E07 - Ch 31: Bulldoze

After the sapper left, I went back to my work of clearing the crops. It was not long before I felt something nudging against my leg.

It was Cheese, the cat. I smiled at him and reached down to give him a scratch on the ears. He accepted it with a loud purr and then leaped onto my pants, yowling as I withdrew my hand.

“Whoa, Cheese, what’s got into you?”

He kept climbing onto me, and I had to put down my scythe to hold the cat. He meowed at me and headbutted me in the chest as I held him.

For some reason, he reminded me of a little white cat with black paws, but I couldn’t seem to remember where I’d seen one like that.

“I’ll see if I can find any cheese at a good price at the market tomorrow,” I told him.

Cheese meowed at me happily and gave me another headbutt.

Then his head turned suddenly, and I followed his gaze. I heard the sound of boys’ voices coming from over the hill. It was a group of them, and I saw it was Yorge at the front, the big boy with whom I nearly started a fight at the harvest festival. Suddenly, I felt a sense of dread in my chest that I didn’t immediately understand.

Oh right… this is the other boy who’s been bullying Aelric for a long time.

A bully, I thought, and couldn’t help but crack a grin as I put Cheese down, who darted into the wheat stalks.

I couldn’t even remember when the last time someone had tried to bulldoze me. It must have been when I was in the army and had a captain who had no business being in a position of command. Just as I was plotting to get him removed, a Nazi sniper shot him through his combat helmet. It was an unfortunate thing all around.

It used to be Brint who led the boys down the hill after the harvest festival. The other families’ fields would have already been harvested, leaving plenty of time for the boys to get up to some mischief. But I wondered if the tradition would continue now that Brint was gone.

Given the way Yorge smiled once he saw me, it looked like it would. He seemed to have come this way with a singular purpose in mind.

There were five of them, and I recognized each, and they followed Yorge’s lead. The boy was large, nearly as tall as I was, and though he had a chubby exterior, there was plenty of farm-grown muscle below the blubber.

He spoke first while the others watched him. The boys had lost their old leader, and their faces were uncertain and fearful. They probably worried about their futures and were shocked by the deaths that the village had suffered. Times like these, people clung to new leadership like shipwrecked sailors to liferafts.

"Just you today?” Yorge called to me as they came near. “Don't you need your mama out in the fields to help you?"

At first, I wasn't too sure what Yorge's goal here was. Brint had picked on me because he hated that Feyna had chosen me over him as her lover. From what I knew, he didn't pick on any of the other boys, not that he was always kind to them. He just never went out of his way to be cruel.

But Yorge and I never had a problem that I could think of. I always thought he picked on me just to follow Brint’s lead. Maybe he thought that was how one took the lead among farm boys. You had to be the meanest, and finding someone to belittle got everyone else in line by putting the fear in them that they'd be next. It was a stupid philosophy that I saw time and time again, even in adulthood.

I smiled warmly at him. “Now why’d you go and say a thing like that, Yorge?”

“Now why’d you go and say a thing like that, Yorge?” Yorge imitated in a singsong voice. “Already whining, isn’t he?” he said to the others behind him with a smile that demanded the obedient chuckles he got in return.

“Come on, Yorge. I don’t see the point in fighting amongst ourselves while the village is suffering. We’ve all been through a lot lately, and I think it’s best if we–”

“The village is suffering because of draggards like you!” Yorge said with a scowl. “Your family offered nothing to the harvest festival, then you ruined it by starting that stupid duel with Brint. Good thing he’s gone, because he’s the reason that murderer came here. But what I don’t get is why you’re still around.”

I felt heat rise in my chest, and the boy in me wanted to fight him, to argue that his family did make an offering to the festival and that Brint wasn’t to blame for some crazed Ascendant. But I pushed the feeling down because it would be stepping into the trap Yorge had laid just the way he wanted me to.

I had wanted to resolve things amicably, but the truth was there were only ever two ways to stop bullying. It wasn’t a unique situation that only happened in one’s youth. It happened plenty in adulthood, and it was mostly the same sort of thing, although usually delivered more subtly.

After the army, I never experienced it much myself, but later in life, I was horrified to discover that it happened even in my company. Not often. But it would happen.

Those were easy enough to resolve as the boss, but when you’re beneath the bully in power, there are only ever two ways to end it on your own.

The first way was to bond through a common enemy. That way, the bully sees you as an ally and realizes you aren’t the one they should be coming after. That hadn’t worked, which only left the second way.

"I don't have time for little boys today, Yorge. Leave me be."

"Who are you calling little?" Yorge screamed. The kid turned red in an instant, which wasn’t good. I’d expect things to escalate at least a little before he got too angry.

"Everyone says we're the same size, but we both know you're at least a head shorter than me."

"That's the biggest lie I've ever heard!" Yorge said, walking up to me now. "And I can disprove it right now. Boys, tell me if I'm a head shorter!"

I sighed and put my hands on my waist, waiting for him to come up for the comparison. Then my foot caught him with a loud thunkright between the legs as he was in mid-stride.

He bowed over, and I caught him by the shoulder before he could fall, resting his head against my chest.

"Holy mackerel, Yorge! I was wrong. You're two heads shorter."

His voice was tight with pain. "I'm going to beat—"

It was cut off by the knee I plunged into his stomach, his body guided into the blow with my hands on his shoulders. He fell back, crumpled and groaning.

"If you’ve got any other unsavory things to say about my family or my fellow villagers, now’s your last chance.”

He went directly for the incantation this time. I had no idea what it was, only that I saw the arcana welling into his glowing hands. My foot in his face put an end to it quickly enough.

“Anything else?” I said again.

There was only a whimper in reply this time as he held his stomach and covered his face, curling up in the fetal position.

The other boys were spluttering.

"What in Heleric's name are you doing, Aelric!?"

"He hadn't even done anything to you!"

"His face is bleeding!”

"You didn't have to hit him that hard!"

I looked down and saw that Yorge was half-convulsing, looking in worse shape than I'd thought. I still didn't know my own strength.

"You're right, I went too far. Come on, help me get him up."

As I lifted Yorge by an arm, I looked up and found the other boys just staring at me.

“Well, come on!” I snapped, and they quickly jumped to help me lift the big boy and carry him to my family’s house.

Two of the boys went in and brought out a bench from the dinner table for him to sit on. He looked terrible, blood dripping down from his brow, a bruise already swelling around his eye, and he leaned over and vomited as he clutched his belly.

“I’m really sorry, buddy,” I said honestly. “I didn’t mean to hit you that hard. One moment, let me fetch you something to drink.”

I went and poured some of the water Sapper Khom had collected from the rain catcher into a mug, then I scooped a ladle of the sap he’d gathered and mixed it in.

“Here, drink this,” I said, raising the mug to his lips. “It’ll make you feel better.”

He sipped some of the water and coughed. One of the boys patted him on the back. Then he sipped some more.

"I just don't get why you started coming at me like you did, Yorge. I'd done nothing to you, and we should all be sticking together right now. What's going on with you?"

Yorge looked dazed and confused. He opened his mouth to reply, and then, to the shock of all the boys, myself included, Yorge began to cry. He tried desperately to wipe his tears and cover his face, but the tears kept on coming. I guess the pain had knocked something loose inside the kid.

"Hey buddy, it's alright," I said, giving him a comforting grip on his shoulder. "We've all gone through a lot lately, and we've all known each other for all our lives. Come on, you can tell us. What's wrong?"

Yorge's sobs gradually subsided, but the tears kept flowing. I handed him the mug of sap water, and he took another sip before speaking.

"It's my parents," he choked out, his voice raw. "They're always fighting now. My dad... he said I was a worthless fat bastard."

The boys around him exchanged uneasy glances. I remembered hearing about Yorge's father—known for his mean streak and quick temper. It wasn't surprising that Yorge had turned out this way, trying to emulate his father's harshness.

"Kallow's new taxes," Yorge continued, struggling with each word. "Father keeps saying we're going to lose part of the farm. That it's my fault 'cause I eat too much."

"Yorge," I said gently, "it's not your fault. None of this is your fault. We're all feeling the pressure from Kallow."

One of the boys, Tarek, shifted uncomfortably on his feet. "Yeah, my folks have been arguing a lot too," he admitted quietly.

"Mine too," Lari said. "They think the demon is an omen. This season's harvest was already rough..."

"But we won't go down without a fight, will we?"

The boys blinked, their faces surprised at my words.

"We're the Earthborn of Village Aldin. If we put our heads and our backs to it, I'm sure we can get out of this mess. We just got to work together. We can't be fighting ourselves while Kallow's out to drain us with his taxes."

“But how?” Lari asked. “What can we do?”

“That’s the second step,” I said. “First, we’ve got to decide we’re actually going to come up with a solution instead of acting like headless chickens. I’m sure Chief Clarity is cooking up a plan, but if the grown-ups aren’t going to figure it out, then it’s up to us. Because we aren’t boys anymore. We’re the future of the village.”

They were nodding now, even Yorge. It was partly because of my words, but partly because they were good kids at heart who felt lost after a tragedy. Their parents were just as scared as they were, lashing out at each other. It was only human nature. But so was coming together.

“Alright, well, I’ve got to finish my chores before my mother comes home, but we should all meet later in the week and think about how we’re going to get out of this mess. Yorge, you sit there and take it easy. If anybody’s free, I’d welcome a hand.”

They all offered.