The wayward brothers hiked through the national park towards a wooded area where the victims seemingly disappeared. Not surprisingly, this area of the park was almost human-free, the news must have spread fast of the disappearance location. "Dean... I can't help but feel uneasy about the name of this park..." Sam mentioned as they walked.
"Badlands? Yeah, I thought that too when I was told about it, my sources told me that it was named by the Native Americans in the 1600s, the Lakota tribe to be exact, they called it 'Mako Sica', or 'Land Bad' in our terms of language" Dean informed uncharacteristically. At this point, Sam had stopped and was looking at Dean as if he had two head. Dean looked back at his brother and shrugged with an innocent smirk "What? I know stuff" he chuckled and felt a little more at ease when he saw a slight smile of amusement appear on Sam's face.
They continued to walk, but to Dean's dismay, they had reverted to silence as they hiked, making Dean uncomfortable and causing him to hum to himself just to remove the suffering silence.
After an hour of hiking the boys got to the wooded part of the park and nodded to each other as they went inside, they didn't know what to expect so they had packed for all occasions. The car, unfortunately, wasn't able to go far within the park so they had to make do with backpacks filled with different weaponry and walk most of the way. "Dean over here" Sam called out from a few yards away, Dean rushed over and met what Sam had found, the camping gear of one of the victims.
Dean glanced at Sam with a wary expression and walked towards the tent and gear "you check their stuff, I'll check the perimeter" Sam instructed, Dean found this new authoritative persona off-putting but in recent times the brothers seemed to be switching characteristics. 'Maybe it's the situation' Dean thought as he searched the gear 'now that Sammy is trying to save me' Dean couldn't be sure but he needed anything to rationalize the changes that are happening, he couldn't just completely ignore them.
Upon finding nothing out of the ordinary Dean looked around to find Sam but there was no one there.
Dean felt a pit of panic in his stomach and he walked towards the direction Sam had taken off in "Sam?" he called out looking around hoping to get a response from behind the thick dark trees. It was early afternoon but the canopy of the trees made the woods much darker and eerie than he'd like. "SAM!" he shouted louder and that small panic within him only grew when receiving no response.
"Shit! Where the hell did he go?! SAM! Dude where are you!? Don't play games! It's not funny!" he shouted as he searched the perimeter Sam was supposed to have searched. 'I'd only looked away for a second! How the hell could I lose a 200-pound man!?' he thought loudly to himself. Dean felt like he'd searched for an hour when in reality only 10 minutes had gone by. He walked further into the woods, retrieving his torch and looking for any clues of his brother, suddenly he stopped when he heard something.
Listening very carefully and even closing his eyes, Dean definitely heard something.
"D...n" a faint call of his name coming from the west!
"SAM!" Dean called out again and ran west towards where he heard his brother, he ran like his life depended on it before seeing a figure beside a distant tree "Sam!" he called out again but... wait...
Dean caught up to where Sam was and Sam looked... Fine?
Sam looked at Dean and was about to open his mouth to say that he'd found something when he got a punch in the shoulder "Ow! What the hell man?" Sam whined and knitted his brows together, confused and unaware of the miniature panic attack his brother had just had. "Where the hell did you run off to?!" Dean shouted and dropped his sack from his shoulder to the leafy ground "First thing I know is you bossing me about and then when I look up you're just gone!" he explains to his younger sibling. Sam blinks in confusion but then recognizes the worry and frustration in Dean's eyes, also the rate he was breathing indicated to Sam that he had started to panic "Oh... Sorry man... I did say that I was following a trail... I guess you didn't hear me" Sam apologized but that didn't remove the anger from deans expression.
"You still don't go wandering off on your own on a job! Especially when the job consists of disappearances!" Dean continues to lecture, Sam, though taller, couldn't appear tinier, his head sunk like a child being told off for running off. "I'm sorry Dean... I didn't intend on worrying you... I did find something though" Sam informed with big 'I'm sorry' eyes in hopes that his finding would calm his big brother somewhat.
After a few minutes of explanations, lectures, and forgiveness, Dean picked up his backpack "So? What did you find on your little adventure?" Dean asked, still a hint of spite but Sam ignored it.
"Well, while looking around the perimeter I notice a trail, I thought it was nothing at first but then I found that it was paw prints, a wolf of some kind" Sam explained, however, Dean wasn't following.
"Yeah? So? They have wolves here Sam that's nothing new" Dean furrowed his brows in confusion.
"Dean... you don't get it, these paw prints came from the woods towards the camp" he explained further, but Dean shook his head still not following causing Sam to sigh and digress. "Basically, my frail headed brother, I saw the tracks and found it odd that the wolf had come from the woods towards the camp on its own, there were no other tracks, wolves are pack animals" Dean hummed while Sammy explained, starting to get a little bored.
"Okay Sam, but sometimes a wolf will explore, there are lone wolves out there too," he said contradicting any information Sam had found, however, Sam was nowhere near finished.
"Yes, I know, but still, I followed the tracks into the woods and they ended up here," he said with a smile, Dean looked at Sam with the same expression.
"Sammy... did you hit your head?" he asked, Dean's brows furrowed with a bit of worry, Sam rolled his eyes and pointed to the north "Dean... the tracks lead to that cabin up there" he sighs, Sam regretted telling the entire story, Dean obviously had little or no interest in the nature of animals and the outdoors. Before Dean could question again Sam retorted "wolves don't live in cabins Dean" and that was when Dean began to catch his brothers drift.
"Ahh" he grinned and looked at the cabin "so you're thinking a witch lives up there?" Dean asked and Sam nodded "It makes sense, well, it does more to me apparently" Sam chuckled making Dean frown; his little brother insinuating his stupidity.
"Dean, witches are known to have familiars, if the wolf prints lead from the cabin to the victim's campsite then this could indicate-" Dean cut Sam off, shushing him and putting his finger to his lips as he heard a noise.
On full alert the brothers looked at each other before nodding and looking around, hearing another, clearer sound of twigs snapping the Winchesters stood back to back, guns at the ready with witch-killing bullets.
Before they could do anything, Sam and Dean found themselves being thrown against two separate trees. "Ah!..." they both groaned and lost grip of their guns, their breathing becoming heavier and both eyes on the beautiful woman with long red hair.
The witch stood there, bright blue eyes glancing from one brother to the next, her arms raised up, holding the Winchesters against the trees using some kind of magic. She wore a white dress that fitted her curves and appeared to be spotless for a woman living in the woods "Well hello there boys~".
