Bitterroot Valley you hit me yesterday because i made you cry

Despite his words of thanks, Valiant couldn't help but feel that Reif was secretly blaming him for all their family's woes. Not because he suspected Reif was cruel or unfair, but because Valiant could only imagine that he was at fault. So he was taken aback when the boy tried to assign himself some of the blame.

"You couldn't have known," he said, gently but staunchly, "You — we were just kids. Everything was confusing. Sometimes," he took a deep breath and let it out, "sometimes you just do what you think is right, and there's no way to know until things turn out that it was the wrong choice."

There was a lesson in that, he thought, but he wasn't ready to process it. Reif seemed to be inviting him to depart, and for propriety's sake and for his own comfort, Valiant wanted to accept. "I'm staying near the willows," he said to Reif, already stepping away, "So come by if you ever want to talk, or need a hunting partner or — or anything. Okay?"