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The Supernatural characters belong to Kripke Enterprises and the CW, not me. No money is being made from this story. It is for entertainment only.
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Dean Winchester, Skin Walker
Chapter 10
Into the Wild
From Chapter 9
Just at dawn Dean rose from his nice soft bed and used the last of the human comforts he thought he might see for a while. Taking one last look around the room he opened the window and left quietly. By the time his feet were on the ground he was transformed. Anyone looking would have seen either a very large coyote or a small wolf slinking through the high grass behind the house, heading west toward the mountains off in the blue distance.
Chapter 10
He circled the house and headed south, staying well outside of Valentine. The tall prairie grasses concealed his passage. He parted the grasses as he passed but the light prairie winds ruffled the fields and the disruption of his passage blended in. Inside the world of grass he saw all kinds of living things; mice, other rodents, a snake in the grass, the hustle and bustle of busy insects. This was a world men rarely saw. He ignored them and they ignored him. The passing of a lone grey wolf meant nothing to them.
He was looking for breakfast along the way but nothing he saw would even make a mouthful. The larger prey, rabbits and ground squirrels, made it their business to stay clear of his path. He wandered on at a steady lope. His belly was empty but not uncomfortably so. He could go for a long time yet before hunger would slow him down. His eyes were fixed on the horizon as he moved through a world hidden from men.
The sun rose higher and warmed his shoulders. The clear light broke over the fields gilding the grass stalks. His muscles were lose with the warmth of the morning and he felt like he could float along to that rolling line of hills in the distance.
At noon the sun was directly overhead and he was beginning to think about water. The horizon had come no closer after all the hours he had spent in motion and he was beginning to get distracted by the scents of prey hidden in the grass. He wondered how far he had come. The world was so much larger from the perspective of four feet than it than it appeared from inside a car.
The scent of water made his nose twitch. The western edges of Nebraska encouraged small streams and ponds. Of course the water sources would be centers of life. Not only animals but very possibly men would gather there.
He came upon a small meandering stream, most likely an eventual tributary to the larger river up by Valentine. He followed it upstream, the smell of prey strong, making his nose sting. Over the small hump of a bank he caught a flicker of motion and went to his belly. Very carefully he crawled up the face of the little hill and peeked over. Below was a wide pool formed by a low natural depression and edged by cottonwood trees. The stream rolled in from the west and trickled back out on the east, creating a nice wide pool under the shade of the tree branches. Gathered around the edges were a number of thirsty animals but what got his immediate attention was the horses.
He had forgotten the wild horses even though he knew they were all over the western end of South Dakota. There were sanctuaries near Hot Springs for horses considered excess, waiting for adoption. Since western wild horses had been placed under the protection of the Bureau of Land Management back in the seventies, the herds had increased beyond expectation. That they were here in Nebraska was no surprise. He had simply forgotten about them. Gathered at the edge of the water were a number of mares and their foals. They were at ease, drinking from the pool as if this was part of their daily pattern.
He thought about it. Here he was traveling as a wolf and had spent the entire morning covering perhaps ten or so miles. At this rate it would take him until next summer to get to Palo Alto and Sam. It was even possible it could take longer than that. He had not thought he would walk all the way but as a horse he could certainly make it to Denver in a much shorter period of time. He really wanted to cross the Rockies through the pass above Denver before snow blocked the pass and a hoarse could do fifty miles a day, easy.
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It was a dark, slightly gritty and very old Hunter's bar out the back end of frigging nowhere. John Winchester and Eldon Light had stumbled over it on their way back from investigating the burn site on Route 34 and it had called to them right away. They were headed back to Chamberlain to get on the trail of the Wolf girl again but as they scooted over the crest of a low hill in John's new SUV the neon of the beer signs, obscured by dirty windows, had waved a welcome home, boys, type of greeting to them from far down the road.
John pulled into the gravel covered parking lot, spraying the small stones behind him as the heavy vehicle sank into the surface. It was a damn good thing it wasn't raining. The soft mud would have swallowed them to the wheel wells.
Once inside the two Hunters settled at the bar. John swung the swivel stool around and did a quick inventory of the bar's patrons. He recognized a face or two but not anyone that he knew well enough to drop into causal conversation with comfortably. He turned back and waved the bartender over. Glancing over at Eldon John whispered "You know anybody here?" and Eldon shook his head no. They waited for the lanky, curly hair bartender to arrive.
"What can I get for you?" the bartender asked. In response John leaned forward and casually slid a twenty onto the bar's slick surface. Making sure the bartender was focused on the cash John said quietly "We're looking for a couple of guys, brothers, Ernie and Ron Bloucher. Do you know them?"
"Sorry, man," the bartender said licking his lips. "You might try old Giles Pender over in the corner." The guy pointed out an old man hidden in the shadows at a table behind the pool table. "Old Giles knows just about everybody. Give him a shot."
John released the twenty and turned away.
Giles Pender did know the Bloucher Brothers. "They was here just a couple of days ago," the old man muttered. "Burned something up near Witches' Hollow I think."
"Witches Hollow," John rumbled "is that the wide place in the road off 34 a couple of miles north of here?"
"You got it," the old man confirmed. ""Ain't nobody but locals call it Witches' Hollow. Strange things happen up around there. Have been happening for years. Didn't surprise me none that Ernie and Ron picked up a salt n' burn up that way."
"You a Hunter?" John asked, surprised.
"I was," Pender replied and popped the top off the beer that John had brought over. "Not any more. I got too damned slow after I hit fifty. I was going' get myself killed so I got out with all my fingers and toes still attached, almost."
He waved his left hand in John's face. His ring and little fingers were gone. "Black dog hunt, years ago. The damn thing almost took my whole hand. That was it. I hung up my guns and decided to just stay drunk. I answer questions for you young Hunters every now and then. "He swirled his beer. "I usually get more than just a beer out of it through."
John snorted and turned to Eldon. "Your turn, Light. 'Bout time you paid for something."
Eldon rolled his eyes. "Listen, Johnny boy, I'm along for the ride but it ain't my dog in this hunt. You're the one with the agenda."
Giles Pender sat and cackled. For some reason the exchange between Light and Winchester struck him as funny.
"You two been together long?" the old man coughed. "You bicker like a married couple. Come on, somebody needs to unpucker. You want to know where the Bloucher Brothers are or not? I got all the time in the world and I was planning on spending it drunk." The old man took another swallow of John's donated beer.
Elson grudgingly pulled out a wrinkled ten spot and John snatched it out of his hand, giving it to Pender. The old man rolled it up and stuck it in his shirt pocket.
"You guys go try at Ernie's bar, east of Chamberlain on Route Ninety. Ron and Ernie got an old trailer they live in down in the stream bed behind the bar. You should find them there unless they got another job." Dismissing them out of hand Pender went back to nursing his beer and watching the pool game in progress. John and Eldon went back out to the Yukon, wallets a little lighter but heads full of plans.
Before they made it into the SUV another voice stopped them. Turning around they saw they had been followed out of the bar by a tall, willowy guy with his right arm in a heavy cast.
"You the ones been poking around up at the rest stop off thirty four on the way to Pierre?"
"What's it to you, buddy?" John growled. He really hated strangers asking questions, sticking their noses into his business.
The guy came closer. "The name's Marty and I lost something around there. A guy named Rick disappeared with a lot of my money. When I went looking for the creep I found his RV and his bitch but not Rick or my money. Rick's woman Elly hooked up with some other guy. I think she has my money and if you can find her and help me get it back I'll split it with you."
"Not interested," John turned his back to walk away but Eldon grabbed John's arm. "Wait a minute, Winchester." Eldon said and turned back to Marty.
"You say there was a stranger with Rick's woman?"
Marty shrugged. "Yeah, he's the one that put a bullet in my arm. Busted it up good. I wouldn't mind finding him again either, maybe in an alley on a dark night."
Eldon hissed at John. "Show him the picture, John. Don't be an idiot."
John Winchester pulled out his wallet and removed a picture of Dean. His son was sitting on the hood of the Impala, laughing in the sunlight.
"Is this the guy you saw?" Eldon extended the picture to Marty.
"Might be," Marty replied. "They're just about the same size. The guy that shot me though was blonder and had a kind of more boney face. I can't say that they might not be the same guy. I 'm not sure."
Eldon considered the lead. "You know anything about this woman? Her name or where she's from?"
Marty shrugged. "I never spent any time on her but one of my guys talked to her for a while. Her name was Elly and they went to school together, strangely enough. He told me she was from Valentine, Nebraska."
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