Disclaimers: I do not own Saint Seiya (Classic, Episode G and Saint Seiya: The Brave Soldiers) and Greek mythological animals! The characters belong to their respective owners!

Two Ice Saints, Threatening Creatures and Halloween

October 30, 19XX

"Are Greek mythological animals real?"

"Is Halloween going to be held in Sanctuary?"

The thoughts span around in Hyoga's mind while he was trying to sleep. As a young saint, he did not believe that Greek mythological animals were real. It was true that he was a saint of Athena who fought for the Goddess of Wisdom and defended Sanctuary from the invasion of the other Olympian Gods and Goddesses and their armies. However, he had never met any of the Greek mythological animals. In addition, Hyoga also wondered whether or not Athena Saori was going to hold Halloween event in Sanctuary. This afternoon, when he was on his way to Sanctuary and before he entered a café in which a secret passage leading to Sanctuary located, he saw a group of children and their parents were preparing for Halloween. Part of him envied the children to have been capable of celebrating Halloween. He remembered when he was very young, he and Natassia, his mother, often celebrated Halloween. They were used to dress up in some horror movie character costumes. His mother often dressed him up in a vampire costume whereas Natassia often dressed up in a vampire mistress costume. Hyoga sighed softly at one of his sweet memories as he sought the most comfortable position to sleep. He did his best not to make so much noise because he did not want to disturb his master whose room was next to his. Now, he was staying in the House of Aquarius. He was lucky because he slept in another room. His master thought that Hyoga had grown up and had his own privacy. So, he placed him in another room.

After a few minutes, he finally felt sleepy. However, when he began to close his eyes, suddenly a faint voice called his name. At first, he thought that perhaps the voice was only his imagination because the voice calling his name was like a murmur. Though, he finally opened his eyes widely and hung his mouth when he saw a woman sitting at the end of his bed. The woman's appearance was similar to that of the maid whose duty was serving and cleaning the temple. He saw that she was smiling. Hyoga blinked several times but he saw that the woman was still there and she was still smiling. The mysterious woman tried to move closer but Hyoga moved backward slowly, alert. Hyoga had no idea who the woman was and how she entered his room. A shiver ran down his spine when he felt the woman's hand touched his feet. The woman's hand was cold and he was paralyzed because of the touch.

"What is it? Why can I move my body and-what in the heaven is she doing?" said Hyoga mentally as he watched the woman trying to put off her garment.

"Is she trying to seduce me? No…I don't want to see her!" stated Hyoga under his breath as he was trying to close his eyes.

For unknown reason and strong enchantment, Hyoga failed to close his eyes. Now, he could see upper part of the woman's body.

"Master….Help me…."

Before the woman tried to commit her advances any further, the temperature of the room dropped drastically. Cold wind and huge snowflakes burst into the room.

"Move no more and give up!" commanded a cold voice. Both Hyoga and the woman glanced at the owner of the cold voice: Aquarius Camus. The saint was walking slowly but menacingly. His gold Aquarius Cloth gleamed in the dark.

"Intruders are not allowed to enter Sanctuary. Who are you?"

The woman did not answer. She hissed instead and immediately moved away from Hyoga's bed. She screeched mockingly at the saints and transformed into a scary creature. Afterwards, she broke the ceiling and flew.

"Are you all right?" asked Camus after making sure that the creature had left them.

"I –I-Well, I do not know what to say, master. The creature was horrible. I have never met such creature before."

"I see…"

"Ah….Master, do you know what that was?"

"That was Empusa, Hyoga."

"Em-pu-sa—Does the creature live here?" asked Hyoga in disbelief. Well, he had never seen and met any mythological creatures after all.

"Empusa usually stalks and devours people who travel on the forest path at the dusk or at the dawn. They have never entered Sanctuary before."

"Really? But how did the empusa enter here?"

Camus did not reply. Well, he did not know the answer either. Long time ago, he ever dealt with one of the Titans who managed to invade Sanctuary. Before that event, he also had ever heard about a gigas appeared near a mountain surrounded by villages every night. The gigas finally could be beaten down, though.

"Master, do we need to report this to Athena?"

"I will. I will have an owl to hand the report to Athena. Now, sleep Hyoga! I'll be watching for you for a while."

"Thank you, master!" said Hyoga, pulling his blanket over his head.

October 31, 19XX

In the next morning, Camus and Hyoga came to Athena's Palace. Hyoga told her his experience meeting Empusa.

"I see. So, an empusa attacked you last night. Hmm, I think our problem is getting bigger."

"Pardon me for asking, my lady. But, what is it troubling you?" asked Camus politely.

Saori Kido took a deep breath before explaining the trouble which would make her ice saints were going to be sent to a dangerous mission.

"Listen, two days ago I received a report saying that many children were kidnapped. The kidnapper was unknown. Some people thought that perhaps the kidnapper was a criminal whereas the others argued that the children vanished because of some unknown beasts because according to their evidence they occasionally found trails of blood along with torn clothes spreading everywhere. In addition, they also found either some skeletons or newly dug grounds in some old and deserted buildings."

Athena saw her two saints and noticed that they did not know how to react. So, she continued her story.

"Actually, I do not want you to investigate it but I think we need to be aware of this event because who knows that perhaps the mastermind is either one of the god and the goddesses of Olympia or the Titans. Further, I had heard that the kidnapper had revealed itself in front of some citizen and made havoc in their residents."

After Saori ended her story, they nodded in understanding and departed without asking questions. After walking for about three hours, they finally reached in a village in which they sensed dangerous and deadly aura emitting from it. Further, they ventured around it and visited the darkest, the most suspicious, and the most dangerous spots pointed by some villagers there. During their investigation, Camus and Hyoga did find some torn clothes with dark crimson spots on them which finally led them to a great deserted building.

Without second thought, both decided to enter the building. The inside was dark and humid. The ice saints were seeking fire woods to make torches. Afterwards, they continued their venture until they found a huge hall. They looked around. Through the dim light, they could see a few cracked walls, some thick roots and wild bushes. Some rats sometimes could be seen running fast before them. After seeing the surrounding, both finally decided to inspect every corner of the hall.

"Master, I have found a great hole here!" exclaimed Hyoga finally after inspecting the right side of the hall.

Camus immediately came to Hyoga who was kneeling near a huge hole.

"I wonder where this huge hole is going to lead us. Do you think that the beast is hiding underground?" asked Hyoga.

"We shall check it, Hyoga," said Camus as he threw a medium size stone into the hole. After hearing a clank Camus asked his pupil to gather thick roots. After fifteen minutes they finally could go down the hole by using the rope made of the thick roots.

When they landed, they noticed that they were standing in front of a huge tunnel. Curiosity and suspicion drove the ice saints to enter the tunnel. The stench of corpses and stinking blood touched their nostrils making them dizzy and nauseous but they restrained the feeling though. Actually, they could not stand walking in the tunnel because during their walk, there were not only trails of blood they met but also ill-shaped children corpses. They kept walking until they heard a growl in front of them. The ice saints stopped and tried to hide somewhere to anticipate the beast's reaction to them. After waiting for a few minutes, they did not see any signs of the beast. Thus, they decided to walk further. They heard a faint cry as walking deeper. They were surprised when they finally reached the end of the tunnel and found a huge fox was threatening some children.

"T-That's a-fox…"

"That's neither an ordinary fox nor a mutated fox, Hyoga. That's Teumessian fox, a fox that could never be caught in Greek mythology."

'M-Master! Look! The fox is going to kill the children. I am sorry, master but I cannot stand here any longer and watched them to die," said Hyoga as running to the fox direction and launched his technique.

At first, he had difficulty in attacking the beast because it moved very fast. After trying to seek its weakness, the Cygnus saint finally succeeded in freezing one of its back legs. However, it could free itself and lashed Hyoga with its tail causing the young saint to fling away. Seeing his disciple was thrown, the elder saint launched his attack and was successful in freezing one of its back legs for the second time and made it get panic and fled leaving the ice saints and the children behind.

"Are you all right, Hyoga?"

"I am fine but those kids were frightened," said Hyoga as trying to stand up. He was relief because he was a saint and wore his Cygnus Cloth.

"I know. Let us go then. I will lead and clear the way in order to minimize their trauma," stated Camus quietly as running to the direction in which the fox disappeared.

When everyone was outside the old building, they were surprised by an event they were seeing. Many people were screaming and ran to nowhere. Not too far from them, there were two shadows fighting in the darkness.

"M-Master…What is going on? What are those?" asked Hyoga as he tried to keep the children standing behind him and tried his best to make the children see to another direction.

"There are the Teumessian fox and a Laelaps," answered Camus calmly as he tried to seek a way to avoid the battle between two beasts which he and his disciple could not interfere.

"A Laelaps?"

"A Laelaps is a magical a dog which always caught its prey. I have noticed its presence since we came here. However, I decided to ignore it since it did not try to hurt any of us. Come with me, Hyoga!" said Camus as gesturing Hyoga to follow him.

After placing the children in the safest place, Camus and Hyoga tried to provoke the beasts and tried their best to lead them to go out of the village. The Teumessian fox and a Laelaps were difficult to be handled because of their paradoxical nature. When the ice saints began to get tired, a gold light appeared in the sky. Its light, then, turned the beasts into stones and lift them to the sky. Afterwards, the golden light seemed to seal the stones into two stars. Before it faded away, it shone brightly for a few minutes and became a symbol of their goddess' authority: Athena's wand.

Camus walked to where the golden light was before fading away and took the wand. Afterwards, Camus could hear a cheer from the distance confirming that the citizen was no longer afraid.

"Let's go home, Hyoga," he said finally.

"The citizen has regained their happiness even if I think some of them are probably in sorrow."

"What are you talking about?" asked Camus without seeing his pupil.

"Nothing, master! I just think that it is ironic that the commoners had experienced the scariest moment a few day before and in a day which they are supposed to celebrate Halloween."

To this, Camus did not give any comments and let his pupil go into his own thought.

Camus and Hyoga arrived at The Palace of Athena at the dusk. Once they arrived there, they immediately met their the Goddess of War and Tactics in her throne room. Camus gave the wand back to his goddess before kneeling and reporting their mission.

"Thank you, Camus, Hyoga. I am glad that both of you can return here in a piece."

"Athena, eventually I thought that there was only a beast but in fact I was wrong there were two: A Teumessian fox and a Laelaps."

"I know. That's the reason why finally I sent my wand to you. In the era of mythology, my father, Zeus, had sealed them in two stars. However, a few weeks ago, Hecate had released the Teumessian fox in order to haunt down a certain group of human who had managed to commit crimes or even harassed her demigoddess daughter, Empusa. Actually, the fox had completed its task but Hecate was not satisfied. Thus, she let the fox have fun by hunting not only human but also animal. This angered my sister, Artemis, who finally released her Laelaps."

"A-Athena…"

"Do not worry, Camus. My sister, Artemis will not attack us because of this mission. She will understand and forgive us if I tell her everything."

"What about the Empusa? Is she still stalking young men around Sanctuary?" asked Hyoga.

"No, Hecate has kept her daughter in her chamber so that she can watch over her daughter. By the way, Hyoga, if you want to have a Halloween party, you may join the citizen who is celebrating the occasion here. Do not worry! I have erased some of their traumatic experience and of who you are," said Saori smiling.

Hyoga mouth's opened in disbelief but he immediately closed it and thanked Saori to have allowed him to attend the occasion. The Cygnus saint now believed that Greek mythological animals were exist and Halloween might be celebrated in Sanctuary.

THE END