"You think you're ready for this, Cas?" Dean hands Cas the gun he took from the Impala's trunk. "Withces are tricky sons of bitches, so watch your back." He adds, looking Castiel in the eyes. The man seems somewhat nervous before his first hunt as a human. He has been in training for weeks, learning how to protect himself without the Angel powers.
"I am ready." Castiel says, clutching the gun in his hands. He looks past Dean, onto the small hut in the middle of the huge property filled with tall grass. There is a distinct trail where someone has been walking in and out of the property several times.
Sam comes around the car to stand by his brother's side. "This fucker is most likely on the inside, but we need to check the outside as well, just to be sure. Cas, you wanna search around the hut?" Dean asks, pulling out his own gun. Castiel nods. "ok, good. Me and Sam will take the inside then. You know what to do if you need us." He places his hand on Cas' shoulder and drags him in for a brief kiss, before all three walk toward the hut.
Sam picks the lock, the door slides open silently. Dean sneaks inside with his brother close behind. Castiel watches them until they're inside before he walks quietly around to the back of the hut.
He startles when he comes across a cloaked man with his back to him. He seems to be looking at the skies. Castiel aims the gun at the man and is about to say something, when the man turns around very fast. Castiel fires in panic, missing the man completely as he comes up with two fingers to Castiel's forehead. Castiel just manages to catch a glimpse of the somewhat panicked golden eyes of the man before he sinks unconsciously to the ground, his gun slipping from his hands.
Just a few seconds later, Dean comes running from one side, while Sam comes from the other. They look frantically around, seeing no one. "Cas?!" Dean shouts, spinning on the spot, trying to catch a glimpse of anything that could be Cas.
"Dean! Something went down here." Sam is crouching near the wall of the hut. Dean hurries over, seeing the gun he'd handed Castiel just a few minutes earlier. They can clearly see footprints, and it looks like someone has been laying on the ground, but there's no blood.
"Damn it! We should have sticked together!" Dean growls. He looks at the grass, trying to see if there's any sign of someone walking through it. There's no trail, however, he sees something big and tan in the tall grass a few feet from them. "Sam? There's something in the grass over there. I'm taking a look."
Sam stands, looking in the direction Dean walks in. Dean walks slowly, prepared for anything. He thinks.
He stops abruptly, staring in disbelief at the thing in front of him. "It's a fucking horse!" Dean shouts back at Sam. Sam jogs over, wanting to see for himself. It is laying lifelessly on the ground. It's tan coloured, like the trench coat Castiel was wearing. It has a black mane and tail, black stockings on each leg, it's muzzle is black and it's black around it's eyes.
"Is it dead?" Sam asks, staring down at the big creature.
"I don't know." Dean pokes the horse carefully. No reaction. "I think it might be. Damn shame though." He pokes it again. "Whatever, we need to find Cas." He says, loosing interest in the horse.
"I'm guessing the witch has something to do with his disappearance. I think the best thing to do is getting back to the motel and search for signs." Sam suggests.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Castiel wakes up, the light is fading, and he thinks it strange that he's laying in the grass. He lifts his head a bit, looking around him. He's alone. He tries getting to his feet, but his body feels strange. Hair suddenly obscures his eyes. He lifts his hand to brush it away, but he can't reach.
With panic building in his chest, he looks down at his body. "This can not be happening! This can not be happening!" He thinks to himself, staring at his... hooves. He realises his vision is strange too, seeing to either side, but having a blind spot straight in front of him. He turns his head to look down the rest of the body. "A horse! I am a horse! How did this happen?" He thinks, trying to call for help only for it to come out as a low neigh.
Deciding there's nothing else to do, he struggles to get to his feet like a newborn foal. When he finally is on his feet, he finds it fairly easy to navigate with his four legs. He looks around the property to make sure Sam and Dean isn't there, before he starts walking back to the motel.
He makes sure not to walk too close to the road, in case someone decided to take him to a shelter or something like it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sam searches the internet and calls other hunters, trying to find anything connected to the witch. Or something that could tell them where Castiel was. He has been working on it for hours without any luck.
Dean on the other hand has been out driving, looking for the ex-Angel. It's evening when he stumbles tiredly through the door, handing his brother a greasy paper bag. He collapses on the bed with a huff.
"No sign of him?" Sam guesses. He's starting to get worried. Castiel is human after all. He can't just fly off and come back to them. Besides, they have no idea what the other Angels would do if they found him first.
Dean sits up on the bed, looking defeated. It had been almost two years since the last time Castiel was taken from them on a hunt. It was terrible memories, but he also had some pretty awesome ones from that time too. Dean and Cas had been together since then. Sam had kept one of Castiel's feathers from back then, and given it to Dean after. Said feather was now in his hands.
"No... I don't understand where he could be!" Dean sighs, looking at the black feather in his hands.
They both jump at the loud banging noise suddenly coming from the door. It sounds like someone is pounding on it with something made of stone or hard wood. Dean leaves the feather on the bed, grabbing his gun, slowly walking to the door. Sam stands ready with his own gun.
Dean's hand wrap slowly around the handle, opening the door as slow as possible, looking through the crack.
He screams at the loud snorting noise coming from something black that's up in his face as soon as the door opens. "What the hell!" he yells, his voice cracking slightly as he jumps back, aiming at the thing in the wide open door. It takes him a moment to realise just what the thing is.
Sam bursts into laughter when he sees the horse sticking it's head in the doorway. It's huge, and it has decided to come into their motel room. It's halfway into the room when Dean suddenly snaps back to reality and tries shooing it out again. It simply stops dead, planting it's hooves in the floor, refusing to get out. It nudges it's head at Dean, tilting it's head slightly to the side better to look Dean in the eyes.
"Holy shit..." Dean says when he sees it's eyes. There's only one other creature with such blue eyes. He stares into the deep ocean of blue that reminds him so much of Castiel. It nudges it's muzzle against Dean's cheek.
"Dean! That's the horse from outside the hut!" Sam suddenly realises and he too freezes up a bit when he sees the horse's eyes.
The horse turns to Sam, it's ears pointing in his direction. It neighs softly, looking somewhat sad. It turns back to Dean again, but catches a glimpse of the feather on Dean's bed. It steps forwards, catching it between it's lips, holding it up in front of Dean.
Dean panics, grabbing for the feather. "Give it back you shit!" he shouts, scared that the horse will destroy it. He gets hold of it, and the horse lets it go, it's ears dropping a bit, making it look sadder than before. It tries to nudge it's muzzle against Dean once more, but he steps back, looking mad at the horse. "Get the hell out of here!" he shouts.
The horse looks pleadingly at him, then at Sam. It seems to realise something, drops it's head low, backing out the door. Once outside, it stops, looking at them again. Dean slams the door on it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Castiel stands outside the door feeling like the world is crashing in on him. His only hope was the Winchester brothers, and they didn't recognise him. Dean. The one he has been standing side by side with for years. His Dean, didn't recognise him.
He stands there. Lost. Until he decides he will not give up. So what if he's a horse. He'll still be protecting the brothers. He looks around for a place to rest, and decides it'll be best to hide between the trees on the other side of the parking lot.
He finds a comfortable spot where he clumsily lies down, attempting to sleep. It takes a while, but the slumber finally gets him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dean wakes up before Sam and decides to go out and get some breakfast for the two of them. He pulls on the jeans from yesterday, and a random T-shirt from his duffle. When in the bathroom, he realises it's one of the T-shirts he'd given to Castiel. For a few minutes he just stands there, staring at the shirt.
He pulls on his boots, grabs the keys to the Impala, gets out the door and is about to close it when he sees the horse. He jumps backwards with a yelp, hurries back inside and slams the door shut, leaning against it.
Sam jumps out of bed with the gun ready, staring at his brother. "Dean, what is it?" He asks on edge. It has to be something bad if it scared his brother like that.
"The fucking horse is back!" Dean whispers, staring at his brother like it was the devil himself standing on the outside. "It's standing by the car, blocking her!" he hisses.
Sam relaxes, goes over to the window and looks through the curtains. He has to laugh. The horse looks like it's deliberately hindering them from leaving, staring almost madly at the door to their room. "Seems like it likes you very much" he chuckles while going back to his duffle by the bed, dragging on his clothes.
"This is not funny, Sam! We're supposed to find Cas, not be harassed by a stubborn horse!" the man shouts. "Help me get rid of it!"
"I'm starting to wonder if you're afraid of horses." Sam teases.
"Have you seen the size of that thing?! It's the biggest fucking horse I've ever seen! And did you see those muscles? Trust me when I tell you that isn't a normal horse!" Dean hisses at his brother.
Sam shakes his head, but follows his brother out the door. He must admit he thinks the horse is strange, and Dean's right when it comes to the size of it. And right now, it is staring them down with it's intense blue gaze.
"Shoo! Get away from my car, you beast!" Dean shouts at it. In an instant, the horse turns furious. It's ears lays flat against it's head which it lifts up to look bigger, and it stomps one of it's front hooves. It also lets out something sounding like a low growl. It whips it's tail irritatingly, levelling Dean with the most hateful stare to ever have been seen on a horse. As if to make a point, the horse backs closer to the car, placing it's tail on the trunk of it.
"I think you pissed it off" Sam chuckles. "Hang in there Dean, I think I have an idea." He jogs off around the building.
Dean stands there, staring back at the horse. It still looks damn pissed off as it watches his every move. It also looks terribly sad.
The horse lowers it's head, neighing weakly. It takes a few steps towards Dean, reaching out it's head towards him, but Dean steps back. The horse closes it's eyes, hanging it's head.
Sam comes back around with two buckets. One filled with water, which he places by the wall of the motel, the other one filled with newly plucked apples and some carrots. "They had apple trees by the reception building, and they sold some carrots inside. I figured it must be hungry." He tells his brother as he walks toward the horse. It opens it's eyes, looking hungrily at the bucket Sam holds out to it. He grabs an apple, reaching out to the horse. It stretches out to the apple in his hand, and follows him when he slowly backs away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Is that an apple?" Castiel thinks as Sam holds out his hand towards him. "Oh, I am so hungry..." he realises as his body automatically moves after Sam as he backs off towards the motel wall. He steals the apple out of Sam's hand, but it isn't nearly enough. When Sam puts the bucket down and steps away from it, Castiel immediately sticks his head in to get more of the fruit. He jumps at the sound of the Impala roaring to life, and stares in defeat after the black muscle car as it leaves the parking lot with both brothers inside. As he can't do anything about it, he goes back to eating up the carrots and the apples, and drinking the water Sam had found for him.
After finishing the bucket of water, he wanders aimlessly around the parking lot, before hiding in between the trees again. While waiting for the brothers to come back, he thinks over how cruel Dean had been to him this short time of being a horse. He can't believe Dean doesn't recognise him.
Sensing he is about to get into a dangerous train of thoughts, he focuses on staring at the motel instead. Closing off his thoughts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Dumb horse.." Dean grunts as they leave to get breakfast. Sam just looks at him for a minute.
"Do you really think you should be so harsh towards him? You said yourself he isn't a normal horse" Sam begins, watching his brother while he speaks. "And... doesn't he feel familiar to you? And those eyes... and his attitude... I tell you, he reminds me of Cas." Sam says carefully.
"Him? And what. You think the witch turned Cas into a horse? No way, dude. If anything, they do like, frogs and shit. Not fucking horses." Dean replies irritated. He grinds his teeth, and Sam sees a muscle in his jaw jump. He stays silent after that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Castiel didn't realise he'd fallen asleep until he woke with a start at the sound of the Impala approaching. He waited patently for the brothers to park the car. When they got out of the car, they opened the back doors and pulled some bags and books out of the back seat. They went inside the motel-room without closing the doors, and Castiel caught sight of his spare trench coat in the back.
Dean had gotten him a spare coat that fitted him a little better soon after the fall. It was a present to make him feel better, and he often used that one instead of the old one. It had slightly different details to it, but other than that, it was the exact same colour, and looked pretty much like the old one.
He trots to the car, leans in and snatches the coat out of the seat, turning his head and tossing it over his back. When he turns back, he can see both brothers standing frozen right outside the door of the motel, staring in shock at him. He neighs at them, turns his head to the coat, then back at them, trying to tell them who he is.
Dean suddenly looks like he's staring at Azazel. His expression turns cold with hate and he takes a step closer, staring directly at the coat. It looks like he's reaching for the gun in the back of his pants, and Castiel starts to panic. He's not going to shoot him, is he? He can't be.
Luckily, Sam catches Dean's movements, and jumps on him. "Are you fucking out of your mind?!" he yells at his brother, grabbing the gun out of his hand. He turns back to Castiel. "Cas... is that you?" he asks.
Castiel could have cried in relief. "yes!" he tries to say, remembering too late that he can't speak. It comes as a snort. He nods his head, trying to answer the best he can.
"Oh my god... Cas..." Sam murmurs. He walks closer to him, looking him in the eye.
"That is not Castiel!" Dean shouts. Sam turns to look at him in disbelief. Castiel feels his heart sink, and he lowers his head sadly.
"Remind me to never get cursed into an animal with only you around..." Sam says, disgusted at his brother for not seeing the obvious. Dean only snorts and retreats to the motel room, slamming the door behind him.
Castiel nudges his head against Sam's shoulder. Sam turns around, looking apologetically at him. "I'm so sorry... He's worried sick about you, you know... I guess he just can't accept the fact that you were turned to a horse..." Sam tries to comfort him, but doesn't seem to know how. He reaches up and pets his forehead.
"This is kind of awkward, isn't it?" Sam removes his hand with an apologetic smile. Castiel lowers his head over Sam's shoulder, trying his best to hug him. Right now nothing feels awkward to him. He just needs it. "We'll find a way to get you back to normal. I promise." Sam says and reaches up to hug the horse back.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dean sank down on his bed after slamming the door shut. "Could it be..? Is it really him out there?" He thinks, staring down at the T-shirt he's wearing. He shouldn't really be surprised. In their line of work, everything is possible. But he simply can't feel it. Yes, it has Cas's eyes, and it acts somewhat like him, but it could all be a trick. What if the witch got hold of Cas and decided to play a trick on them? What if that animal out there actually is the witch's Familiar?
Dean rubs his hand down his face, sighing in frustration. Cas had made him drink much less, and made him promise to keep it like that, but right now he really felt like having some whiskey. He almost stood up to go buy some, but then remembered the horse by his car. He groaned. Then he remembered the small fridge under the desk. He jumped off of the bed, opened the fridge and fisted his hand in triumph, before taking the small bottles of alcohol out and shutting it.
Dean was about to down the last small bottle, when Sam came back inside. He just caught Dean swallowing the remains of the bottle, before he turned away from Sam.
"Dean! What the hell?" Sam's Bitch face was in place instantly. He looked around the room, seeing the empty small bottles on the desk, the bottle of alcohol they used for disinfection, and some beer bottles in the trashcan. There never were much alcohol in those small bottles, but there had been plenty in their medicine bag.
Sam fixes his stare back at his brother. The man was pouting at the empty bottle, but soon turned around with a drunken grin on his face. "I haven't been with you for what, Ten, Fifteen minutes, and you drank up all the alcohol there was in here? What about your promise to Cas?" Sam Sighed and sat down.
"Well, Cas ain't here, is he. Bastard went and disappeared on me. And there's a horse harassing me. IthinkI'mallowedtodrinkafterall" the last sentence was said somewhat slurry and fast. He stared at Sam, and then made for the door. "My keys" he demanded when he remembered Sam had them.
"Forget it. I'm not letting you drive like that!" Sam tossed back. "Cas is going to be pissed." He added more quietly.
"Whatever. There's a bar just down the road. I'll walk." Dean tossed back at Sam and slammed the door behind him. He stumbled slightly just outside the door, but straightened up fast. He looked around, and when he couldn't see the horse, he smirked a little, before walking off towards the bar.
He froze in his steps however, when he heard clicking noises behind him. He closed his eyes begging for it not to be the horse, and turned around. Of course it was the fucking horse! It followed him just a few steps behind him, and stopped when he turned towards it. It almost looked worried as it gazed back at him.
"Leave me alone!" He shouts at it and keeps walking. He sighs as he hears the stubborn horse still following him, but he tries to ignore it.
Just as he's about to go through the bar doors, he feels something grabbing onto his jacket collar and yanking him backwards. He turns around annoyed and stares at the horse. "Give me a fucking break!" he yells and stomps through the doors anyway.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cas feels horrible. After watching Dean stomp through the doors, he falls back, trying to hide the best he can in an alleyway. A few drunks walks past, stopping abruptly, staring shocked at him for a while before running off away from the bar.
He had been hiding for a few hours when finally, Dean stumbles out. But he's not alone. After Dean, two very big, muscular guys comes out, shouting at him. Dean slurs some insults their way, making one of the guys jump on him. The big guy lands a hard blow to Dean's jaw. Dean lands a drunken blow to the guy's abdomen, only making the guy laugh. The other Guy joins in, and Dean takes several hits, before Castiel rushes forward.
He comes in behind Dean just as he's sent flying to the ground. Castiel stares the guys down, letting out a low threatening neigh as he steps protectingly over Dean. The guys stares at him for a few moments, before bursting out laughing.
Castiel doesn't like how they try to close in on them while laughing, so he ends up jumping forward, smashing his head into the forehead of the closest man. The man falls unconsciously to the ground, and the other one stares dumbfounded between the man on the ground and the horse.
The man backs off a bit, so Castiel turns to face Dean, still on the ground. He's fallen asleep. Suddenly, Castiel hears the familiar click of a gun. He spins around and rears, kicking his hooves towards the sound. The gun goes off just before Castiel hits the man's jaw. The pain shoots through him, making him almost loose balance. He watches the man fall to the ground. He too, unconscious.
Castiel looks at the wound on his thigh. It doesn't seem so bad, but it bleeds, and it hurts a lot. He turns his attention to Dean. He thinks about dragging him by his collar back to the motel, but decides it would be very uncomfortable for him. He decides then to lay down beside him, trying to wake him by nudging his shoulder.
Dean wakes and mumbles something. He looks drunkenly at the horse and grins. "Hey there horsie! What do you say we go for a ride!" He blurts out, and crawls upon Castiel's back. Castiel stays down, confused for a moment, before he realizes he can get Dean back to the motel this way. He stands back up carefully, trying not to use his hurt leg too much. "Wohaa! When did I get on a rollercoaster?!" Dean blurts before clutching Castiel's mane, and practically laying down. Castiel starts walking, favouring his right hind leg. Soon he hears Dean's soft snores again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sam jumps at the loud banging on the door. He grabs his gun, opening the door cautiously. He stares at the horse for a moment before realising Dean's on its back. "What happened?! Is he ok?" Sam hurries over to bring Dean down, and into the motel room. As he gets Dean on the bed, he realises he has bruises on his face. He lifts his shirt to check for other injuries, but only finds bruises. He sighs in relief. He turns back to Castiel, about to thank him for getting his brother back, but then he sees him holding up his right hind leg. As he looks closer, he sees blood dripping from a wound somewhere.
"Cas! What happened! Why are you bleeding?" he asks, running over to check him over. The horse flinches slightly at the touch, but stays in place while Sam checks him out. "Oh god.. you were shot at?!" Sam stares the horse in the eye. It nods and whips it's tail back and forth in irritation. "Hold on, I think I can get the bullet out and stitch it.. but you'll have to get inside." Sam said, gesturing for Castiel to get into the Motel room.
The horse stares at him, and then at the small room, like it was asking him if he lost his mind. "Come on, I know it's small, but you know I can't do this out in the open." Sam says slapping Cas friendly on his back. Once again the horse flinches, but slowly walks into the room. It stands awkwardly between the beds and the wall, not knowing where to put itself.
Sam suddenly appears by Cas's head, staring into his eyes, holding up a pair of long tweezers. "I'll have to dig that bullet out. It will most likely be painful. But please, try to be quiet, and don't move too much. Ready?" Cas lays his ears flat, but nods slightly.
He Can feel it when Sam sticks the tweezers into his wound. A startled cry escapes before he manages to silence himself as Sam keeps going.
It felt like hours, but it only took a few minutes to get the bullet out and get the wound stitched.
Sam smiles at him apologetically as he cleans off the blood from Cas's Thigh.
Sam suddenly realizes where he was rubbing the cloth, if Cas had been human right about now, and decides it had been cleaned enough. He looks startled as he backs off from the big horse.
Cas shifts in place, not knowing where to put himself. Eventually, Sam settles on his bed, telling Cas to try get some sleep if he could get somewhat comfortable. Castiel ends up falling asleep while standing, though favouring his right hind leg.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dean groans as he awakes, his chest feeling like it had been trampled by a horse. He finds he can not remember anything after settling by the bar last night.
He stands up, swaying a bit. Somehow he'd managed to peel the pillowcase off the pillow while he'd slept, and now it lay crumpled on his shoulder. He stares down at it with a confused frown, before reaching up to take it.
He realises the air in the room is very heavy, he also hears heavy breathing. No, wait. That sounds like two breathing patterns. What the hell.
Suddenly he sees a huge shadow before him in the still dark room. He jumps sky high, and by instinct hits in front of himself, ending up using the pillowcase as a whip.
A high pitched cry fills the room just as Dean feels the pillowcase hit and catch a bit in something in front of him.
Dean can hear Sam scrambling in his bed as well as scraping sounds and a heavy thud in front of him as the shadow sinks to the ground.
The lights blinds Dean for a moment. "What the hell did you do?!" he hears Sam shout at him. When he finally manages to open his eyes, he sees Sam kneeling in front of the horse. The horse? What the hell is it doing in here? He stares in shocked silence at the collapsed creature. "You pulled the stitches out! And made him bleed again!" Sam tosses at him.
"What is it doing in our room anyway?! Wait... Stitches? What's going on here?" Dean felt a pang of worry, but he pushed it down fast.
"He got shot, presumably while protecting your drunken sorry ass yesterday. And still he carried you back here!" Sam Gets the needle and thread out from their medical kit, crouching by the horse's head. "I'm sorry Cas, I'll have to stitch it again thanks to my idiot brother." He whispers. A weak whine escapes the horse's mouth.
Dean watches Sam stitch the wound again. He suddenly sees the horse watching him wearily with those intense blue eyes.
Is it really him? With those eyes... it has to be him... but what if it isn't? I've been terrible to him. What is he thinking about me now? No. stop it. Sam can't see you like this. Cas can't see you like this. If it is Cas.
Dean shook his head and walked into the bathroom. He couldn't take this right now. "We need to find somewhere big enough for us all to stay together" He heard Sam say. He ignored it for now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dean drove through town looking for a place they could stay with the horse. Sam had gone back to searching the internet and newspapers for anything supernatural. Especially a certain witch.
He soon finds an abandoned barn. He's impressed that it's still standing, in fact he's impressed it's in such good shape. The house beside it however is a total wreck, having been burned almost to the ground. Taking a look inside, he decides it's safe and will be warm enough as soon as they get the space heater going. Dean's luck usually ends up with something bad happening, but this time it gave him a break for once. There's electricity in the barn.
Coming back out from the barn, he looks around more closely. It's located by a huge forest, and apart from a small pasture on the other side of the house, there's not much land here.
He picks out his phone, pressing the speed dial and brings it to his ear. It only rings once. "Hiya Sammy. Found an abandoned barn by this burnt down house. It even has electricity! Pack your stuff, I'll be there in ten." He hung up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Dean finally shows up, 30 minutes had passed since he called Sam. "what took you so long?" Sam asks him as he enters the motel room. Dean doesn't answer, only tossing his keys to Sam.
Dean eyes the pillows and covers on the bed. "We paid up front, didn't we?"
"Yeah, why?"
Dean grabs the covers, tossing them over his shoulder, ruffling through the closet by the door, letting out a sound in triumph as he finds two more covers. He also grabs all the pillows and makes for the door.
As he gets back inside, he picks up their duffle bags and walks back out. Cas and Sam changes looks, before following him out.
Castiel watches the brothers have a conversation too silent for him to hear, and then Sam walks off to deliver the keys at the front desk.
Castiel moves his attention back to Dean. He's approaching him, guilt in his eyes. "Hey.. Are you really Cas..?" Castiel nods, staring at Dean. "Shit.. I've been a douche. Do you feel better?" Dean gestures towards Cas' thigh. Castiel nods slowly.
Dean reaches up and places his hands on either side of Cas' head, leaning in and resting his forehead against it. "We'll get you changed back soon. I promise." He whispers. "But know this. If this is a trick, and you are not Castiel, I will fucking kill you." As he says this, his hands tightens around Cas' head. He backs away a little, staring fiercely into his eyes.
"I am Castiel!" Castiel wants to scream at Dean, but then Dean loosens his grip around his head and lets one of his hands stroke carefully down his face. Castiel forgets he was ever mad at Dean for not seeing the obvious, and leans into the touch.
"Ready to go?" Sam walks over to them, car keys in hand.
"I'll walk with this one here. Kinda owe it after what I did." Dean mumbles. "I told you where it is, so go get our stuff inside."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"You ok?" Dean asks as they walk slowly on their way to the abandoned barn. Castiel's thigh hurts, and he favours his leg as they walk. He nods in answer to Dean's question. Dean walks a little bit ahead of Castiel, leading the way.
Suddenly they hear a screech from a car abruptly stopping just behind them. A woman hurries out, slams the door and stomps towards them. Castiel stops, turns his head and ears towards her, curious to what's going on.
"Is that your horse?!" She yells at Dean. Dean flinches a bit at her tone, but quickly draws himself together and squares his shoulders.
The woman has her honey coloured hair in a pony tail. She's wearing a light blue shirt tucked into tight fitting dark brown riding pants, with her knee high black riding boots over the pant legs. Her eyes a fierce gold.
"Yeah. Why?" He spits at her.
"What the hell do you think you're doing to it?! Why are you dragging it with you all this way when it clearly is in pain?!" She screams at him.
Taken aback, Dean just stares at her for a moment. "Do you see any rope here, lady? Does it really look like I'm fucking forcing him along?" He spits back.
Having had enough of this woman verbally violate Dean, Cas lets out a low neigh, stepping in between the two, slightly pushing the woman away. He turns his head toward her and pulls his ears down, trying to look angry, whipping his tail in irritation.
She just stares shocked at him. "Easy there Cas. She's just a concerned woman interfering with things she has no clue about. Let's go." Dean smirks and starts walking.
Castiel snorts in the shocked woman's face, making her flinch, before he follows Dean.
After getting far enough away from the woman, Dean slows down just slightly. "Does it hurt a lot?" Dean whispers, guilt cloaking his voice. Castiel doesn't know how he can answer Dean. It hurts, yes. But it's not too bad. He tries to shake his head as best as he can. Dean doesn't look like he believes him, but he stays silent, and keeps walking.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sam stares at the supplies inside the barn. That's why Dean had been so late. He had gone and bought food for Cas. Or really, he had bought horse food, but Cas is a horse right now, so he probably need that. There's hay, apples, carrots, oats... he had really gone out of his way to feed him.
He plugs in the little space heater Dean had purchased, starting it up to get warmth in the barn. He gets all their stuff inside, and sits down to do more research, waiting for his Brother and Cas.
Half an hour later, the barn door opens, and Dean lets Cas inside, closing it behind him. Cas looks tired as he walks over to Sam, he doesn't even look at the food as he walks past it.
Dean grabs two of the covers from the motel room, spreading them neatly side by side on the floor close to where Sam had dumped their sleeping bags. "Hey, you can lay down here. It'll be better than laying on the cold floor" He says softly. Cas looks grateful for that. He lays down on the covers immediately. Soon, Dean spreads the last two covers over him to keep him warm. Cas is already asleep.
Dean walks over and sits down beside his bother. They sit in silence like that, just staring into nothingness for a while.
"Do you think he's in much pain?" Dean asks quietly, staring at Castiel.
Sam watches his brother's concerned expression. "Finally starting to believe it's actually Cas?" he asks a bit mockingly, but careful. He earns an unreadable look from his brother.
Dean sighs in resignation. "Who else would do dumb shit like taking a bullet to protect my drunk ass?" he smiles fondly but his eyes still look sad.
"I imagine it feels just like being shot or stabbed as a human, in which we have lots of experience." Sam answers Dean's earlier question. "Yes, it probably hurts." He adds more quietly.
They both return to silence.
Sam, suddenly aware that his computer had fallen into sleep mode, decides it is about time to get some sleep himself. He closes his laptop and places it on his duffle beside him.
"I'm going to bed. You should too. We still have that witch to find." He says quietly as not to wake up Castiel. He stands up and looks at his brother.
"Yeah you're right." Dean huffs as Sam take his hand, helping him up from the floor. They grab their sleeping bags, spread them out side by side, and crawls into their warmth. Soon they are both fast asleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sam wakes early the next day. Disoriented, he looks around to find out where he is, suddenly remembering he's in a barn. He looks over to where his brother laid down the night before.
Dean's gone.
Panicked, Sam stands and searches the barn. He almost bursts out laughing when he finally finds him. Dean's curled up against Castiel, and has crawled in under the covers he'd put on Cas the night before. Castiel himself is awake, and stares in disbelief down at Dean.
"I guess he finally decided you're truly Cas." Sam laughs quietly, and pats Castiel on the head. "I'll look for more sings of witch activity." He added and found his computer.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dean wakes slowly, finding himself oddly comfortable even though he slept on the floor all night. He rubs his eyes, and blinks at the light. Suddenly he realizes he's in a sitting position, and he's leaning against something warm and moving. He turns around to see he's leaning up against Castiel's stomach, and his eyes widens in shock. And then Castiel's face, or rather, the face of a horse is up in his vision. It snorts him in the face.
Sam's roaring laughter fills up the whole barn, and Dean turns to glare at him. "So sleeping beauty finally decided to wake up?" Sam laughs.
"Well if it isn't Rapunzel. Why don't you let down your hair for me to climb." Dean replies crankily.
"uh.. what?" Sam asks confused at the choice of reply. "Anyway. So I didn't get anywhere on the witch, but I found something else. I was wondering what happened to this place, you know with the house burning down. And I found this strange thing." He looks at Dean, making sure his brother is actually listening.
"So it was the man in the house who burnt it down, but the strange part is that he had been on this hike in the woods behind this house, and had been missing for days, until he suddenly came back clad in nothing but a loincloth. He had been talking about fairies and dragons and had been sent off to the psychiatric hospital. But he kept saying the dragon would burn his house down. He escaped without the nurses ever finding out how, and he lit the house on fire, killing his wife and children in the process. He then ran back into the woods and was found burned to death without any damage to the nature around him."
"Dude. A loincloth?" Dean wrinkles his nose, adjusting himself in his pants at the thought of it. Until he catches Castiel's expression. He looks terribly bored at his reaction, and proceeds to roll his eyes as good as a horse can. It kind of reminds him of that one cartoon he watched a while back. The one with the wild mustang. Spirit, yes. Spirit the stallion of the Cimarron was the name of it. When thinking about it, Cas kind of looks like the stallion himself. Stunned speechless, and a little confused after his thought process, he returns his attention to Sam.
Sam had obviously not paid attention to Dean's outburst, as he's concentrating on reading something on his screen.
"They say here that he had talked about a huge tree in the middle of the woods, and a small white stone of some sorts... huh..." Sam turned silent for a bit.
"What?" Dean was finally awake enough to get up from his position by Castiel's stomach. He stretches and ruffles through his hair.
"According to this one nurse, he had, in one of his sanest moments, talked about a very tall dark skinned man with a beard, loincloth and glowing eyes, smoking a pipe. He had seen him by the big tree in the woods. The tall man had turned to him, grinned, and a few moments later the fairies and dragons were chasing him." Sam pauses. "Have you ever heard anything like it?"
"The closest I can get is the case with the children's drawings that turned real. Or the one with the actual fairies involved.." Dean shudders at the memory.
"There are a total of five people either disappearing or found dead in the forest just in the past two months, and none of them look normal to me."
"I guess we'll have to check it out then. Let's start with the people in town." Dean mumbles rummaging around his belongings looking for anything to drink other than water. He comes up empty handed, and grabs a bottle of water with a sigh.
"Let's put everything in the car in case we need to hurry out of here" Sam adds quietly, looking guiltily at Cas. Castiel looks at him in understanding and gives him a nod.
"You wanna start with that?" Dean sips from the water bottle, heading for the horse food he'd bought. "Hey, you look hungry... I brought you some food last night. Come here and get some, I'll fill a bucket of water for you." He directs at Cas. The horse gets up, and happily walks over to the man. He really is hungry.
While Dean walks off to fill the bucket with water, Castiel buries his mule into the sack of oats, munching happily. When Dean places the bucket of water beside the oats, Castiel reaches for it at once. He jumps when he feels something around his neck, and stops drinking to rise up and see what it is.
Dean tricked him.
He'd had a rope tied much like a noose around the bucket, which he had hurriedly brought up around Cas's neck as he reached down to drink, and he's already tied it to a ring in the wall, obviously put there for this kind of use.
Cas rises his head high, staring down at Dean with his ears flat against his head, stomping the ground with his right front leg. He lets out a low neigh, sounding like a growl.
"Sorry. You'll have to stay here. I'm still not entirely convinced you're Cas. And if you appear not to be, I would prefer not to be stabbed in the back while investigating. Besides, we can't drag a horse around while asking about this case." Dean says. Cas replies with a whip of his tail in irritation.
"Dean. You sure about this? I mean... If you should find out it really is Cas, and you treat him like this...?" Sam whispers to Dean.
"I'm sure he'll understand once this is all over." Dean simply says as he picks up his duffle and heads out the door.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After driving around town, asking the inhabitants about the disappearances and mysterious deaths, Sam and Dean are on their way back to the barn. "Everyone was saying basically the same thing. Nice people suddenly turning insane after visiting the forest. Seems we have to go in there ourselves. Besides, there's another missing person." Dean sums up. Sam nods, seemingly in deep thought when suddenly his face is filled with fear as he stares out the windshield.
"Dean!" he breaths in shock. Dean turns his gaze towards where Sam is pointing, and he feels like his heart stops.
Black smoke.
He steps on the gas pedal, speeding the impala towards the smoke.
Towards the barn.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He jumps out of the car, sprinting towards the burning barn, the terrified screaming neighs coming from the inside only making him run faster. But before he can get even remotely close, he's tackled to the ground by his brother. "Dean! Are you insane?! You'll kill yourself!" Sam yells at his brother.
"Cas is in there!" Dean yells back, trying to get to his feet.
"Look at it! You can't even get inside without getting burned, and the roof is caving in! You can't!" Sam tightens his grip around Dean, using his weight to hold him down.
"CAS!" Dean yells, tears starting to form in his panicked eyes. "CASTIEL!" he yells even louder, when they hear cracking sounds from the building. The barn is completely covered in flames, with no way to get in without risking one's life. They can hear the panicked yells coming from the horse inside the building.
A deafening crack sounds like gunfire as a part of the roof caves in at the back of the barn.
The screams are abruptly cut off.
Dean stares at the flames for a moment more, before his head sinks to the ground. He lays there completely still. A horrified expression in his face.
Sam stares at the flames as he moves off of Dean, not believing what happened. Secretly praying to Cas, even though he know he can't hear him even if he is alive.
A boom, like banging on crispy wood, catches his attention, and he looks back to the barn door. As he watches, it splinters open. A few seconds later, the horse jumps through, gallops a few feet away from the burning mass, before it stops and breathes frantically. It then sinks to the ground in exhaustion.
"Dean! He made it!" Sam shakes his brother before running over to Cas.
He's lying on the ground, breathing frantically with his eyes closed. Or rather, trying to breathe. The noose Dean had tied him up with, had tightened hard around his neck, not loosening up again. Reacting fast, Sam fishes out a knife concealed in his boot, cutting the rope off. Cas immediately gasps as air finally finds it's way easily into his lungs.
Sam looks at the rope, to see how Cas got out. It was bunt off in about the middle of the length Dean had given him. He looked over the horse's body, looking for injuries, other than the bullet wound. There are none. He sighs in relief as he strokes the horse's neck in a soothing motion, while it lays there breathing.
Sam looks over at Dean then. He has pulled himself up in a sitting position, and is staring at Castiel with part relief, part shock and part doubt.
It takes Cas half an hour to get back on his feet. Sam is impressed he got up so soon. Dean has stayed in the same spot all this time, and Castiel walks over to him as soon as he gets on his feet. He puts his head down to Dean's face and rubs it against his cheek, trying to comfort him. It takes a few moments for him to react, but Dean soon wraps his arms around the horse's face, burying his own in it. He whispers apologies that only Cas can hear.