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The Supernatural characters belong to Kripke Enterprises and the CW, not me. No money is being made from this story. It is for entertainment only.

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A Wandering Boy

Chapter 2

I See Spirits

"Hey, I 'm not arguing with you "the kid said. "I'm just telling you what the nerdy guy said. He told me that Sam Winchester would keep me safe from the demons and the Angels. You gonna finish those fries?"

Sam pushed the rest of his fries over to the human garbage disposal. "Well, keeping you safe from Angels is going to be easier than keeping you fed." Sam laughed. "You look like you might turn out to be a kind of expensive present."

He green eyed boy wrinkled his nose. "Hey, I'm a growing boy. I need food. You're already done growing, I hope. If you get any bigger we might be able to rent you out to the circus."

"All this and a smart mouth too," Sam replied.

Carson laughed out loud and made bubbles in his coke through the straw. "Are you two sure you're not related?"

"Never saw him before." they replied simultaneously. Carson raised his eyebrows. "Now, that was strange." he said.

Sam stood up to throw away his trash. "Well, I 'm going to call you Dean. You need a name other than hey you, kid."

"Why Dean?' the boy asked.

"I'm naming you after my grandmother, Deanna." Sam replied.

"I don't want to be named after some chick!" Dean growled back.

"The nerdy guy said you belonged to me, didn't he?" Sam answered back. "You're lucky I'm calling you Dean. I could call you Dog Shit if I wanted to. And my grandmother wasn't some chick. Shut your mouth."

Dean huffed and folded his arms.

Carson was cleaning up his dinner too. "Not that this hasn't been fun but what are we going to do with Dean while we drive out to the Badlands and take care of the last of the Manitous?"

Sam thought about the question. He turned to Dean "Are you sure you don't live around here, kid?"

"I don't even know where here is," Dean replied. "What's this Badlands stuff and what's a Manitou?"

Sam pulled out his laptop. "Hold on for a couple of minutes, Carson. I'm going to see if there are any police alerts out for missing kids in the area. We don't want to get arrested for kidnapping. Keep an eye on him for me."

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Dean and Carson stepped outside leaving Sam engrossed in his computer. It was a nice evening, although a little cool. Dean hadn't given Sam back his jacket so he was warm.

"You really don't know your name?" Carson asked.

"My memory's as smooth as a baby's bottom." Dean replied. "My head is just waiting to be filled up with whatever crap rolls by. It would be nice to feel like I know what's going on but I don't. I don't know who I am. I don't know who that nerdy guy was and I don't know why he wanted to give me to Gigantor in there. I don't know squat."

"Huh," Carson grunted. "Well, don't stress about it. If you just relax if might all come back to you. Maybe you were in an accident and hit your head."

"Maybe nerdy guy drugged me." Dean decided to play 'what if' along with Carson.

"Maybe you ran away from home and the stress gave you amnesia." Carson suggested.

"Maybe I was abducted by aliens and they stole my life and left me beside the road. Maybe nerdy guy was really an alien." Dean matched Carson maybe for maybe.

Carson eyed the kid. "Maybe you're just pretending for free food."

"Maybe you should shut up now before I lose my temper." Dean responded.

"Maybe you both should shut up." Another voice joined their game and Sam was standing behind them in the doorway. "I've checked in a 500 mile radius and no one has reported the loss of a smart mouthed, green eyed boy so I guess you're mine."

"That's just great. You want to get me a collar and a dog license?" Dean was still on a snark kick.

Sam rolled his eyes. "This is going to be so much fun. Come help empty out the room. Carson and I have some business to attend to and then I'm taking you to Sioux Falls to visit a friend of ours. Move it."

Sam turned around and re-entered the room.

"So now I'm a Sherpa." Dean grumbled.

Carson eyed the kid. "You know, for someone who claims not to know who he is or where he's from you sure do have a smart mouth."

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All loaded up with Carson in shotgun and Dean in the back seat Sam pulled the Impala out of the Rapid City motel and headed first for a Hunter's supply on the outskirts of town, disguised as a crystal shop. San need to pick up new inventory for his spells and he knew the owner would have what he needed. Dean roamed the aisles while Sam and Carson huddled with the owner. Dean looked at crystals and pyramids and charms and books on how to get in touch with your spiritual side. He glanced back at Sam Winchester double checking. No, the big guy wasn't a hippy. He knew something else was going on. Sam didn't look like a stoner either. He put the question away for later.

They headed out to the South Dakota Badlands seventy five miles East on Interstate 90. In a few hours they were driving the Loop Road through the park. The park had highly eroded buttes and spires sharply outlined against the stark cerulean blue sky. Washing up against the red formations was a sea of mixed prairie grass where the buffalo herds once grazed. Now it was antelope that roamed the park. The park service was re-introducing buffalo but it would be a while before the tourists would see herds of the huge beasts roaming free again.

Driving through near the end of the Loop almost right up against the base of a formation of spires Dean suddenly called out from the backseat. "Hey, is that a buffalo? I thought they were brown."

Sam looked around at the empty landscape. "I don't see any buffalo. What are you looking at Dean?"

Dean leaned forward over the front bench seat and pointed at one of the rock formations. "It's right on top of those rocks. A big assed buffalo standing there bold as anything. Can't you see it? Why is it all white?

Sam carefully pulled off to the side of the road. He and Carson looked at each other. Sam turned around to look at Dean. "You see a white buffalo standing on top of those rocks?" The Hunter asked quietly.

"Sure." Dean replied. "Can't you see it? I don't know how you could miss it. It's huge"

Sam and Carson got out of the car and Sam opened Dean's door. "Come with us Dean," Sam said. "I want to get as close to this white buffalo as we can. You should know that you are the only one of us who can see it."

"What's going on, Sam?" Carson asked. "What's the kid seeing?"

"I believe our friend Dean here Is seeing the buffalo Manitou." Sam replied. "If he can see these things without the benefit of the summoning this hunt can go a lot faster than I expected."

Dean twisted his arm out of Sam's hand. "OK, Jolly Green," Dean snapped. "That's it. I want to know exactly what you people are talking about. What's a Manitou? Why are you hunting it? How come you can't see the thing when it's right in front of you? I'm not going to play ball until somebody tells me what's going on."

Sam sat down with the kid and laid it all out. First he explained what a Hunter with a capital "H" was. No they didn't go around shooting Bambi's mother. They fought the Supernatural.

"You're shitting me." The kid said. "You guys go around hunting ghosts? You're nuts. People run away from ghosts. Or they would if there were any such things as ghosts. You're just trying to scare me."

Sam went on, explaining that ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and an entire host of things were real and that Hunters protected people from them.

"OK," Dean said. "Let's pretend for a minute that you aren't completely crazy. What's this all got to do with that white buffalo up there on that rock? How come I can see it and you can't?"

"I think you are seeing the Manitou of the sacred buffalo." Sam said. "The Manitou was summoned here a hundred years ago as the tribes that lived on these lands were chased away by the American Army. This was supposed to be a reservation, granted to the tribes by Washington but gold was discovered in the Black Hills and treaties were broken. The tribes were either driven away or massacred. Their shamans left the Manitous to revenge the deaths of innocents."

"I am trying to put these spirits down," Sam said. "They are continuing today to hurt and kill people and they have to be stopped. I have to do a whole ritual to allow me to see the spirits so that I can send them back into the earth. For some reason, and, no, I don't know why, you seem to be able to see them without the ritual."

"Great." The kid stood up and kicked at the dirt, raising a little puff of dust. "I don't know who I am, I don't know why I'm here and evidently I can see these spirit things. I hate my life."

"Look, Dean," Sam said in a reasonable tone. "You help me put the Manitous down tonight and I'll try and help you either find your family or at least get you some place safe. I'll take you to my friend Bobby. He's old and really smart. I bet he'll help you figure this whole thing out."

Dean glared at Sam. "Don't talk down to me. I'm not some little kid. Fine, I'll help you with your magic stuff and then we pay attention to my problems. Deal?"

Later that night the two Hunters and Dean trekked back into the park. At the base of the eroded spire Sam mixed his herbs, lit them on fire and Carson beat the spirit drum. Dean was their guide and pointed out the Manitou as it moved down the face of the rocks. When the spirit moved towards them Sam rose up and pushed Dean behind him and faced the spirit. The tall Hunter chanted the ancient words and blew the burning herbs into the face of the angry Manitou. The great beast slowed and seemed to listen to the long lost sounds of the drum and the chant. Its eyes closed and the heavy head swung from side to side, listening to a world that passed away a century ago. Slowly the beast sank into the earth and only the wind remained.

"Cool," Dean whispered. "That was great, Sam. Will you teach me how to do that?"

Sam shook his head. "Let's pack up and get out of here before the Rangers spot us. Dean, you take point and keep an eye out for anything strange. Sing out if you spot something."

They hiked back out of the park without further incident and got back in the Impala. Sam elected to start driving east to Sioux Falls while Carson and Dean slept

It was just slightly less than three hundred miles to Sioux Falls. Sam and Carson agreed that Sam would take the first one hundred and fifty miles then Carson would take over at Chamberlain when they crossed the Missouri river and drive the rest of the way to Singer Salvage. Without pushing too hard they would arrive at Bobby's front gate just about sunrise.

Under the starry dark Dakota sky the Impala hummed down Interstate 90, her headlights piercing the dark road ahead. The state began to flatten out the further east they went, the entire state slanting slightly downhill from the foothills to the flood plains of the Missouri. The land was empty of all except hunting owls and the occasional mournful howl of coyotes far off in the grass.

Just after dawn the Impala rumbled down the road, heading for the Singer Salvage Yard's arched gate; a lovely thing built of reclaimed wrought iron scrap with two scavenged Gargoyles, Tiem and Zan, decorating the columns. Carson was at the wheel but the piercing early morning sun had done its job and awakened both Sam and Dean.

Just as Carson was making the turn into Bobby's driveway Dean let out a screech from the back seat. "Son of a bitch! Nerdy guy! It's nerdy guy!"

Sam startled then turned around. "Language, Dean!" he barked then absorbed exactly what had come after the expletive." "Nerdy guy? Where?"

"He's right over there, by the big honking tree." Dean pointed in excitement and Sam saw a man in a tan trench coat almost hidden in the shade of an ancient oak beside the road.

"Carson, stop!" Sam barked and then was out of the car almost before it stopped moving. Carson pulled to the side of the driveway and looked back over his shoulder. Dean was on his knees peering out the back window and bouncing around like a ping pong ball.

"You two stay in the car." Sam ordered. "I mean it. If either of you move I'll knock you on your ass."

"OK, boss." Carson answered back. "I'll keep an eye on the kid."

"Hey, you, buddy!" Sam hollered, crossing the road. "Hold on. I want to talk to you."

The closer Sam got the more he realized that the man standing beside the road was unnaturally calm. Here Sam was a six and a half foot tall man obviously angry and striding over the road coming straight for trench coat guy and the guy didn't even bother to blink. The man stood there as still as the oak he was under, calm, quiet and unimpressed.

Sam got within reaching distance and stopped. He saw that Dean's description, nerdy guy, was very fitting. The man looked like an accountant or a guy from the IRS. He looked like had seen it all and very little impressed him anymore. He was close to six feet tall with messy black hair and had eyes bluer than the morning sky. He tilted his head to the side, like a bird studying an unexpectedly aggressive worm.

"Sam Winchester?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm Sam Winchester. Who are you?"

Nerdy guy unexpectedly put out a hand flush against Sam chest. "I am Castiel," he said and a burning sensation shot through Sam's chest and shoulders, wrapping around his back and taking his breath away.

"What the hell!?" Sam gasped and tried to knock the man's hand away. He might as well have tried to knock over the oak tree. The man didn't flinch and his arm never moved. Slowly the pain in Sam's chest began to ebb.

"What did you do to me? What are you?" Sam was ready to fight.

"Be calm, Sam Winchester," the man intoned in a deep gravelly voice. "I have done you no harm. I simply have given you another gift."

"Well, thanks a lot. Now what did you do to me and are you the one that dropped the kid on me?" Sam was slowly recovering his breath after the unexpected pain. At least he was still standing, much to his surprise. He heard the car door open and he turned to see Carson getting out of the Impala.

"Carson, get your ass back in the car." Sam yelled. "It's fine. I'm OK.'

Carson waved and got back in the car.

"You said your name as Castiel?" Sam asked. "Well, Mr. Castiel, tell me what's going on here."

"Sam Winchester, I don't have a lot of time, so listen," Castiel looked around as if he expected someone to jump out of the bushes. "I am an Angel of the Lord."

"Bullshit." Sam responded. "There are no such things."

"I must hurry. Please do not interrupt again. I can't be found here." A shadow passed over the sun and thunder rumbled in the distance. For just a moment Sam thought he saw the outline of huge, dark wings slowly extend from the man's back.

"OK," Sam muttered. "I'll go with that. What do you need to tell me?"

Sam also heard Carson and Dean's voices raised in excitement in the Impala. Evidently they had seen Castiel's show and tell also.

"Dean must be protected from not only demons but also from other Angels of the Lord." Castiel quickly rattled off.

"Other angels? " Sam repeated. "How do you know I named him Dean?"

"Please, Sam. I'm running out of time. If I am captured the entire plan will fall into ruin." Castiel backed further into the shadow of the oak. He pulled Sam along with him.

"I called him Dean because that is his name. I have brought him here for protection. There is a war in heaven. An angelic faction wants to capture Dean to send him into hell.' Castiel didn't even stop for a breath. "Don't interrupt. Just remember. The pain that you felt was me carving an Enochian sigil into your ribs. Dean already has his own. The sigil hides you from both Angels and demons. I think you will find it useful."

Castiel reached out to touch Sam again and Sam tensed up, expecting more pain. "Good," Castiel muttered. "You are clean. No demon blood. The plan is already working."

Again the Angel glanced around. "I really must go. Heaven is beginning to notice my presence. I will try to speak to you again soon. Tell Bobby Singer to ward his house against Angels. He will understand. Discuss our conversation with the man. He will help you with these concepts."

Castiel was there and then he was gone. There was a rustle as of large wings and Sam was alone.

Before Sam could turn around Castiel came back. "I forgot. Now that you are protected I cannot find you either. If you want to talk to me again find and leave a cell phone somewhere hidden," the Angel looked around.

"Put the phone on the back of one of the gargoyles and program your number and Bobby's into it. I'll find it. You can always call and leave a message. I'll call you back." Once again the Angel disappeared and along with the rustle of wings, Sam felt a slight breeze and smelled the scent of roses.