That's A Real Life Bronze Age Priestess Sammy

Chapter 6

This was life, Dean thought. Finally they did a vacation right. No hunting involved whatsoever. Sam was fetching another cooler full of beer and Dean was enjoying kicking back at the waterside. Activities no where near related to hunting. Was something supernatural happening, he didn't know, he had his sunglasses on. Just sunglasses, sun, and beers, but no hunting. He was relaxing and not thinking about hunting. And he was fine. In fact he is so fine he was going to take a nap. The nap seemed like a good idea, until he found himself staring at those same stone walls of Hattusa. "Why do I keep forgetting about this damn thing?" He asked himself, while trying to find Muwatti.

"I would like to know that as well." startling him. The woman seems to have developed a habit of always appearing behind him. Didn't matter how much he looked around, she'd always pop out behind him, just to watch him squirm. But then again he was one invading her dreams. "This has become a regular occurrence for both of us. And yet you still manage to be bewildered?"

"Dreams have habit of turning weird, especially when I go for a walk in others peoples' head." He replied. "Are you taking a nap as well?" He teased.

"I'm right next to you, enjoying the same sun as you. Why shouldn't I take a small nap as well?" She quipped back at him.

The brothers couldn't see any other option, other than bringing Muwatti with them. Couldn't leave her alone at the Bunker and there was no way Cas could take her. Besides, considering she still had the ability to make Dean do anything using just her words, he was constantly worried some demon, somewhere will figure the whole thing out. God forbid it, what if Crowley suspected something. The first time she ever did, for lack of a better term, command him to something was the very first thing she had said in over three thousands years. Stop. Just that one word. At that point of time, neither of them even knew what she could do. It was purely on impulse. He can still see it as clear as day. Her lying on the marble floor of the museum, gasping for air, having no choice but to bear witness to the slaughter of a dozen demons by his hand, and then frantically scrambling backwards when he started walking towards her, with the First Blade in his hands, the blood of his kills still warm on his face. The only thing she could do was utter the word stop. Although she did say it in Hittite, his body understood it and it did just that. It stopped. He stopped. And rest was history.

Turning his attention back to Muwatti and his surrounding, as well as the dream Muwatti, who had just walked in. Nearly always she ended up dreaming about her past memories, her past life really. Just stories about her life, where the two of them played the part of silent invisible witnesses, watching dream Muwatti, as he had started calling her, in different stages of her life. However depending on what she was feeling they could quickly turn into nightmares. The worst ones were when she thought she was back in the tablet. They could do nothing but helplessly watch the other version of her angrily screaming for help, or desperately crying her eyes out, or just sitting there, completely stoic and still. Muwatti had mentioned she felt every moment of every day she was in that tablet. Just those few seconds in that world was unbearable for Dean. How did she not go crazy? And it was a goddamn world, an entire fucking goddamn world, where she was the only occupant. A dark and cold world, where the ground was made of a black coloured stone, smooth to touch. The sky was a dark blue, with just one moon. Only it wasn't a moon, rather the opening through which she could hear everything happening, that acted as the only source of distant light. But no stars.

One thing they had been unable see, was the last day. Her last day. Every time that particular memory would start, they wouldn't even be a minute in, when everything around them would turn black and they would end up in some other memory of her. Usually of her mother or of her twin. Her mind was suppressing that entire episode. Not so surprising really. Whoever did whatever to her at that time, resulted in the worst fucking thing happening to her, and would have continued on, but thanks to him being clumsy and careless, she was finally out. Just pure accident. All of it was just pure unadulterated luck and accident. Even the part of the Mark and her absolute command over him.

"So what is it today?" He asked her.

Muwatti turned towards her doppelgänger and said to Dean, "Today, a bath." Pointing towards the giant empty marble bath.

That's new. That's really tame compared to other things we've had to see. It was kinda disappointing. His face must have said as much, "Sorry to disappoint you Dean, but it was a good bath and I miss it. And today is a bit special." Just then three of her handmaidens came in, carrying giant baskets full of flower petals and started to empty them out in the bath. The fragrance was potent enough that he could smell them even through the dreams. "Those are dried hibiscus flowers from what you know as India that was brought in last night by one of merchant guilds."

Dean asked her what made this bath special. "It is special for several reasons. Well if I think about it, just three. I have personally invested my own wealth in all the top tier merchant and commercial guilds in the capital, every time they have a successful venture, I make quite a substantial profit." Just then a bigass roll of what looked like parchment fell out of one of the baskets. "And that's second reason. One of the conditions for my investment is that their tradesmen will meet up and collect any messages from my spies throughout their travels. I also have other and quicker ways of contacting my spy network but another one doesn't hurt, does it?"

The dream Muwatti had only glanced at the pages and handed them over to one of her handmaids, to read them later and ordered all three of them to fill up the bath with water. They were all obviously speaking Hittite, but because of dream logic Dean could understand everything that people around him were saying during these dreams. He asked Muwatti what was the third reason and she said, "I like the way they smell obviously." At the back of his mind he remembered, he could smell the same hibiscus fragrance when he first saw her.

Then the background changed. To that memory. The last day. Her last day. It began as usual, as it always did. Dream Muwatti has walked into her bedchambers in the palace, drinks some water and starts heading towards the bed to rest. And that is when the dream, or rather nightmare, ends. Everyday she wakes up even before the sun is up, conducts morning prayers in the temple. Then she'd head up to the upper city, to check on the barracks, the granaries and finally enter the palace to hear the petitions with the nobles. It would be well into the afternoon when she'd be able to get some rest. Dean has her entire routine for that day memorised, has gone through every detail with her, both awake and dreaming, and grilled her if anything was different that day. Anything at all. The key to understanding what has happened to both of them was to know exactly how she ended up in the tablet world. Maybe today would be the day.

Except Muwatti has already started hyperventilating.

"Hey, hey, sweetheart. Look at me." In a flash he was right in front of her, holding her face in his hands. "You have to concentrate. You have to work with me here."

"Dean, I can't control it." God she was freezing. How does one get cold in a dream? But they have to hurry up, dream Muwatti had almost reached the bed.

"Yes, you can. You want to know what the hell happened to you all those years ago don't you? Who was the fucker that locked you inside that tablet, right?" She could only nod to his questions. He could feel her heartbeat, simply by touching her face. Her heartbeat was so fast that he was worried it would die out. But if you die in a dream you just wake up right? "Good, so you gonna have to try really hard to make sure the dream doesn't change. Can you do that priestess?"

"High priestess, actually."

This was point when the dream used to change, right when dream Muwatti begins to sit down on the bed. Except it didn't this time. Dream Muwatti was now laying on the bed with her eyes closed and the dream still hadn't changed. Oh god, she did it. She actually did it. "It didn't change?" Clearly she was amazed as well. "Did you plan that part?" She asked him, with a smile on he face.

"Maybe" he said, but not without giving her a wink. "You doing okay? Your heart was running faster than a bullet train for a while there." Which only ended up confusing her and her asking what was a bullet train.

"One of the many things Sam is going to have to teach you, besides teaching you how to read. Now let's hope we can actually see how it plays out. Then we'll have some idea on how to proceed." He turned away from her to face the bed. "So dream Muwatti, what happens next?" But it would be the real Muwatti who'd answer him. "An eclipse."

"What?"

"I just remembered." She had turned away form the bed and was facing towards the wall, which had six eight feet tall arched windows. "There's going to be a solar eclipse. Everything turns dark. Completely dark."

"Okay. Good. That's good. Excellent actually." This was the furthest they had been in to that day, and the most information they've managed to collect. Obviously he was excited at the prospect of actually getting some fucking answers, so sue him. "What else? Can you remember what else happened?"

"A bit." She started frantically looking around the room. Looking at herself sleeping on the bed, the door to her chambers, towards Dean, towards the windows, Dean again, a different wall this time, herself again, and finally settling on Dean. "There's going to be a noise. It would be loud enough to wake me up. I'd wake up thinking it must on the other side of the main door, in the hallway. But it wasn't. It came from inside." She grabbed Dean's hand closest to her with both her hands and fearfully whispered to him, "Dean, there was someone already in here, when I came in."

Dean could feel her breath rapidly increasing once again. As well as his. "Ok. This is just a dream. It's not real. They can't hurt you. You have to remember that alright?" He has to remember that as well. "Where did the noise come from?" Maybe answering questions will help her concentrate. She pointed towards the wall opposite the giant windows. And right there, right in the middle of the wall was another door, something which had previously been hidden from their eyes.

It was just a dream. Dean knew that. Dean had just told her that, still fear crept in, what felt like inside his bones. But fear wasn't bad. Fear helps you fight your enemies. It makes you just a bit quicker on your feet, makes your punches hurt just bit more. Fear helps four year olds carry their baby brother safely out of fire. He was standing in between her and the door and asked her what was on the other side. "It's supposed to the adjoining room for my handmaids."

"You think one of them is in there?"

"No. Whoever is there, it's not them. They know that I prefer to be alone if I'm sleeping in the afternoon. It can't be them. It just can't be. They know I'm not to be disturbed."

"Okay." He was running on pure instincts and adrenalin now, he had already squared off his shoulders and was already bouncing back and forth on his feet.

Then he heard the bang from front. And he also heard Muwatti's scream from behind. Then the dream changed.

They were now in some courtyard, standing next to a fountain.

So close.

So fucking close.

Muwatti was still standing behind him. He could hear her muttering no, over and over again and could feel that she had fallen on her knees, out of pure despair and misery. He knew that feeling alright. She was still muttering to herself, but was hard to make anything out as she was hiding her face behind her hands and knees now. He decided to sit crosslegged beside her and said, "It's alright. We'll try again next time."

"We were so close." She mumbled form behind her knees.

"Yeah we were. But think of all the new bits of information we have now. We know that there was going to be an eclipse. More importantly we know that there was someone already there in the room with you." Now they have to try to make it past the bang.

"I knew there was going to a noise. I just told you about it. And I still got scared. Like a child, Dean." She finally raised her head to look at him, and he saw that she was on the verge on tears. "And now I'm going to have to go through that horrible afternoon, all over again, and again and again, until I end up in that fucking tablet all over again. And why am I crying?"

As had become the case after that dream, her anni showed up. The first time she ever showed up, he didn't even have to be told who she was. The resemblance between her and her mother was striking. Both had the same dark hair and dark eyes. However it was the smile that gave it away.

"Why is my flower crying?" the empress asked her daughter. At least the dream Muwatti, who was five or six years old in this dream. Apparently adult Muwatti and child Muwatti cried the same way. Sitting on the ground, trying to hide their faces behind their hand and knees. "Come here." Henti gently picked up the little girl and headed towards the fountain and sat on the edge of it. Right next to the adult Muwatti.

"You were a cute kid." He pointed out. She scoffed and stood up to sit next to her mother, and him next to Muwatti. "Shut up, Dean." He remarked to her that she didn't mean it, cause if she did then he wouldn't be able to say a single word. "Don't tempt me, Winchester." was her only reply to him.

"I've lost Zannanza. I woke up and he wasn't there with me." cried out the dream child Muwatti. "I've looked everywhere. But I lost him." This made Henti chuckle a bit and replied to her child, "Oh my poor flower. You didn't lose your brother. Your brother is with your father. Today he began his military training, so he had he get earlier than usual and leave for the barracks.

This seems to have calmed down the little girl, since she knew that her twin hadn't gone missing. Yet. "Atti is teaching him how to fight?"

"No, my sweet. Soldiers learn how to fight. Your brothers are princes, they are being taught how to vanquish kingdoms." Isn't that a bit too heavy for a child? But then again looking at his childhood, what right did he have to judge. Then child Muwatti asked what are princesses taught. "That is an interesting question." Henti remarked. "I'm not sure what do other princesses are taught, but you are my daughter. My only daughter." She began tickling the child, making her giggle and couldn't help but laugh herself, before continuing, "And I will teach you how to conquer the world."

"It's time to wake up Dean" was the only thing he heard Muwatti say, before darkness started surrounding them. But right in that moment, before the fountain and the courtyard and Henti and her little daughter disappeared, he could smell hibiscus again. He could swore it was coming from Henti.

When he woke up right back at the waterfront, he could see Sam on his way back carrying the cooler.