Howling of the Hounds

I woke up to the sound of howling and not just any howling, to the howling of hell hounds. What was strange you may ask? Well the fact that hell hounds didn't howl, not under normal circumstances in the least. They only howled on the death of a member of their pack or that of their master, if you ask me the former was more likely than the latter as the only two people to have ever tamed a hell hound was my father, Hades, Lord of the Underworld and the great Deadelus himself.

I got up from my bunk only to see the sleeping form of other demigod warriors with whom I shared my barracks; most of them were younger than me and fresh into their teenage years. They were neither as experienced nor as strong as I was. I didn't bother to switch on the lamp on my bedside, No, I could see well enough in the dark just as I could see in light.

I searched for my jacket at the foot of my bed and then grabbed my dagger from the table beside my bunk. I thought of slipping on my breastplate and linothorax as a precaution but then decided against it and only slipped on my linothorax; it should give me the standard protection from any attacks and prevent damage from any minor slashes and thrusts. I clipped my dagger to my belt and left the barracks silently without making the slightest noise.

As I slipped outside the Barracks I realised how cold it was, odd, the weather around the Fort and its borders forever remained temperate but this wasn't anything close to it. It was downright cold, similar to stepping outside your home naked in the middle f a blizzard minus the gale force winds. I pulled my jacket closer and zipped, thoughtful of me to slip it on. What the hell was I thinking? But that's when I heard another ear piercing howl, the sound of it magnified by the cold, making it echo in my ears.

I walked along the corridors of the Soldier's barracks and into the front courtyard of the Fort where the troops assembled every morning. In the morning hours the front courtyard was normally bustling with demigods training with their cohort mates, sometimes learning how to spar and other times practicing archery in galleys or learning the essentials of close combat in the pits. However, at night the courtyard saw neither demigod nor any other living being except for a few scattered on the walls, doing their night patrols and other guards in the Guard tower waiting to relieve the soldiers on watch.

Why hadn't they already investigated the howling and put a stop to it? I couldn't understand how they could take it so calmly when I, a Son of Hades couldn't.

I decided to check on the guard commander and made my way to the stone tower on the north east corner of the fortification, As I walked across the courtyard I couldn't help but think that something eerie was about to come our way, something for which we weren't prepared.

I wasn't the one to believe in omens but I just couldn't help it. The howling of the hounds, the chill in the air and the mist rolling down from the hills, ask any Apollo kid and he'd tell you that something unfortunate was about to happen.

As I approached the imposing stone tower, I wondered which cohort's duty was it this month to guard the Fort. My cohort had done it two months ago for the month of April, if my calculations were right...

"Halt! Who goes there?" asked one of the soldiers guarding the entrance to the tower unsheathing his sword and raising his shield. The other two standing guard at the entrance of the Tower crossed their spears to block my way if I didn't come up with the proper verification.

I raised my right hand and showed him the single band platinum ring on my forefinger verifying my status in the ranks and authority. The demigod no more than fourteen bowed to me and gestured at the other two standing guard over the entrance to the tower to let me pass through.

The Guards stood in attention as I walked past them; The Roman Military system was truly good for disciplining young power crazy demigods, no wonder we adopted Camp Jupiter's military system but then it wouldn't have done any good had we not applied Chiron's methods of combat and survival training. I have to admit, combining Greek and Roman skills truly proved out to be a deadly combination.

I climbed the winding stairs up to the observation deck of the tower, there was a high probability that the commanding officer would be there, but if the officer was anything like me they'd be out in the woods finding what was troubling the hell hounds.

I reached the end of the stair case and went through the arch that led to the deck above. There were only three soldiers there all youngsters between the ages of thirteen and fourteen along with another soldier who looked about a year my junior.

As I came out on to the open air deck, the floor board creaked which drew the attention of the soldiers towards me. "Identification" asked the Demigod closer to me in age while the others who had just glanced at me went back to their posts to observe the forests and the magical borders around the Fort.

I again lifted my right hand to prove my identification. In a military system, rank is more important than name and proves to be the only source of identification that one needs to prove. The soldier as I had guessed was junior in rank and promptly stood in attention and saluted.

"At ease" I said curtly acknowledging his salute. "Profile" I asked him in a business like tone my eyes scanning the canopy of the trees and the hills beyond.

"Noah Ellis, Son of Hermes, Guard Commander and Second-in-command of the Masked Messiah Cohort." I nodded, "Report" I said in the same commanding tone.

"Guard Duty taken up on 5th of August from Sea Storm Cohort, 20 soldiers deployed on the Ramparts and parapets of the Fort along with four groups of three each patrolling the magical borders while ten soldiers remain behind at the guard tower to provide relief and another ten in barracks awaiting orders, Sir." He said.

I must admit, I'd take him to be my Second in command any day. "Current status" I asked him. "A breach was detected through the magical borders five kilometres off the western outpost at half past one. The howling started mere seconds after the breach." He said his voice quivering.

"Anything else" I asked turning towards him. "A patrol party was sent to investigate but when we didn't hear from them for quite a while the Commander decided to check out the matter herself and took four soldiers along with her to investigate the breach and to find the missing patrol party." He said out of breath and tensed. He was doing his job well till now but I guess there was too much on his mind. It wasn't wise to go and investigate a breach in the magical borders with just a handful of demigod soldiers. Anyone who had served for a few years around the Fort would know that but in the last few years that I had been in the fort I had never heard of this cohort, neither of its raising and nor did I know any of the demigods in it. I decided to confirm my suspicions.

"You are not from around here, are you?" I asked him. The Guard commander eyed me sceptically, "No Sir, we were brought in from Londinium a day before we took guard duty." He said shortly. That explained a lot, this cohort had been given guard duty without a proper briefing and it might lead to loss of lives if some powerful monster had managed to bring the shields down. I must investigate the matter myself.

I turned on the spot facing the now heavily sighing demigod soldier, "My name is Zeno Leonidas Spades, Son of Hades, Commander of Dealers of Death cohort and Captain of the Council Guard." I said in a tone of authority, one that made all four demigod soldiers stand in attention and salute. "At ease" I aid nodding to them.

I then gave my full attention to the guard commander, his emerald green eyes gleaming like Greek fire and his tousled brown hair peeking from under the helmet. He looked athletic even after donning the bulky hoplite armour, must have some strength and agility to behold in one to one combat, must challenge him to a spar someday I thought to myself.

"Noah Ellis, right?" I inquired of him too which he curtly nodded and without another thought as if he was my own second in command I began to rant orders, "Go to the barracks adjacent to the pier on the lake. There you'll find a barrack at the entry of which is a symbol of two crossed swords and the Helm of Darkness, that's the barracks of the Dealers of Death." He nodded absorbing each order I gave him.

"I want you to wake up my second in command, James Steele, Son of Thanatos" He shuddered at the name of Thanatos but why won't he; Thanatos after all did deal in death. He wasn't one of the most popular gods he did figure in one of the most dreaded though, but so was Hades until he helped overthrow the Titans and Gaea.

"Yes sir" he said regaining his composure, "Good. I want you to wake him up and tell him to follow my trail garbed in full armour with the senior five of the cohort." I said waving him off and making my way down from the observation deck and on the parapet two stories down. I then saw him off running towards the general direction of my barracks and with a last glance I jumped over the wall and into the forest that surrounded the Fort.

Landing on my haunches, I quickly stood up and sped away to the west where the breach had been made. Running through the forest, I couldn't help but observe that the entire forest was eerily quiet except for the continuous howls of the hell hounds which I could now make out were from outside the borders, well that was one worry down.

They hadn't made it through but then why were they agitated, I questioned myself. My question was soon answered when I stumbled upon a body, well stumbled wouldn't be quite right. I fell over while running only to realise that I had found a body, most likely demigod.

I turned the body over; it was face down in the dirt. She was about fourteen years old, slightly tanned but right now looked quite pale. I picked up her petite form and laid her in a sitting position besides a tree. I put my fingers up to her nostrils to check if she was alive, she was. I was glad for that. Normally, my first priority would have been to transport the injured back to camp but right now the situation was more desperate and she seemed fine, just knocked out. From what I could tell she didn't have any fatal injuries, no external blood loss, her breathing was fine and so was her pulse. I decided to send a flare up, by now James would be awake and the Guard Tower would see the flare to inform James of anything new before he starts to follow my trail.

I pulled out a crystal ball, with Greek fire burning bright in it and smashed it on the ground to release the flare, blinding myself in the process. When I regained my sight I could see the flame from the flare dissipate into the night, thinking I had done my bit I picked up on the trail to follow the other members of the search party and from what I could make out they were all light footed and very quick as the trail was very hard to follow but I too had been a tracker for too long a time and was known to find the most alluring of people.

I continued through the thicket, the mist and fog obstructing my way and proving to be a hindrance in following the trail but it wasn't long before I figured out that I was on the right track as I heard a scream of agony from a few hundred metres ahead of me.

There was nothing else to do, with the last ounce of strength left in me, I called upon the shadows around me to take me as their host and before I knew it a hill surrounded me, a chill that not only made me shiver but also send shivers down my spine and goose bumps appear all over my body. I had never experienced such shadow travel before but what was strange was that as my entire body shivered from the chill of shadow travel my right hand burned as if on fire.

I couldn't help but scream in agony and it wasn't long before the shivers ended but the burning of my hand didn't subside. I looked around myself and saw that I had landed right in the middle f a battle scene. It was too hard to make out anything as I was suffering from the temporary blindness that followed shadow travel but from what I could hear it seemed that the demigod soldiers led by the Commander of the Masked Messiah's were in thick shit and needed help. Confusion, Anxiety and anger lined their thoughts.

As I regained my sighed, I could see the blur form of a figure in black, his moved like the wind and was nothing more than a blur at times as he fought the six standing soldiers all breathing deeply and trying to fend off his attacks except for one, a short petite girl with midnight black hair tied in a braid and a lithe body of a warrior. She thrust her knife where the chest of her opponent was a few mere moments ago, he moved extremely fast to avoid her but couldn't block her next thrust which she aimed at his face but cut through his arm.

Injured the 'shadow warrior' sprang up and a double edged stygian sword materialized in his hands. My eyes became wide with shock, there were only five people that currently carried a stygian sword, Council Members Nico Di Angelo and Hazel Levesque, James Steele and I. The fifth person who owned a stygian blade was the former commander of Dealers of Death but there was no way he'd come back here.

As the fiery young warrior dodged his attack he spun on the spot, releasing a shock wave that threw all other surrounding warriors on ground. There was no time to think, I reached for my dagger on the belt and it magically enlarged and took the form of a six feet long scythe. I charged at him and then at the last moment disappeared in the shadows, only to attack from another direction, too late, he too had moved and I could sense his presence, a familiar presence but who?

I apparated out of the shadows only to find him charge towards me with his sword in hand. I drew up my scythe just in time to shield myself from the coming blow, but it was of no use, the blow was strong enough to drop me to my knees, using the scythe was a bad idea and in order to get better footing I again shadow travelled this time to put distance between us.

I appeared on the edge of the clearing while he stood in the middle. I transformed my scythe into a three inch long stygian blade. The shadow warrior before me chuckled but I didn't give I a single thought other than charge towards him and thrust the sword right down his chest. He moved out of the way but I continued the attack, swinging to the top left and then bringing the sword down to cut through him, he deflected my blow with his own sword and then whirled away from the spot but I was ready this time and slashed the smoky shadows that had begun to appear behind me.

The shadow dissipated but reformed and came from both directions, not taking any chances I sprang into the air and the cloud of shadows collided beneath me only to reform the warrior who got hold of my leg and brought me crashing down. My sword fell out of my hand, only to return to my sheath which I had forgotten in the barracks, foolish of me and before another though traversed through my mind my right hand began to burn again but this time it was more of a tingling sensation and not unpleasant in any form.

The man drew his sword on my neck and I said my last prayer, knowing that the ring would now pass on to James if this hooded figure killed me but the next few words that came out of his mouth were enough to send me in a state of shock, words I knew I'd never hear in my life especially from a person I never thought would return, "It's high time I took back the Command of Dealers of Death, wouldn't you agree?" He said in a familiar haunting voice.

I knew who this was but I wouldn't agree till I saw it from my very own eyes and as if he was reading my mind he lowered his hood to reveal the familiar face I knew. Spiked up inky black hair, haunting deep blue eyes and a smirk plastered on his square jawed face, Alec Blackwood, Son of Thanatos had reinstated his command over the Dealers of Death as a platinum band appeared on the fore finger of his right hand and I knew that James gold ring of second in command had appeared on mine clearly demoting me according to our military norms.

"You fought well. Just a little slow", He smirked at me. He drew back his sword and gave me a hand to help me up. "Why?" I asked him taking his hand and getting up on my own two feet. He turned his back to me. I knew he was laughing but I was in the mood for some answers.

I was about to repeat my question when he cut in, "I hope you have backup coming because we have a lot of injured demigods to carry back home" and with a wave of his hand the hounds that had continuously howled throughout the night suddenly stopped, followed by pin drop silence.

The Howling of Hounds normally brought bad news and I had no idea if this was orchestrated or not. I wanted some answers but I knew I wouldn't get them tonight atleast.

A/N: R & R