Part 2 :) Again, please manage your expectations- this isn't going where you think it is. This has something in common with only four SPN episodes out of 327. Special thanks to Jenmm31. In this story, Natalie is four. Part 2 of a 3 part story.
The blue-haired creature was about her size, maybe a little taller. It twisted its hands into its cape and rocked back and forth on its feet, like it was holding back from exploding with excitement. Natalie tilted her head, trying to figure out what in the world it was. Nothing in any of the lore books looked like it- and she had looked at ALL the pictures- and it didn't seem to be mean. It was looking at her with the same curiosity that she was looking at it. It suddenly took a step towards her.
Without thinking, Natalie flung a handful of salt directly into its purple eyes. It flinched a bit. "OW!" it said in a childlike, hurt voice. "What was that for?" it asked, rubbing at its eyes, trying to dislodge the salt. It looked at her, pouting.
Natalie instantly felt bad. The thing didn't mean any harm, it was just trying to get a better look at her. But every little of bit of everything she'd picked up from Sam and Dean made her stay stock still, knowing better than to get in close to whatever-this-was until she knew…well…whatever it was. "Sorry," she said cautiously. "You kinda freaked me out a little."
"Didn't mean to," the creature mumbled, still shaking the salt off its face. "I just wanted to get a good look at you."
"So you could eat me?"
"What? No! Ew, gross! Why would I want to eat you?"
"Because you're a monster, right?"
"I don't think so. Wait. Am I?"
"How's come you don't know?"
"How's come YOU don't know?"
Natalie tilted her head. "Good point," she said, echoing what Dean had said to her only last night. She looked around the curious space. It was like a giant room made of soft, squishy sponges- perfect for jumping and bouncing. Splashes of purple, pink, blue, and gold covered the walls, and to her right was a hallway that seemed to be giving off the same purple glow as the staircase earlier. "So," Natalie said, focusing back on the thing in front of her. "Okay. If you're not a monster, what are you?"
"I'm a Zanna," the creature explained. "I'm your new best friend! Do you wanna give me a name?"
"You're a what?"
"A Zanna. I'm a being who helps kids and becomes their new best friend and plays with them! Do you wanna give me a name? You can name me anything you want in the whole world!"
"Anything?"
"ANYTHING."
Natalie tapped her finger against her lips, thinking. She knew Dean loved naming things that he found, and this was her big chance to be like him. She had to make it epic. "Got it," she said after a minute. "You're Captain McSprinkles Ice Cream Face the Third."
The creature's eyes went wide with wonder. "WOW," it breathed out. "That is the COOLEST name I have ever heard."
"I know. I'm pretty awesome at stuff like this."
"Yeah you are! None of the other kids would even try to name me!"
"The other kids?"
"Yeah! They're all here. Wanna meet them?"
"Sure!"
Captain raced off down the hallway, a trail of gold dust in his wake. "Hey," Natalie asked, running to catch up. "Is that the same gold dust that you used to make Daddy and Unca Sam fall asleep?"
"Yeah! Did they snore really loud?"
"SO loud."
"That's funny."
"Are they gonna be okay?"
"Yup! They're only sleeping. They'll be okay. I bet their snoring sounded like a bear. I think that bears probably have really loud snores, right?"
"Probably!"
Giggling together, Captain and Natalie ran around the corner of a spongy, bright blue wall. "I really like the colors of your place," Natalie complimented.
"I know! They're your favorite colors, that's why I used 'em," Captain said proudly.
"How do you know my favorite colors?" Natalie asked, curiously.
"I read it in your file," he answered, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. He suddenly stopped in a bright pink room and pointed to a pile of bean bags. Natalie's heart leapt- they were just like the bean bags at that one really cool play-place Unca Sam had taken her to that one time, but there was like a hundred of them here. Or at least ten. Maybe somewhere in between ten and a hundred. Captain pointed to the pile. "There they are!"
"The beanbags?"
"No, not the beanbags, silly. BEHIND the beanbags," Captain giggled. "I don't think they like this place as much as you do."
Natalie carefully walked over to the pile. As she approached, she could hear tiny little whimpers and cries obviously trying to be muffled. "Hey," she called out. "Don't be afraid. I'm not gonna hurt you." She crept onto the pile and gently pulled the top bean bag away. There in a huddle for safety, were four kids, trembling and shaking. One of them buried their face against the wall upon seeing her.
Natalie's jaw dropped open- who were these kids? What were they doing here? And why were they so scared? She extended a hand to them. She couldn't reach them- there were too many beanbags between them all, but if they reached out they could touch her. "It's okay," she said. "My name's Natalie. I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm a good guy. Are you okay? Do you wanna come out?"
"NO!" suddenly screeched one little girl who was hugging her knees and shaking. "I wanna go home!"
Natalie had jumped a little at the girl's cry, but she held out her hand and tried to smile. "Okay, I'm sure Captain will take you home, don't worry."
"Who's Captain?"
"Oh, duh, sorry, I just named him so you wouldn't know. He's the guy with the blue hair and the sparkly gold cape."
"Wh-who?"
Natalie jerked her thumb over her shoulder. She was confused as to how in the world this kid couldn't know who she was talking about. There weren't any other blue-haired people down here. "The…guy? The Zanna? With the purple eyes?"
"You're crazy," mumbled a little boy who had positioned himself at the front of the group. "The guy holding us here is big and green like the Hulk."
Natalie's eyebrows knit together. She had no way of knowing this, but in that split second she looked just like Dean did when he was very confused. She looked over her shoulder at Captain, who still very much had blue hair.
Captain was nodding in understanding, however. "Oh, yeah, sorry," he said apologetically. "When I came to get Andy, I looked like this." Suddenly, he grew taller and much, much wider, his skin, hair, and eyes turning a bright shade of green. Natalie's mouth hung open at the transformation, but Captain just shrugged. "Hulk is his favorite superhero, so I figured that he'd like it if I looked like him."
"I don't!" came Andy's voice from the pile of beanbags. "The Hulk isn't nice!"
"Then why do you like him so much?" Captain asked, his voice suddenly growing louder. A trio of cries came from the bean bag pile in answer. Captain's shoulders slumped. Just as rapidly as he shape-shifted before, he shrunk now back to the form that Natalie knew him in. "Aw, bubble socks," he said grumpily. "I did it again."
"Did what?" Natalie asked, now on the defensive. Something wasn't adding up here, and as the resident self-appointed hunter in the group, she had to assume it was the creature's doing.
Now reverted to the blue haired, gold cape-wearing guy, Captain collapsed onto the floor, his legs crossed. "I scared 'em," he mumbled, shamefaced. "I don't mean to! I just get really excited 'cause I just wanna play and then I forget that sometimes I can get really loud and that scares people."
Natalie subtly slipped her hand into her pocket, fingering the silver dollar. She walked carefully up to Captain and deliberately put her hand on his arm, the silver dollar in her palm. He looked down at her hand curiously.
"What's on your hand? It's cold," he asked. Natalie pulled her hand away and backed up quickly. Captain's eyebrows raised in surprise at her sudden actions. "What?" he asked.
"You're…you didn't get burned with the silver," Natalie said, dumbfounded. She didn't understand this at all. "So you're not a shape shifter?"
Captain shook his head. "I told you, I'm a Zanna. We don't mean any harm at all- we just wanna play."
"Then how did you shape shift?"
"It's one of the special magical things we can do. Like I can shape shift to be what you need me to be or what you want me to look like. That's why all the others think I look different. I came to them how I thought they'd like me to look." Captain pushed himself up off the ground in frustration, then started pacing around the room. "But everyone freaked out, so I had to keep trying."
"Keep trying…how?" Natalie asked suspiciously. Captain looked a little embarrassed. He shifted his weight back and forth, refusing to make eye contact with the little girl. "Captain, did you do something bad?" Natalie pressed, putting her hands on her hips like Sam did when he was scolding her.
Captain turned to Natalie in a whirl, his eyes wide. "NO! I mean…no. Not really. I….see, I'm not…I didn't do it right," he finally mumbled out, his eyes staying firmly glued to the floor. "I'm not….I'm not THEIR Zanna. Those aren't my kids."
"Of course they're not! They belong to their daddies and uncles and grandpas and aunts and families," Natalie said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "They're not yours."
"I don't mean it like that," Captain said, his eyes rolling in much the same way Natalie's did when she was trying to explain something. Natalie suddenly understood why Sam found it so unpleasant, but she shook the thought off immediately. She had other things to think about. "I mean each Zanna has a kid that they 'belong' to. Your Uncle Sam, for instance." Natalie's ears instantly perked up at the mention of Sam's name. "He had a Zanna named Sully. He was super fun and had the coolest rainbow suspenders."
"Unca Sam knows about Zannas?" Natalie asked, surprised. Captain nodded and continued his explanation.
"Yeah. And when kids get too old and don't need their Zannas anymore, they get assigned a new kid. They move on. But I screwed everything up," Captain mumbled, turning away from her. "My kid got scared and didn't want to play. And I'm SUPPOSED to play and help, but he just kept getting more and more scared no matter what I tried. Finally, I couldn't get through to him anymore."
"What does that mean?"
"It means that I couldn't get to his house. I couldn't teleport to wherever he was, and I'm supposed to be able to do that. And ever since, I haven't gotten a new kid."
"How do you…get kids? I mean, you got all these ones here, right?" Natalie asked, pointing to the pile of bean bags where she could see the one of the boy's eyes peeking out over the top. This time, Captain definitely wouldn't make eye contact with her.
"Yeah, but I'm not supposed to KEEP them here."
A thrill ran through the four-year-old. Something was very, very wrong. "So…why do you keep them here if you're not a'sposed to?" she asked carefully.
Captain shrugged, not noticing her increasing anxiety. "Because I just want someone to play with me. I want someone to know that I'm their friend- their BEST friend- and I want a kid to call my own." At this, Captain sank down to the floor and put his head in his hands. Natalie wasn't sure, but he might have been crying a little.
She wanted to go comfort him. She hated seeing anybody crying because she knew how icky it always made her feel, and she didn't want anyone to feel that way. But something just wasn't right. Captain shouldn't be holding a bunch of scared kids just because he wanted to play. She swallowed hard as Captain looked up and turned his gaze towards her. Even she could see the not-quite-right look in his eyes.
"And until they know what a good friend I am and someone decides to keep me forever, I'm gonna keep them all here. Forever."
Well. This wasn't good.
