Sam and Dean Winchester are the property of Kripke Enterprises, Inc. and the CW, not me.

Hunter's Moon

Chapter 5

A Night in the Badlands

Early one morning just as the sun was rising

I heard a maid singing in the valley below,

O don't deceive me, O do not leave me!

How could you use a poor maiden so?

O gay is the garland, fresh are the roses

I've culled from the garden to bind upon thy brow.

O don't deceive me, O do not leave me!

How could you use a poor maiden so?

Remember the vows that you made to your Mary

Remember the bow'r where you vow'd to be true;

O don't deceive me, O do not leave me!

How could you use a poor maiden so?

Thus sung the poor maiden, her sorrow bewailing,

Thus sung the poor maiden in the valley below;

O don't deceived me, O do not leave me!

How could you use a poor maiden so?

English Folk Song first printed in

William Chappell's 'National English Aires', 1855-1859

Ray Ellis pulled into the parking lot of the historic South Dakota Ghost Town of Carbonate. As he went past the entrance he noticed a Forest Ranger coming out of small building right next to the lot. The Ranger waved at him and Ray pulled over.

"Hi," the young Ranger said, pushing his hand in the open car window to try and shake Ray's hand. "I'm Ranger Randy Elsworth. Are you the FBI agent that called earlier?"

"Yes," Ray answered. "I'm Ray Ellis, Special Supervisory Agent out of the Omaha office. I made the call. I'm trying to follow up on a couple of guys driving a black 1967 Chevy Impala. Don't know what they've used as a last name but they usual stick to calling themselves Sam and Dean."

"Oh, yeah," the Ranger replied. "The scene scouts. Nice fellows. They left here yesterday morning;. Said they were on their way to Sioux Falls."

"Really? They just told you that? You didn't happen to have asked them where they were going?" Ray was concerned that the Winchesters might have just made something up to fill in the Ranger's question.

"No, I had asked Dean if they were coming back this way and he said they might be after they went to Sioux Falls because they were going to pass by here on their way up to Calgary."

Ray sat and thought about that for a minute. "They didn't ask you for directions or anything did they?"

"Just want to know where the entrance to the Seabury-Coffin mine was, but that was earlier, before they left. I guess they wanted to check it out for the TV people." Randy didn't even register the agent's interest in that piece of information.

"Why don't you show me now? Take me to where you took them." Ray waved at his passenger door, indicating that Randy should get in.

He turned the car and drove back down the forested roadway. After a couple of miles the Ranger pointed to the side of the road. "There it is. See where the brush has been trampled down?"

Ray pulled over and indicated that the Ranger should stay in the car. He followed the broken brush until he got close enough to the gapping maw of the mine entrance to be able to see that there appeared to be a car parked inside. Pulling his gun he came up on the car close enough to see that it had been lit on fire. He could see a burned skeleton propped up against the steering wheel.

There were no plates on the burned out hulk but he was aware of a report about a missing couple driving a Toyota sedan similar in size to the burned car.

Ray returned to his car and the now concerned Ranger.

"What's going on?" Ranger Randy asked. "Why are you after Dean and his partner?"

Ray picked up his radio and while looking the Ranger straight in the face, reported to the police station in Spearfish. "Ray Ellis, FBI. I think I've found your missing couple, Mr. and Mrs. George Prescott. I've got a burned out car hidden in an abandon mine on the access road to Carbonate."

He let go of the speaker button and listened to some faint squawking coming out of the radio.

"Well, all that I can tell you is that it looks like the Winchesters are back. That's who I'm chasing. The agency has re-activated their 'Most Wanted' status as of last week. "

XXXXXXX

Sam and Dean had spent the night, more or less, in the motel attached to the Badlands' Visitor Center. After eating and moving into the room they had showered and Dean decided he wanted to hit the bar. Sam, however, was restless.

"What are you going to do, Sam?" Dean asked, concerned about his brother's pacing. Sam usually went with Dean to the bar when Dean was cruising and sat quietly nursing a beer and working on the laptop. Tonight though Sam seemed all stirred up.

"I'm in a mood to run." Sam answered. "Think I'll let the cat out to play. Lots of room here to go full out and burn off some energy. You go on to the bar. Have fun. Be careful and don't bring back something that looks like the cat dragged it in."

"Ha, ha, very funny." Dean responded. "You go play and don't worry about me. I'm a big boy now. "

He watched Sam change, stripping naked and then elongating into the sinuous, furred body of the cat. Sam's ears slid back and got pointed. His whiskers grew and fangs rested on his lower lip. With his long legs, flickering tail and gracefully curving neck he was a beautiful animal; beautiful and frightening. The final touch was ruffling his wings, shaking them out as if he was settling the feathers before resting them on his back.

Dean had the urge to touch him. "Christ," he thought. "I want to pet my brother."

The impulse to run his hands along the supple neck was close to overwhelming. They only had the bedside light on to provide a cover of darkness. In the shadows Sam moved about silently. When the door opened Dean only saw the shadow of the cat pass away.

The prairie wind blew into the room, moving the door but there was no sound from Sam's departure.

Dean went to the door. Holding on to it he looked out over the waving prairie grass, watching for a moving shadow. A flicker of movement caught his eye and he realized that he was looking too close to home. The cat was already off against the rising crags. A dark form leaped to the peak of a formation and for a moment was outlined against the moonlit sky, surrounded by the glittering stars. It raised dark wings and was gone, leaping from the top of the outcropping.

Dean closed the door. He hoped he was the only person who had seen the cat shape bounded by the softly glowing night sky.

XXXXXXX

Dean sat at the bar in the "Badlands Rest", an old bar tricked out to appeal to the tourists. Just under the skin though Dean could still feel the old life of dusty fields and dirty cowboys haunting the place. He leaned an elbow on the counter top, steading his beer bottle as he licked the moisture from the rim and eyeballed the clientele in the mirror behind the liquor shelves. There were a few discrete 'working ladies' quietly sitting at tables alone, traps for the unwary passerby.

He had an itch he would like to scratch but nothing he saw appealed to him. Evidently however, he appealed to females looking to scratch their own itch. There was a warm breath on the back of his neck and a low voice said "Howdy, stranger. Feel like buying a girl a drink?"

Looking back up into the mirror he froze. The woman trolling him with such a practiced air looked to be no older than maybe 16 or 17. Whatever, she looked like an arrest waiting to happen. Jailbait for sure, he thought.

"What are you doing in a bar?" he breathed. "Why are they even letting you in here?" He looked up at the bartender who was staring while polishing the same glass over and over. Dean felt like he was being set up, for what he didn't quite know.

Jailbait leaned on his shoulder. "Come on, honey, don't be like that." She nodded at the bartender.

"Joey there knows me. I'm older than I look."

Dean spun on his bar stool and looked over the room, hunting for the hard-eyed man he expected to be watching.

"LeeAnn Darcy," Jailbait introduced herself. "Pleased to meet you. Be here long?"

She put out a hand as if to shake and Dean instead raised his bottle to his lips and drank. Eyeing the slender brunette he thought "What the hell." He really had no reason to be outright rude.

He stood and put the bottle on the counter. "Dean Campbell." He replied and shook the proffered hand. "No, I'm not here long. Just the night."

"Me neither," said LeeAnn. "Maybe we can keep each other company. I could use a beer."

Showing that he could take a hint, Dean waved at the bartender and pointed at LeeAnn. He figured if the bartender served her it wasn't his fault if the girl was underage. He wasn't the one that was in charge of checking the bar patrons' IDs.

LeeAnn chattered on, filling the silence with inane opinions about the lives of various actors and her further opinions of the most popular TV shows currently polluting the minds of America's children. None of this meant squat to Dean. His mind was full of the remembrance of a giant cat passing through windblown grassy fields. The picture kept replaying behind his eyes. The remembered sounds of the wind drown out LeeAnn's mindless blather.

With music playing softly in the back ground Dean found he wasn't really interested in either getting drunk or making a run at LeeAnn. The closer it got to midnight the more he wondered if Sam was back from his 'run'.

Finally he decided to pack it up and he stood up ready to go back to the room. He still had not definitely figured out LeeAnn's game. She had tried a couple of times to get him to buy some shots of liquor instead of his friendly and safe bottled beer but he had turned her down each time. If she was just trying to get his pants off, that was one thing but if she was trying to get him either drunk or drugged he knew he might be in for a bit of adventure between the bar and his room.

"Its' been great, LeeAnn, but I need to get some sleep so I can get an early start tomorrow morning." He told her. "I have to get back to the motel."

"Oh, I'm staying there too." She squeaked out. "Let's walk back together." She grabbed his arm and hung on. They went out the door and he tried to see if they were being followed but he just didn't catch anyone behind them.

As they got closer to his room she started to paw at him, pushing herself against his body and suggesting that he 'invite' her in for a minute. He was an old pro at these games and was pretty sure she would somehow try to roll him if he let her in the room, although she hadn't managed to incapacitate him, so it would be a good trick on her part. He really wasn't interested in finding out her plan.

She hung on his neck and managed to get him turned around so that her back was against the building. He wasn't surprised at all when he felt a heavy hand fall on his shoulder. "That's my girl, you got there, mister!" came a drunken sounding voice from behind him.

Dean ducked and tried to get LeeAnn off his neck. He knew the next thing should be some kind of a blow so he was very surprised when it didn't happen. His surprise, however, was nothing compared to the surprise on his attacker's face. Dean finally was able to turn and see the giant cat standing behind the man, claws embedded in one of the man's arms. LeeAnn's eyes were bigger than Dean would have thought possible without the eyeballs rolling out.

Dean laughed at the man "I see you've met my pretty kitty." He then turned to LeeAnn.

"Hey, LeeAnn, you like kitty cats?" Dean continued to laugh and LeeAnn opened her mouth to scream. Her 'partner' started to swear and then Sam growled. All the noise stopped. That growl passed through everyone's bones like a noise from the underworld, exposing the would be robbers to the realities of the pit.

"Take this as a warning, LeeAnn. Get into a better line of work. This one will lead you straight to hell." Dean watch the color leave her face as Sam growled again. Her partner took to his heels and started running.

LeeAnn tore herself off the wall and took off after her partner. Dean wondered if she would take his advice.

Sam and Dean returned to their room. Once inside Sam turned back into a huge naked dude. Grabbing up his clothes he started getting dressed. "We got to get out of here, Dean."

"What kind of trouble did you get into, Sam, that we have to run? Can't we even get a little sleep in a real bed?" Dean complained.

"There's a lot out on that prairie, Dean. There's ghosts and spirits but they aren't the problem. There are also poachers out there. They are after the big horn sheep"

"What are they going to do with the sheep?" Dean asked.

They want the horns. Evidently they're worth a lot of money."

"You sure, Sam? Maybe it was just some guys looking for free meat."

"No, the guy I saw was hunting with one of those modern crossbows and using a flashlight to spot the sheep on the mountain sides. He wasn't carrying meat; he only had sawed off horns flung over his back."

"What did you do, Sam?" Den asked.

"Well, I hope they have some kind of big cat predators here because that guy won't be hunting any more. But we should maybe move on before they find the body, just to be safe."

"Oh, crap!" Dean swore as he fell on the bed.

XXXXXXX

A/N: Just so you don't think you are losing your mind, yes, the song at the beginning of the chapter is the song that was used in Season Seven of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to trigger Spike into killing humans again.

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