So many times, it happens too fast
You change your passion for glory
Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past
You must fight just to keep them alive
.
Eye of the Tiger ~ Survivor
Uriel, with Castiel in tow, arrived at Earth, although instead of landing immediately they chose to glide along the sky for a moment.
"Where are we?" Castiel asked.
"Egypt." answered Uriel.
"But I thought there was an announcement that no one should go to Egypt for the time being." said Castiel.
"They just say that to keep us from having some fun and excitement." he replied.
They kept flying until the desert transformed into a city. Uriel tugged Castiel along and they began to lower themselves the moment a pyramid rose out of the cloudy horizon, soaring closer and closer to it until they were at the peak.
"This looks like the right spot." proclaimed Uriel. He got his brother and placed him on the very top block of the pyramid. He then summoned a short string of cloud overhead and used it to create a hovering circle around Castiel. "Stay there."
"What are we doing?" inquired Castiel, regarding the circle with a head-tilt.
"You are going to wait for my instructions. I will just sit here." said Uriel as he distanced himself slightly and plopped down onto a good collection of air currents.
Castiel gave him a long, observant stare before a strong wind picked up, which pushed a great deal of clouds over Egypt. Lights crackled behind the gigantic clouds and a low, continuous rumble prowled along the under-layers not soon after.
"What's going on?" Castiel asked, slowly and worriedly.
"Your first lesson." answered Uriel, leaning back and getting a more comfortable position.
Something white fell from the clouds and Uriel caught it in his hand without even looking up; he held the hailstone, about the size of a chicken's egg, up for Castiel to see.
"Punch every hailstone that falls within the circle." he said. And as if to motivate him, Uriel promptly crushed the hailstone he had in a single motion and let its bits fall to the sand far, far, below them.
"That's it?" clarified Castiel.
"As much as possible, they should break into pieces." Uriel added.
Castiel nodded fervently and proceeded to scan the skies for any approaching hailstones. A minute later, another hailstone dropped from the clouds; Castiel made a move to chase after it but the hailstone fell just outside the boundary of the circle. His balance was lost for a minute, causing him to ridiculously flail which Uriel found amusing and just had to chuckle.
Three more hailstones descended, but they were all beyond the small circle. Finally, one hailstone was on its way to plummet into the circle, and Castiel got so excited that he almost missed landing a hit on it.
"I got one!" he happily declared.
"Castiel," began Uriel.
"Yes?"
"That was a sad punch." he said.
At that, all the enthusiasm drained out of his features and even his wings sagged in disappointment. But then another hailstone came within range and Castiel bucked up and gave it a more improved punch.
"Fantastic," said Uriel. "…if you're trying to upstage a newborn kitten."
Castiel's wings ruffled at that, and it almost looked like he was offended. More hailstones were falling now and he punched as much of them that went within the circle as he could. Some punches were just as pathetic as the last, albeit eventually he was getting the hang of it. More chunks flew off and they reached more distance.
But then the real storm arrived and hail plummeted at such a dramatic rate that even angels such as Castiel had a tough time keeping track of them all. His punches became confused and uncertain; soon, he was so overwhelmed and was stumped at which direction he should pick.
"Can I stop now?" pleaded Castiel, and though he did not say it aloud, it was evident that he did not like getting pummeled by hail.
"Don't be such a fledgling, brother." scoffed Uriel.
Castiel yelped as a particularly huge chunk of hail hit him on the head. "But I am a fledgling." he replied.
"It's an expression!"
"But you're still a fledgling too."
"Just barely." Uriel defended. He glanced and saw that Castiel was giving him one of his piercing stares again. "Shut up and keep punching." he hastily added.
His younger brother stared at the skies around them, desolation and doubt in his eyes. Then, as if triggered by something, Castiel just started wildly, almost with blind recklessness, punching at every direction. It lacked form and finesse but Uriel decided to distance himself all the same from the little whirlwind his brother had become.
Shards of hail shot out of Castiel's small field, which at first merely fell by the cloud-circle's border. Then a little further, a little straighter, then pushed with much more speed and force, coming out more numerous and sharper than before…
Uriel would never admit it to anyone, but he actually had to seek shelter.
Once it had gone on far enough, Uriel inched out of his makeshift cloud-shield. "Castiel, you can – "
A big hailstone hit him in the face.
"…stop now." he finished.
Castiel immediately ceased when he realized what had happened. "I apologize for that." he said sheepishly.
Uriel wiped the hailstone off his face with as much dignity as he could muster. "At least you're improving, somewhat. It's time for your second lesson." he stated.
The cloud-circle vanished as Castiel stepped out of it. "What is it?" he inquired.
Like it was on cue, a long streak of lightning zipped across the sky, followed by a loud boom of thunder that caused Castiel's wings to falter for a second.
"Catch lightning bolts." said Uriel self-righteously.
Castiel's eyes widened and his mouth went agape. He nervously looked up in time to see another batch of lightning bolts mercilessly rake the clouds, and it only took a moment to realize who was in charge of this storm.
"Those are from Raphael." he whispered timidly.
"And some are mine." said Uriel sadistically. He pointed a finger to the sky and, sure enough, a different bunch of lightning bolts darted all over, and although they were not as bright or large as Raphael's, they still appeared formidable.
If Castiel was not using his wings to fly at the moment, he would be cowering in them. "I'm scared." he admitted.
"You're always scared. That's what's holding you back from becoming a real warrior; you let..." Uriel shuddered at the next word. "…emotions get in the way. It impairs your abilities." he explained.
For a while, Castiel seemed to hang onto his every word. Then he tilted his head up and the fear manifested itself again. "They're so big." he whimpered.
"You're an angel." countered Uriel. Suddenly, his Grace sensed an approaching danger. "Incoming!"
Lightning streaked down and would have hit both of them if they had not acted sooner. When the bolt vanished, Uriel looked around for his brother, actually fearing for a brief moment that he had been too clumsy to get away. However, when he caught sight of him hiding behind the pyramid peak, every bit of concern was replaced by fury.
"What are you waiting for? Catch them!" shouted Uriel as he gestured at the multitude of lightning bolts shooting across the sky. Instead of doing what he had been told, Castiel merely shrank further behind the pyramid with a shake of his head.
"Castiel, you're never gonna learn anything like this. Catch. A. Lightning. Bolt!" said Uriel pointedly. And just when he thought his brother could not be any more obstinate, Castiel seemed on the verge of crying.
If cursing was allowed, he would have done it tenfold by now. Uriel was about to fly over to Castiel and yank him out by the wings when a distant yet shrill sound reached them.
"What's that?" Castiel asked, his inquisitiveness overcoming his trepidation.
Tracing the origin of the noise, both of them looked down and discovered that it had come from the Egyptian village burning below.
"Humans." sneered Uriel. "Screaming and running around for their puny lives."
That managed to get Castiel out of his hiding spot. "Why?" he asked.
"Maybe it has something to do with the fire from the sky," Uriel answered with a trace of sarcasm.
Castiel fluttered closer to Uriel to get a better view of what was going on below them. "They're getting hurt." he muttered apprehensively. "Even the humans' fledglings are with them." he added, more worried than ever.
"They're called children." corrected Uriel. He scanned the rest of the terrain and pinpointed an interesting sight. "Oh, look at that. One of them is stuck under a fallen tree."
His younger brother quickly whipped his head around to where Uriel was looking. "Her family's rescuing her." he observed, edged with relief.
"Not for long." chuckled Uriel. He pointed a finger to the clouds and a lightning bolt came down and hit the tree, causing it to catch fire. The humans screamed louder and more frantically.
"Brother, stop! They could die!" Castiel screamed.
"Well, let's make it quick then." said Uriel. With that, he pointed to the sky and two more lightning bolts descended, this time aimed for the humans.
In less than a second, there would be five more adding to Egypt's death toll… if only Castiel had not dived in, caught the bolts and hurled them back to the sky where they would do no harm.
Uriel regarded him with disdain. "You'd rather catch lightning bolts for the sake of saving a handful of chimps than to be a better soldier?" he yelled, mostly because he was furious rather than to compensate for the distance Castiel had placed in between them.
"It's not like that." said Castiel.
"Really?"
Uriel directed another lightning bolt toward the humans and Castiel swooped in to catch it and throw it to the clouds.
"Stop it, please!" Castiel begged.
"Make me." snapped Uriel.
He sent down five lightning bolts, all toward various directions, and an extremely panicked look entered Castiel's face before he zoomed off. Every bolt he caught and hurled, Uriel made two more in their place, and soon his younger brother was whizzing all across the skies. At some point, Castiel was either going too fast or too focused on his next catch to regard his safety and the other lightning bolts were able to brush against his wings and form which, even for full-grown angels, hurt.
Overtime, Uriel started to feel sorry for him and stopped making lightning. Afterward, he approached Castiel, who was leaning against a cloud for support as the fatigue wore down on him.
"Aside from getting a bit less humans on the planet, you did a good job." said Uriel, unconsciously using his wing to shield his younger brother from any more harms.
Castiel was trembling, and he did not look like he could stay airborne much longer. "It hurts." he murmured, showing Uriel his burnt hands.
"Come, let's land for a while. And so long as you don't start sobbing on me, I'll help you heal." said Uriel. And although he refused to admit that he had what had been dubbed as a 'soft side,' he will admit that, at the moment, he did not want to lose a now promising member of his garrison.
O_x
"…and so Nemamiah says, 'That's not an acacia tree, that's a broccoli!'" Uriel concluded, letting out a boisterous guffaw. As they were healing Castiel, he had decided that passing the time with some jokes ought to be worthwhile.
Castiel glanced up from his hands and tilted his head at Uriel. "I don't get it." he said impassively.
"It's a funny joke." said Uriel. When Castiel's confused expression only deepened, he darkly added, "Laugh or I'll smite you."
Castiel made a nervous, lighthearted chuckle before his gaze suddenly locked on something very interesting in front.
"What?" Uriel asked sharply.
"There's a grasshopper on your head." said Castiel innocently.
Uriel instantly let go off Castiel's hands to swipe at his head, and a second later, a grasshopper came bouncing down to the sand. "Stupid grasshopper." Uriel muttered.
As the creature started bouncing away, Castiel nimbly caught it in his newly-healed hands and observed it in its cupped prison. Uriel 'hmmph'ed in abhorrence and turned his head away when the grasshopper attained a bright giggle out of his brother.
Upon letting his grasshopper go its way, Castiel perked up again. "There's two more on your left wing." he said.
That got Uriel to stand up to shake them off him. "I am a second away from smiting these creatures." he growled.
Castiel also got up to let the other two grasshoppers pass, only to have his eyes widen once he was at his full height.
"I think we should leave Egypt now." he said uneasily.
A huff of indignation was about to be sounded off when Uriel turned to where Castiel seemed to be staring and he found himself doing likewise.
A gigantic swarm of locusts was on its way toward them, quick and hungry. For once, Uriel followed an order coming from a younger sibling and they took off. Unfortunately, Castiel apparently still seemed to be tired from his earlier flight and did not get high enough to escape the swarm. The last thing Uriel heard was his brother squealing for help and when he faced the swarm, Castiel was nowhere in sight.
"Castiel!" Uriel shouted. When a reply failed to be heard or sensed, he threw his pride away and waded into the mass of grasshoppers.
At first, he was just whacking away at one grasshopper pile to another, then for some reason he reduced himself to carefully sifting through the creatures like they were grains of sand.
"Castiel, where are you? Castiel!" screamed Uriel. He could not believe this, there was no way this could –
"Uriel?"
Uriel instantly snapped up to trace where his brother's voice was coming from… which was a few meters away from him and well out of reach of the swarm.
There was the head-tilt again. "Why are you holding a tumbleweed in the middle of a locust swarm?" Castiel innocently asked.
Switching his gaze to his hands, Uriel learned that he was indeed holding a tumbleweed, something he thought was the edge of Castiel's wings but clearly was not. Now, he realized he looked like a total idiot kneeling amidst the swarm as grasshoppers climbed and jumped over him.
With a flap of his wings, Uriel was next to his brother, whom he grabbed a little too tightly.
"Let's just go." he muttered.
O_x
They landed somewhere cold, dark and, most importantly, devoid of life.
"Where are we now?" Castiel diffidently asked. As if the tremble in his voice was not enough, he was gradually moving closer and closer to Uriel.
"Let's just say it's somewhere deep underground." said Uriel as he pushed his brother away.
It was not long before Castiel began clinging to his wings once more. "I don't like it here." he whispered.
"Life isn't all rainbows and sunshine, brother; get used to it." Uriel replied as they continued to venture deeper.
Their journey went on undisturbed for quite some time, and although the darkness did not impair their vision, there always lingered that sense of unease at what could possibly jump out at the next boulder or stalactite.
Then an earth-shattering roar filled the chamber they were presently in.
"That sounded like a monster." said Castiel quietly.
"That's actually your next lesson." snickered Uriel.
The whole chamber rumbled, as if caught in an earthquake, but as it progressed, a sort of rhythmic pattern could be detected, like in the manner of footsteps.
And that was when a huge creature burst out of the wall, snarling and howling so loud that stalactites fell off the ceiling. Castiel and Uriel took cover at the nick of time, and as the dust settled, the creature responsible was finally revealed.
With its claws marring the granite walls, its body blocking the entire passage and its six eyes glaring with predatory instinct, Cerberus stood over them in all its menacing form.
Uriel snuck a glance at his brother and saw that he was frozen stiff in terror. He chose that opportunity to shove Castiel into Cerberus' full view, much to his sheer dismay.
"Last seven hours with him... them." said Uriel, gesturing at the beast.
Cerberus barked and Castiel tried scrambling his way back to Uriel. However, Uriel flew out of his reach and landed at the threshold that led to the only exit. He banged against the wall several times until the passage was obstructed by rocks, effectively trapping Castiel in with Cerberus.
"And before you get any smart ideas," Uriel waved and let a bit of his Grace pulse through to etch symbols onto the boulders. "I've warded the walls so the rocks can only be moved from the outside." shouted Uriel.
Castiel's tiny form thumping against the boulders could be faintly heard on the other side, and his desperate pleas for freedom followed soon after. Uriel merely chuckled to himself as he went around finding a good spot to meditate.
Once the seven-hour-span was over, Uriel came back to the wall-block and removed a single stone from the pile. That caused a chain-reaction and the majority of the boulders came toppling down.
"Castiel?"
He was greeted by a calm, empty sight that lacked any angels or guard dogs of the Underworld, and that got him worried. Cautiously, he went into the cavern to search for his brother, because if Castiel got eaten on his watch, there was no way he could ever hold a real weapon of Heaven.
"Castiel?"
As his search continued to be fruitless, worry was beginning to creep over him. All of a sudden, the ground shook and Cerberus came running through from the very edge of the cavern. Uriel dove out of its path in time, albeit he soon he realized that the monster was chasing him.
Uriel flew for the life of him, but Cerberus always came in too close so he could not really get away that much. Then he remembered that he was an angel, an angel who was perfectly capable of smiting lowlife mongrels such as this. He was about to strike when a very big paw pinned him to a corner and refused to release him.
Cerberus leaned in close to Uriel… and licked him with all its three tongues. As if he could not be more humiliated, a little head popped out from behind Cerberus' heads.
"Hello, Uriel. Has it been seven hours already?" said Castiel brightly.
Unbelievable.
Castiel giggled and patted each head. "You can put me down now, Cerberus." he said, and just like that, Cerberus lowered its heads and allowed Castiel to slide off easily. Once he was settled, Cerberus turned all three heads toward Castiel and started licking at him.
"I think they like me." laughed Castiel, squirming around.
Uriel could not help but stare incredulously at his brother. Cerberus – one of the most terrible beasts in all of creation – was basically a playful puppy having fun with a fledgling. He had seen a lot of weird things in his existence… but this had to be the prime of them all.
The minute Cerberus' paw slackened off him, Uriel shoved it aside, marched toward his slobber-covered brother and made his way to the exit.
"Let's go." he grumbled.
Castiel stumbled along but did not resist his pull. "Goodbye, Cerberus. I'll come visit you when I'm not training." he called out.
Cerberus barked in acknowledgement and wagged its enormous tail around.
Purely unbelievable.
This was written in a hurry (sorry ^^;) but I'm trying to make up for the major procrastination faze I went through. This should've been posted sooner X_X
Oh yeah, hopefully this would sorta satisfy the 'Uriel's the funniest angel in the garrison' shtick XD
References are the biblical ten plagues and Greek mythology :D