Komi wrinkled his nose as he looked at the old man eating the entire portion set on the table for three people violently. It was strange to watch someone who was eating his dinner, and his mother squeezed his cheeks so that it looked like he was smiling politely even though he was thinking of all the things he would do in order to each such a delicious meal. He stomped his foot to assert his anger and his mother immediately picked him up her eyebrows knitting in a look of concern.
Father Arne was too blissfully eating with his face deep in the food to notice. There were crumbs gathering on his beard as he was shoveling the food with both hands into his never closing mouth. His eyes were open too wide, almost as if, he was thinking of eating other things included in what should be forbidden.
Lot made some excuse that she needed to tidy up and held her son's head as she moved into the small space in the house where her bed was kept. She was confident that her mother-in-law could deal with Father Arne. A lot of people had been displaced by the ogres when they had come down from the caverns they used to call home. It was sad that the old man hadn't had anything to eat in so long. She could feel tears start to come at the corners of her eyes as she sank onto the bed. Komi was at her skirts, and she pulled him onto her lap and then handed him one of the buns that she had brought with her from the pub.
He chortled.
They heard the sound of coughing from the dining area, and Lot looked at the light fading from underneath the door. It wasn't something that she enjoyed much, having visitors and tending to everyone. She had eaten at the pub, and as she could hear her son finishing the meat bun, she brought him over for washing. It had been much easier when she had a husband around – these kinds of things. It was never going to work if she kept so many in one house. The small garden outside was meant for two people, not the five who were inhabiting this house right now.
She collapsed backwards onto her bed, and as she did, her son came into the crook of her arm, and she sighed as he wanted to be held. "What did you do all day with Grandma?"
"We were pulling weeds out of the garden," Komi said brightly.
"Oh, how nice!"
"She was saying how I'm going to be a powerful lord like my father someday. I can use the small dagger that he left behind for now to practice. Then, when the legionnaires come back for us, then I can go join up as a squire, and then you'll have one less mouth to feed."
"Did she say that? How quaint. Your father was no lord. He's not powerful either. He's just a farmer. See all that land we got behind us? He used to till it with just the cow."
"But if he is a soldier, then I have something to tell others. Grandma said. I should big up the stories so they sound nice."
"But nobility is far beyond us, Komi. Nobility means other people tell you what to do. I know it's not a great life out here, but at least we don't have orders to follow. There is nothing we have to do other than survive. It's not a fancy life, but I think it's good enough. It was good enough for your father, and that's why I decided he would be a good one."
"Then what does Grandma say such big things?"
Lot smiled. "Well, she wanted a bigger life, I imagine. She pinned all her hopes and dreams of grandeur on her son. And well, I don't think she was very happy when he decided to be a farmer or even to marry me. I wasn't pretty much even then. I'm just built thick like a ham. She was giddy when he was picked by the legionnaires. It was a big pride of hers to have a son who was going off to fight in our duke's war."
"We had a duke?"