Well here's another little story I came up with. Hope you like it. I wasn't going to start posting this yet because I'm going on vacation next week and won't be able to continue it till I get back, but I thought what the heck….might as well get it started.
Sierras
The brothers stood at the edge of the cliff and looked out over the vast mountain range. The Sierra Nevadas spread out before them both beautiful and deadly.
"This place is huge, how are we ever going to find that thing out there?" Dean asked as he glanced over at his brother.
"Well the rangers said that the patches of dead woods have all been within a five mile radius… At least that limits it a little." Sam said as he popped a breaded mushroom in his mouth.
Dean looked at him in disgust.
"How the hell can you eat that stuff?"
"They're good…try one." Sam said as he held the bag out to his brother.
"Get out of here." He pushed the bag away. "I can't even stand the smell of them….Do you know what you're eating? You're eating fungus, that's what."
"It's a lot better then the crap I've seen you eat."
"Well at least I don't buy my food from some stranger alongside the road. How the hell do you know that stuff is even fresh?"
"I was hungry; I didn't have much of a choice." Sam glared at his brother. "If you would have stopped at that diner like I asked you to I could have gotten a burger ….But oh no….not you….you couldn't take ten minutes to let me run in and order some take out."
"That place was packed…it would have taken you more then ten minutes, more like an hour and ten minutes. Besides I wanted to get here before dark. These roads are tricky after dark."
"You have an excuse for everything don't you?" Sam said as he popped another mushroom in his mouth then licked the grease off his lips.
"You're disgusting… You know all that grease will kill you one day."
"Well then I'll die a happy man." Sam finished off the last mushroom then tossed the bag into the back of Dean's car.
"Hey!" Dean started to protest.
"Sorry but there's no trash can around here and I don't litter." Sam smiled knowing that the mushroom smell would stay in the car for awhile and for some reason he got great pleasure in that. He then changed the subject back to why they were there. "Okay so what do we know about this thing?"
"It's called a Musteego, it's an Indian name meaning stealer of life….Dad and I hunted one up in Minnesota a few years back. Nasty creatures….they suck the life out of everything they touch…suck them dry."
"So that's why all those patches of dead forest."
"Yep. That thing will suck the fluids from anything alive, trees, animals, plants, and humans. Sucks them dry till there's nothing left but a dried out shell."
"So if we find it how do we kill it?"
"A gold bullet, right between its eyes."
"Gold? I thought silver killed most of these kinds of things."
"Not a Musteego, it takes gold to kill one of those, at least that's what killed the last one we ran into. The good thing is we have gold bullets; the bad thing is we only have three. If we find this thing we got to hit it square between its eyes, if we don't, we're out a bullet and once they're gone we might as well kiss our ass goodbye."
"Nothing else will kill it?"
"Not as far as we know. … Oh there's always a chance there might be something else that we don't know about but…"
"If we don't know what it is it isn't going to help us." Sam finished Dean's sentence.
"You got it."
"So how are we going to get in there? Your car will never make it over those roads."
"Horseback."
"You got to be kidding."
"Nope." Dean grinned over at his brother. "You're not scared of horses are you?"
Sam could tell Dean was hoping he was, he knew his brother liked nothing more then ribbing him about his phobias; fortunately horses wasn't one of them.
"No I'm not scared of horses, Jess and I used to ride on the beach all the time." Sam turned away from Dean as his eyes filled up when he mention his girlfriend. She had been dead for over two years now but he still grieved for her and he knew he always would, she was the love of his life and no one would ever replace her.
Dean could tell Sam was upset so he patted him on the back as he turned back to the car.
"Well let's get down to the ranger's station and see if they have a couple of horses we can rent for the week."
Ranger's station
They headed into the ranger's station and gave the man at the desk their most charming smiles.
"Hi." Dean nodded to the man. "We're going camping for a week and would like to rent a couple of horses."
"You've ridden before?"
"Yeah."
"It'll be a hundred bucks a day for each horse." He handed them both a paper. "Read this then sign it at the bottom. It's an agreement that if the horse is hurt in anyway you are responsible for the medical bills. Also it says that we are not responsible for any injuries you may receive while on the horse or in the park."
Both brothers signed the agreement then handed the papers back to the ranger. Dean then pulled out his credit card and handed it the ranger.
The ranger ran the credit card through the scanner and satisfied that everything seemed to be in order got up and led them out to the barn in the back.
"The grey and bay are for inexperienced riders; both are older and very gentle and shouldn't cause any problems. The black and pinto are for the average rider and the red and palomino are for experienced riders, they both need a firm hand."
"I think we'll take the black and pinto." Sam said quickly. He knew if he let Dean choose he would have taken the red and palomino just to try to turn the hunt into a competition to see who the better rider was. But Sam knew they'd have enough to worry about in the woods and they didn't need to be fighting headstrong horses also.
They packed their gear into bundles and fastened them onto their saddles, then the ranger gave them a brief course on caring for the horses on the trail. They then gently gave their horses a little kick and were off.
TBC
