A.N.: The first of my OC will appear in this chapter. More suspense than anything else in this chapter. I hope I get accomplished what I am trying to get accomplished in this chapter. Enjoy!

"Will….! Will….! Where are you Will?" Called the love of his life, pushing through the low lying foliage that always inhabited the forests of Araluen. Will was lying low in his cloak and was just watching her. Her blonde hair that always seemed to fall perfectly to her shoulders. The way she swept the stray piece out of the way of her face and placed it so gently behind her ear. Will had never been more in love with someone in his entire life.

"I'm over here darling!" He called pulling his hood back off his head to let his brown hair and giant grin show.

"Why do you keep disappearing on me Will?! You know I don't like being startled the way you always do!" Alyss said with a smile as she playfully slapped his arm.

"I'm sorry, I can't resist doing it." He said kissing her cheek.

"Well where are you taking me?" She said as she blushed by his sign of affection. They always had to be so proper and so sly about their relationship even though they knew that all of their friends knew about them. In their line of work, one could never be too careful.

"I told you that you'll find out when we get there." Will said taking Alyss's hand and ushering her further into the woods.

Then he felt it, a pull on his ear and a push on his shoulder…

"I swear by Gorlog's beard, if that's you Horace, I'm going to kill you." Will said obviously annoyed that Horace had ruined his perfect dream to wake him up for his watch. Then, he heard something that he hadn't expected… a yip… At first Will was wondering if he had fallen back into his dream. Then, he felt a harder tug on his ear and a louder yip. It was a dog! Will opened his eyes and moved his head as he was looking into a pair of glowing and playful orange eyes.

The pup rubbed its head against Will's and yelped again before it licked Will's nose.

"What are you doing here? Where's your mother?" Will said before he realized what had happened the day before and where he had seen those orange eyes. This must be the puppy of the reddish-orange she-wolf that had nearly taken Will's life the previous day. However, this pup's eyes were not yet tainted by the harsh life of the wild. These eyes looked like Ebony's.

The pup yipped again, and Will decided to pick it up, he found out that it was a boy puppy and his paws were actually a grey color, Will was wondering if the grey alpha wolf was the orphan pup's father. The rest of his body was mostly white with tuffs of red-orange fur showing on his chest, back, tail, and face. The reddish-orange also tipped his ears and snout, but the most significant feature of the, what will guessed to be four months old puppy, was his eyes. They glowed so prominently orange. The dim light from the camp fire illuminated them to look like glowing embers in the puppies head. That's when the name came to Will. Ember.

"What the hell is making all that noise?" Halt said ghosting into camp finally off of his watch.

"Look who I found, does he look familiar to you?" Will said as he scratched the pup's ears and playfully tapped him on the snout, getting him to playfully nip at his hands.

"That looks like the one wolf that was trying to rip your head off yesterday. Except for the grey paws." Halt said with an eyebrow raised.

"Exactly! He doesn't have a home now, I feel like it's my responsibility to take care of him. He'll die on his own out there!" Will replied with a gasp as he brought Ember into a hug.

"Let me guess, you've already named him haven't you?"

"I named him Ember for his eyes."

"Well, at least it suits him. It's not my responsibility, anyways, it's your watch." Halt said as he laid down on his bed roll.

"We need to get you to warm up to animals Halt."

"I like animals just as much as the next person, I just am not a fan of wolves." Halt said with extra emphasis on the word 'wolves'.

"He's going to come in handy Halt, mark my words. I'm going to train him just like Tug and Ebony." Will said in a matter of fact tone.

"Whatever you say, go and keep watch." Halt said with a firm finality to the conversation.

"Alyss would agree with me." Will breathed under his breath as he picked up his bow and quiver. At the last minute, he grabbed the horn. Selethen had made it for them, it depicted one of his countries ancient god's on it. He was a massively built man wielding a giant hammer, and striking a massive gladius sword on an anvil. There were huge pillars of fire that were blazing all around him. Will wished he could have asked Selethen more about this Mulciber.

Selethen had come up with the idea to give them two horns incase anything happened, they would be able to signal the others with it, and give a return signal with the second horn.

Will found a different tree this time. He took Ember with him. The pup was just small enough to fit on his shoulders as he climbed up. After he was in the tree, Ember found a branch with in eye-sight of his newly found master and fell into a deep sleep. Will was so happy that he had an animal companion, he missed Tug and Ebony. Now, at least Ember would keep him company. He already knew that this dog would be loyal without end, and would protect anyone who showed him love.

Will finally had gotten comfortable in the tree when he heard something that didn't belong in the normal noises of the wilderness. It was a scratching noise. It sounded like someone was marking a tree. Will had an eerie feeling that someone was watching him. But his cloak would conceal him from any untrained eye right? He was starting to feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. The noise had stopped, he was searching the spot where it came from with his eyes when he saw it…

A black shadow dart from one tree to another.

Will brought his bow to him and nocked an arrow on it. Ember woke up and emitted a low rumble from his belly. Will looked at him and said 'no' barely audible. The dogs ears pricked up and he looked at Will with his head cocked to the side. The dog stopped emitting the sound and turned to look out into the night instead.

Will saw it again. The shadow moved from left to right, from a tree to a patch of brush. If it hadn't happened again, Will might have thought that the first time was just his mind playing tricks on him. He wished that he had Ember trained like Ebony, he could have used him in determining where and what was out there. Instead, Will decided to go down the tree himself. Will ghosted down the tree, he was used to climbing up and down trees, he did it without making a sound and as his feet hit the ground, he saw the shadow move again. Again, it was left to right, but this time it seemed to move toward him. How could this shadow see him? Will could feel his goose bumps growing. If it could see him in his cloak, he had lost one very important advantage. Will knew that he couldn't bring his bow to full draw, but he desperately wanted to. Instead, he replaced his arrow and drew his saxe knife. It would help him more than his bow if he came in close with this shadow.

There it was again, this time it was closer… Will resisted every urge in his body to take off and sprint at the shadow. Then he saw it, the shadow raised up from a crouch, it wasn't a shadow at all. It was a man. Wearing all black, and a helmet that had a dark mask. The mask was a dull silver and in the shape of a face. A hideous face with black eyes and an open mouth that had fangs protruding from it. The mask was completely void of any emotion and completely hid its wearers face.

"Who are you?" Will asked as he placed an arrow on his bow string and drew it to half draw.

"Watashi wa akumu." The shadow said, in a harsh but soft voice that made Will know that this man was not fooling around. The fact that he spoke and the mask did not move gave will that eerie feeling again.

"Why are you here?" Will questioned in a firm tone that left nothing up to interpretation, as he drew his bow all the way, touching the corner of his mouth with his fore finger.

"Korosu tame." The shadow replied as he reached with blinding speed into one of the folds in his armor for a razor sharp throwing star. Will saw the movement and immediately let loose a shot. The fact that he had to move out of the way of the star that was closing in on him with blinding speed made his shot miss the target that he was aiming for. Instead, it glanced off of the shadow's arm and came to a stop in the stump of a tree.

Will reached for the horn and blew three short sharp notes. Their made up signal for help. Instantly there were men yelling all around the camp. The shadow looked at Will and what he said made his blood run cold.

"You may have thwarted our plans tonight, but just remember, every time you get that uneasy feeling in your stomach, one of us is giving it to you. Our plan will be achieved, and there is nothing that any of you gaijin can do about it." The voice was emitted from the mask, but the masks expression never changed. The purpose behind the words were clear. Someone, or some group wanted blood, and they weren't going to stop until they got it.

As quickly as the words were over, the shadow was off and running, Will went to nock another arrow when he realized that the razor sharp star that the shadow had thrown earlier was never meant to harm him. The shadow wanted to get caught, he wanted someone to confront him. He wanted his message heard. Will's bow string was severed in two by the star, and by the time Will looked up, the shadow was gone. An icy hand gripped Will's heart, how long had these shadows been watching and following them? How much did they know? Who were they? The questions rushed into Will's mind like waterfall. None of them left answered. Except one…

"I guess I found out what Shigeru was worried about now…"

I hoped everyone liked this chapter! Now you all know a little bit of what our friends have in store for them!