Chapter two

Calm before the Storm

Ciel was more than concerned, to say the least, about the encounter with Claude Faustus. To say the most would be saying that Ciel was just plain scared. He had no idea who this Claude character even was—the only thing he knew was that he was dangerous and that he was out to kill Sebastian, and possibly Ciel himself as well. He didn't know if Claude had someone behind him, or an entire army to carry out his dirty work. All he knew was that he needed to get someone to get the information he needed, and quickly.

The lucky half-bloods chosen to do so were Ronald, Will, and Sebastian; Sebastian because he had already faced Claude once, Will because of his tracking skills and Ronald because he could sneak into virtually anywhere and still be able to get out of it.

Sebastian wasn't all too thrilled to be working alongside Will again, and Will seemed to have tense feelings against the demon as well, but Ronald let it slip past him as he plunged into his work as a "spy." To him it was all just a game, which in this case was a good disposition to have.

Halfway into their expedition, Will stopped them. Catching a scent, he growled softly.

"What is it?" Ronald asked, slinking over to Will. The large cat's tail was twitching back and forth with a frenzied excitement, and his eyes were big and wide behind his glasses. "Did you get a scent?"

"Yes, Claude's scent," Will replied solemnly. "And not only his, but there is another scent…the two scents are almost identical, except one has a different, "sweeter" smell, if you want to put it that way."

Sebastian nodded. "So he isn't working alone…" he murmured, nervously pawing the ground now. He always had that sinking feeling that the panther was with someone else.

"I was thinking; if we follow the scents, then perhaps we could be led right to their camp. If we could find the base that they're working from, then we could take them out quickly and without much fuss."

"But still, this is a demon we're working with," Ronald chimed. "Don't you always say "Never underestimate a demon, no matter how dull they may seem?"" he asked, shaking his hindquarters in the air in a hunters crouch for emphasis.

"Don't repeat what I say," Will snapped the young cat, which jumped back like he had been swatted at.

"Geeze, no need to get all defensive about it," Ronald meowed, licking his paw.

"Will, Ronald, please," Sebastian hissed, tail lashing and ears pressed flat against his skull. "Try not to fight." Ronald just rolled his eyes and Will dropped his muzzle down to the ground, becoming intent with his tracking. Soon, the little group stopped at the edge of Black Lands territory leading into the mountains. Will stopped at the edge of the boarder and pawed nervously.

"The scents go over the border," Will said, looking over at Sebastian.

Sebastian frowned. "We should go on, but lay low and stick to the shadows. You never know if there's some kind of patrol or something."

Nodding, each of the three split into his own group, keeping to the heavily treed areas. Not having as keen of a scent as Will, Ronald and Sebastian followed the former bear-dog's lead, being careful as so not to alert the enemy of their presence.

Sebastian was suspecting that they were getting closer to the base by the many scents he picked up, and the half-blood quickly became uneasy. For the first time since he became Ciel's butler, he wanted to disobey an order—however, it was too late. He could see the base through the bushes.

"Ronald," Sebastian whispered, and Ronald's large yellow ears twitched in response. "Climb up into that tree and tell me what you can see." The excited young cat nodded, quickly turning and climbing up the nearest tree.

"There are lots of wolves," he noted. "And big cats. Lions, tigers, all kinds of stuff."

"How many?" Sebastian asked, noticing as the fur on Will's back and shoulders began to rise. He suspected that the bear-dog was probably remembering all the fights he had gotten into, and was preparing for another. Quickly reaching out and tapping the Labrador on the shoulder, he murmured, "We're not going to fight them yet. There are only three of us. Wait."

Will shifted uncomfortably at his touch and looked down, and Robert dropped almost silently to the ground. "I could see about 100, but there might be more."

"100?" Will whispered in disbelief, his large green eyes widening. "How could he get so many so fast?"

"We don't know how long he's been operating," Sebastian reminded Will. "This could have been going on for many years; but still, if he's been going on for that long, wouldn't there be more than 100?" He said, mostly to himself, but partially to the others. "Well, never mind that now. We have to get back to the bocchan and report this and see what he wants to do about it."

It was less than 30 minutes after Sebastian, Will, and Ronald had returned that Ciel made his startling announcement. They were to be launching an attack on Claude's base as a warning—Stay away from us. Since they didn't have much of an idea about how many half-bloods Claude really had, they were just going to take everyone, not including Lizzy and a small group left behind to protect the camp, however. The young half-blood had pitched quite a fit when she learned that she wouldn't be participating in the fight, until Liz had told her that she could be in charge of protecting the camp. That had kept the kid's mouth shut for a while, at least until the group could leave for battle.

Meeting up with Ciel just before they left, Sebastian's eyes were smudged with worry. "Bocchan, do you really want to do this?" he asked.

"Do you want me to repeat an order?" Ciel growled softly, letting his small, thin claws slide out and scrape the ground.

Sebastian was silent, lashing his tail and looking at the ground. The small mane-like ridge of fur down his back and chest was all sticking straight up, a sign that the half-blood was agitated.

"Are you angry at me?" Ciel asked, noticing the rigidness of Sebastian's body.

"No," Sebastian replied. "Just…agitated. This "Claude" character worries me—he's not like any kind of rouge demon or just a regular demon. He has a reason behind his actions, and a plan. It feels as though he is connected to things bigger than us."

Ciel's ear twitched slightly at Sebastian's slightly philosophical words, but he shook away the aching thought at the back of his head that had been annoying him since he first heard about Claude. "Sebastian, this is an order. When we attack, I want you to take out Claude Faustus."

Sebastian didn't hesitate physically as he replied "Understood," but his mind was raging. It wouldn't be that easy, he knew. Ciel was underestimating Claude and overestimating himself. If things didn't go right, Ciel could walk right into a well-concealed trap. And unlike the other wire, rope, and cage traps, this would be a steel-tooth trap, one that would break his leg. As soon as he would try to move, another would catch his leg and snap that one too. Soon, he would only have one leg left.

And even that leg too would snap in time.