All Supernatural characters belong to Kripke Enterprises and the CW, not me. This story is for entertainment only, not money.
Hunter's Moon
Chapter 9
Going to Visit the Family
She walks in beauty like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies.
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face:
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling place.
And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!
"She Walks in Beauty"
Published in 1815 in the volume "Hebrew Melodies"
By Lord George Gordon Noel Byron
"Sam!" Dean pushed at his brothers' arm. "I swear, lately all I do is wake you up. "
Sam rolled over and turned his back on his brother, pulling up his comforter over his head. "Go away, Dean. Go find breakfast, or coffee or somebody else to bother. I'm sleeping."
"Come on, Sasquatch. Don't you want to go check in on the little woman?"
"Shut up, Dean. Ayamis is no one's 'little woman'. If I tell her you said that you'll never get a moments' peace in camp." Sam rolled again and kicked out a long leg at his brother. "What time is it?"
"Almost eight. Haul your big ass out of that bed. You can sleep in the car later on our way North." Dean grabbed at the leg Sam had kicked out at him and pulled. Sam started to slide and grabbed at the headboard.
"You pull me off this bed and I'll kick your ass, jerk." Sam tried to push Dean off with the other foot. Now he was thoroughly awake and getting pissed.
"You and what Valkyrie army, bitch?" Dean continued to pull until he got a foot in the gut that sat him down on his butt on the floor.
Now Sam was up and, wrapping himself in his sheet like a toga, stomped off to the bathroom.
Dean was on the floor trying to catch his breath. Between the foot in his stomach and his laughter at Sam's bitch face, he was running out of oxygen.
"Call Chuck Elbert." Dean yelled through the bathroom door. "He called this morning. He's already on the road here, I'd like to point out; unlike some lazy little brothers I know."
"What's he want?" Sam shouted back. Dean was pretty sure they had this whole end of the motel awake by now; they had made enough noise to do it.
"I'll tell you when you get out. I'm tired of yelling . I'll go get us some coffee and maybe doughnuts or something."
XXXXXXX
Dean came swinging back into the room, balancing a drinks tray on his fore arm, just like a diner waitress, with a promising looking white paper bag clutched in his hand
"Well, look at you," Sam laughed from the bed. "You expecting a tip?"
"Good to see you upright, princess." Dean shot back. "Use my phone to call Chuck back and get his number into your phone. I think we're going to hearing from him a lot."
"He's really into the paintball thing, reeling off all kinds of ideas and he's also jazzed about being Jody's go to guy on the Supernatural stuff. I guess retirement was boring the shit out of him. He wants to know how you got rid of the Fort Sod ghosts so he knows what to do if it comes up again."
Sam got his coffee and a couple of doughnuts then sat cross-legged on the bed and called Chuck.
"Hi, Chuck. It's Sam." He spoke into the phone. "About where are you? Really, that far already? You must have started really early. Hold on a minute."
"Dean, he's already about half way here. He's just coming up on the Missouri River crossing at Chamberlain. He'll be here in a couple of hours. Do you want to wait for him?"
Dean shrugged. "It might be a good idea if we're there so we can introduce him to Jody and answer any questions that come up. We still got to go eat breakfast or maybe lunch anyway. Let's call Jody and see if we can all meet somewhere."
"Ok. Hey Chuck." Sam got back on the phone. "We're going to wait for you to get here and then maybe you, we and Jody can all go out somewhere to eat lunch and make plans. What'd think? Ok, meet you at Jody's office then. Just call when you get into town."
XXXXXXX
A few hours later the four of them were comfortably seated in a private room at the Dragon Inn in downtown Sioux Falls. A well-known 'police' hang out; the Inn catered to the Rangers and National Guards men and the Sioux Falls officials. Jody got them a private room because she suspected the conversation was likely to get a little strange and she didn't need any eavesdroppers.
First they went through the Paintball field responsibilities that Chuck would be taking off Jody's shoulders. Chuck had some really good ideas including hauling his mobile home up from Valentine.
Dean brought up the storage shed out on the property. "If you can, try to see what those boxes are about. Once we know what's in them we'll know what to do with them."
"Is that mobile home going to be warm enough, Chuck?" Jody asked. "It gets pretty bad here in the winter."
"It'll be good, don't worry." Chuck laughed. It's handled the Valentine winters just fine. It's all insulated and set up for snow. I just have to get all the hook-ups set. If I can get someone to clear the ruble of Bobby's house off, I bet I can put it right on part of that foundation."
Hearing Bobby's house described as 'rubble' hit Dean right under his rib cage. Sam put a hand on his brother's shoulder and squeezed.
"I'm sure that'll be fine, Chuck," Sam agreed. "Is there enough money to get him set up and keep him going until the field opens, Jody?'
Jody stirred her coke with the straw. "I am sure there's enough. If he brings his own house that will cut down on the costs considerably. Looks like a good deal."
Chuck turned at look Sam in the eye. "If that's settled, I'm sure Jody and I can work out any other details and we can always call you guys if we hit a snag. I'm more concerned about these spirits you are calling the Fort Sod ghosts. How did you take care of them and what do I do if they regroup?"
"Chuck, you were at Elroys. You know that Dean and I can pull some stuff that maybe other Hunters feel we shouldn't be able to." Sam started off slowly.
"You mean the definitely supernatural skills you guys have picked up somewhere, right?" Chuck responded and then stuffed part of his Ruben sandwich in his mouth.
"Right. One that isn't all that visible is my ability to commune with the non-human." Sam poked his fork through his Caesar salad. "By non-human I also mean spirits, ghosts, the dead."
"Uh-huh," Chuck picked up his pickle and crunched it. "If I was bothered by this stuff from you guys I wouldn't be here."
"Fine," Sam went on. "I sat that night out on a park bench with Dean and walked with those spirits. I learned their names, their dreams and how they died. . The park ghosts were wispy, indecisive spirits, a couple of them close to fading on their own. The true spirit, the lynch pin, was the old man on the bluff. He was the one I had to convince."
"When I told him that he could go, that the men in the park weren't his problem anymore, he started to loosen his grip on them. I had to promise him I would make sure they left Sioux Falls, or The Village of Sioux, as he called it. It took hours and the old bastard argued with me the whole time. If he'd been alive I would've killed him."
"If the park ghosts come back, a common every-day psychic can take care of them. If the old man comes back, that is a whole different problem and I believe you'll need me to come back." Sam stopped and ate some of his salad. "No one would be more surprised than me if he comes back. I sent him off to look for his son in Minnesota."
"Huh," Dean snorted. "You sent him on a wild ghost chase, Sammy?"
Sam wigged an eyebrow. "Shut up and stuff your face, Dean. It was the best I could do."
"There are no bodies, Chuck." Sam went on. "These men were not buried. They died in the winter, under the snow. What rot didn't hide, wild animals took care of. Nothing left to burn. Sorry, that's the best I can offer you."
"Well, we'll just have to hope it doesn't come up. I'm pretty sure Jody and I can handle things between us. Right, Jody?" Chuck smiled at the dark haired Sheriff.
Jody smiled back and Dean got the feeling that she was pretty pleased with their choice of Hunter replacement for Sioux Falls.
XXXXXXX
Sam and Dean got up from the table, pulling on their jackets and getting ready to leave Sioux Falls, on their way to Canada.
Jody put a hand on Dean's arm. "Just one more little item, guys." Her eyes included Sam. "What do I tell this FBI agent when he comes back from Sica? I think he'll suspect I sent him on the wild ghost chase we were talking about."
"I've been thinking about that, Jody," Dean answered. "We don't want to cause you any more trouble than we already have so I think instead of skipping Sica Hollow we might just make a stop there and flash the guy. I'd rather he just kept chasing us than coming back here to bother you. Let us take care of it and call if you need anything."
Settled into the Impala, they pulled out of Sioux Falls back on to Route 90 again.
"Hey, Sam," Dean said. "Why don't you look up this Sica Hollow State Park and see what we're getting into. I don't know why Jody would send the FBI guy to it unless it had a reputation for being haunted or something."
Sam pulled the laptop out of his messenger bag and propped his knees against the dash board. As Dean drove he could still hear the clicking of the keys, even with the wind moving through the car.
Hearing a 'huh' out of Sam, Deans' ears perked up.
"Find something?" he asked.
"Found a lot," Sam replied. "Pull over for a minute. I want to jot some notes down."
They stopped beside the road under a big pine. Dean twisted in his seat and looked at his brother. "What ya' got, Sam?"
"Sica Hollow State Park is located in the North Eastern part of the State, quite a few miles off Route 90. It has always been regard as haunted. Even the Dakota Sioux regarded the place as evil going back generations. It used to be Sioux traditional hunting grounds and one particular ravine, call Sica Hollow, is supposed to be the location of a creation and vengeance story where various Native American mythical figures fought."
"The word 'Sica' means evil. The Indians tell tales of various mysterious happenings there and the local Dakota believed the evil is the reason that water in the springs in Sica Hollow is stained red. More likely the color is due to minerals in the water but the legends remain. You can walk the Trail of Spirits, where supernatural forces are supposedly still at work.
When the white settlers came to the land they absorbed the Indian legends and made them their own. There was a guy back in the 1840's by the name of Robert Roi who actually chose to live in Sica Hollow. Not only the Indians but also the white settlers regarded him as insane. He lived deep in a ravine and his home was almost impossible to find. "
"More and more settlers came to live in the area and the mythical stories about Sica Hollow grew. They came to believe that some sort of beast or "Big Foot" inhabited the dense woods. This fear boiled over in the 1970's when people began disappearing into the woods."
"People who joined in the hunt for the missing persons admitted that they were also looking for some kind of a beast in the woods, a bear maybe. But nothing and no one was ever found." Sam paused in his recitation.
"Fun place, Sam," Dean responded. "Remind me about all this stuff the next time I claim some State is boring."
Sam continued, "Just to make the place really fun some parts of the park near Sica Hollow contain a form of quicksand due to numerous springs. There are also huge stretches of densely forested gullies that hide ravines that drop several hundred feet straight down. The Park Service strongly recommends that visitors stay on the marked trails."
"People who have stayed in the park overnight have reported ghostly chanting, and voices, sounds of cries and war whoops and even a few sightings of ghostly Indian braves."
"Jody sent that FBI guy here? What was she trying to do, kill him? I didn't know she could be so mean." Dean interjected. "What's the turn off for Nature's own version of Hell House?"
"Take Highway 10 to Sisseton, and follow the signs."
XXXXXXX
FBI SSA Ray Ellis was lost, dirty, tired, hungry and thoroughly pissed at Sheriff Jody Mills. He had left a designated trail yesterday evening, believing that he had heard voices calling to each other that might have been the Winchesters. After wandering around in the dark and finally collapsing under a tree for a few hours of uncomfortable sleep he realized that there was little to no chance of finding the Winchesters here.
Being a city boy he really had no concept of how large and confusing and flat out unfriendly natural landscapes could be. Now all he wanted was to find a trail and get out of these woods. He wanted to find his car, drive back to Sioux Falls and burn Sheriff Mills at the stake as a witch.
While visualizing just how beautiful it would be to see her go up in flames he heard a cat-like growl. Knowing what he knew he pulled his gun. If Sam Winchester was in these woods Ellis also knew he might not get out of the woods alive. He stood and peered over the edge of the hillside, down into a gully.
He saw a flash of movement and thought he could see a russet colored cat shape weaving in and out of the tree trunks. He popped off a shot and saw the cat flinch as the bullet tore through a tree limb above its' head. Now there was more than a growl, there was a cat scream echoing through the hillsides.
Ellis turned and ran. To his shock he ran directly into the arms of Dean Winchester, who knocked his gun to the ground and then punched him in the face.
Ellis drifted back to consciousness and found he was braced up against a tree trunk with his hands tied behind his back. Dean stood to his left with a hand on the same tree and lying in front of him, completely at ease, was the Sphinx in all its' wild glory. Long, relaxed and stretched out to its' full length, it was an amazing looking animal. When it lifted its' head and looked at him it was so frightening that he felt his body temperature drop. He began to shake.
"You been looking for us, Agent?" Dean asked. "I guess you found us. Now what?"
"it's my job to bring you in. Ellis replied bravely.
"Not in the best position for that, are you? Just out of curiosity, what would you charge the cat with?
Ellis looked at what he assumed was Sam Winchester. "That is a dangerous animal that has killed two men that I know about, maybe three. It needs to be put down."
"Alright," Dean said as he pulled Ellis to his feet. "You've gone way past brave into purely stupid now. Have you no sense of self-preservation?"
Dean tied another rope around Ellis' waist and started leading him along like it was a leash. The cat stood and followed. Ray looked back just in time to see it spread and shake out its' wings. The wings made it look even bigger.
He stumbled and really wished it wasn't behind him. As he fell forward without his hands to brace himself he felt something grab at the back of his jacket. He realized that the sphinx had his jacket and his pants waistband in its jaws and was more or less carrying him along.
He tried to get his feet under him and get away.
"Calm down, agent," Dean said. "He won't eat you but you might piss him off. My Sammy's got a hair trigger when he's the Sphinx. Just stay calm. He'll let go when he feels like it."
"Where are we going?" Ray asked.
"We're going to take you back to your car. It won't take you anywhere because we sort of made off with some real important parts but you can at least sit in it and wait for help. When we're far enough away we'll call your location in to the park rangers."
"Isn't the car in the parking lot?" Ray asked.
"Not any more. We moved it." Dean said. "I recommend that you just go home to Omaha. Where we're going you won't find us. Take a break."
Just then something moved in the brush and the cat took off after it. Ray watched as the cat put down all fours and took off running like a cheetah he had seen on a National Geographic special once. The tail was acting as a rudder and all four feet came together then stretched and left the ground. The wings were extended but held flat over its' back. It was stunning, beautiful and incredibly frightening all at once.
"Yo, Sam, get back here!" Dean yelled.
Ray wondered just how much control Dean had over his brother.
XXXXXXX
After a few days travel and having made it across the border without trouble, Dean pulled into the hidden garage in the Canadian Mountain camp. Digger was in the garage under the hood of a pickup truck. He stood and watched the boys get out of the Impala and stretch out travel cramped muscles.
"Well, the wandering boys come home." He wiped his greasy hands on a shop rag and reached out to shake their hands. "How you guys been?"
"Taking Sam's hand he said "Hey, Sam throw any hairballs lately?"
Sam took a swipe at him. "Jackass."
"You guys better get along. Your women are waiting. Sam, Ayamis took off her classes today just to see you early so be nice." Digger waved them off and stuck his head back under the hood.
Dean walked over to the Medical cabin while Sam peeled off to hunt for Ayamis. Standing at the bottom of the stairs, Dean watched the door open and Wapun walked out on the porch. He wondered how he could possibly forget how beautiful she was.
Every time he saw her something else struck him. Today is was her long dark hair., Smooth and shiny it made him want to run his fingers through it.
She looked down at him and smiled. Holding out her hand she said, "You going to stand there all day and stare? I've got plans for you."