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Thanks to everyone who reviewed including "huntergirl"
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Chapter Twenty-One.
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Dean awoke to his brother's bony body cramming his personal space.
Sam's feet, even with the hose still covering them, were freezing and were pushed under his legs; the rest off his body was curled up against his own,
searching for warmth, as any heat in the room had dissipated during the night with the extinguishing of the fire.
Sam had recently overtaken him in height; although he was still growing according to the matrons back at court, but for now his body was still wiry,
all skin and bones, and it seemed that everyone of them was poking into Dean's body.
He moved away, but as if tied with a chain Sam rolled over towards him.
Little brothers!
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The light filtered in unevenly through the small window next to the door, as his mind reflected on the events of the past few days.
What the Hell were they to do now?
Added to everything else was this new complication of Sam having a vision. Was his brother a psychic like Missouri?
Dean was beginning to feel overwhelmed again.
The burden on his shoulders was heavy. He hoped to have the strength to carry it.
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Sam's breathing became more agitated, a sign that he was about to wake up and sure enough his sibling's sleepy voice soon made itself heard
with the canonical, "Dean. Is everything alright?"
"Other than the fact that your bony arms and legs have given me a set of bruises in places I didn't know I could get them,
and your feet have turned my calves into blocks of ice. Yes!"
His brother's contrite apology made him smile "Sorry, I was just so cold"
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"It's okay, Sam. I suppose I would have been even colder without you huddled up against me!"
He observed that the two doors to the bed-chambers were open, as he pulled himself up and pulled on his boots.
He peeked in but they were empty.
The fire hadn't been re-lit, so whatever it was that Ash and Pamela did for a living they were already out doing it.
He must have been really exhausted last night not to have heard them leave this morning, he mused.
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He noticed a stack of logs beside the hearth and soon he had a fire going. Part of Bobby's comprehensive field training, he smiled to himself.
By this time Sam had pulled himself up and lumbered his way over to the table.
His stomach rumbled, echoing loudly in the empty room.
Dean threw his brother an understanding glance. They had hardly eaten anything yesterday
and the meal they had shared with Ash and Pamela last night had been frugal at best.
Well at least they could warm themselves beside the fire.
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Dean knew that he had to broach the subject of what had happened last night.
He had hoped that Sam would bring it up first but his brother seemed concentrated only on warming his hands at the kindling fire.
"Sam," he said hesitantly.
"I know. I just wanted to put this off as long as possible because I don't know what to say," his brother replied, already deciphering the question.
Dean nodded; so many things had happened that it was becoming difficult to deal with them all.
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"Sam," he tried again. "Before we left Missouri, she told me something about us."
Sam's eyes widened in anticipation, afraid that Dean was about to impart some more unpleasant news.
He looked his brother straight in the eye while he pronounced the incredible words.
"She said that we share the same soul; Sammy. Something that she had never seen before," he finished turning his eyes to the floor,
not sure what his little brother's reaction would be.
As Sam said nothing, he continued. "She added that any magic that you perform, whatever THAT means, will work better the closer we stand together,
because of the shared soul thing, I suppose," he tapered off unsurely.
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At Sam's continuing silence, he lifted his eyes and was amazed by the expression of contentment on his brother's face as he contemplated him.
"I knew it!" Sam replied. "I just knew that there was something more between us, something special; how I always felt happier and more secure
when you were around. Dean!" he continued earnestly, "I thought it was just because we were brothers but now I understand; it's more than that:"
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"You do? It is?" Dean replied, taken aback.
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"Yes, Dean, and I'm sure you felt it too. Why spend your time with a snotty little kid like me, when you could have spent more time
with the young people of your own age in the castle.
If Missouri is right and we share the same soul, it makes us special Dean! In some of the books back at the Castle there were treatises about it.
It means," he looked carefully into his brother's eyes, "that we are bound together for all eternity, even after death!"
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Dean considered the words his brother had just so passionately pronounced and realised that they were all true.
He had spent nearly all of his free time in the company of a little brother four years younger, when he could easily have left Sam to his own devices,
but he remembered how much better he used to feel when Sam was with him; and how alone he felt when he was out of sight of his
mop-haired little brother.
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"So," he repeated slowly, "you believe what Missouri said," his interrogative gaze contemplating his brother.
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"Yes, I do Dean. That must be why last night, when I had that vision or whatever it was, and my head seemed to be splitting apart,
the images were hazy but as soon as you gripped my arms the pain disappeared and the images came into focus.
When you touched me the two halves of our soul became one and you strengthened me in some way." Sam's convinced face hovered before him.
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"Alright, Sam. I believe you because when I gripped you I felt some sort of flux pass between us while you were on the floor.
"You didn't tell me!"
"Well as this seems to be the first time we have talked about it I don't see how I could have, brother!"
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Dean turned back to the fire rubbing his hands as the flickering flames finally started to give off some warmth.
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"I suppose this means we're stuck together for eternity, Sammy. What'll happen if we get fed up with one another," he joked,
as his eyes met Sam's swirly emotion filled ones.
"We'll just have to make sure that never happens," Sam whispered, knowing that being together was all that they wanted and if it was for eternity,
all the better.
Dean held his brother's eyes, his silence louder than any words, renewing once again their pledge of eternal brotherhood.
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They didn't know how much time had passed, as they just sat there shoulder to shoulder on the bench by the fire,
and only when the door clicked open did Dean rise to his feet, a knife appearing in his hand as if by magic.
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It was Pamela, her hands full with some fruit, bread and meat pies from the market.
Dean was by her side in a minute, relieving her of her burden. She smiled but her eyes were serious.
"They're out looking for you. There are men from Lawrencia combing the streets. It seems a man complained to the passing soldiers at an inn
that two men had stolen his horses and set out towards Arkadelphia."
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Dean nodded.
He felt his brother's presence at his shoulder. "Then we must go. There's no way that you or Ash are going to be in danger because of us".
" But where will you go? Pamela asked worriedly. "The gates leading out from the city are guarded and it seems they have a description of the horses."
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An idea began to blossom in Dean's head.
"If we run, they'll find us. That's what they're expecting, so…" he looked at his little brother with a smirk, "we'll do the exact opposite.
We will hide where they will least expect it."
He explained his plan to Pamela and Sam.
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They went round the back and set the two horses free with a resounding slap to their rumps
and watched as they careered through the streets making the passers-by jump rapidly to the side.
Then the two brothers immerged their hands in the soil of the little closed garden, engraining it under their once well cared for nails
and into the skin of their hands and neck. Not that they had been all that clean before, never having bathed since Missouri's pool days ago,
but now they looked like two farm boys just arrived in town.
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While the garments Missouri had given them were simple, they were of good wool and relatively new,
and Dean was sorry to have to rip the tunic and hose but they had to present the correct impression of two lumbering country yokels.
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Dean had explained his plan to Sam and his brother had agreed that it was so stupid that it might even work.
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They crept through the back streets with Pamela as their guide and Dean, completely unrecognisable as a former prince;
duly camouflaged as a smelly country boy, presented himself to one of Azazel's men at arms asking stutteringly for him and his none too bright cousin
James to be enrolled as simple recruits in the King's army.
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The soldier, never having seen the princes and having no idea what they looked like, and able-bodied men always being needed to replace fallen comrades,
told them to follow on with the soldiers at the end of the day to the Castle of King Adrian of Arkansia who had reserved a barracks
for the use of Azazel's soldiers.
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Sam and Dean exchanged a triumphant smirk!
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XXX X TBC XXXXX