Hey guys :) This oneshot came to be written after something Enkidu07 said to me, so thanks so much to Enkidu07! Sorry for any mistakes or stupid things that you may come across…
Disclaimer: I most definitely do not own Supernatural.
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This hunt was supposed to be easy. Dean Winchester shook his head angrily, resisting the urge to fire a few rounds into the nearest tree out of pure frustration, and kept trudging through the thick undergrowth. His gun familiar and comfortable in his hand, the hunter cursed the random tree roots that had him stumbling every two seconds, and once again called out for Sam.
When Sam had researched it, all the things had pointed to a Wendigo. Hikers going missing, creepy dark forest, even some abandoned mines…all natural Wendigo signs. But then when they got there, and started looking, there was no sign of anything Wendigo-ish. Nothing. Three hours later, and Sam had finally copped what the hell was going on in this place.
A dryad. A fucking tree nymph thing was causing all this trouble; Dean had fought hard to keep himself from screaming out curses of all kinds when a weary Sam had told him his theory. The suckers were known for their hatred of people destroying nature, which could be as small as breaking a twig on the ground or chopping a huge oak down with a chainsaw. There was just no avoiding trouble in a forest if it was inhabited by one of the things.
As for killing them… First you had to find the particular tree that the dryad was bound to, and even then bullets or most weapons would do nothing to destroy it. Only fire could gank the things, and you had to wait until the whole tree was burnt to a crisp. Dean squelched through the trees with a scowl fixed on his face – he really hated dryads. How the fuck am I going to find one tree in a forest of thousands?
And to top it all off, the brothers had gotten separated. Dean had been so sure that Sam was behind him, could even hear his ridiculously loud breaths for a while, but when he had turned around, the youngest Winchester was gone.
Dean had immediately panicked and retraced his steps for the good part of an hour, but Sam had just disappeared. And he had had almost all of their weapons and food in the duffle on his back. Dean knew that his brother's disappearance more than likely had something to do with the dryad that they were hunting, but he still fumed silently and scuffed his boots against the ground. Stupid little brothers… The coldness and approach of darkness did nothing to improve Dean's mood as he muttered and grumbled to himself in the half darkness.
The young hunter was focusing so much on trying to find the tree in question that he didn't notice the steep drop that was hidden amongst roots and bushes, sharp rocks lying in wait at the bottom. He walked right into it, distracted by the task of finding the tree in question. Dean yelled when he felt the ground disappear from under his feet and was suddenly falling.
Out of instinct, he immediately reached out blindly with his right arm, his left one having gotten caught between his body and the wall of solid dirt that he was falling past, scrabbling at soil and roots desperately, his mind racing with a million different scenarios that could take place. Dean really didn't want Sam to have to find his unconscious body at the bottom of the drop.
Luckily for the Winchester, his right hand managed grab onto a twisty and large tree root, and Dean held on for dear life. For a few milliseconds, he was still falling, the tree root doing nothing to stop his descent, but then he stopped falling abruptly.
He yelled loudly in pain when he felt his shoulder joint dislocate from the socket with a sickening pop, the pain immediate and shocking. Still, Dean gritted his teeth and went to pull himself up, a moan escaping his lips as the pain intensified.
It felt like his arm was on fire. His whole right arm felt out of sync, the tips of his fingers starting to tingle and go numb, Dean gasping as he opened his eyes. The limb looked like it wasn't attached to his body anymore, a huge bulge protruding up under his t-shirt that he grimly realised was his shoulder joint completely popped out.
Knowing that he would only have a few minutes before his shoulder gave out and he fell to the rocks below, Dean slowly began to haul his body up onto the barely existent trail.
The forest echoed with his cries, Dean's eyes squeezing shut again to prevent any tears from falling, agony shooting through his arm like lightening. He managed to manoeuvre himself over the edge and away from the drop, and then crawled pitifully on the ground until he was certain that he was far enough away from the small cliff. By then, he had lost all feeling in his fingers – damn nerve damage— but the rest of his arm still throbbed in time with his racing heart.
Allowing himself a few minutes of stillness, just lying flat on his back and cursing his bad luck, Dean then rose shakily to his feet, his right arm being pressed tightly in his side. Looking around desperately for Sam – Dean really didn't want to do this – Dean began to ram his shoulder into the nearest tree with as much strength as he could muster.
After only the first try, his vision was dotted with black and his arm was become even more painful (something that Dean didn't even think was possible), but he kept going. He needed to knock his damn shoulder back into its damn socket.
Three attempts later and Dean could barely stand up, swaying around on his feet like some stupid drunk outside a seedy bar, his vision consisting of some holes of greyness in the darkness. Pain. A lot of pain. The last thing that Dean remembered was feebly shouting, "Sammy!" and then everything went black.
The first thing that Dean saw when he opened his eyes was his brother's face about two centimetres from his. Sam was saying his name over and over, one hand lightly slapping Dean on the cheek, and the other checking his pulse. Though Sam was trying to keep a calm look on his face, Dean could see that he was pretty scared.
Dean sluggishly tried to push Sam away, but cried out when the pain returned full force and he realized that he couldn't move his right arm. Sam flinched at the sound of Dean's pain filled grunt, and all too quickly his bloody fingers were running all over Dean's shoulder lightly, trying to gauge how bad the dislocation was.
Dean opened his mouth to remind Sam that they were still trapped in the forest with a nasty dryad, but the sight of smoke rising from a section of trees a good bit away caught his attention. Then Dean focused on Sam's worried face, streaked with soot and the blood that was dripping from a gash along his hairline. Nice one, Sammy. Sometimes Dean forgot that Sam was an excellent hunter too, and didn't always need his brother to back him up.
"C'mon, man, let's get you up," Before Dean could answer, Sam was easing him into a sitting position, ignoring his weak grunts of protest, "Okay, this looks pretty bad, but I'm gonna try and pop it back in quickly so we can get out of here, okay? On three..."
Dean tried to pull himself away from Sam's hold, but his brother had a grim expression on his face ad was holding on tightly, "Sorry, Dean, but I have to do this. You know that. One – "
Without waiting until three, Sam suddenly yanked Dean's arm back and smoothly into its socket, his eyes firm and professional as Dean yelped loudly. Once he felt his shoulder crunch back into place, Dean pushed himself away from his brother and leaned back against a tree, his eyes closed and breaths coming out in pants. He turned his face away from Sam, not wanting his brother to see the look of agony on his face.
When Dean managed to swallow down the last of the bile in his mouth, he realized that his shoulder actually felt a lot better. He turned back around to the sight of Sam holding out bandages to strap his shoulder with, and a shirt that had been torn apart to make a temporary sling.
"N-no, Sammy, it's okay now... I don't need that stuff. 'm fine."
"Dude, its Sam, and yes you do. That was one nasty dislocation, and you have to be an idiot to think that I'm going to let you get away without strapping it properly," Scowling, Dean shook his head, about to start standing up, "Dean! Sit down, and let me do this! Your shoulder may feel a hell of a lot better, but it's gonna be really loose for a while, and even the smallest push could pop it out again... Just let me strap it, wear the sling, and then we can get out of here."
"You're bossy..."
Sam rolled his eyes at his brother, breathing a sigh of relief as Dean lowered himself back to the ground and let Sam strap the joint and put the sling on. "Hey, where the fuck did you go anyway? I turned around and you were gone!"
Looking slightly embarrassed, Sam answered his brother, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure the dryad lured me away, and I thought you were following me. When I realised, I tried to find you, but got nowhere. So then I just found the sucker, burned it to the ground, and practically fell over you in the middle of the trail... What happened to you?"
Dean shuddered at the memory of hauling himself to safety with a dislocated arm, "It doesn't matter, Sammy... Let's just get back to the motel."
The walk back to the Impala was long and tiring, Sam hovering around Dean, reaching out every time his brother stumbled. ("Back off, Sam!") When they finally reached the small dirt car park on the edge of the forest, dark had completely fallen, and Dean fumbled around his pockets awkwardly with only one hand for his keys. When he frantically looked up, Sam was holding the car keys in one hand, leaning against the driver's door.
"I swear to God, Sam, there is no way that I'm not driving the Impala back!"
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So, that's it! I couldn't find that much stuff on the internet about dryads, so I just improvised – I hope it wasn't too horrible! I hope you guys liked it… I'd love to hear what you thought in a review if you have the time to spare :)
Thanks for reading,
ArmedWithMyComputer xx