Fairytales are Real Part 2: Deanyssey
The brothers came to port in a small town bordering the sea. The magical map from Missouri signaled that John Winchester, their father, was somewhere in the middle of the sea. Dean's stomach turned at the thought of it. They quickly located a man with a boat and a crew, who was willing to take them out to sea. Sam noticed the look of trepidation on his brother's face and, frowning, asked, “Dean, is something wrong?”
“Boats, Sam! Fricken' boats! Why does it gotta be boats?!”
Sam chuckled at his brother's reaction, “You still have that thing about sailing?” Instead of an answer, Dean just clenched his teeth and rolled his eyes at his brother.
“You boys lookin' for anything in particular?” Dean was making use of his navigation skills to direct the captain using the compass his father had given to him.
He shrugged his shoulders at the captain's question, “We'll know when we see it.” The image of their father on the map continued to waver but never moved far from its spot. As they sailed closer and closer to the area on the map that indicated their father's position, the boys grew antsier. From the crow's nest there seemed as if there was nothing in the distance. No sign of ship or land, which confused the boys endlessly. What could have their father captive out at sea?
Dean descended into the cabin to find his brother bowed over his stolen library book. “Hey, Dean. I've been doing some research and I have a couple of theories.”
Dean peered over his brother's shoulder, “Mermaids? Really, Sammy?” He raised an eyebrow in question.
Sam flushed red, “It's 'Sam'. No Dean, I mean ... maybe? I've got a few different ideas. That's just one of them .... I mean it could fit? Or something more like sirens …”
Yells came from above deck and both brothers ran to the upper deck, Sam clutching at his book like a bible. The deck was frantic with sailors running back and forth, water sloshing overboard and the whole boat rocking back and forth violently. The captain called out to Sam and Dean, “You boys better get back below deck. Seems like a storm's coming.”
Dean swallowed down some bile that threatened to overwhelm him and tried to distract himself by helping tie down the sails. Sam ran after him, “Dean, Dean! Oh no, this isn't good! Dean, I think I know what we're dealing with!”
Dean growled, “Not now Sammy! Kinda busy.”
“Dean, you don't understand!” Sam was furiously flipping through the pages in his book, “Here Dean, here!” He was pointing to something on the pages, but Dean's eyes were swimming too much to focus with the impending nausea. “I think we're dealing with a Charybdis.”
“A carib-what-now?” Dean frowned at him.
Sam grabbed onto Dean's arm and pulled him below deck, slapping the book onto the table. The book was opened to a page of a drawing of a huge, bladder-like creature with a massive mouth as a face and long flippers pooling from it. In the illustration, the creature was surrounded by waves of water and in the water was a drawing of a little sinking ship. “So what, it's like a giant octopus that sinks ships?”
“It's more than that, Dean. It creates whirlpools by drinking in water and spitting it out. It will sink this entire ship.”
“So what, you think this thing's got Dad somehow? Did it eat him?”
“I don't know, Dean. All I know is, if this ship gets caught in the whirls it will never survive.”
Dean got agitated, “But, we can't just leave Dad!” He gritted his teeth, “There's got to be a way to kill it ...”
Sam frowned, “Yea, well, I guess there is. But, you can't even get close to it, Dean.”
But Dean wasn't listening anymore; he was strategizing. “What about a harpoon? This ship's gotta have a harpoon. All boats have harpoons, right? I wouldn't need to get too close for that ... Or maybe a cannon? Did you see any cannons?”
“Dean, you're not listening! You can't get close enough for a harpoon or a cannon, we need to steer this ship away from it. The ship won't survive!”
“Sammy, if there is any chance that Dad is out there, then we have to go for it. This ship be damned! Now either help me find something or sit down and quit your bitching.”
“The name's 'Sam', not 'Sammy'.” Sam muttered.
***
Dean fashioned himself a spear from a rusty kitchen knife and a piece of plywood that was leftover from an old set of sails. The captain called down into the galley, “All men on deck! We're abandoning ship!”
Alert, Sam and Dean ran up the stairs to the main deck. “What's going on, Captain?” Dean yelled to the captain, who was helping lower a lifeboat into the sea.
“The storm's gone wild, boys. We can't complete the journey in these conditions, we're going to lose it all!” The captain waved for the boys to climb down the ladder onto the lifeboat.
A sailor called down from the crow's nest, “Aye, Captain, I see it! There's some wild creature out there! My lord!”
“A creature? What kind of creature creates that!?” The captain looked bewildered.
“It's a Charybdis, a creature of the sea that creates whirlpools by drinking in and spitting out water from its huge mouth,” Sam informed the captain.
“You knew what was out there?!? You've doomed us all! Abandon ship! Aye, all men to the deck!” the captain called out again. “You boys could stay right here and drown with the ship for all I care.”
Sam looked anxious, and Dean still looked a bit sick, but determined. He clutched the spear in his arm and turned to the nest above the sails, “I'm gonna go get a closer look, Sammy. If Dad's out there, we have to save him.”
Dean grasped the makeshift spear in one hand and climbed up the ladder using his other hand. He lost his grip briefly and clutched onto the rope like a lifeline, regaining his balance. After several long minutes, he made it to the top and hoisted his spear into the nest before pulling himself inside. From up top he could see far out into the sea and his eyes immediately fell onto the beast. She was exactly how the book depicted her, but larger and more frightening.
Dean had never seen a beast before, not like this. He was well trained in the arts of hand-to-hand combat and sword fighting. He had been hunting before in the woods right outside of town, but he had never encountered anything like this. If it meant saving his father, Dean would stop at nothing, defeat any monster, face any peril.
His eyes continued to scan the area. The water surrounding the beast looked like a wreckage. There were parts of wrecked ships swirling all around the monster, various sails, plywood, and scraps of fabric swirling in a mean fury that turned the water into a sickening muddy color. As Dean's eyes scanned the wreckage, they fell to what looked like a life raft and a man clinging to it, swirling round and round caught in the creatures clutches. A closer look had Dean determined that the figure must be his father.
Dean quickly climbed down the rope, still clutching his spear. “Sammy, Sammy! I think Dad's out there!” His voice was shaky, but his hands that grasped his weapon were steady as a surgeon's.
Sam's eyes widened in surprise, “You sure, Dean?”
Before Dean could respond the boat lurched dangerously and a large crack slowly split down the length of the boat, causing each end to slowly drift apart and down into the depths of the water. “Dean! Dean! What should we do?” Sam clung to his brothers side, part way to hysterics.
“Fuck, I don't know, Sam. Just hold on.” Dean held onto his brother tightly with one arm and the spear with the other. He glanced around quickly, looking for an escape route, while trying to steer Sam to the area of the boat that was sinking the slowest. When there was just a small tip of the boat left to stand on, Dean spotted a small chunk of land on the outskirts of the whirlpool's radius and a small fig tree that hung over. “Hold on, Sam, I think I've got an idea.” He used his spear to push them within reaching distance of the tree and then grabbed a tight hold onto the longest branch. Sam got the idea quickly and pulled off of Dean to grab onto the branch himself. Beneath them, the last bit of the boat sunk into the murky water's depths.
The boys drifted with their legs dangling in the water and swirling back and forth. The water tried to pull them in, but the boys held fast. Dean watched the beast over his brother's shoulder, trying to assess any weak spots. “Sammy, listen to me. In that book you read about this creature. Do you remember anything about it having weak points?”
“I don't know, Dean. I'm guessing the mouth? I don't know. And stop calling me 'Sammy',” Sam cried out.
“Okay, okay. I need to get a better footing so that I can aim at this thing. Here, help me out.” Dean thrust his spear into his brother's hand and began climbing up the branch and rooting his feet into the base of the tree. He reached down and took the spear from Sammy, getting as best of a footing in the confined space as he could. He waited for the beast to open its gargantuan mouth before pulling his arm back and tossing the spear into its gaping mouth. He watched as the spear flew and lodged itself into the back of the beast's throat. The beast made a loud shrieking noise and started to spit up large amounts of blood, which swirled with the dirty water. The beast, agitated in its injury, began flapping it's flippers wildly. “Sammy, I need to get it again. You stay here.”
“Dean! Dean! What are you going to do? No, Dean!” Sam yelled out to his brother as Dean jumped from the top branches of the tree and flung himself at the flailing beast. He pulled his sword from its sheath and slammed it into the beast's still outstretched mouth. He yanked it down, tearing a large slice into the top of its throat. His sword sliced through the top of the beast's mouth. The beast stopped flapping and became limp. Immediately, the water began to calm, sloshing back and forth at a slightly faster pace than steady. Dean pulled his sword from the creature and its lifeless form began to sink beneath him. He quickly peered around the wreckage for something to support his weight and his eyes landed onto the raft that held the man that Dean could now confirm to be his father. Dean flung himself at the raft, landing with a thud.
He crawled over to the slumped figure of John Winchester and flipped him onto his back, beating on his chest. “Dad, Dad ... please you gotta breathe. Come on, Dad!”
Sam swam to and climbed onto the raft beside his brother. “Dean, is that Dad?” Sam crawled over to the body. “Dean, you're doing it wrong. Let me do it, you paddle us out of here.” Sam assisted his father until he began to cough up dark water with a groan. Dean used his sword to paddle them to land.
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