I watched Goodbye Stranger and then The Last Unicorn as a cheer-me-up. This happened.

The unicorn lived in a sunlit wood, and he lived all alone. He was very old; though he had lost count of exactly how many years he had walked the earth. He did not look like the unicorns of legend, being midnight black instead of sea white, with two wings, each slightly larger than the span of his body. His eyes were a deep blue, and the horn that rose from the middle of his head glowed with its own internal light like a star in the heavens.

The unicorn had not always lived alone. Once, the sunlit wood had been filled with his brothers sisters, each of them content to live in the forest that their father had placed them in so long ago. Though he and his siblings had names, they were seldom used and identified each other by hide color as they moved silently through the woods, watching over the mortal creatures as they were born and lived and loved and died.

His russet colored sister was the first to leave, and the others followed after her, one by one, until the midnight black unicorn was the only one left in the woods that his father had ordered him to protect. Being alone did not bother the unicorn, however. He knew his siblings would eventually return, and he could feel them still, as he could feel all the unicorns in the world.

He was immortal, or near enough that he never thought about his death. Like all the immortal creatures of the world, he could not feel as mortals did. The unicorn was not made to doubt or to regret or love; all he knew was contentment in his woods, and a warm assurance from somewhere inside himself that it was enough for him.

The unicorn's favorite part of the forest was a small meadow near the stream. In the early mornings he would walk through it, the soft, early-morning light pouring down as the birds sang and the tiny creatures of the day chattered amongst themselves in the trees and grass. He often came here to watch the deer graze or the birds scratch the ground for bugs, fascinated by their need to eat and the way they would prance around as if it was their last day alive.

On one such day two humans wondered into his woods. The unicorn followed them cautiously, never letting the humans catch a glimpse of his dark hide.

"Tell me why we had to take this shortcut again, Mom?" the first human asked. The older woman next to her shrugged and tossed back her hair.

"Because I said so, Jo," she replied. "Do you want to get to the next village by nightfall or not? We've only got so much time before the full moon and that werewolf rears its ugly head again."

"But it feels wrong here," the other human insisted, glancing around fearfully. "It's like I can feel something watching us."

"Something probably is," the older woman told her daughter. "But it isn't anything we should hunt, Jo. It's a unicorn."

"Mom, there's no such thing as unicorns," the younger woman said as she pulled her blonde hair from her face. "If there were ever unicorns, they're all dead by now."

"Jo, we've been all over the world, and have you ever seen a forest like this? All the locals say that the snow never falls here, and that the woods are always untouched by the turn of the seasons. They're afraid to come here because something not natural is causing it. But there's only one thing I know that can halt the seasons, and that's unicorn magic," she said patiently.

"Mom, there's practically nothing written on unicorns, so how do you know all this?" the blonde girl asked.

"When I was a girl, my great grandmother told me a story that her mother told her when she was a child," her mother replied. "When she was a girl, there was a boy in her village who was wandering in the woods one day, seeking some peace and quiet from his mother, when he found a unicorn grazing by the stream. He was attacked by bandits, but instead of fleeing, the unicorn charged the men. He said he saw a flash of bright light, and instead of a red unicorn, there was a red-haired woman standing by the stream, holding a sword twisted like a horn. She killed the men with her sword."

"Did she kill the boy, too?" the blonde asked. Her mother shook her head.

"Nah, he married her. She lived to a ripe old age, too. There were no children, and the sword was lost," she told her. The blonde human rolled her eyes.

"That sounds like a fairy story, Mom," she said.

"Jo, with the kind of stuff we hunt, I'm surprised you can call anything a fairy story." She shook her head again. "At any rate, all of the unicorns but the one here are gone, and we won't find the one that lives here. Hopefully it stays here, or it'll be gone like the others. The red smoke took 'em all."

"The red smoke? What the heck's the red smoke?" the blonde asked, wrinkling her nose.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you about it," her mother said stiffly. "Now, come on. We gotta ride faster. It's almost the full moon, and this village that Bobby told me about is near hysterical tryin' to find out what's been attacking all these people and stealing their hearts."

The unicorn watched the humans kick their horses into a gallop down the trail, but he did not follow.

.

Much later, he walked through the meadow again, the afternoon sunlight having chased the creatures of the forest back into their dens under the trees until nightfall. Restless, he wondered beyond the meadow to the end of the forest, stopping just at the edge of the tree line. "I cannot be the only unicorn there is," he said to himself, and then stared silently, as if afraid of his own voice.

Even when his siblings had lived together, they had seldom talked aloud. He had not heard the sound of his own gruff voice for well over a century, since the last of his siblings had left the safety of the sunlit wood. He stared out at the flat land around his forest, opened his wings once before snapping them closed again, and shook his head before retreating to the meadow.

.

"But how could I leave here?" he asked himself the next day, sitting at the edge of the meadow. "My father charged me with protecting this place, and if the others were gone, I would know." Still, a voice nagged at the back of his head.

The others left, it seemed to whisper, and perhaps it is time for you to leave as well. He ignored the voice and remembered his father's orders.

"He would want me to find them," the unicorn said aloud to himself. "He would want me to bring them home where they belong." Still, the unicorn lingered for another day and night, not leaving the comfort of his meadow. At the dawn of the second day, he sprang up from where he was resting and ran to the edge of the wood, stopping again at the tree line. "I will find them," he decided. "I will find my brothers and sisters and I will bring them home." He recalled what the older human had said about a red unicorn turned human, and for a moment he felt a tiny pang for the lost unicorn.

Anna, he remembered. Her name was Anna.

Shaking his head again, the unicorn slowly stepped out of the woods for the first time in his life and bolted down the path before spreading his wings and launching himself skyward.

The unicorn flew as far as he could before gliding back to the ground and walking on the road. Folding his sore wings to his sides, the unicorn searched for a place to sleep. Crickets began to sing in the air and fireflies flickered in the darkness, flying around his glowing horn in a random dance.

Finding a soft patch of grass, the unicorn settled himself on the ground and dreamed.

He dreamed that he was back in the meadow in his woods, the sunlight spilling over the grass as the animals grazed.

"Hello, brother."

The unicorn turned his head and watch a young woman walk from the woods. She knelt on the grass next to him, the skirt of her long, flowing gown spreading around her. She ran her pale hand over the white fabric, smoothing it, before looking at him. The sun reflected off her hair, turning the red tresses into a burning copper halo. Her eyes, heavy with grief and the weight of many lifetimes, seemed to stare through him.

"Anna," he said quietly.

She smiled. "You know me, brother."

"You're dead."

She shrugged her bare shoulders and plucked at the grass. "For a time, yes. But part of me is still in this realm. And, of course, our father can be a great help when he wishes."

"Why are you here?" he asked.

"I know what you're doing, Castiel."

The unicorn flinched away from the sound of his name and stared out across the meadow. "No one has called me by my name for a long time."

His sister rested her hand on the side of his neck. "I know, brother, I know," she murmured. Anna withdrew her hand and pressed her body to Castiel's, leaning against his stronger form. He opened one of his wings and folded it around her.

"Why did you do it?" he asked.

"They were going to hurt that boy," Anna said quietly. She sighed and relaxed under his wing. "I didn't think. I love humans, Castiel. They are so full of life and love and things I would never have gotten to do if I had stayed or come back here. My husband was a good man, and the things I got to do as a human seemed like miracles. I did miss my wings, though." She ran her hand over Castiel's wing, stroking the feathers. "I missed flying."

"If you could make a different choice, would you turn back?"

Anna shook her head, nuzzling his neck. "No. I knew from the first moment I stood in that clearing I would never trade my humanity for anything. Not for my immortality, or my beauty, or my grace. Not even for my wings." They sat in silence for a while and watched the animals graze and come to drink from the stream. "I forgot how beautiful this place was."

"Why are you here, Anna?"

"I came to warn you," she said softly, continuing to stroke his feathers. "Castiel, your mission is dangerous, but you can do it. You can find the others, and bring them home, only if you are brave. The red smoke took our brothers and sisters. It drove them to the ends of the earth and covered their footprints so no man or beast could find them. But you are not a man, and you are no ordinary beast. You will find them and bring them home. Men will tell tales of the red smoke, or whisper of unicorns. Follow them."

"What is the red smoke?"

"I don't know," she answered. Moving her hand, Anna lightly traced the base of his horn. "I kept my horn because it was my intent to fight. Remember that, Castiel."

"You kept your horn?"

Anna smiled, and a long, twisted sword appeared in her hand. It was the color of blood just beginning to rust, and seemed to glow and hum in the sunlight. "It can no longer heal or save a life. My intent was to save that man by destroying the others, so that is all that it can do now. But, yes, I kept it for all of my days. A unicorn's horn is proof against death itself, but it can also kill anything in this world. Remember that, too."

Anna shrugged out from under his wing and ran her fingers over the feathers a final time before she stepped away from him. He stood to follow her, but she held out her hand. "How do you know all of this?"

Anna raised her face to the sky. "Our father told me. The one who made us all. He knows what your journey will bring, brother, and he has great plans for you." She lowered her head and smiled at him. "Mortality is a beautiful thing, Castiel. Do not take it for granted."

Anna turned away from him. "Wait, please! I have more questions!" he called. She ignored him and walked into the trees, vanishing among the foliage.

Castiel jerked awake, staring into a set of cold, iron bars. A dark-haired woman smiled at him from the other side. "Well, and here I thought they were all gone. Hello, little unicorn."

"Ruby, I don't think this is a good idea," said a tall man. The dark-haired woman huffed and turned to face him, jabbing the man in the chest.

"Shut up, Sam!" she growled. "Do you know what this could do for us? How many people would pay to see a unicorn, let alone buy one?"

"Most people can't even tell he is a unicorn," Sam argued.

"That's an easy fix." Ruby waved her hand in Castiel's direction, and a burning pain shot through him. Tossing his head, Castiel watched as Sam gaped at him. "Now everyone will see the other horn. No one cares about the wings. Most legends don't mention those."

"It still isn't right!"

Ruby scowled. "Don't do anything stupid, Sam." She turned to face Castiel again and smiled sweetly. "In case you get any ideas about escaping, just know I have something that can hurt even you." She drew a knife from her hip and ran her fingers over the steel. "It can kill almost anything. Of course, there are a few things it can't kill, like dragons, or you, but the wound will still hurt like a bastard. Enough to keep you down while I put you back in that cage, anyway. At least, that's what the legends say."

Pushing the knife back into her belt, she smiled again. "Let me go," Castiel said softly. "I have a quest."

"Better here than on that quest," she argued. "You're safer here than on the road. With me, the red smoke can't get to you. Why risk your life like that?"

"You know of the red smoke?" Castiel asked.

"I know that this is a better fate than the death that you were moving toward." The woman ran her hand down the tall man's arm. "Come on, Sam. It's almost dawn. Time for the show to open."

"Show?"

Sam opened his mouth, but Ruby drove her elbow into his side. "Stay away from him, Sam." She smirked at Castiel. "Sammy and I collect oddities and display them to the adoring public. The peasants love to see the creepy crawlies of the night behind bars."

The sky began to lighten, and Castiel turned his head to see that his was not the only cage. Arranged in a half circle, he counted six other cages, each containing a snarling beast. When he looked harder, the images of the mythical creatures faded away to reveal ordinary animals.

"They are all illusions," he said. "That dragon you claim to hold is nothing but a snake, and that griffin is nothing but a horse."

"They're safer that way. Sam and I educate the masses about the best way to kill supernatural creatures. This way they're safe while they learn, and they get a bit of a show." The woman glanced at the cages. "My magic can't change things, I admit, but it can fool the stupid peasants that come to see the show. Thing is, people look at a unicorn and see something it's not, no matter how much they want to believe. People are stupid."

"Keep the illusions, but set me free. I have a quest," he repeated.

"Never," Ruby spat. "How many witches can say they ever held a unicorn? Not one. You're mine." She turned on her heal and walked across the clearing, her skirt swishing in the early-morning air.

"I'm sorry," the man said quietly. "I told her to leave you alone, but she wouldn't listen."

"Your friend should have," Castiel replied. "It is unwise to try to hold a real supernatural creature captive."

"I know." Sam shifted where he stood. "I had this brother once. He and I used to hunt monsters, before he went missing and I joined up with Ruby. Look, if I can, I'll get you out of here."

"That would be appreciated."

"Sam, get over here!" Ruby called, opening the door to a wagon. "We have ledgers to go over before the people start lining up."

"I will be back," Sam promised.

.

Castiel sat through the people coming to see the illusions until the crowd left at nightfall. He watched one old woman with faded, coppery hair cry when she saw him, her eyes a deep, dark blue, and felt a pain grow in his chest. The moon rose to the top of the sky before Sam appeared, bathing the clearing in a silver glow.

"I'm sorry. I had to wait until she was asleep," he said. "Ruby's a bit of a night owl, like me." Fishing into his pocket, Sam withdrew a pin. "I couldn't get the keys from her."

"I could escape myself if I could reach the lock," Castiel explained as he watched Sam work at the metal. After a few moments, Sam opened the lock and stepped back, pulling open the cage as he went.

"There you go. You're free," he said. Delicately, Castiel stepped out of the cage. He tossed his head and felt the weight of the fake horn disappear as soon as all four of his feet were on the ground.

Taking a few steps away from the cage, Castiel tossed his head again. "I thank you."

"Yeah, you're welcome. You should get outta here before-"

"Before Ruby finds us?" Ruby asked, stepping from the shadows. She gripped her knife and smiled. "Tut, tut, Sam. Here I thought you cared about me."

"This was wrong," Sam said, stepping in front of Castiel. "Let him go, Ruby."

"Put him back in that cage, Sam." She stepped closer and held the knife up. "Or move out of the way and let me do it."

Sam held up his hands. "C'mon, Ruby. Don't do this."

"We could trade him for your brother, you realize that, right?" Her smile got wider when Sam stared at her in shock.

"You know where Dean is? You know and you didn't tell me?"

"You would've left," she said softly. "But if we give Alastair that unicorn, he might give us Dean." Her smile softened and she let her knife arm dangle at her side. Walking right up to him, Ruby placed a hand on his face. "All three of us together, Sam. All you have to do is turn over one little supernatural creature. You've done that a million times with Dean, haven't you?"

Sam stared down at her. "Evil things. Not a unicorn. Dean wouldn't want something else hurt just so I can find him."

Her face darkened. "Move, Sam. Now. That's my unicorn. I'm keeping him."

"No."

"Then I'll move you," Ruby said sadly, lifting the knife again. Sam backed away, eyes widening, and dodged when she swung her knife at him.

Castiel backed away from the fight, ignoring the screeches as Sam and Ruby lunged at each other in the clearing. Walking toward the cages, he touched each lock with his horn. The iron made a soft sound when it hit the grass and the doors opened with a creak. He watched as each of the animals raced for the trees, the illusions cloaking them falling away once they touched the ground outside the cages.

He turned as the last animal ran off and watched Ruby lock her hand around Sam's throat. The tall boy gurgled, one hand reaching for the knife that had been flung to the side.

"I'm sorry, Sam," Ruby said as he flailed underneath her. "I really am." Passively, Castiel stared at the pair, wings rustling slightly.

Sam finally grabbed the knife and threw his weight, managing to pin Ruby down under him. Without speaking, he plunged it into her stomach. She stared up at him, disbelief written on her face. "I'm sorry, too. I can't let you hurt something that's not evil."

Silently, Castiel walked up to Sam. "I would thank you for that, too, but I am not sure you want my thanks."

"No."

"You regret what you had to do," he observed, not looking at Ruby's body.

"Of course I do. I loved her." Sam looked away. "But you don't?"

"No," the unicorn said, no emotion in his voice. "I can't feel that. I can feel sorrow, although I do not feel that for her, but I suppose that is not the same thing.

"Not even close."

"Is there anything I could do for you?" Castiel asked gently. Sam pulled the knife from Ruby and wiped it on the grass before shoving it through his belt.

"Can you help me find my brother? If she wasn't lying, then he might still be out there."

"I do not think so," Castiel answered. "If I had met him before, I could find him again. But I have never spoken to a human before now."

"You said you had a quest," Sam said, changing the subject. "What are you looking for?"

"The others. I was told that the red smoke took them all somewhere. I intend to find my brothers and sisters, and to free them if I can. Do you know anything of the red smoke?"

"Only where it comes from," Sam told him, pointing to the east. "A kingdom on the edge of the sea. I don't know what it's really called. For years and years everyone's just called it Hell. It's ruled by a man named Crowley. Ruby wouldn't go near there, and the peasants of the other countries were all scared of him."

"Then that's where I will go," Castiel said softly.

Sam shrugged and stood, brushing the grass off his knees. "I'll go with you."

"Why?"

Sam shrugged again and looked away. "I dunno. I might find my brother on the way, or I could help you. There's nothing for me here."

"If you wish," the unicorn said. He turned away from Ruby's body and walked toward the east, waiting for Sam to follow.