Since Tom had came to visit Oswald, Meryl would prepare take away meals. She never shown up in front of the hunters since she gave birth. The deflated belly she'd supposedly had wouldn't suffice to justify a valid child being born.
She wanted to make everyone believe she had one.
"She moans when she wants to eat." She often said. "It's unbelievable how quiet she is. Never a scream to know if she's okay. I must go and check her very often."
Those were one of the many excuses she had to go upstairs and clean.
Tom's new hobby revolved around Oswald's skills. He had difficulties to understand how to read paw prints, because the one teaching him had difficulties to explain. Oswald wasn't able to read them at all, he needed but a breathe to understand where they leaded, and a little focus to discern the intensity of the glow and know how recent they were.
One day, when the moon was three quarter full, Tom exclaimed. "Oh! I think I got it!"
Holding the half-broken edge, he threw it smoothly, and he reached the target once, twice, five times in a row. Though he was about five meters away from it, the exploit made him trample with joy.
"Nice! Good job Tom!" Oswald's patience was being strained constantly by the little tasks he did, be it with Tom or lady Emilia.
"Considering your heavy clothes impeding on your moves, you really are doing great." 'Though with this much strength I doubt you'll reach farther than me.'
Their friendship grew with each visit Tom paid to Oswald. Once in a while, Tom would bring a little more in his bag to share delicacies from his house. Indeed, he traded tips and pointers for treats, but it was much appreciated.
Every day, Tom would look into Oswald's eyes, to check if he could reproduce the strange phenomena he caught during their first hunt together, but he never saw it again.
"Don't move." Oswald whispered. He heard something in the woods, behind trees, around thirty meters away. All his senses were alert, wind blew in his back, crippling his sense of smell.
The cold wind blocked his ears, but his eyes were still a hundred percent operational, he was sure of the presence nearby.
There was a little shape hiding behind a tree, but the trunk was too large to let him know what it was. So he took out two of his knives, and with all of his strength, planted the first one in the tree, to make the animal run away or move from its initial position.
Thump!
"Woah woah! Calm down Ozzy!" A voice he recognised said. Adelmo came out of the forest, his arc on his back, always with a weapon at hand. His beard was messy and he had bags under his eyes.
The man's heart was tired of his many nights deprived of sleep, but the knife that almost pierced his shoulder woke him up from his dizzy state.
"Man! I can't believe you could reach this distance..."
"Want to see if I can reach you a second time? Fuck off!" Replied Oswald, furious to have an intruder in his garden. 'Dang it! I got distracted, I can't believe he managed to come this close without getting noticed.'
The boy remembered perfectly how an arrow almost passed through his head, and to how far extended Adelmo's range.
"I said calm down! I just wanted to warn you, Dariel worked well which allowed me to finish installing all of the steel wolf traps today. There are about twenty around the village, and five on your lands. That's it. See you."
He managed to anger Oswald within the initiation of their conversation.
The boy knew the name of Ruth's father. He had issues with Adelmo's doing and manners. "You are endangering my herd you dimwit!"
"Yes I am, for the village's sake. If I was you, I wouldn't venture into the woods anymore, you'd risk more than a leg." He added with a smirk. Adelmo's main objective was to restrain Oswald's encounters with Tina, by incapacitating him from hunting.
Two bulging veins appeared on Oswald's forehead. 'Not only did he probably spy on me, place traps in my area to prevent me from hunting by myself, but he came to say it with his stupid smile! I hate him.'
The sun was red, touching the horizon, day's light started to fade and the moon's glow manifested.
"He's clearly toying with you Ozzy." Said Tom. "Last time we saw each other he told me how much he liked you already." He added with a wry smile.
"Say Tom, do you feel safe next to me?" Asked Oswald out of the blue. His two golden eyes stared at the same place ever since Adelmo went back into the forest.
"Kind of. You've got to have an overwhelming strength to throw that far with this much accuracy. I can't believe this really happened. Dude, you never shown how good you were at this! If we were to encounter the pack of wolves though, I-"
"Hey. You have to go home, now." Oswald's voice was weak. His heart beating harder with each breathe he took, a warm sensation invaded his throat and cheeks. The usual pale visage he had was red, and his clenched jaw marked the delimitation of it under his beard.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm alright. Go now." He said, turning toward the teenager. His two yellow eyes struck Tom's train of thoughts, he saw it again. It was no hallucination in the first place. He was startled by the beauty of the phenomena, but packed his bag and left few seconds after. He knew he wasn't safe.
His fists were clenched so hard his fingers turned white while his nails pierced his skin. 'I am battling demons you can't possibly imagine.' He wanted to say, he wanted to run after Adelmo and cut the man's throat. He wanted to put an end to their quarrel by killing the man. But he knew that with a witness nearby, his family would never be at peace.
He ignored the abnormality of his thoughts because of his boiling blood, experiencing anger toward someone to this degree was a first.
He had to wait.
That's when he started to plan his revenge.