Chapter 2: In Which Castiel Worries About Wolves
So sorry for the lateness of this update. Life is a fucker. I would not recommend being an adult.
Also, animals are both half human and full animal in this verse. Which ones are half human will be determined by my closet oracle. No, really. I have no real reasons for making some animals fully human other than how creepy I think wolf people eating other animal people would be. I am scum.
The afternoon for Castiel wore on slowly. He tried to go about his usual business, collecting branches to fix up his nest, eating some berries he found growing a few dozen yards away from his usual gathering grounds, but he found himself constantly loosing focus, drifting off into thoughts about wolves and defenseless, small creatures.
Truth be told, Castiel could barely even remember the last time he had seen a wolf. He had been very young then, just recently having taken his first flight. He remembered that it had been late, most of the daytime residents were bedding down for the evening.
The wolves had been a sudden and violent intrusion on the evening. Completely devoid of any humanoid features, the pack had been a snarling, howling mass of teeth and hunger, rushing down on an unfortunate elk who had strayed too far from its migrating herd. The poor animal had been done for in minutes, the vicious pack of canines lulling into hungered grumbles and snapping as they settled into their dinner.
Castiel and his siblings had watched the whole affair from the safety of their nest, high above the forest floor, scared, but free from danger. Castiel thought about the fawn. The child had no nest to hide in, and with his mother missing he was as vulnerable to predators as that lone elk had been.
Worry was starting to win over indifference and Castiel spent a good hour preening and fussing from a tall perch in his gathering grounds, unwilling to go back and check on an animal he had no real reason to worry about, yet unwilling as well to just fly home and abandon the young fawn completely.
A scream, followed by several short, yipping barks made up his mind for him. Without a thought —and with a strange, blind panic in his chest— Castiel launched himself through the trees, wings beating hard to bring himself to the fawn in time.
Bursting through the last of the tree cover into the general area in which he had left the fawn his eyes immediately sought out the boy.
There, at the far edge of the clearing. The boy sprang forward, unaware of Castiel’s presence as the fawn made an aborted attempt to get away from his attacker. An over-sized fox made its move as the fawn tried to escape, biting at the boy’s flanks. The fox obviously thought that it could risk the usually powerful kicks of a deer if the specimen was one as small as this fawn. The meal must have looked too tempting to avoid.
Furious, Castiel dropped from the sky, slamming into the fox with his full weight.
With a pained yelp the creature released the fawn, who took the opportunity to deliver one hard kick with his back legs before he scrambled to hide behind Castiel, who was picking himself menacingly up from his landing spot. The crow flared his wings, tucking the fawn safely behind them.
The fox scrambled up from where the fawn’s strike had knocked it, shaking itself off and snapping at the pair with a yip. Castiel puffed up further, taking one step towards the animal, who decided it had had enough fighting for the day and turned tail in retreat. The pair watched the fox lope off into the forest before turning to each other with relief.
“Cas..Casteel…” the fawn exhaled shakily.
“It’s Castiel,” The crow corrected automatically as he reached out, hands roaming over the fawn, checking his wounds, which were thankfully minor except for the bite on his left hind leg. It was bleeding sluggishly, several puncture marks from the fox’s teeth shining red in the light of the clearing. “Let me see that,” Castiel said awkwardly, reaching out to feel the leg the fox had been worrying at.
“What?” He replied, slightly annoyed now that he had a moment to realize what had just occurred. He had to have gone flying off to save this little creature—had barely been in time to save him. The fawn however just shook his head, ducking his chin in to look at the ground as Castiel finished checking the leg. It would be fine, just some superficial bleeding and slight bruising if they got it cleaned up soon.
Something occurred to Castiel. “What are you called, fawn?”
The fawn continued to stare up at the crow, eyes wide and trusting, only blinking when Castiel scowled and tilted his head at him expectantly.
“I’m Dean,” the boy said, shyly grabbing at his ears again as Castiel straightened back up, absently wiping his blood covered fingers on his pants. They should definitely find a stream soon and get that wound washed out. Castiel paused, movement stilling as he realized that he was considering—no, that he had decided to stay with the fawn, or at least take Dean with him.
“Well,” Cas said awkwardly. “I suppose we should find somewhere safe to sleep for the night.”
The fawn’s ears flicked up in surprise. Embarrassed, Cas started off into the forest.
When he felt a small hand slip into his he knew that Dean had followed.
dededos
germansingergirl
gummygunk
yousharknotpass
romaincrisis
