Standard Fanfic Warning that wouldn't last ten seconds in a court of law: These aren't my characters. Based on characters and situations from the TV show Supernatural. Originally printed in the fanzine Hunting Trips #3, published by Neon RainBow Press. Purely an amateur work of fiction, written for the pleasure of the author and the readers. Warning: spoiler second season finale
For the Price of a Bull
by Susan M. M.
Supernatural
And that is how Mowgli was entered into the Seeonee Wolf-Pack, at the price of a bull and on Baloo's good word.
— Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Books
Dean Winchester turned his attention from the road to glance at his brother. "You're quiet."
Sam merely sulked in the passenger seat of the old Impala.
"Whatcha thinkin' 'bout?" Dean persisted.
"Kipling," Sam confessed.
"Always the bookworm, huh?"
Sam did not respond, and Dean gave up his attempts at conversation.
The words echoed in Sam's mind: at the price of a bull and on Baloo's good word.
Baloo had bought Mowgli's life, and his right to join the wolf-pack, for a fat bull Bagheera had slain, and his good word.
His brother had brought him back from the dead.
His brother had bought him back from the dead.
Dean had made a deal with a she-demon.
In exchange for Sam's life, Dean had promised her his soul, and the debt came due in a year.
Baloo, in Sam's opinion, had gotten the better deal.
Sam would swear at his brother, but even with what Dean called his "college-boy vocabulary," he couldn't think of any words foul enough.
How could Dean have done something so stupid, so insane?
Didn't Dean know that Sam would have died to save his brother's life?
That he would rather die himself than have Dean lose not only his life, but his soul?
Damn him, Sam thought. But he didn't speak the words aloud.
His brother was already damned, and they both knew it.