Hunter's Moon
By: Sandreline
Hello everyone! I am so happy that you are enjoying the story so far. I love getting reviews from all of you, especially familiar faces. It makes me so proud, as both writer and a friend that the names of you who have been with me for over six years now, are still interested in reading what I am writing. So thank you so much, from the bottom of my heart.
I hope you all continue to enjoy!
Chapter 2: Small Town Secret
Dean and Sam walked outside of the library slash will-die-breathing-dust museum building, once again letting their trained eyes scan around the small town. "You know, I just thought of something…" Sam commented.
"Oh yeah? What is going on in your brain, college boy?" Dean asked.
Sam gave his older brother a punch in his shoulder before he spoke. "When I was trying to get information on the angel sightings, nothing came up. There were no newspaper articles or anything."
Dean gave his brother a curious look. "But Ellen told us the Hunters that were talking to her said there had been at least a hundred sightings."
Sam gave a nod. "I know."
The older Winchester kicked a rock that was in his way, watching as it flew into the street. "So that leaves two options. One is that Ellen told us some story that some drunken Hunters told her and there is no angel. Or…"
Sam sighed. "Or the town is keeping it to themselves."
Dean sighed as well. "Yup, and I very much doubt that Ellen would send us on a wild goose chase."
Sam nodded again, placing his hands in his pockets to help warm them. "Yup." He looked to his left, spotting the diner they had eaten at a few hours earlier. "I say its time we start asking some locals."
"So much for going with the reporter routine." Dean complained. "If the town really is keeping this to themselves, then they sure as hell won't talk to reporters." He followed his brother into the diner with a rising sense of dread at the higher lever of difficulty this case was taking. Then again, maybe the hot blonde waitress was still working…
Of course, after taking a guess that the locals were being tight lipped, it shouldn't have been that much of a surprise that they were not getting any more information. As soon as the pair of Hunters brought up the subject, it caused everyone to change the subject or send them on their way. The topic of angels was like a light switch in the conversations, suddenly turning them off. Dean slammed down is now-empty coffee mug on the table. The fact that no one was too keep on talking about the matter led him to believe that something actually was going on in the remote town. "This is ridiculous. Why won't anyone tell us anything?"
A pale, feminine hand appeared in his vision, a coffee pot attached as his mug was re-filled with the black liquid. The sweet aroma of fresh coffee filled his nose as Serenity smiled softly to them and answered. "You shouldn't pry so much. These people are trying to keep the miracle quiet."
"Why?" Sam asked. "Most towns would be advertising like crazy, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out that this town could really use the traffic of tourists."
"They fear the propaganda will cause the being to flee." The blonde answered, her dark blue eyes piercing.
"I noticed you said 'being'. Do you not buy the whole 'angel' thing?" Dean asked as he took a sip of his drink. A second later and he let out a curse, having burnt his tongue on the still-too-hot beverage.
She smiled softly at the two of them. "No, I do not. I think it is just someone who wants to keep the innocents safe, to purge the darkness that has settled over this part of the country and then move on."
Dean nodded. "I know how you feel." His eyes became distant as he recalled the time a year ago on the east coast, when people were murdering random strangers and then claiming an angel told them it was the will of God. It was nothing but a murdered priest thinking he was an agent of said God. He firmly believed that if angels existed, they would have protected his mother, his father.
Sam, knowing exactly what his brother was thinking that made him go silent, spoke up to cut the tension. "What makes you think that?"
Serenity gave a small shrug before giving one of her thousand watt smiles. "I jut have a feeling. Besides, a few witnesses have said that she usually asked them not to say anything." Suddenly, she looked up at the Coca-Cola clock on the wall and smiled again. "I would love to keep talking, but my shift is over." She gave the two of them a nod before walking away. Both Winchesters watched as she replaced the pot of coffee back on its proper burner, and removed her apron before moving to the staff room to most likely change into some normal clothes.
Sam turned to look at his older sibling, who was still staring at the backside of Serenity. "Dean, I have a weird feeling about her." He whispered while leaning forward to avoid any eavesdropping.
"Yeah, I do too. It's called a boner and it occurs when you're aroused. But you need to cool it, because I have dib's." Dean turned to look at Sam.
In turn, the younger Winchester had to refrain from giving his hormonal brother the middle finger and settled for rolling his eyes. "Not like that, you moron." He said exasperated. "I mean, why did Serenity refer to the angel as a 'she'. You have to admit, she seemed pretty sure about the angel."
Dean blinked. There was a pause as Sam waited to see what his brother would say, before Dean blinked again. "Are you kidding me?" Dean finally asked. "Serenity is just a young, hot piece of woman who listens to the diner gossip." He told his brother before finishing his coffee again.
Sam looked over as he heard Serenity's voice once more as she bid her co-workers goodnight. She was wearing black jeans with a baggy hoodie, and she waved goodbye to the men in the kitchens over the food. Suddenly, Sam slapped down the cash to cover the tap and rushed his brother. "Come on Dean, let's go."
Dean's eyes lit up. "We get to follow her? As in, behind her?"
Sam smacked his brother upside the head. "Can you please focus, Dean? I swear!"
Dean scowled. "Seriously dude, you are a buzz kill."
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Sam and Dean had mastered the art of following possible suspects. Of course, that didn't mean that they had mastered the art of walking silently, so it was a good thing that the blonde they were stalking had her headphones in her ears while listening to music. Her hands were in the front pocket of her large sweater, most likely to help keep them warm from the cold night of the high mountains. She was walking out of the town, having just passed the gas station and walking south along the highway. Nothing could be heard except for a few owls here and there as well as their booted feet crunching along the asphalt.
"Where do you think she is going?" Sam whispered as well as he could. The night was bright, the full moon completely illuminating the forest around them and making it so they did not have to walk with their flashlights on. They watched Serenity disappear around the first bend of the curvy mountain road, and they waited a few moments before taking it themselves.
"I think I know." Dean whispered back. "According to a map of this place, about a hundred yards ahead is a small cut in the mountain, where a cafe with the best waffles in northern California is. There were a few houses around it. She must live in one of those."
Sam only nodded, moving to walk along around the second bend in the road where Serenity had disappeared around. This part of the state seemed to be plentiful in such bends, which made it very dangerous to drive at night. Sam and Dean stood for a few moments, waiting to be sure that Serenity wouldn't see them when they rounded the curve after her. When they walked around, however, she was nowhere to be seen.
"What the hell?" Dean asked as his eyes scanned the road.
Both of the brothers jumped back in fright as a large tree branch feel from above. The two Winchesters pulled out some MMP40's from their jackets, aiming up in the air. "Do you think something got her?" Sam asked, pulling out a flashlight and searching the trees.
Dean knelt by the road. "Found her footprints." He commented, following them just two feet further up the road before they disappeared. "Something grabbed her, and from the branch that nearly smashed us I am going to say it went up." Dean tilted his head back, looking at the trees that covered the mountains around them. "No blood, so that rules out Wendigos."
"And werewolves. We didn't hear a scream, and since Vampires like to play with their food we can rule them out." Sam added, turning to look behind them.
"No angel I know has ever kidnapped someone. We could be dealing with a demon - it wouldn't be the first time that one has impersonated something it wasn't." Dean put his gun away. "I want to know what the hell is going on."
Sam opened his mouth to reply when a vicious snarl interrupted him. Suddenly both brothers were standing side-by-side, guns pointed at the cliff over their heads. The growl came again, followed by a howl.
"What was that you were saying about werewolves, Sammy?" Dean asked as a large wolf came into view.
"Oh fuck, I don't have any silver bullets!" Sam cried before the two men opened fire.
The dark gray wolf snarled at them, leaping away as it moved to tackle them. They continued to fire their guns, keeping the wolf trained on their sights as best they could. However, the large wolf had the advantage of knowing the terrain as it weaved through the trees lining the pavement before everything went silent.
"Where is it?" Dean asked, his breath visible in the chilly air.
"I don't know." Sam replied, his gun pointing to the forest as his eyes desperately scanned the trees.
A howl sounded from behind them, and the two brothers turned to see the large wolf leap from behind the metal banister on the curve of the road, it landing before them with glowing red eyes and glittering fangs. They tried to shoot, but they had already shot off all of their rounds. The wolf lunged at them as it tasted victory.
Only to be blasted back by a beam of silver light. Sam and Dean, who had fallen to the ground as the werewolf charged them, turned to look over their shoulders at the source of their salvation.
Sam's eyes widened and Dean's throat went dry. Dean had never believed in angels, but what he saw before him quickly changed his mind - especially if all sexy angels wore the hot little number she did!
The ethereal woman was glowing a faint silver, as if all the moonlight was centered on her being. Large, glittering white wings were spread out behind her as she approached them with the heels of her white shoes clicking on the pavement. She wore a very short white dress with a gold belt around her waist and a heart belt buckle. The top of the dress had a gold sailor's flap at her shoulders, and on her chest was a glowing gold brooch. In her hand was a tall staff, where the brother's assumed the beam of silver light had originated from. And just like Ellen had told them, she had very long silver hair and blue eyes with a tell tale gold crescent moon on her forehead.
She turned to look at the two of them. "Leave now. I shall take care of this creature." The voice of the angel in front of them was so soothing, almost like the tingling of bells with a regal air. The angel wings on her back folded behind her as she spoke.
Sam recovered first. "No way, we can take care of it."
"A noble quest, but I must insist. I am the only one capable of saving this creature."
"Now hold on just a minute there. Just because you can cause men to fantasize about angels doing dirty deeds to them do not mean that you can make us listen to you." Dean called out. "This is our gig." He was completely confident, until two large beasts appeared at her side while walking out of the shadows as if by magic.
"Whoa!" Sam cried and he and Dean scrambled back. "I thought Ellen said that there was only one!"
"Must not have known about the other." Dean commented as two very large and frightening panthers came to stand on either side of the angel. One was indeed black, but the other was white. Sure enough, both creatures had the identical crescent moons on their foreheads that the angel did.
Suddenly, the two panther-like creatures let out snarls and charged forward. Sam and Dean gave a scream and ducked, but it wasn't for a few seconds until they realized they had jumped over the two humans to attack the werewolf, who had stood up and was stalking its prey anew.
The Hunters watched with wide, fearful eyes as the creatures scratched and tackled the werewolf, snarls and growls and howls being heard from the tumbling mass of fur. It wasn't until the angel stood between the Winchesters with a glowing staff that they lost any sense of control over the situation. "Luna, Artemis!" The angel called out in warning, "Now!"
The black and white beasts leapt away without hesitation, and the silver glow from the divine staff spread, enveloping everything in the area.
When it died down, only Sam and Dean remained. Both were panting heavily from a mix of the adrenaline and what they had seen, turning to look at one another with bewildered looks. They remained silent for near a minute before Dean spoke. "What I wouldn't give to have had Dad seen that, and then try to explain it."
Sam nodded. "Dean, I think that she might have been a real angel."
Dean scowled before standing, his clothes covered now in dirt. "No shit, Sherlock!" He shouted out of frustration, batting his clothes to get rid of the dust and grime. "What are we going to do?"
Sam turned to his brother with wide eyes that were filled with awe and disbelief. "I have no idea..."
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Dean scowled as he threw a book across the motel room, hitting the wall besides Sam's head. "Hey!" Sam growled. "Do you mind? That almost hit me!"
"Well, if it did I might not be so frustrated right now." Dean replied as he let his head fall backwards to hit the headboard of the cheap motel.
"Would you chill, dude? Besides, I think I got something." Sam told his impatient partner. He stood up from the seat at the small table, moving to sit beside his brother with his computer on his lap. He pointed to the screen, showing his brother the picture of a large cat and the word 'Benandanti' beside it.
"What's this?" Dean asked.
"I think I found out what those two panther creatures were." Sam said, scrolling down the webpage a little. "It says here that Benandanti, which means 'good doer', were practitioners of white magic who followed the Goddess Diana."
"I am not seeing your point." Dean said as he squinted his eyes at the screen to read.
"Diana is the goddess of the Moon, Dean." Sam said with a sigh. "It's basic high school Mythology."
"Well that would explain the crescent moon marks on their heads." Dean pointed out.
"It is a full night tonight, Dean." Sam went on, before returning to reading the article. "You could not decided if you wanted to be one, you were chosen. It's said that it was forced on certain people as an accident at birth, where if the baby was born with the caul still covering their body, mostly their head, they would become anti-witches and take the form of animals."
"What is a caul?" Dean asked.
"It's the inner fetal membrane of the amniotic sack." Sam answered.
"Ew, that's gross." Dean commented. "What else does it say?"
"Not much." Sam frowned. "They were murdered off during the Inquisition in the sixteenth century. In 1692, an old man named Theiss was tried for being a werewolf, that's kind of interesting..."
"Look here." Dean said, placing his finger on the screen. Sam hit it, mad that his brother touched the screen, but Dean sent him a glare and pointed to it again but this time purposefully leaving a fingerprint. "It says here they had mysterious healing powers and the ability to see witches. They fought against evil such as 'Malandanti' and 'Stigoni'- whatever they are - and protected their villages while keeping the paths of the dead from this world secure." He paused. "They sound a lot like us."
"Dean," Sam started slowly. "What if it isn't an angel at all?" He looked at his brother. "What if we saw a Goddess?"
Dean shook his head. "I think you finally cracked, Sammy."
"I'm serious." His tone implied that he was, at the very least. "Diana is said to be the Moon Goddess, the Queen of Heaven and Divine Hunter, protector of animals and the Lady of Beasts." He looked back at his laptop screen. "Everything that we have seen seems to fit. What if she is here to take care of the village, like the lore says? This town has a dark history with a lot of loss of life. Maybe Serenity had it right - that whatever the woman is, angel or goddess, is here to cleanse the darkness before moving on?"
Dean's eyebrows furrowed. "It's doing our job, and you think we should just bail and let it be."
Sam looked at his brother's face. "Well, yeah. I mean, maybe that is why no one in this place is talking about it. They know what is really going on, and they want to keep quiet about it so as not to make it move on before their town is cleansed." Sam saw the continued look of disbelief on his brother's face. "It all fits. She showed up to save us from the werewolf, which is a creature of darkness. She said that only she would be able to 'save it'."
"That also fits a lot of spiritual activity if you ask me." Dean countered. "Appearing out of no where, controlling beasts that could be Hell Hounds for all we know, and disappearing in flashes of light?" Dean shook his head. "I think we need to turn in. We have a lot of work to do tomorrow, including talking to Serenity and finding out what happened when we lost her." Having said his peace, he flopped down on his pillow and closed his eyes.
Sam sighed and nodded, closing his laptop before getting ready to turn in. His psychic abilities were telling him that this was no demon possession or evil spirit - he knew without a doubt that he witnessed the real deal.
The Winchester boys had seen a lot in their lives, things that no normal human would even begin to understand. They had been raised to disperse evil spirits and exorcist demons. Whether it be angel or goddess, Sam did not want to get in its way. It was purity it its truest form, when the winged woman appeared Sam was overpowered by a sense of warmth.
Whatever was going on, Sam knew that whatever happened this night was as real as he was.
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So there is chapter 2! What do you all think? Please feel free to let me know!
~ Sandreline