Oscar hesitated a second longer, craning his neck to peer at the ground from his safe place on Dean's hand. The grass ringing in the clearing really was taller than Sam, and a lot taller than Oscar. He was amazed and nervous all over again. He could get lost in there.

He glanced back up, staring at the trunk of the tree above them and the way it stretched out high overhead. Then, he looked back at the smile on Sam's face, and stood with his bag clutched in his hands. "Okay," he answered, taking far more hesitant steps to get down from the hand.

When his cloth shoes touched the dirt, he stumbled and looked down. The uneven ground, even the feel of the dirt itself, was unfamiliar and unique. Oscar shuffled his feet a little before looking back up at Sam with a surprised grin. "It's weird!"

Sam kicked a tiny pebble with his boot. "Yeah!" Even though he'd known what to expect, it was odd to see the new perspective of the ground. What would normally be nothing more than dirt and dust had become pebbles and rocks that he could hold in his hand. Small rocks glittered in the dust, tiny fragments of quartz that were nothing more than a simple sparkle in the ground to Dean, but big enough for either of the small kids to hold in their hands.

Sam dug out one such glimmer, staring at the clear rock in his hands. If he pretended, he could almost imagine that they were searching for diamonds in the ground instead of a common rock that could be found everywhere around them. "Check it out!" he said to Oscar, holding out his find.

Oscar leaned in to look at the tiny stone in Sam's hand. It had some jagged sides, but most of it had been worn smooth by the other small rocks and pieces of dust around it. The closest he could equate it to was a piece of broken glass. That got tracked in and stomped into the carpet fibers of the motel rooms from time to time. "That's kinda pretty," he determined, wandering a few steps from Sam and scanning the ground to find one himself.

Instead of another glimmer catching his eye, Oscar saw a twig just at the border of the grass right around them. He bounded over to it, nudging it curiously and feeling the texture of the bark. It was so different from the wood in the walls of the motel. It wasn't sanded to a straight edge, but warped and crooked.

Oscar wrapped his hands around one end of the twig curiously and hauled back on it, trying to drag it out of the grass. It scraped along for about an inch before getting stuck, and he had to let go of it. He smiled again, fascinated.

Dean laughed at the sight of the two kids having fun on the ground. He scooted himself back against the tree so he could lean on it. Unlike the others, he was looking forward to the movie later that afternoon more than the park. He'd wanted to see Jurassic Park since it had come into theaters, but there was no way for him to just up and leave Sam back at the room for that long on his own. Not standing barely over two inches tall. Not with Sam already having been the target of a witch so recently. So he'd decided, now that they movie had been out for weeks, they could spend a day out and get to do what they both wanted.

Dean reached out, pulling the twig free for Oscar. "Holler if you two need any help," he said as he let his head rest against the tree. He didn't plan on taking his eyes off of their surroundings, making sure there were no other humans or pets in the area.

"Okay," Oscar agreed, already walking around the twig and checking out its twists and angles. He ducked and walked under it, tugging on his bag when it almost got caught on one small branch of the stick. He grinned and went back over to Sam, practically bouncing on his feet. Oscar felt primed and ready for exploration out here, something he hadn't felt in a long time. Exploring in the walls felt so dangerous, because he wasn't sure if he'd be able to find his way home.

Here, however, he wasn't alone. "Sam, the air outside tastes so good," he said, looking straight up at the branches of the tree above them. "It doesn't smell like insulation or cigarettes out here." Of course, Oscar couldn't really say what it did smell like, other than "outside."

He glanced around them and asked in a quieter voice, "Should we go see the grass closer? I-I don't wanna get lost but maybe just a few steps, just to see!"

Sam grinned at that. "You bet!" He pointed up at Dean. "As long as we can see Dean, he can see us too. So we won't get lost 'cause he can just pick us up and bring us back here."

Dean gave them both a brief smile in response, showing that he was paying attention to what they were talking about down on the ground. It was fleeting as he turned his attention back to the tranquil park.

"C'mon," Sam said, leading the way towards the very edge of their small clearing.

Oscar followed behind Sam, letting the older boy lead their exploration towards the grass. Oscar was looking forward to seeing it, but he couldn't hide away all of his nerves. It was still very new to him and he couldn't help but feel a little overwhelmed.

Especially when they reached the edge of the grass. He tilted his head back to stare at the green stalks that went over his head and swayed in the breeze. The smell of the plants was more noticeable, a sharp, musty scent that made the grass seem that much more alive. Oscar found himself tentatively reaching out to touch one waxy stalk, and marveled at the texture.

Before they could walk among it, Oscar lightly gripped Sam's sleeve in a pinch, anchoring himself to the other kid before they ventured into something so unknown.

Sam put his arm around Oscar as they stepped into the grass. It shot up above their heads, leaving just the blue of the sky visible with wisps of clouds drifting overhead. Dean was just barely visible with the broad trunk of the tree rising up above his head.

Not far away, a snail made its slow way up one of the thicker stalks of grass. It had managed to hang on despite the earlier intrusion by Dean's boots as the teen walked up to the tree. Now a thin trail crawled up the stalk behind it, showing the slow progress.

"Check it out!" Sam said with a laugh, pointing at the snail that was the size of a large cat to them.

Oscar brightened and watched the slow creature make its way up the stalk of grass. The green blade leaned a little more with each passing second as the weight of the snail bent it. Oscar had only ever seen slugs before, and those only once or twice; they didn't like the dust in the motel very much. Out here, it wasn't as much of a problem.

Oscar was tempted to reach out and feel the texture of that spiral shell. But, he held back, worried he might knock the snail down from the grass. It looked like it had worked hard to get up so high. He wrinkled his nose a little at the sight of the slimy trail it left behind it, while its eye stalks waved this way and that.

"I wonder what it'll do when it gets to the top," Oscar mused, glancing up. The grass around them almost seemed to lean in, as if watching them as curiously as he watched it. He watched the blue sky for a few seconds, before looking all around them at the grass again. Everything around him was completely foreign to the life he recognized back in his home.

His thoughts came back to the snail, with its fascinating crawl up the grass. Oscar leaned to the side to watch it from a different angle. "Maybe it's lookin' for a leaf like we are."

"Or," Sam said, getting into the ideas, "maybe it's trying to have an adventure like we are and wants to see what's above the grass. It'll get to see the rest of the world around it when it gets to the top! If it catches sight of Dean, it might think he's the big scary monster of the grass, looking for little snails to grab!" He giggled a little at the thought. Dean might be big enough to take a mistaken step onto a snail like that, but there'd be no way he'd grab one from the grass.

Sam's laughter was contagious and Oscar stifled his own with a hand. He watched the snail for another second. "Well hopefully it doesn't fall right down then," he mused. Dean was big and he could be scary, but he wasn't so bad. Oscar had come to know the human was safe, though he couldn't expect the snail to know that.

"If the grass wasn't so thin we could climb it too," he added, wrapping his hands around one nearby blade of grass. He tried to haul himself up it, but it gave with even his small weight, bowing to the ground so that Oscar was hanging there at an angle before he let himself fall onto the soil with a snicker. The grass sprang back up as if it hadn't been disturbed at all.

"No, but we could always climb the tree," Sam mused curiously. He glanced over his shoulder at the towering oak that Dean was leaning against. Even from down in the grass it was easily visible, eclipsing a good portion of the sky above them with the wide branches that jutted out overhead. "The bark was really rough when I was big, so it would have a lot of handholds. We could even get above Dean's head if he let us!"

Oscar found himself staring up at the tree once more. The towering oak shaded all three of them protectively, and provided Dean a place to sit while the smaller children explored and had fun outside. It was the first time in Oscar's life that he got to have fun outdoors, and he was glad for the location Dean had picked. It wasn't so scary at all.

"Maybe we should try," he agreed. Climbing, after all, was one thing he got to do a lot, so he enjoyed the activity enough. And he was interested in seeing how different it'd be to climb something that had all of its own handholds, rather than the smooth surface of the furniture that required a rope.

With a laugh, Sam turned and bolted back towards the oak tree behind them. "Race ya!" he called over his shoulder, grinning a challenge back at Oscar. The smaller kid was quick on his feet, and Sam didn't doubt he'd catch up in no time at all. The tree was an entire two feet away, after all.

His bag bounced at his side with his short strides, a reassuring weight that he'd grown used to. Belatedly, he shoved his tiny quartz rock in the cloth bag to keep it safe. It might be just dust to Dean but to him it was a crystal that he didn't want to lose.

"Oh!" Oscar straightened in surprise, caught off guard by Sam taking off through the grass. He took off after him, finding it hard at first to push past the grass. He eventually got the hang of it enough to sprint after Sam's head start, biting his lip in concentration. Luckily the oak tree stood so tall overhead that it was impossible to miss it and get running in the wrong direction.

He lost a little more time having to dash around a thicker tuft of grass. Oscar was worried he could get stuck in it if he tried to push through it, and that would be embarrassing. "Sam, I wasn't ready!" he called ahead, though there was a laugh in his voice as he ran.

"Oh, you weren't, were you?" Dean asked from above as he spotted the small race going by next to him. "Guess that means I'll just have to give you a hand…"

With careful aim, Dean managed to pinch the back of Oscar's shirt mid-run, lifting him briefly up in the air and dropping him right down next to the trunk of the oak tree. Sam, a few inches away, skid to a halt when he saw that he'd lost. "Aww, no fair!" he complained.

Dean gave him a light nudge. "I'm just evening the odds a little."

Oscar's eyes were wide and he glanced between the two brothers, tilting his head back to watch Dean's smirk before looking down at where Sam stopped. He could see his indignant look through the the grass, and Oscar felt a sheepish look take over his face. He certainly hadn't expected to be picked up and moved. In fact, he'd been so unprepared that at first his legs had continued moving for a second as though he were running.

"I-it's okay, Sam," he called back. "You prob'ly woulda won." Oscar hadn't been gaining as much ground on the other kid when Dean decided to join in the fun in his own way. The terrain was too unfamiliar and Oscar still wasn't really used to it.

That said, he turned to look over the tree trunk behind him. The slope of it quickly angled upwards into a vertical surface. Oscar could only take a few steps onto the weird textured surface before he needed to shake his oversized sleeves off his hands and grip some of the many handholds in the tree bark. "This is way easier than even climbing the bedsheets!" he called out once he was an inch or two up, twisting around to grin at Sam.

"Really?!" Sam darted over to the edge of the bark below where Oscar was climbing. In his peripheral vision he saw Dean shift his position to be able to watch them better.

Remembering the snail they'd just watched, Sam went "No, wait!" to Dean, throwing up his hands into the air.

Dean froze, raising an eyebrow at Sam in confusion.

Sam pointed over at the grass. "Don't hurt the snail! He's just tryin' to climb up the grass!"

A small smile twitched at Dean's lips. "Is that it?" He glanced towards the grass where Sam and Oscar had darted out of and found the snail still continuing its plodding journey up the blade of grass. Dean touched the grass lightly with a finger, watching the slow progress as the snail resolutely ignored him. "I won't let anything happen to him," Dean promised as he let the blade of grass go, swinging in the breeze.

He shifted position with more care after that, watching as the kids started to climb up the tree. His fingers twitched with worry.

A/N

Two little kids and their snail, on an adventure!

If you have a prompt idea for the story, please tumble on over to the tumblr and drop it in my askbox!

Next: A Day at the Park 4, coming February 29th

Comments and reviews greatly appreciated! If you like the story, let us know! (or if you don't like it)