A/N: Hello dear readers and welcome back to another short hunt of a creature I found and wanted to use in a story. I hope you will be entertained so buckle get and get prepared for the journey. Special thank you to VegasGranny for her input and thoughts to make the story better. Reviews/Comments would be great. Enjoy…NC

Disclaimer: I do not own any aspect of SPN, and this is my own creation. Any errors are my own.

Chapter 1

The day was hot with a warm breeze blowing to keep the temperature down in the Sioux Falls area. A thunderstorm had moved through several days ago cooling things down, but not for long. The end of summer was going out with a heat wave across the state. Everyone was looking forward to the cool days of fall that were just around the corner.

Sam Winchester walked slowly down the road at the back of the salvage yard, looking for his brother. He was carrying two ice cold beers in one hand and wiped his sweaty brow with the other. Music was playing inside one of the large buildings that had the double doors open. He headed that way and stopped in the doorway to let his eyes adjust for a moment so he could see inside.

"Hey," Sam called to his brother who was leaning into the engine bay of his Baby, a black '67 Impala.

"Hey," Dean replied, glancing at his brother and back down at the section of the engine he was working on.

"Thought you might like a cold one," Sam offered holding up the beers.

Tension had been strained between the brothers since the wrecking of the Impala and the death of their father. Dean had almost died from his injuries, but their father had sacrificed himself and the Colt to save him. They had given their father a hunter's funeral and had stayed at the salvage yard with Bobby Singer, their surrogate father, to allow Dean time to get the Impala running again and come to terms with all that happened.

"Yeah, thanks," he mumbled, his voice stiff and clipped. He took the offered beer and popped the top off to take a long swig, sighing contently afterwards.

"How's it coming?" Sam asked looking over the car still amazed that Dean was able to put her back together, but he shouldn't have doubted Dean's skills when it came to his Baby. The Impala had been a constant in their lives growing up and was a part of the family.

"She'll be ready for her first test drive soon."

"Really?" Sam questioned. "Maybe she'll sound as good as before."

"Bite your tongue!" Dean growled at him. "Don't listen to him Baby; I know you'll sound as good or even better." He stroked the fender lovingly and glared at Sam. "She has feelings, you know."

"Gee sorry," Sam shrugged knowing the love affair Dean had with the Impala. "Anything I can do?"

"On my Baby? I don't think so. I know how butterfingers you are with tools. But you could wipe the seats and dash down."

"That I can do," Sam replied looking around for the spray Dean used on the leather and a clean rag. He got in the back first and sprayed the rag before wiping it over the back of the front seats. After getting them conditioned, Sam started on the back seat rubbing in a circular motion and overlapping his strokes. He glanced toward the side door and stopped when he saw the green army man sticking out of the ash tray. He smiled to himself knowing Dean was trying to make the car as close to the original as possible. He continued to wipe the seats until he was on the outside of the car leaning in to finish up. He stood back and admired his handiwork before putting the rag and spray aside.

"That's it," Dean announced loudly as he held his hands up in victory. He opened the driver's door and dropped into the seat, rubbing the steering wheel before inserting the key into the ignition. Taking a deep breath, he turned the key and listened to the engine grumble and turn over once before sputtering and dying. "Come on Baby," he whispered, tapping the gas twice and trying again. The engine started and ran rough for a moment before settling down into a steady, throaty rumble. "There she it," Dean hummed happily. "There's my Baby."

"Sounding good," Sam commented standing beside the car thinking it did sound better.

Dean got out and closed the hood and got back into the car.

"Well, are you coming?" he asked his brother as he adjusted the seat and looked around inside the car before caressing the steering wheel. "We're back Baby."

"Okay," Sam replied hurrying to the passenger side and getting in. He smiled as he settled into the seat and watched Dean put the car into gear before easing it out of the building and onto the road. Dean smiled as he drove slowly down the gravel road and around to the main road. He looked both ways before pulling onto the paved road and picking up speed. He pressed harder on the gas and listened to the engine change gears as it revved up and shot down the highway.

"Listen to her scream!" Dean yelled happily. "I told you I could get her together again."

"I never doubted it," Sam agreed smiling that Dean was so happy and hoped this put him in a better mood. He leaned his head closer to the open window and let his hair blow freely in the wind.

"Dude, you look like a sheep dog hanging his head out the window," Dean laughed at him to get the finger from Sam.

spn

The following morning, Dean made his way down the stairs, yawning and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. The house was quiet as he glanced into Bobby's office to see it empty and headed for the kitchen. He didn't find Sam or Bobby in there but did find coffee in the pot and poured a cup to sip on as he looked around. He spotted a scrap of paper propped against the saltshaker and walked over to retrieve it. He read his brother's handwriting saying he had to run into town on an errand and would be back soon and Bobby had gone on a parts run.

"He better not have taken my Baby," Dean grumbled going back to the living room to look out the window seeing the Impala was still parked outside. He wondered why Sam didn't wake him or wait on him and they could go together into town. He headed back into the kitchen to find something for breakfast and wait for his brother to get back.

After giving the fridge a once over, Dean pulled a yogurt and butter out. He was going to make some toast to go with his coffee and eat the yogurt to hold him over until lunch. He had been sleeping later since the accident and the death of their father.

Dean wasn't sure if it was because of all that had happened to him, almost dying, his losses, his grief, or his guilt over being the reason his father died. Whatever the reason, it was usually midmorning before he ever roused enough to get out of bed, but he made up for it by staying up late into the night to work on the Impala. He would start after he got up, which was usually around lunch, and work until one or two in the morning when he would drag himself inside, get a quick shower before going to bed and start again the next day.

With breakfast out of the way and the Impala fixed, Dean decided to look for a case since he was getting restless. It had been too long now, and he needed to get back out there. He went in search of Sam's laptop and found it in the living room charging. After unplugging it, Dean plopped down on the couch and booted it up so he could go online and check the search engines they used to see if there was anything unusual happening in the country. They would look for strange deaths, missing people, unexplained happenings, or crazy things happening that couldn't be logically explained.

He quickly scrolled through the articles bookmarking ones that looked promising to read after he had finished his search. When that was done, the fun part started, reading the articles, and doing a little research to see if it might be a possible case. He usually left this part to Sam but figured he might as well do it so they could hit the road sooner. Dean had almost finished sorting the articles and picking the maybes, the ones worth checking out, and discarding the definitely not their thing when he heard the front door open.

"Hey," Sam greeted him when he walked into the living room seeing Dean sitting on the couch.

"Hey," Dean grunted. "Why the trip into town? You could have woken me, and I'd have gone with you."

"Just needed to do a couple of errands," Sam shrugged not saying anything else about it. "What are you doing?"

"Finding us a possible case."

"I figured you'd think about heading out since the Impala is fixed. I need to do laundry, so we'll have clean clothes." Sam turned to head upstairs to get their dirty clothes to wash ending the conversation.

Dean frowned as he watched his brother leave wondering what he wasn't telling him. Now that he thought about it, it seemed Sam had been disappearing to go into town for a while now and never telling him about it or asking him to go along. He didn't know what Sam was hiding and thought about what his Dad had told him just before he died. It weighted heavy on his mind and couldn't understand why he didn't explain it further or why he didn't tell him about his reasoning behind the statement. Their father had drilled into Dean to always protect his brother and take care of him, and to be told he might have to kill him if he couldn't save him, didn't sit well with him.

It wasn't long before Sam came back downstairs with a basket of dirty clothes and headed to the laundry room to get them washed. He didn't pay any attention to his brother who was watching him closely as he disappeared into the kitchen. Sam got the washer going and headed back into the kitchen to snag a drink before joining his brother in the living room to see what he found in his search.

"So, what did you find for us to check out?" Sam asked as he sat in the chair by the couch and sipped on his drink.

"I found some articles about livestock disappearing in a small town called Shiprock, New Mexico, and the local cops can find no clues to what is taking them," Dean explained handing Sam his laptop with the article pulled up so he could read it.

"Livestock, you sure this is something we need to check out?" Sam inquired.

"Let me finish," Dean replied. "Hikers in the area have been attacked by some creature in the middle of the night. All they could tell the cops was that it flew. A couple were injured badly, and one hiker died from his injuries."

Sam began to quickly scan the text and then read it again slowly absorbing the information and compiling it in his head as he tried to sort what was relevant and what was speculation.

"If it's something flying, then that eliminates a lot of things. Do the local police have any ideas?"

"Not from the articles. We've checked things out with less information."

"True, if it doesn't turn out to be our kind of case, maybe we'll find something else nearby."

"Fine with me; I figure we can head out early in the morning and drive partway tomorrow."

"Alright then, I'll go use Bobby's computer and print out directions for us and find a good place to spend the night," Sam offered getting up to head for the office.

"I'm going to check the weapon's bag to see if anything needs restocking," Dean grunted as he heaved himself from the couch. It felt good to get back into the game again and flex his hunting muscles. He shelved his concerns with Sam's mystery trips to town for now to focus on the case.