At some point, Dean felt his wrist cramp and he couldn't write anymore. He set his pen down and massaged at his wrist, looking over the almost full box of jars he had already done.
This...was so stupid. Sam was out there still collecting honey from the combs and here he was putting them into jars and labeling them.
There was no reason for this, no point, other than Cain using them to complete the chores that he didn't want to do.
But at the same time, considering who Cain was and what he had done for them; because whether they want to admit it or not, whatever he wrote on that note saved their lives, this was far from the worst that could be done.
Sam joined him and set the bucket on the ground next to him. "That was the last one." he said looking over what his brother had done. "Want my help?"
"No." Cain answered for him, appearing next to them. He looked into each bucket and glanced over the combs before nodding. "Now you'll gather firewood and chop it properly. The axe is in the shed, the wood is to the side of the house."
Sam looked around to where the wood was, tilting his head to see it. "What is the proper way to chop it?" he asked, taking his flannel off to remain in his short sleeve shirt. "And I've never chopped wood before."
"You'll figure it out, they have to be small enough and cut enough to stack on top of one another and to be able to be put into the fireplace." Cain told him.
"And how much wood should I cut?" Sam asked, looking at his brother.
"I'll let you know when enough is enough." Cain said, already turning to go back into the house. "Until then, just chop."
Sam nodded, taking a deep breath and going to the shed to grab the axe and then to the side of the house. Dean watched him until he heard the sound of wood sliding onto the ground and the sound of a blade cutting them.
Letting out a deep breath he turned back to the jars and the honey, already feeling his wrist start to cramp again. Shaking his head he started again, filling each jar with honey, and then labeling them.
It was mind numbing and at some point, he started to do everything robotically, not really paying attention to anything around him as he filled and labeled jar after jar.
A loud crash snapped him out of his daze and he turned to look at the box of empty jars that had been tossed to the ground, a mess of glass and wood. His head snapped up to see Cain standing there staring down at him.
"You weren't paying attention and as a result, the jars broke." Cain told him. "You choose to drift off and not be aware of anything, let your hands move without real input, you leave yourself and everyone around you vulnerable."
Dean blinked and looked at the broken jars. "Pretty sure the jars broke because you pushed them to the ground."
"And I was able to do that because you weren't paying attention." Cain said. "And now, because the jars are broken, you need to fix what's broken."
Dean bit back a sigh and stood up, a bit careful at the chance to get up and move around a bit. "I'm guessing everything I need is in the shed?"
Cain just nodded and Dean rubbed at his eyes as he went to the shed, looking around for a broom of some kind. The whole place was organized carefully but when he looked for something to clean up, he couldn't find it.
"Did I say clean up or did I say fix?" Cain asked him rhetorically when Dean went back to him. "The glue is there."
He had to pause at that. "You want me to fix the jars?" he asked. "They're in pieces, I can't use them anymore."
"Not my problem, it is a cause of your action, or should I say inaction." Cain said. "You allowed yourself to get sloppy and as a result what you needed broke. And there are your consequences that you must go through."
"But why?" Dean pushed. "Why can't I just clean this up and use new jars?"
"Because there are two things you need to learn here, and I've already told you both of them." Cain said. "I'm going to check on your brother, I expect you to patch them and put them to good use." without waiting for an answer he walked away, towards the side of the house.
Dean closed his eyes and took a deep breath to try to steady his nerves before grabbing the glue and going back to his table. He stared down at the mess of glass pieces, looking around it in an attempt to figure out the best way to start. He knelt down beside it and tried to separate them, trying to keep the pieces that seemed to go together in the same pile.
What the hell did Cain mean, that he needed to learn two things? What was the point of all this? Was the older demon just bored and taking advantage of the fact that neither he nor Sam were going to argue with him about doing whatever it was that he wanted? But then why try to teach them anything?
Slowly he started to pick the pieces, sliding them together, grabbing the glue to spread it along the sharp edges. This was going to be taxiing and he was sure that even if he tried his best, no one was going to be able to eat any of the honey inside for fear of eating glass.
If it even managed to hold the honey.
What was the point of this? Dean stopped for a moment to listen to the sound of Sams chopping, shifting in place before looking down at the jars once more.
There was a reason for this, there had to be, it wasn't just because Cain wanted to have some fun and get some chores done at their expense. There had to be a reason for all this, a purpose.
Sam could probably figure it out before he did, his brother had always been better at riddles like this.
But, for now at least, he needed to focus on fixing his jars.
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