Now he's got his very own honest-to-Cas story, this little bunny, whose name might well be Ulfric, has become positively pushy, and is kicking poor little Imogen-Bubba (the little bunny dictating 'On Yer Bike') in the shins...
Chapter Four
In future years, Kerryn would look back, and wonder how the next five minutes didn't make her brain implode.
Having seen the Croat catch sight of Todd, her body reacted before her brain could: she bellowed her son's name, and charged at the zombie. Her one half-formed thought was that if it attacked her instead of Todd, then it might be busy eating her for long enough for somebody to save her boy.
Her bellow was matched by a roar that was even louder, and possibly even angrier.
The door of the small structure burst open, and a monster leaped out.
Kerryn's bellow turned to a yipping scream of half terror, half utter disbelief. The thing that erupted from the small cabin was monstrous, huge, standing at least seven feet tall, but there was something wrong about the anatomy of the legs.
The moon emerged from behind a ragged cloud, and she fell backwards, her mouth hanging agape. The thing that had burst out of the cabin was a gigantic wolf, standing upright, but with long bulging arms, and hand-paws tipped with four-inch claws. Its ears were flattened in anger, and the muzzle bristled with teeth that looked like a cross between a bear's and a shark's, enormous canine fangs jutting from the upper jaw. Catching sight of the Croat, the monster let out another bellowing snarl of rage.
Almost too fast for Kerryn to see what what happening, it leaped at the zombie, drew back one arm, and took the Croat's head off with one swipe.
With a savage howl, it lifted the headless corpse and, huge arms bulging, tore what was left in half.
It took less than ten seconds.
Sprawled on the ground, frozen with incomprehension, Kerryn saw the monster's eyes land on her and narrow. It dropped the pieces of the zombie, and rumbled a long, low growl.
"Mom?"
The sound of Todd's voice shattered her paralysis. She scrambled to her feet, and lurched towards her son, intent only on grabbing him, and running, in any direction, just away from the gigantic monstrous thing.
The monster dropped to all fours, and took a slow, stalking step towards her. It put her in mind of the time Lottie had found and stalked a rat, before pouncing on it and snapping its neck.
Slowly, she edged herself between Todd and the monster. It growled at her. She bared her teeth, and growled back.
"Stay away from my boy!" she hissed, backing away. The monster matched her steps. Maybe if we can get inside somewhere, she thought frantically, Maybe if we can get a wall between us and it, we can –
It leapt.
The bound took it clean over Kerryn and Todd, to land on another zombie. The inarticulately slavering Croat writhed under the enormous bulk, then the wolf-thing bit down, and tore its head off.
Apparently not content with that, it drew back one enormous paw, bunched into a fist, and punched through the Croat's chest. Kerryn's stomach heaved when she realised that the dripping handful the monster pulled out was the zombie's heart.
It stared at the heart, and blinked almost in surprise at what it had done, then the gigantic animal raised its muzzle to the sky and let out a heart-rending howl.
"Hey."
It was said in a quiet voice, a tone that was calm, yet redolent with authority. The monster's head snapped around, a snarl on its face. Kerryn's head whipped around too.
When she turned, there was just Dean, accompanied by the Rottweiler that had shadowed him earlier. By some trick of the light, the dog's eyes appeared to be glowing red. He was barefoot, and appeared to be wearing nothing but threadbare sleep sweats, but didn't look at all uncomfortable in the evening chill. Incredibly, Dean appeared to be unarmed, and he stood casually, looking unconcerned. He addressed the monster in a calm voice.
"Stand down, big guy," he said quietly, "Threat's dealt with. You got 'em." He glanced around at the gory detritus. "Although you coulda been less untidy about it."
With an uncertain rumble, the huge wolf-thing switched its attention to Dean.
"Stand down," repeated Dean in a level voice. "The den is safe now. The pack is safe. Your pack is safe."
At that, the monster threw back its head, and let out another mournful howl into the night, then dropped its head.
Dean just smiled sadly. "I know," he told the creature, "I know." Putting himself deliberately between Kerryn and Todd and the monster, he went on. "Go kill something. You stink of bloodlust. Get it out of your system, then get your shaggy ass back here before sunrise, or I'll come looking. With silver."
With a growling bark, the gigantic thing turned and bounded towards the fence. Using a couple of projections, it half-jumped, half-climbed the barrier, dropped to the other side, and loped away into the darkness.
Bewilderment, terror and relief that her child was safe found its way out as anger. Kerryn rounded on Dean.
"What the hell is that thing?" she demanded in a half-sob. "Sam said you had a hermit living there! What the hell are you doing keeping some sort of mad dog on the inside of your compound? What the fuck breed of dog was that – is that your 'special breeding program'? You're crossing dogs with frigging bears or something?"
Dean let out a long breath, then turned to Kerryn. He didn't bother to ask what she was doing outside. "Follow me," he said, turning his back and heading towards the other cabins. At a few words from him, his dog left off exchanging cordial nose-sniffs with Lottie, and trotted away.
"Hey!" she yelled, grabbing his shoulder. "Don't you turn your back on me! I deserve some…"
Dean turned, and gave her what she would come to describe, like everybody else, as The Look.
Her jaw shut with a click.
"I said, follow me," he repeated in that quiet voice that brooked no defiance.
Rattled, Kerryn found her voice. "I'm putting Todd back to bed," Kerryn she managed.
"Him, too," Dean didn't even turn around, "He needs to hear this. Come on, Todd, I got some stuff to tell you."
Todd took a few running steps to catch up with Dean. He grabbed the man's sleeve, and asked, "Was that a monster?"
Dean paused, looked down and smiled. "No, tiger," he replied, "But you come with me, and I'll tell you what it was."
Still holding on to Dean's jacket, Todd headed off with him, the two dogs trotting along beside them. After a few moments of gaping in bemusement, Kerryn hurried to catch up.
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They were headed back to the building called The Den, she saw, and when they arrived, Sam was already there, looking worried.
"What set him off?" he asked Dean without preamble.
"Croats," Dean replied. Once inside, he seated Todd on one of the sofas, and bundled him up in a blanket. Lottie jumped up beside him. "Sit," he told Kerryn.
"Woof, woof," she scowled, sitting, "Do I get a treat now?"
"Roll over and I'll scratch your belly," Dean answered utterly without humour.
The door banged again as Bobby came grumbling in, with Fergus right behind him. "What set that idjit off?" he wanted to know.
"Honestly, has nobody thought about debarking that great pillock?" snapped Fergus. "He might as well be a big neon sign, saying, 'Yoo-hoo, here were are, just follow the air raid siren'."
"Your presence here is more of a threat to the safety of this encampment," came a gravelly voice. Fergus let out a little yip and jumped as Castiel emerged from the shadows. "Perhaps we could debark you."
"I'll just go get Fic, shall I?" chirped Bobby brightly.
"Bobby, darling, you wouldn't," Fergus whined reproachfully.
Bobby beamed serenely. "I'd pass her the scalpel," he replied. "Go make tea, Fergus. And some cocoa for the youngster, if we got any – tell Chuck I authorised it." Muttering mutinously, Fergus retreated.
"So, how did Croats get in?" Sam asked, eyeing Kerryn and Todd, "And what are they doin' here?"
"We got a wanderer," Dean grinned wryly and nodded at Todd, who had the grace to look abashed, "Who's also a bit of a nosey parker. And they didn't get in – they were let in."
There was a moment of silence.
"They stunk of sulphur," Dean went on quietly, "And of The Pit. Xena smelled it too."
Fergus's eyes bugged, and he let out a whining noise.
"Balls," muttered Sam.
"God's tits," said Bobby.
"I believe this is a situation in which somebody should add to that, 'And Satan's toilet tissue'," intoned Castiel seriously. "Do I have to context correct, Bobby?"
"Unfortunately, yeah," the old man took off his hat, and scratched his head. "You better start at the beginnin', Dean."
Dean rubbed a hand across his eyes, and turned to Kerryn and Todd. "We have no secrets here," he began, "We need for you to know about everything that goes on. But, usually, we let people settle in for a few days before we brief them on some of the more… unusual aspects of this group."
"Like the fact that you keep a, what the hell was that, a blood-crazed elephant hound?" Kerryn shot back.
Sam drew in a sharp breath, but Dean just laughed. "No, not exactly," he conceded, "Although the running joke is 'South African Hippo Hound'." He paused as if wondering how to go on. "What I'm going to explain to you will sound impossible, incredible, and to a brain trained in science, utterly unbelievable," he continued. "Most people just laugh at me at this point, or assume that I'm crazy, shut up, Sam, or that we've got some group delusion thing goin' on, so I've found that a demonstration is usually necessary." He turned to Sam, who rolled his eyes.
"Just do it, Dean," he groaned, "You lose every single time, bro…"
Dean cleared his throat pointedly, and held out a hand. With a put-upon sigh, Sam held out his hand, and they did a rock-paper-scissors one two three…
Dean let out a little noise of disgust. "Told you, bro," Sam shrugged, sitting on one of the sofas.
"We'll you'll need to take over the commentary," Dean instructed grumpily, pulling his sweatshirt over his head and throwing it aside.
Sam turned to Kerryn and Todd, as Dean, unbelievably, continued to remove his clothes until he was naked. Kerryn pointedly averted her eyes.
"Get used to it," Sam grinned, "Because quite a few people around here are completely without hang-ups about it. You might even see the night patrols going au naturel."
Kerryn blinked. "People walk around all night, out there, naked?" she asked incredulously.
"Oh, I aint naked," Dean grinned at her, "Right now, I just don't have any clothes on. And people as such don't walk around like this." He moved into her line of sight. "I need you to watch."
"Get your jollies somewhere else, perve," she snarked in pique, making Bobby cackle in amusement.
"I said," he went on the tone of quiet authority he'd used on the monster, "I need you to watch."
Reluctantly, she fixed her eyes firmly on a spot between his eyebrows.
"Okay," he went on, "Now, what you saw tonight wasn't a monster. It's not an it. It's a he. His name is Andrew Jaeger. You've met Sabine? He's her father. And he's my den-sire. And he's a werewolf. Just like me."
"A…" Kerryn's jaw dropped. "Did you… did you just say… werewolf?"
Dean nodded. "An Old North werewolf, which is different to the native North American ones. We're bigger, and hairier, and you know what?" His face went from serious to cocky grin, "I think we're just all around more awesome…"
He did a sort of shrug thing, and…
Kerryn screamed.
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