Here is your long-awaited second chapter! Quick warning that a chapter sometime soon might be two or three days late- me and my mom are kinda going through some stuff right now and I'll be without wifi for a little while. Granted I may be at my father's house and able to post it exactly on time.
If you have any comments about the chapter or you want to express your undying love for it (which I am certain is there) but you don't want to do it here, I am on tumblr as mysticmoonhigh and I am tracking the tag "Of Fae and Feathers" and "OFAF", so if you post anything I will see it.
Dean stared blankly at his phone. Jo had ignored his messages for hours, doing...well, whatever the hell she was doing, and when she finally did respond, she sent that?
Don't hurt any of those bugs, they're important to the ecosystem. I'll explain more later but I'm super busy right now. She'd said. Dean had stared down at his phone in absolute shock, feeling himself deflate. Really? That was the only explanation she had given him?
So, he decided to do some research of his own. He got out his laptop and plugged it into the Roadhouse's wifi, typing away and mumbling about it the entire time. He looked up an extensive list of bugs that were endangered, (because if she didn't want him to kill it, it seemed like there were logically not many there) dutifully typing every single one that came up into the search engine and looking up a picture. When he had scoped out the entire list, he let out a sigh of frustration. He hadn't found anything that looked even remotely like one of the ones he saw.
At the end of that, he googled, "Bugs with feathers". The only things that came up were fishing reels, (seriously, what the fuck) and some irrelevant shit like centipedes. The only thing that even looked promising was a youtube video that came up when he clicked over to "search", and even then, the bug pictured looked nothing like the ones he had seen.
Then, he finally gave up. Looking away so that he wouldn't have to see himself do it, he quickly typed in "fairies" and hit enter. Pages upon pages of images came up. He took a minute to fix himself something to eat before he continued searching, chomping down on microwaved food as he scrolled through. The taste distracted him from the shame of the fact that he was actually doing this.
He searched through pages and pages of results, coming up with nothing. There were plenty of fae and plenty of different interpretations, but none of them had looked quite like what he had seen in the garden. The main difference was the feathered wings; most of the pictures here showed sparkly, iridescent bullshit meant to engage a six-year-old girl. A couple were feathered, but they were all too... well, Dean couldn't quite put his finger on it. But, different.
At the end of it, he was unsure of whether or not to be relieved. No, he hadn't found anything, which meant his only theory now was Jo's story. Unfortunately, he hadn't found anything, which made him feel crazy as hell. He let out a sigh and shut the laptop firmly, pushing it away.
Maybe he would feel a little better after a long night's sleep. After all, it wouldn't be that much longer until Jo would be home for good. Once Jo was back, he would be able to put all of this shit behind him and head back to the city. Back to his nice, big, empty apartment.
He grabbed the blankets and pulled them firmly up to his shoulders. His head brimming with thoughts, it seemed like it took him forever to drift off into sleep...
Castiel was staring down the building with a grim sort of determination.
"Alright, game plan time. Let's go over everything one last time, shall we?" Balthazar proposed, glancing to Cas for approval. Cas nodded.
"I'll work with Anna to get his mouth open and drop it on his tongue. It takes thirty minutes to take effect, and while that's happening, we'll look around his cabin and see what we can gather about human culture from that alone, just in case he doesn't talk. Gabriel will stand watch close by and make sure he doesn't wake up while Balthazar stands outside the door and ensures no other humans will be in the area when we carry him out. Any questions?" He clarifies. Gabriel raises his hand.
"Yeah, what are we supposed to do for the half hour? I'm gonna be bored as hell."
"You shouldn't have gotten us into this mess in the first place. You'll deal with it." Castiel informed him, standing up straight and rigid. "Are we ready now?"
Everyone nodded or mumbled, and Cas took off into the air. He could hear the fold of feathers as the others followed behind him, flying towards the small makeshift house. Balthazar landed on the window once they were there and Anna helped him push down the door handle, opening it.
The cool air caused the human to stir.
Gabriel landed on a small stand beside the bed while Balthazar stayed on the window sill outside. Cas and Anna both flew together up towards the human's mouth, careful not to make any sudden moves or land anywhere close to him.
If Castiel was right, it was a male of the species. He had freckles dotting across his face that you could see even in the low light, making his skin seem paler than it actually was. He slept with his mouth open the smallest bit (which was a relief, because Cas wouldn't have to pry it open), and Cas could see that his lips were just a bit plumper than the average male. His eyelashes were thick, but not unnaturally long, and his nose crooked just a bit to the right. All in all, he was fairly appealing.
Anna grabbed his hand and began to rise, dragging him along with her. He flapped his wings as she did, nervous about the airflow waking the human but knowing that it was necessary if they had any hope of actually getting this to work. Anna dropped closer and closer to his slightly parted lips and uncapped the lid on the canteen they had brought. She slowly began to pour it, little by little, into the human's mouth.
He stirred, turning the slightest bit and giving a small cough. Anna stopped and froze briefly, tipping the canteen back up as fear lit up her features. After about ten more seconds of nothing happening, she let out a sigh of relief and quickly poured the last little bit in. She shook the canister, ensuring there would be none left. After all, it would be barely a few drops to the human.
"We have to wait until he salivates enough to wash all of it down. Once he has, it should start to take effect. He won't feel a thing as long as I mixed it correctly, but if I didn't, he might wake up with what feel like severe growing pains. If that happens, the next ten minutes would be hectic." She whispered. Castiel nodded. He had faith in Anna, and he knew that she'd mixed it correctly.
"Where do you want to look around first?" She asked, eyes scanning the room. Cas's landed on what he remembered to be called in class as a "magazine", and he immediately flew towards it, interested.
He landed on the cover and stared up at the words, intrigued. They spoke the same language and wrote with the same letters as humans, but these were almost too big to read in the dark. He thought he spotted the word "Asian", but he may have been wrong.
"Let's open this." He said to Anna. He grabbed the lower end of the book and pulled upwards, wings beating away as they tossed it over and to the side. He flinched at the loud crinkling sound it made, but ignored it for the most part.
Once opened, he and Anna both flew slightly above the pages, looking down to see what they could find.
Cas felt the blood rush to his face immediately, and he looked down to clear his throat. He glanced over at Anna, who had a smug look on her face. She let out a laugh at the flustered expression that Cas wore.
Inside was a picture of a female, shirtless. Her breasts hung down and were, honestly, probably too large to be correctly proportional to her body. He looked away, closing his eyes. Of all the things he expected to find, that was not one of them.
"Of course this is what you pick to look at, Castiel. It's been too long since Meg's hit on you, hasn't it?" Anna questioned. Cas felt his face heat up even more at the implication, and he resisted the urge to cover his face with his hands.
"For your information, Anna, Meg never 'flirted' with me. She grabbed me and kissed me without consent and we haven't spoken since. I didn't know what was going to be in the-" He grumbled. Anna gave him a weird look, and he stopped talking abruptly, realization dawning. "Oh. You're trying to tease me."
Anna nodded her head, weakly smiling and giving a shrug. "It's interesting that the females have body types like ours, though. I mean I suppose not everything is the same, but the upper body appears at the very least similar. I doubt they have the same channel that carries pollen to the ovaries, but with humans being so similar in other aspects, I wouldn't doubt that what they have between the legs is similar." She said, thinking out loud. Cas blinked.
"Why don't you continue flipping through this book while I go and investigate that glowing brick?" He volunteered. Anna nodded her consent and flew over to the next corner, flipping it over so that she could see the next page.
Cas flapped his wings hard and flew over to the small, rectangular device. He'd seen Jo working in her garden with one of these pressed up to her ear many times before, and he could honestly say that they were one of the things the humans had that fascinated him the most.
What little they did know of human culture, they got from Jo, and the other herb growers before her. Though they didn't talk much beyond their transactions, she seemed to be a shining beacon in the trash can of humanity. Or, at least, it was assumed that humanity was a trash can. The last time they'd tried to come out and show themselves, they'd called their science 'witchcraft' and wiped out entire villages, just because they were more advanced.
Humans had a history of mistaking science for magic, and that would be their downfall when it all came down to it. They assumed that things they didn't understand weren't rational. The fae were a very intellectual people and were much further advanced than the humans were. Really, if they would just listen, they had a lot to learn from the fae.
Of course, fae worked with alchemy. The humans tended to work with technology, which was profoundly different and, in Castiel's eyes, much more interesting.
He hopped on the button, and it lit up even brighter. He stared in curiosity down at a blinking "Slide to unlock", before he placed a foot gently on the arrow and slid. To his amazement, it actually worked.
After that, he was immediately entranced with the "notes" section of the phone. It was the first app that he clicked, and boy was he glad that he'd clicked it.
It had an entire pad full of letters that you could push. He would push a letter and it would appear on the screen seconds later. By accidentally mis-stepping, he found an entire keyboard of small pictures that you could insert into the text. He went through all of the ones he could find, taking note.
Half an hour went by fast. Soon, Gabriel was telling them in hushed tones that the human was shrinking, and to get their asses over there now because it might wake up.
Anna was the first to fly over, and Castiel saw her light up with joy when she realized that her project had gone off without a hitch. Her smile lit up her entire face as she beamed with pride.
"I did it." She said, sounding giddy. "It really worked. Cas, he's going to be loopy for a little while. You should pick him up and start flying him back now. It'll be better if you get there before he fully comes to. I think you're the only one with wings strong enough to carry two people." Anna said, circling the human. He slowly turned over, eyes blinking open briefly before he groaned and closed them again.
"You want me to pick it up?" Cas asked, baffled. "How? Isn't it going to start moving soon?"
"Do you want to do it now, or wait until later when it's fully cognizant and could push itself out of your arms?" Anna asked. Castiel let out a sigh and walked forward. He thanked the gods that the human's clothes had gotten some of the serum on them, because at least he wasn't naked.
He prayed to the gods he would have the strength to make this ten minute flight, and took off into the air.
The first half of the flight went smoothly. The wind was nice and the others flew silently behind him, all intent on getting home soon. He nestled up against Cas's chest compliantly, silent aside from the occasional yawn.
The second half of the trip was absolutely ridiculous.
The human wrapped his arms around Cas's neck and hung close. He actually, physically opened his eyes and looked up at Cas's face in the dark, mumbling incoherently. He started to let his hands roam up and down Cas's neck and arms. Cas himself wouldn't have thought anything of it, but he could hear the others behind him giggling away.
"Lookie there Cas! Looks like that one likes you!" Gabriel taunted, flying up beside him. Cas rolled his eyes and let out an irritated growl.
"If you think this is so funny, why don't you hold him?" Cas demanded. Gabriel stopped flying, hovering in air with gentle flaps of his wings. Cas turned around and faced him, his arms full of human.
He tried to push Dean into Gabe's arms, but found that there was a problem.
"No." The human complained, arms tightening around Cas. Gabriel grabbed the human, and was promptly kicked away. Castiel stared in shock, eyes wide as Gabriel went into a burst of loud, obnoxious laughter.
"See? You're just his favorite, Cas!" He exclaimed. Balthazar was laughing with him, and even Anna was hiding her own giggles behind her hand.
"I'm going home." He said, after a moment.
"Ooooh, taking him home already, Cas? We didn't think you were that kind of guy!" Gabe called out. Castiel ignored him. He had better fucking things to do; after all, this was technically a mission. If he fucked up on this, there would be royal consequences. And they still had about three minutes of flying left to go. With the human being this close to awake, he would have to fly fast.
They seemed to grasp the seriousness of the situation after a moment, because the laughter slowly died down. It was replaced by flying as fast as they possibly could, barreling towards Cas's house. When they had discussed it earlier, they thought it would be best to keep him there; it was higher up and gave him the least chance of running off if he felt so inclined. After all, there was no way he would survive in the forest without any weapons or skill with the problems they faced at their size.
They arrived with what was probably moments to spare. The human was groaning and shifting, and almost pushed himself out of Cas's arms as he landed on his doorstep.
Anna opened up his door as soon as she landed, and Cas carried the human inside. He was groaning and mumbling the entire way, his eyes shut tight against the light once Cas had brought him through. Cas made a mental note to re-soak his glowing stones in the mix that made them glow; it was getting a little dark in here at night. And, if he wanted it dark, he could always pull a blanket out of the closet and throw it over them. So it wasn't like he would be stuck with an obnoxious glow while trying to sleep if he decided to repaint.
Plus, a little light in his bedroom never really bothered Castiel.
Luckily, the human let go when he was shoved off and onto the couch. He groaned a little and shifted around, as if he were trying to get comfortable.
Good, Cas said, mentally, That's where you'll be sleeping tonight.
Gabe and Balthazar weren't far behind, and they both seemed to be ready to get down and dirty. They both wore expressions of determination and curiosity.
"What's he doing?" Balthazar asked, looking towards the couch. Cas remained silent, looking up towards the ceiling. He couldn't have any less interest in their questions. Balthazar wasn't blind. He could check and see for himself.
Gabe went over by the couch and tentatively poked the human, causing him to stir. Balthazar scoffed and reached out to smack Gabriel's hand, and Gabe's feathers fluffed up in protest. "What the hell?"
"Stop molesting it, it's trying to sleep." Balthazar pointed out, gesturing towards Dean with wild gestures. Castiel and Anna shared a look.
Suddenly, Balthazar and Gabe stopped talking. It took Cas a moment to realize that, realize what that probably meant, and act accordingly. As soon as it clicked his head whipped towards the couch, eyes drinking in the sight of the slightly confused human. Wide, green eyes stared up at him curiously in the dim light.
"Where the hell am I?"
Dean felt funny. He felt stretched and compressed and everything felt a little weird. There was this taste on the inside of his mouth that was like cotton clogging his senses.
The first thing that really registered was that it was damn cold. For a summer's night, anyways. Air kept hitting him all over and he wanted to curl up into a ball to protect himself. He tried to open his eyes but when he did, all he saw was darkness, and there was a certain kind of sting that came with it. He figured that it was probably a dream, and gave up trying to open them.
If there was a distinct moment when he realized that whatever was pressed against him wasn't, in fact, his blanket, he doesn't remember. But the cold and the feeling of weightlessness had him feeling too detached to really care. His arms wrapped around a neck for a little while, just clinging to the warmth. When he started to clear up a little more, his hands began to wander, sliding over smooth, warm skin.
He noticed immediately that whatever this was was male. He shrugged a little (or at least, he thinks he might have) and continued on his way, scoping out the body that had arms wrapped around him.
He was no stranger to wet dreams. His personally usually involved women more than men, but he had a distinct interest in both sexes, so it didn't really bother him that his brain had decided to switch teams for this one.
Suddenly, he heard a rough voice coming from above. It sounded like gravel, just the right amount of bumps and tone changes to make a shiver go up his spine. Oh, this was certainly a dream.
A second, younger voice. He couldn't really make out what they were saying, but it didn't matter right then. He was wondering when this show was going to get on the road; it was his dream, so why wasn't the environment reacting to what he wanted? Shouldn't things be getting on around this time, now that he realized it was just him.
Thinner arms wrapped around him, giving a gentle tug. He felt a vague wave of panic as he realized suddenly that, A) he had no control, and B) he must have been really fucking high off the ground. Because there was that stupid, hovering feeling he got in his stomach whenever he was in the air and it sucked ass, monumentally. He got his shit together just enough to kick out at whoever was trying to take him, feeling his foot hit their mark.
It was weird, but he felt a little safer knowing that whoever was holding his sorry ass would be holding it the entire time.
Another exchange of words, and they were moving again. His body was slowly beginning to come back to normal, and he was beginning to think that this was a night terror. He had more control over himself now, but was now certain that whatever was happening, he would not get a say in it.
Finally, he felt solid ground being reached. A door swung open and he was carried inside. Wherever he was, it had half-dimmed lights and was warmer than it was outside. He tried not to get too scared; all of this was feeling pretty damn scary... If someone had kidnapped him, he didn't think he would make it away before some nasty shit happened. He'd seen people kill before. He didn't want to join them now.
He got dumped onto a couch, (at least, it felt like a couch) and he let the other go, forcing himself to calm down. This was probably all just some kind of a big, stupid misunderstanding. He was probably just having a really, really fucking bad nightmare. Or, maybe someone was surprising him?
Okay, that sounded fucking stupid, he knew it. But he had to keep his head on straight.
Slowly, his eyes began to follow his commands. They opened, and a gasp tore itself from his lungs.
"Where the hell am I?" He demanded.
The place was small. It looked to be made of wood, with swirling patterns of bark and moss all along the walls. His fear about the situation almost momentarily vanished; if someone wanted to hurt him, this was not the place they would do it. There were small stones stacked along the outer edges in the room, and one large one sitting in the middle of it. All of them were glowing, which created the dim light. Jars and vases sat on a table in the far corner, and a curtain of moss acted as a door. There was a bookshelf pressed up against one wall, filled with what appeared to be pages and pages of loose-leaf paper, bound together by small metal rings.
Most curious, though, was the four people who stood, watching him intently.
One of them was tall with platinum blonde hair, wings like a rainbow stretching out behind him. Dean tilted his head as his eyes continued, taking in the others. Tall, black hair, eyes so blue he could see them even with the dim light. Long, golden hair that matched the color of his wings. Red hair, brown wings, pale with nice, delicate features. Their clothing was all green; all the men were wearing tunic-like wraps, while the woman was in a shorter skirt, a lab coat unbuttoned and showing off her plain white shirt. Dean couldn't put his finger on it, but the fabric all looked different than what he wore.
When it finally clicked in his brain that he had seen three of them before, and where he had seen them, his dream theory was revisited.
"I'm either going crazy, or I'm dreaming." He said, out loud. He looked down at his hands, beginning to count his fingers. He'd read somewhere that you could wake yourself up by proving that whatever was happening wasn't real, and that when people dreamed, they always counted things different each time.
"You're neither, buckaroo." Said one. He recognized the voice from earlier, and refused to look up. He was concentrating on what he was doing now.
"You know, I never thought of how to actually explain this to him." Came a voice, female. Dean had counted each hand four times now, and nothing had changed. He was starting to get damned frustrated.
"I don't think you really can. Let's just watch him wig out." Was said, again by the one with the longer, golden hair. Dean gave up his counting method then, looking up.
"Gabriel, that's mean." Said the female. Gabriel stuck out his tongue at her, crossing his hands over his chest like an insolent child.
"All, of you, stop." The voice of gravel commanded, making all of the others freeze. There was a short, quiet pause before he walked over to Dean, sitting down on the coffee table across from where he lay. He looked down to realize that what he had believed to be a couch was made out of wood and a thick cushioning of moss, with swirls and pieces almost as big as his fingers. He looked up into the blue eyes, hoping for some sort of explanation.
Blue-eyes paused.
"You have endangered our people with your actions. We have to keep you here now to make sure you're not a threat. If you prove yourself to be safe, we'll return you home safely in a few days's time." He said, slowly. Dean processed this.
"You. You kidnapped me. Because I saw you in Jo's garden." He said, slowly.
" 'Kidnapped' is such a strong word." The taller one put in. The redhead elbowed him.
"Balthazar!" She hissed. She gave a small, nervous laugh, and turned to Dean with a smile plastered onto her face. "Don't think of it that way! We just needed you to stay with us for a little while to make sure we're safe. It's like... An unexpected, free vacation."
"Oh my god." Dean said, turning away from them. "I've been kidnapped." He repeated.
"If you cooperate, you can be on your way in a week flat. Maybe even less." Balthazar put in. Dean turned towards him, eyes carefully concealing his panic. The last thing he should do right now is panic. He should think of this like a vacation. A wild, hallucinated vacation.
Thinking back, he's pretty sure that this is because he did some acid in high school. He read somewhere that it can stay in your system for years afterwards, and sometimes it makes a nasty reappearance. Out of all of the explanations swimming around in his head, that one made the most sense. He cursed his stupid friend for pulling him under the bleachers and convincing him that it was a good idea. This? Was not the same as it was back then. This was weird and freaky and scary.
Plus, there were a lot less colors and music than he remembered.
"I want to leave now. What would my brother think? He's going to call me in a few days. They're going to send people looking for me. What are you gonna do then?" He demanded, deciding to play along. This trip would probably only last a few hours, so that was his best bet. Balthazar smirked, shaking his head and chuckling.
"Oh, you haven't realized yet? This should be entertaining. Cassie, you've got a smart one on your hands." He teased. At first, Dean thought he was talking to the redhead, but the man in front of him is the one who responded.
"Whatever Anna gave him is obviously taking some kind of effect on his full mental capacities. You can't honestly expect him to put two and two together right now." He said, mumbling a little. He looked up at Dean, blue eyes seeming to pierce through his soul. "I believe we should wait to continue this talk in the morning."
"So you just expect me to sleep here, on your couch, without any kind of explanation as to what's going on?" Dean demanded. "Well that just sounds peachy. I won't even need to count sheep at this rate."
"Cassie" looked at him in slight confusion. "There are no sheep here." He said. Dean tilted his head, eyebrows furrowing together. What?
"Sarcasm, Castiel." The redhead put in. Oh, so Cassie was a nickname? Castiel sounded like a fucking mouthful. She turned to him. "We did explain the situation to you, as clearly as we can. Is there anything in specific that you don't understand?"
"Only just about everything." Dean said, smiling in false enthusiasm. She rolled her eyes and turned, wings puffing up in agitation.
"You're right, we should just explain it to him in the morning. You need to get to bed; Uriel will be wanting to see him bright and early tomorrow. I don't think he'll like it if we wait until noon to prove we have him in our care." She said. Dean could physically feel his brain turning into mush from all of the talk about things he didn't understand. What about needing to see a urinal?
"You're right. Get out of my house; I'll see you in the morning." Castiel said. "Goodnight, Anna. Balthazar. Gabriel." He commanded. Dean took mental note that all of their names were a little bit batshit and Anna was the only rational one. Not that it really mattered, of course. He would go to sleep tonight and wake up in the morning back in his own bed, call himself stupid for believing this was actually happening, and everything would go back to being as normal as it possibly could be.
The others shuffled out the door, cold air coming in as they took off. They all spared quick goodbyes, and Dean shook his head to clear it.
Castiel rose to go himself. Dean turned to look over his shoulder as he stalked off into another room, this covered by a layer of moss acing as a door between them. Dean waited until he was gone to decide what to do.
If he were to try and sneak out, he might end up doing something stupid. Especially if he was hallucinating. If he were to stay here, he might wake up in the morning and find he was somewhere dangerous, but he also might be in his bed perfectly fine.
All in all, the choice was pretty damn clear.
He curled up on the moss, and, albeit slowly, fell asleep.
The next update should be next Sunday if all goes as planned- I am currently 82% done with the story. That's right on track to be finished in around 20 days. After that, there will be less two-week chapter wait periods.
Please review! I live off of finding out what you all think. The only way I can improve is hearing what you're enjoying/not enjoying about the story to add more/do less of those things!