Note: I started writing this ages and ages ago, back around halfway through Season 3. I got up to about Chapter 2 when I stopped writing and fell behind on the show. A very long while later, I caught up with the show and decided to finally finish this. Of course, by that time so much had happened in the series that the direction this was going in changed completely...and of course, there's a slight issue of where this fits in on the Supernatural Chronology. Hm, good question. It goes somewhere. It's a bit of an AU fic that takes place sometime in Season 7. I say "AU" because Bobby's still alive, Cas is still good ol' Cas, and the Leviathans aren't around. Why? Because I said so, haha! Other than that, I suppose what I'm trying to say is, enjoy this for what it is - a story set in between some episodes in the series. I hope you like it! (Also, I don't own Supernatural. But it pretty much owns my soul.)

Chapter One

Ivy Griffin was not having a good day. She'd spent the whole morning crawling through dense underbrush and investigating vales, and now it looked as if she was going to spend her whole night in a tree desperately hoping to stay alive. Meanwhile, below her a dire-cougar was doing its best to shred her haven into matchsticks.

"It's too damn early in the season for this," Ivy grumbled to herself. Suddenly the possessed overgrown cat leaped into the air; it landed on the tree and gouged deep rows into the pine with its nine-inch claws. Ivy screeched in alarm and, after wedging her shotgun in the crook of a branch, swung herself up onto another large, sturdy bough.

"Just dandy," she growled, retrieving her shotgun. The blasted thing had chased her up this tree and now she couldn't get a sight on it to blast it back to whatever hellhole it had crawled out of. She gritted her teeth and tried to think of a way out. The trees in this part of the forest were close-set, but were they close enough for her to monkey her way through the canopy?

Below her, the already-riled dire-cougar was boiling to a frenzy. There wasn't much time left before it decided to quit playing around and turn her into humanburger. Think, girl, for God's sake, think! She nearly lost it when the dire-cougar let out a bloodcurdling roar, and peered frantically through the foliage to see if there was a branch from a nearby tree close enough to swing on to. If she could do it fast enough…

"Did you hear that?"

Dean Winchester straightened up and pursed his lips, wiping the dirt from his fingers. "That roar? Yeah." He'd just found some interesting tracks on the forest floor – not warm, but made not too long before he'd found them.

"Sounded like a big cat," Sam remarked. "Could be what we're looking for – there aren't many around in this neck of the woods…" He frowned. "…no pun intended."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever, Sammy," he scoffed, referring to the obvious pun. Another roar split the silent, heavy air in the woods. "Let's go!"

He took off into the underbrush with Sam on his heels.

Ivy was stuck. There was no way for her to get into the nearest adjacent tree – not unless she suddenly morphed into a monkey. She flexed her grip on her shotgun, absentmindedly chewing on her lower lip as she formulated her new plan. If she scooted ahead on her branch just a bit more, she decided, there was a possibility of getting a sight on the dire-cougar and kicking its furry butt back into hell. Ivy had two bullets but only one chance – and the window on that chance was running out.

The creature was now pacing around at the base of the tree, sniffing at its roots and trunk – in essence, biding its time and toying with her. Ivy knew it could smell and see her through the pine's branches; she knew it was only just waiting for her to let her guard down.

"Not happening, bitch," Ivy said spitefully. Sliding her shotgun back into its custom-made holster on her back, she wrapped her arms and legs around the bough and pulled herself forward slowly but surely the few precious inches she needed. It wasn't much, but it was enough…it had to be enough.

Dean and Sam broke through the underbrush to find themselves in a most unusual clearing. It was roughly circular in shape, but the ground the brothers stood on was level for only a few feet before dropping off in a steep slope. The ground was covered thickly in moss and lichen, and Dean's sharp eyes followed a broken trail of uprooted vegetation towards a tree on the far side.

"Sam," he whispered, pointing. Their mark – an enormous dire-cougar – was pacing at the foot a slashed pine tree. Judging by the ravaged tree and the churned-up forest floor around it, the hellcat had chased something up it and was biding its time, waiting to attack.

"Why's it just pacing like that?" Sam whispered back.

"These things don't attack until they're sure their prey has let their guard down," Dean murmured back. "Whatever it's chased up that tree is just as alert as it is…" He shrugged his shoulders to loosen them up and stretched his back. "Come on, Sammy. Let's plug this thing."

Breathing rhythmically to steady herself, Ivy clung tightly to the bough with her legs and one arm. She reached around with her free arm and slowly pulled her shotgun back out. Ivy didn't need crosshairs to land a perfect headshot, but a steady rest for her shotgun helped immensely. Fortune had smiled upon her, and the bough divided just in front of her, providing her with a convenient improvised tripod rest for her weapon. She had a clear sight to the forest floor below, and all she had to do was wait for the dire-cougar to pass through it.

She narrowed her eyes, staring down the barrel of her shotgun through the break in the pine needles. Two bullets…one chance.

"What's our plan?" Dean hissed, stealthily loading up his shotgun with the shells they'd made the previous night.

Sam checked the sights on his firearm, his lips pursed and his brow furrowed in a brief but intense moment of concentration. "You go around that way," he replied, gesturing to the left. "I'll take this side. One of us will have to distract it from whatever it's got up that tree. The other will shoot."

Dean nodded. "You distract it."

Sam stared at him. "Why do I have to distract it?!"

Dean smiled roguishly at him.

Ivy kept breathing steadily, clearing her mind and keeping her body relaxed but ready to strike. Tensing up while sniping was never a good idea; she'd learned that the hard way many years ago. But it seemed like the blasted thing could read her mind. It stayed away from her line of sight, only crossing it with an insignificant paw or swipe of its tail. Not enough to get it down. She couldn't shoot to injure.

She licked her lips and shook her head quickly to clear her mind. No negativity, she reminded herself. Patience.

"Hey! Hey, you!"

Ivy was startled by the male voice that shattered the stillness. She regained her composure in a heartbeat, but it was no good. Her shotgun tumbled out of her hands to the forest floor.

"Shit!" Ivy spat.

The dire-cougar's attention had been so focused on her that it barely registered the intrusion. It instead clued in that its primary prey was momentarily distracted. It crouched and growled in triumph.

Ivy didn't know how she managed to do it, but her back was suddenly pressed firmly against the tree trunk and she was grasping for branches to pull herself higher into the tree. She knew it was no use. She was done for.

The blast of a shotgun exploded in the clearing, and the dire-cougar's fixation on Ivy was severed. Roaring, it whirled around to face this new intruder.

Ivy's entire body, tense with the bizarre combination of fear and hunter's instinct, suddenly collapsed against the tree trunk. Her breathing was irregular, and she could feel her heart racing in her chest, her blood pounding in her ears. A searing pain shot through her forehead from temple to temple; she squeezed her eyes shut to fight against the pain.

"Dean! There's somebody in this tree!"

"Don't worry, Sammy, I've got this thing in the bag. Come at me, you fugly mofo!"

More shotgun blasts, deafening and rattling, echoed through the clearing. Ivy pressed the bases of her palms into her eyes, crying out against the pain. But the horror movie playing on the insides of her eyelids wouldn't go away, no matter what she did.

Darkness, except for the flickering, eerie light of fire and candles. A man chained to a stone wall, his torso lacerated with strange symbols. The stench of blood. A high-pitched cackle.

She fell.