Castiel.

Dean was terrible at acting. Every time I came into the room he kept insisting that he was fine, despite the fact that he clearly wasn't. I felt bad for him at first. I was the youngest of my siblings and I always felt the need to help them. I assumed worry for a younger sibling was the same feeling, just stronger.

However, that was three days ago. Three annoying days ago. And since then I have stopped feeling bad for him. Yesterday, I had considered taking him before he was ready just to shut him up. Ironically, if he would stop wasting his energy and just rest, he would probably be ready to leave now.

I walked into the fur room that Dean had been staying in to bring him breakfast. Before he could start up I said, "If after breakfast you can help me pack without getting tired we will leave tonight."

"I can go..."

"No, that was not a request. Now eat. When you are done, I will be at the cavern mouth." He was really starting to grate on my last nerve. Before he could say anything else, I left.

A few minutes later, he met me at the entrance. "Come, I will show you what you need to do," I said as I started walking deeper into the cave. I kept most of the clothing articles in adjacent caverns so we did not have to walk far, but there was enough time for us to talk. "You will need to find clothes to wear so you do not stand out. You will also need to gather furs for your brother, so he does not freeze on the flight back or upon entering the cave. We will also need food and water, but I will deal with that. We are going to another cavern where you can pick out clothes that fit for in the village. After doing that, come back here to pick out furs for your brother, and place all the clothes in this sack," I said handing him the sack. "Wait for me in the fur cavern when you are done. While you do that, I will get the food and water. I also need to take care of a few other matters, so I might be a while."

"Can't you do that when we get back?" Dean asked.

"In order for us to sneak into the village, it will need to be dark. I would rather get some work done today then sit in the forest doing nothing later," I reasoned.

"Us?"

"Yes, us. As the only way to get to the village is by flying, I assumed you realized that I would be coming with you."

"Yeah, I get that. I just don't think you should come into the village with me."

"And why is that?" I asked slightly offended.

"Well, you know," Dean stammered, rubbing the back of his neck. "Maybe it's because you have wings," he gestured wildly towards the appendages in question. "And, you know… A tail."

"Hiding them is as simple as it is to change from my dragon form to half-way."

Dean didn't really seem to have a response to that, so I gestured toward the cavern before turning to leave. Gathering food and water for two humans that would suffice for what would be, at most, a two-day trip was the simplest of my tasks. The next item on my mental checklist was food and water for myself. Water I could find along the way if necessary, but I would need to feed myself before leaving. I didn't have to feed very often, and even less living surrounded by ice, but it would be good to eat before going out on two long consecutive flights. I had been hunting more the past few days in preparation and frozen what I had caught. I disliked eating in my human or half-way form, not to mention how hard it would be to tear into frozen meat without fangs, so I shifted to my natural state to eat.

Then onto the last thing on my list. I knew that two humans couldn't just stay nested in my fur room, so I had been thinking of alternatives. I thought I was done with it, but needed to make sure that it was ready for Sam to move in, so he would actually have a place to move in to.

The first part was to find a satisfactory location to construct it. After cycling through many ideas I decided on a fairly large cavern, close the entrance of the cave, and with a small stream of water running through it from a gap in the wall. The water flowed down from the crag to a track that leads to the mouth of the cave, before going underground to join the rest of the water in the pool. After moving everything that was in it to a different cavern, I had started to make it livable. I had never had much contact with humans and thusly didn't know much about what they liked, so I just put in the necessities and would let them customize the space as they pleased. I put a bed of furs on either side of the room and covered them with silk and velvet. There was a small alcove in the back, mostly cut off from the main part. In there, I put a tub, many kinds of soap and lotions, and the heating stone. Containers for the water were on a shelf next to the stream and a chest was placed in the back to store clothes.

The final touch of the room had been the hardest. I knew from the beginning that the most difficult part about keeping humans in the cave would be the cold. A fire was out as there was nowhere for the smoke to go, and I didn't think just wearing furs was a good long-term plan. After two days of digging through my hoard, I found a way to make the heating stone work on a room. I kept the stone in the alcove because the humans would probably want to bathe in more than room temperature water, and having it in there so far had worked on the rest of the cavern.

It was now time to leave. I made my way back to the fur cavern and found Dean practically vibrating out of his skin.

"Are you ready to go?"

"Yes, I've been ready," he snapped back.

"Alright but you still need to eat before we leave."

"C'mon man, I've been waiting around doing nothing for three days."

"Then you should hurry up and eat," I replied handing him some of the food I had gathered.

Apparently, Dean had figured out that arguing just made things take longer, as he started hurriedly eating his meal without farther complaint.

When he was done, I told him, "Grab the bag you packed and follow me to the cave entrance."

As I walked, I was quite amused at practically feeling the lost look on his face as I easily navigated the twisting tunnels of the cave. When we reached the entrance I said, "Get on my back in this form. It will be easier than trying to climb up the side of a dragon." Despite all of Dean's hurry before, he hesitated, and we stood there simply looking into each other's eyes. I had noticed that they were green before but never had a chance to really look, uninterrupted like this. Green had always been my favorite color, but it was hard to come by in an ice cave. The forest outside felt too impersonal. Yes, it was in my territory, but it was not in my cave and the cave was what I considered home. As for green in my cave, I had many emeralds, malachite, and agate, and while they were some of my favorite hoard pieces, in the end, they were just emotionless stones. But Dean's eyes. He was in my cave and was planning to stay, so unlike the trees, I could have a personal relationship with him. And contrary those unfeeling stones I so often looked into, there were such emotions in his true emerald depths that I felt as though I could see straight into his soul. And it was beautiful. However, that otherwise perfect evergreen landscape was marred by a look of fear. Somehow, despite the fact that we had only been together for a few days, I knew there wasn't much I wouldn't do to fix that.

"What's wrong?"

"What? Nothing's wrong. Why would you think that something was wrong? Let's just get going," he babbled.

"You have been trying to convince me to take you to the village almost nonstop for the last three days and now that I say we can go you hesitate. Somethings wrong and I can just stand here and wait until you decide to tell me."

Dean looked around, like a way to get out of this conversation would just spring up out of the rocks. When no answer appeared, he started to rub the back of his neck while saying, "Look I just don't like heights that much. It's fine though, nothing's wrong. Now, can we just get going?"

"You are not going to fall, and if you do I'll catch you," knowing I wasn't going to get anything else out of him, I continued speaking without giving him a chance to complain about my reassurances, "If everything is ready and nothing is wrong, then we can leave now."

I crouched down as he picked up our two bags. Getting him on my back was harder than expected. My wings were in the way so he couldn't get in a position solidly on my back, and if I shifted like this he would just slide off. In the end, I went into my fully human form, let him climb on, and then changed into a full dragon.