Dariel snapped his fingers, he wanted Oswald to look at him in order to give him a last warning. One safe way to get out of his house without a bump on his head or worse.
In no world was his daughter close to someone besides her parents. Oswald was an intruder, he had nothing to do here, and his worry for Ruth was abnormal. Yet because his wife was gone in the forest, he couldn't dialogue with the boy other than with his daughter as an interpret.
"Ruth? It's your friend Ozzy! Remember me? The hunter of course. Want to drink a cup of tea together? Want to listen to a story?" He said, knocking at random doors.
Walking fast in the corridor, he noticed the huge locks that kept the door of her room shut. He did as if the cellar, simple door next to the locked one, was her room, and before he had the chance to open it...
"...Ozzy..." Both men heard from behind the locked door. Oswald acted surprised.
"Are you serious? Daniela said 'protect children', sure, that's how you fucking deal with danger? Open it." His worried face changed to an angered one, he returned the furious glare to Dariel.
The man was taken aback. No one but his wife could tell him what to do. Traces of worry appeared on the man's face. He was mute, not dumb. He knew his daughter was suffering in the dark, just under his roof. So instead of hammering Oswald's head, he approached the door and hit the lock. He obviously lacked the key to open it.
'What an irresponsible father.' Oswald almost said. His heart rate was fast, after confronting Dariel's herculean stature and escaping his reprimands, all he wanted to insure was Ruth's state.
"Move aside!" He roared out of impatience. The many nails and the complex structure around them made it hard to break, so, under Dariel's deep frown, Oswald grabbed the lock and pulled as hard as he could.
Creak. Crack! The sudden break of the door relieved the father from a heavy burden despite the hideous grimace on his face.
It was Oswald's turn to be pushed aside. Dariel rushed in his daughter's room to hug her and caress her hair delicately. In comparison, their size competed with the Meryl-Dolly duo.
Dariel hugged Ruth, this was the purest form of apology Oswald saw in his miserable life, one worth a thousand sorry.
"Daddy... mom will be... M-mad at you." The little girl said amidst tears. Her face had swollen eyelids, she was red like a beetroot and snort stuck her head to her father's apron. Her skin went from her usual porcelain white to blue, green and black spots. Her hair was messy because of the many body fluids it bathed in.
Dariel's gigantic hands barely touched the child, under her shirt, multiple traces, burns. Because he knew about it, the giant couldn't squeeze her any harder, it was the part he was currently lamenting on.
Oswald felt his pointy teeth attacking his lips. His enhanced sight allowed him to see how badly she had been molested. His anger grew by leaps and bounds.
Ruth, her eyes above Dariel's shoulders, reacted to the two yellow beams staring down at her, the silhouette in the dark breathed loudly.
If it was only his teeth, or a few centimeters of height, Oswald was reluctant to leave the place, but the words coming from the exhausted girl made him flee.
"I can see you." She whispered.
He understood he had to leave them both. The problem was elsewhere. It was all Daniela's fault, she controlled her family thanks to the religion and her interpretation of it.
Oswald, running through the forest was remorseful, his heart was wretched by Ruth's broken body. 'It's because of me. All of it.' He thought.
The moon wasn't full, yet he could feel how much it affected him. He couldn't compare with how he felt during the middle of the moon calendar, because he wasn't attentive to his feelings before discovering what made his body transform.
Still not calming down, he gathered all of his strength to pulverize a hapless pine.
Boom!
Oswald's skin disintegrated to his bones. None broke but the muscles and nerves that racked against the bark woke up the pain.
With the left hand, he grabbed the wounded one and held back a loud scream that could've called the wolf pack.
The tree was fine, still standing, though it now had a hole large enough to fit a bird nest in the middle of its trunk.
His white bones were quickly covered by brand new tissues while the boy muttered. "You monster... It's not the right moment to test out the clothes mother made... Stop changing, please..."
He sat under the tree, immobile, until he calmed down. It took him a few minutes to get rid of the killing intent he had toward Daniela. How could he deprive the child of her mother? Never in a hundred years will he do that. It sounded too cruel to him despite the fact he had beheaded tens of fathers the previous day.
'I'll find another way to solve this. I'll let them be for today, I can't come back with a plausible explanation nor for my first venue nor for my sudden escape.'
When he was sure his body was back to normal, he came back to his house. There, he saw the new traps all around his land. And Adelmo's smell that entered the barn.
Because they were too many animals to fit in the barn, their smell was overwhelming and it was impossible for the boy to discern where Adelmo went. Yet, when he entered the house, he saw one of the youngest lambs on the living room's table.
Meryl was still out, leading the herd.
She had found the young animal cold dead in the morning and brought it in the house for them to eat. Nothing tasted better than her bone broth.
Two hours later, in the middle of the afternoon, someone knocked at the door. Oswald who fell asleep on the couch came to open the door. When he opened it, a soldier, unarmed, waited in front of him.
Oswald held his breath in front of the man with a feathered helmet. He knew the uniform.
"Why is it so dark in here? Are the windows obstructed or something?" The man said, tilting his head left and right before looking at the owner. "Move aside! I don't have all day!" The man grumbled, he pushed Oswald inside with the helmet he just removed.
"Welcome back, father." Said Oswald.