Adventure of Deangello 1

The eastern brush parts. A pale, exhausted adult woman staggers into the shepherd’s hollow, her dark hair plastered to her face, one sleeve bloodied, a black iron key clenched in her fist.

She raises the iron key toward the ruined tower, then nearly loses her balance. Tatiana’s attention fixes on the blood-dark sleeve while Marek watches the eastern brush.

Ysra recoils from Seressa, retreating until her back meets the mossy stones. Her recovered strength holds, but her hands rise defensively between them.

Deangello crosses the hollow before Seressa can retreat farther. He catches her bloodied arm and draws her close, the iron key dropping into the moss as she struggles against his hold.

Her resistance drives a hard twist through Deangello’s bruised shoulder, sharpening the old injury. He absorbs the strain, pins her without crushing her, and feeds from the offered wound.

Warm blood steadies the hunger behind his eyes. Seressa’s strength ebbs, but he keeps the feeding measured, taking enough to satisfy the edge without letting her collapse.

Deangello releases Seressa as the hunger recedes. She sags against the stones, breathing hard, while he remains upright despite the deepened pain in his shoulder.

Deangello settles his stance in the hollow and draws Bone-Knit through the bruised shoulder. The damaged muscle tightens beneath his coat as supernatural warmth gathers around the injury.

The ache sharpens once, then recedes. Bruised tissue knits cleanly beneath the skin, restoring strength through his arm without disturbing the steady rhythm of his breath.

Seressa remains seated against the mossy stones, pale and breathing hard, but her bloodied sleeve no longer threatens her balance. The iron key lies within reach in the moss.

Deangello steps between Ysra and Seressa, placing his broad frame across the hollow. Ysra remains behind him, while Seressa stays seated against the moss, too weakened to challenge his position.

Seressa lowers her gaze to the iron key in the moss. Her breathing steadies under Deangello’s scrutiny, and the urgency in her voice gives way to an exhausted admission.

Deangello stills the hollow and searches beyond sight, reading warmth, disturbed brush, and the faint pressure of disciplined movement around the ridge. Four hunters approach from the east, spread across the slope, with two circling south to cut off retreat.

The hunters remain beyond the hollow’s stones, roughly a hundred paces away. Their pace is measured rather than hurried, and none has yet seen the group clearly.

The four hunters continue their careful approach through the eastern brush, unaware that Deangello has found them. The southern pair angles toward the shepherd’s track as the others hold the ridge.

Deangello slips from the hollow’s shadow and reaches the southern pair before they can cross the shepherd’s track. Two silent strikes end their pursuit, and he is already moving uphill.

The ridge hunters turn at the wrong sound. Deangello crosses the intervening brush with lethal quiet, dropping both before either can loose a warning.

One falling hunter’s blade catches a stone with a sharp ring. The sound carries across the slope, leaving Deangello’s passage exposed even as all four bodies lie still among the brush.

Tatiana keeps herself between Ysra and the eastern slope. Seressa watches the motionless hunters from the mossy stones, while Ysra remains behind Deangello, alive and untouched.