
“I’m sorry, Bassett, but you need to find somewhere else for him to go right now,” Darri said with a strained voice that verged upon a full-blown explosion. Veins danced with blood across his forehead. “I don’t know what I’ll do if I still see him standing here tomorrow.”
Bassett nodded and placed a hand on Valentin’s shoulder. “You can’t be around here for a while, Valentin.”
“I’m sorry, everyone,” Valentin apologized through held back tears. He had been naive. He tried to fix the problems with solutions that would only work for people that already had power. It was a reminder of his foolishness and his powerlessness.
He spent many days alone, unable to rejoin the group. As a result, he was forced to hide within Morna’s room to avoid being seen.
His following days were full of despondent silence. His food was undisturbed by the antics of Guin. No matter what he did, he always had his needs provided for and he fell asleep with a full stomach. The fact that his mistakes starved the rest and he faced no punishment tore him up inside. He wished for true punishment for his actions. For what he did to affect him and him alone.
Much of his free time was now spent in the presence of Morna. They would spend time weaving baskets or playing around with dice. He told her that he was no longer interested in doing such heavy manual labor instead of speaking truthfully about the falling out. He knew that her reaction towards him would not be too severe and he didn’t want to cause them even more hardship.
Morna seemed excited when she heard Valentin’s words and the prospects of spending more time with him. However, it was soon clear that spending time with him would be a chore. His lethargic performance when accompanying Morna was poorly disguised by a weak smile. To Valentin’s surprise, the woman didn’t complain at his thinly veiled ruse and aching heart. Instead, she just smiled and spent time with him. She didn’t ask questions or even seem to be interested in the situation.
After several days had passed, she took him to the kennels and introduced him to two of the dogs inside. She rubbed their coarse fur and cooed their names in their ears, much to the delight of the beasts.
“I love dogs,” she explained. “Most of the ones here belong to the village but these two belong to me. Well they belong to the warband. But, they love me best. All the dogs of the warband love me best. Animals are so easy to understand, their desires are so simple to obtain, unlike people. As long as my scent is imprinted on you, they will treat you well.”
You are the person that is the most difficult to understand, Valentin thought to himself at the woman’s explanation. She handed him some meat scraps and he fed it to the animals who quickly and fervently devoured the offering. He reached down and the animal let him scratch its large head.
As a result of his deep guilt, he wished for someone to take it out on him. His only option, regretfully, was the woman he shared a room with. However, much to Valentin’s relief and chagrin, Morna no longer seemed interested in escalating things with Valentin. She would now just bid Valentin a good night and fall asleep on the mattress. He grew terrified that their agreement was breaking, but the woman never stopped smiling at him.