The Gods Punishment

Chapter 4

Hound groaned sitting up. "Ow..." she groaned rubbing her leg which got caught in the closing walls, it was scratched, but surviving. "We survived," she said, gratefully. Ghost had saved her, despite all the ignoring and snapping she had put him through, he saved her.

"Sure did," Ghost groaned sitting up catching his breath. Both looked in the room they were in now.

Hound gasped, standing up. "We're... so close," she said looking to Ghost. Before them was a door, thick, made of stone with a large symbol engraved on it of course after so long the stone had faded and she couldn't make out what it was, surrounded by pods and other items in the room with a riddle on the door.

"My heartbeat echoes the passage of day.
With faces that whisper of moments gone by,
In cycles I dance, though I never fly.
What am I?"

"Another riddle..." Ghost groaned.

"It has to be telling us where a key to get in safely is," Hound realised. "Okay..." she murmured reading the riddle again.

"My heartbeat echoes the passage of day?" Ghost wondered. "What does that mean? Like a..." he tried thinking. "A rooster? Like it's caw in the morning?"

Hound sighed. "I don't think so," she told him, but she thought for a moment. "But... thanks for earlier."

"For what?" Ghost asked looking for anything extra and looking around the pods.

"Saving me."

Ghost shrugged. "You would've done the same, no matter how much you hate me," he said. "I know it."

Hound sighed shrugging. She would've, she didn't really like Ghost but he was a friend. "Anyway, give me 5 minutes and I'll figure things out, you examine any traps around that door and those pods."

Ghost nodded looking to the door examining it. Hound thought for a moment, opening notebook, she wrote down the riddle, thinking. Inspecting the things around the room.

Ghost inspected the door and the pods, finding heavy clad men with guns in their hands. Sleeping, waiting to wake and riddle whoever they see with holes. "See, what if we just take these guys out one by one, I mean I still have this thing!" Ghost pulled out his gun waving it around, Hound ducked.

"Watch where you wave that thing!" She scolded him. "I swear the amount of times you've done something totally dangerous today—" Hound cut herself off. "TIME!" She yelled turning to the large grandfather clock in the room. "The answer to the riddle is the clock!"

Hound ran up to the side looking at the side before looking at the face of the clock. "Need a boost?" Ghost asked.

Hound got onto Ghost's back, opening the glass protecting the clock finding key replaced the small hand. She pulled the key out, but it set of an alarm. "Hide!" Hound yelled. Ghost carried Hound and they hid behind some of the stuff in the room as the pods opened, soldiers poured out guns drawn aiming at the grandfather clock.

"Where are they?" One asked looking around.

Ghost and Hound looked to each other before Hound yelled out indicating for Ghost to be quiet. "Don't shoot!" She yelled. She put her hands up. "I need some help!"

The guards lowered their weapons. "Yeah, what's going on? Did your pod break?" The general to the soldiers asked.

Hound slowly stood. "Sorry for my inconvenience, I was just investigating this place..." she told them, acting innocent. "The storms of the beast got worse and I needed a place to hide."

"Huh, I would've thought the beast would've taken all the remaining humans out," a soldier said.

"We've survived in a bunker, not far of Mount Dore, but I went out searching for another bunker we lost contact with!" Hound lied.