"Huh." Charlie said, squinting in the bright California sunshine. She and Castiel had emerged on a lonely stretch of desert highway. The portal had opened horizontally on the cracked pavement, and they had been forced to bodily pull themselves up out of the dimensional void. Aside from a rusted road sign indicating their state of arrival, there was nothing but sand and highway for miles around.

Cas and Charlie surveyed the scene with trepidation. They had not anticipated emerging in this type of climate. There was nothing resembling civilization, and no cars for as far as the eyed could see in either direction. Charlie glanced down at the portal they had emerged from, just in time to see the sparks of magic waver and fade into nothingness. She and Cas glanced at each other.

"Well...now what?" Charlie asked, more to herself than to Cas. He glanced around.

"This is your adventure, Charlie. I'm just tagging along," he sighed unhelpfully. Charlie glared.

"But I thought the whole point of the spell was that the feather was going to lead us to the monkey child?" Charlie waited for Cas' reluctant nod of confirmation before continuing. "So," she said irritably, reaching into Castiel's trench coat and pulling out the feather to gesture with pointedly, "Where's the flying monkey?!"

Castiel's bored expression did not change as his eyes roved over the feather, and then Charlie, and then the desert.

"I'm not certain. But," he said, glancing upwards at cloudless, blue ,California sky, "logically, it would follow that if the child is not someplace we can see her, she must be someplace we cannot. My best guess would either be magical cloaking, or she's dead and her body is buried somewhere under the sand."

He glanced over abruptly when Charlie punched him in the arm.

"That's a terrible thing to say!" she said outraged. Cas gave a huff, mildly ashamed that he had put such an expression of distress on Charlie's face but at the same time cross with himself for allowing her to evoke such feelings so easily.

"I'm only listing possibilities," he defended sullenly.

"Well list better ones!" she yelled, gesturing wildly in her irritation. Unfortunately, she gestured a bit too enthusiastically and the feather slipped from her slender fingers. She gasped and clutched after it desperately. Her attempts were fruitless as the wanton feather sailed easily between her grasping hands to fly quickly away from her. She gave chase as it flew further from the road into an empty stretch of desert.

Castiel, who had noticed that there was no breeze in the arid desert air, trailed curiously after her.

Charlie ran after it as best she could, but her sexy clicky heels were sinking through the hard-baked crust of desert sand with a mocking crunch at every step. The feather remained ever elusively just in front of her. Charlie regretted her black leather fashion choices as she sweated after her prize. The feather slowed tauntingly in front of her and she smiled, lunging for it.

A moment later, she was lying on her back, staring up at the sky with a painful throbbing in her forehead.

Castiel - who had watched her slam into the invisible wall which the feather had floated towards - sauntered up beside her. He looked down at her prostrate body with the jaded eye of a battlefield soldier.

"You alright?" he asked politely. She frowned up at him.

"What happened?"

Cas shrugged. "I think you hit a wall." He looked towards the place where she had encountered resistance and put a hand out. He could feel something which to his now-human skin felt like a warm brick wall, but looked like empty air. He tilted his head, intrigued, and dragged his hand to the right, feeling for a break in the resistance. It didn't take long. He stumbled forward a bit as his hand slid off a sharp corner and sunk into the air ahead of him, seeming to disappear from the elbow down. He looked back down at Charlie who was trying to lever herself up.

"Option one was correct, I guess."

Charlie grinned and sprang to her feet. "Well come on then!" she said excitedly. Slightly more cautiously, she put her hands out in front of her, feeling for the opening Castiel had found. When she reached the space she pushed through excitedly.

"Cooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool!" Charlie drawled excitedly. After passing through the cloaking shield, she and Cas had emerged in a ramshackle town that seemed to be an amalgamation of the wild west and Halloween Town .

The buildings were all brick, stone, or wood. Dirt roads ran between them littered with bikes and various debris. The town was mostly quiet, but as Castiel and Charlie walked down the alley between the brick houses and came upon the main road, they could see a few inhabitants of the town walking about. A mother and child walked down a sidewalk towards the end of the street. At first they appeared normal, but then Charlie noticed a tail peaking out from the woman's skirt, and a delicate set of horns on the boy's small head.

Charlie blinked and turned to Cas.

"What is this place?" He shrugged.

"Just looks like a town, to me. Perhaps..." he trailed off. Charlie was about to ask what he was thinking, when she saw what had caused him to lose focus. The feather was dancing in front of them again, spurring them on towards their ultimate goal. Charlie saw this and reacted with all the enthusiasm of a child on a treasure hunt.

"After that feather!" she cried, racing after as it continued to fly away. Cas' lips twitched at her obvious joy, and he found himself trailing after her with a slightly more energetic stride.

The feather led them to a big, Victorian inspired house at the end of main street. The door was painted green and there were brightly colored flowers in the window boxes. The feather stopped just short of the door and then shot upwards as though caught in a sudden updraft - despite the apparent stillness of the air.

Charlie watched in dismay as it disappeared into an open third floor window. She frowned.

"Hello!" she yelled up. Cas caught up with her.

"What are you doing?" he asked plaintively.

"The feather led us here. I think Reigna must be here."

"Reigna?"

"The monkey child. Hello?!" she called more loudly. They stood looking up at the window hopefully. Several moments passed but aside from the curious glance of a purple-humanoid passerby, nothing happened. Charlie was just about to hail again, when a creaking from the door alerted her attention.

Both she and Cas turned to see a tall, withered face with wrinkled brown skin peek out the door. Closer inspection revealed that her skin was actually made of tree bark. Eyes that sparkled gold in the midday sun peaked out at them from behind the door.

"May I help you?" the creature asked in a strong, pleasant voice that reminded Charlie of her grandmother. Charlie smiled brightly.

"Hi!" she chirped merrily. "My name's Charlie. I'm looking for a winged monkey named Reigna?"

Gold eyes roved over her suspiciously. The tree lady scoffed dismissively. "You've seen too many movies." she said in a voice like the rustle of leaves in wind. "No one here by that name. No flying monkeys either." Her eyes moved to Castiel. "What about you?"

Castiel shrugged noncommittally.

"I'm dying. I have no vested interest in finding Reigna. I'm merely accompanying Charlie in her mission." The tree woman huffed out a dry puff of surprised laughter.

"Well, you're honest at least," she said with dry amusement. She hesitated, looking between them both for another moment. "Why are you looking for this Reigna?" she asked, her voice dripping with curiosity. Charlie smiled her disarming Charlie smile.

"Long story short, her family misses her, and I need her help." Tree lady raised surprised eyebrows at that.

"Her family you say?"

Charlie nodded.

"That's right. Her mom's the one who sent me after her. But I'll be honest, I have other reasons for needing to talk to her. I promise, I mean her no harm." The tree lady seemed to hesitate, still just peeking out the door.

"Mmm. Well, you seem like nice, honest people, and I wish I could help, but like I said-"

"Selena?"

A tentative voice called from behind the woman at the door. She glanced behind her, towards the speaker.

"It's fine, sweet. Just some confused strangers. I'm sending them off now."

Charlie and Cas couldn't quite make out what happened next, but it appeared that 'Selena' and whoever was behind her were having an urgent, barely audible conversation. Eventually she turned to them, gave them one final assessing stare, and opened the door fully, stepping to the right.

As she did so, she revealed the warm, oak paneled hallway behind her. Including the small, 4 foot tall winged monkey standing behind her.

The monkey girl was not obviously female, but she was wearing a loose pink smock with yellow daisies patterned across it. She was holding the feather in her hand, twisting it anxiously. She stepped forward, looking between Charlie and Castiel with wide, innocent brown eyes.

"Hello," she said nervously. Her voice was painfully young, no different than that of a teenage girl. It made something soften in Castiel's otherwise impenetrable disinterest. It seemed to have a similar effect on Charlie, whose entire demeanor dialed back several notches, going from bright and bubbly to soft and sincere.

"Hey," Charlie said quietly. "Are you Reigna?" The monkey girl looked anxiously between Selena and Charlie.

"No one...no one here calls me that." she said at length. Charlie nodded.

"That's cool. Everyone close to me calls me Charlie, but I was born with another name. Sometimes its just easier that way," she said with a reassuring smile. Reigna smiled weakly back at her. "So what do they call you?"

"...Blossom." she said, and Cas could hear the blush in her voice even though the fur on her face covered it well.

"Nice to meet you Blossom," Charlie said quietly. She gestured behind her. "That's Castiel, but everyone calls him Cas. He's grumpy and creepy but his heart's in the right place." Blossom grinned at that description, even as Cas scowled. "Can we talk to you for a second Blossom?"

Blossom's eyes darted between them nervously. "About what?" she asked suspiciously. Selena placed her hand reassuringly on Blossom's shoulder. She looked up at her gratefully.

Charlie noted the interaction and smiled. "About your mom."

Blossom's eyes widened comically.

"My mom?" she whispered, voice filled with disbelief. Charlie nodded slowly.

"She's the one who gave me that feather you're holding." Blossom looked down at the feather in her hand, the one that perfectly matched the wings delicately folded behind her back. When she looked back up her eyes were brimming with tears and fragile, painful hope.

"You saw my mom?" she said in a watery voice. Charlie felt her heart clench, and tried her best to stay strong. She nodded firmly.

"I did. I'm here to find you and anyone else who got trapped here." Charlie saw the doubt, the fear, and the painful disbelief in Blossom's face. Charlie knew how to chase the doubt from her eyes. She reached behind her back, slowly, and pulled the key to Oz from her back pocket. She brought it in front of her and held it up where Blossom could see. Her eyes fastened on it with raw hunger. "I'm here to take you home."

The reaction was instantaneous. Blossom gasped out a sob and fell to her knees, weeping openly. Cas averted his eyes as she cried out all the bitter loneliness she had no doubt endured in this alien realm. Her pain was too raw, and too familiar. Unlike Blossom, Cas knew he would never find his way back home. As Charlie went forward to comfort Blossom and explain further in soft, hushed tones, Cas wondered if the home he was missing was his heavenly refuge or a pair of wounded green eyes.