Prompt: Hans Christian Anderson's The Nightingale
Disclaimer: not my characters
There was once a warrior who married a beautiful woman, the daughter of an even better warrior and a powerful enchantress. They were very happy for a time, until an evil wizard visited. He killed the beautiful woman, but the warrior was able to save their two sons.
Many years passed. The warrior went back to war and trained his sons to follow his path. The elder boy, who looked very much like his mother, embraced his father's training. He remembered what the wizard took that night and he wanted vengeance.
But the younger boy—he followed the lessons at first because he idolized the warrior and adored his brother. After he turned thirteen, though—he wanted out. He had wearied of guns and blood. He did not want to go to war.
The warrior had two sons. The elder—named Dean by his mother, for her powerful and beautiful mother—was a perfect, dutiful child. He obeyed his father and took care of his brother and dreamed of his mother, her hands and her voice.
Often, the warrior would say, Why can't you be like your brother, Sam? for Sam was the younger boy's name. His mother had named him, too, for her warrior father. He had been a strong, proud man; his grandson was much like him.
I want out! Sam would yell at his father. Sometimes they didn't speak to each other for days.
Dean stayed out of it. He refused to choose a side. Both of them privately thought of him as a traitor.
When Sam was eighteen, the warrior said, If you leave, don't come back.
Sam listened and left. Dean said nothing for months. He followed his father's orders but never spoke, and the warrior remembered those months after the wizard's attack, when his lovely wife was killed.
Dean, he begged after a few too many beers. Dean, please, son, talk to me. Say something!
Dean had his mother's eyes. It was half a year before he spoke again.
He and his father continued the war, small skirmishes and battles that barely registered with the evil wizard they chased. Across the countryside they left their mark in people preserved and darkness defeated.
And young Sam went to school where he tried to forget all he knew. He met a pretty girl who looked like his mother and made a life with her.
One day, four years after Sam left, his brother Dean visited. Dad's missing, he said, and Sam went on a journey with him. The wizard that killed their beautiful mother came in the night and stole Sam's future wife.
Sam became a warrior. He caught up with his brother and together they made a name from coast to coast. They surpassed their father's skill, and their grandfather's, too.
They found their father and left him again. They fought and bled and killed, until finally—finally—
The evil wizard that stalked Sam twice confronted him wearing the warrior's skin, and said, Hey, kiddo.
He laughed and tortured Dean within a heartbeat of his life; his blood flowed out in rivers and Sam begged the wizard to stop.
I'll do anything, he promised.
Anything, the wizard drawled. Powerful word, that.
The wizard released his hold on Dean and Sam watched in horror as his brother fell to the floor, unmoving.
The wizard grinned and strode to Sam, looked him eye-to-eye. Come with me, Sammy, he said. Come with me and I'll let them both live.
Sam looked at his brother, barely breathing, blood sluggishly flowing onto the floor. Yes, Sam agreed.
The wizard smiled, left the warrior's body, and said, You'll know when to meet me, kiddo.
Months passed. Dean healed and the warrior agreed to stay. Sam never forgot his deal with the wizard and one night, as his father and Dean slept, he knew the moment had come.
Sam left no note. He kissed Dean's forehead and patted his father's shoulder. He looked back once, as he stood on the threshold, before gently closing the door and striding into the darkness.
And so, the story goes, there once was a warrior who had two sons. One son, the elder, embraced the fighting arts and flourished; he surpassed his father's legend before his thirtieth year.
The younger son, though, vanished after the great battle with the evil wizard and was only seen again on the killing field.
He stared into his brother's eyes and hesitated, lowering his hand. His father lunged at the wizard, who laughed—and Dean said, Come back. Sammy—come back.
Sam choked on a sob. How? he asked. I can't—
Dean let his knife fall and uncocked his gun. He stepped in close, hand on Sam's shoulder.
The warrior roared and the wizard screamed.
The brothers stood in silence, breathing each other's breath.
Come home, Dean said.
Sam replied, Yes.