Fic: The Wild Hunt (9/10)
Fic: The Wild Hunt (9/10)
Author: pen37
Beta: strangevisitor7
Fandoms: Supernatural, Smallville
Pairing: Chloe/Dean (If you squint)
Rating: Pg
Timeline: For Supernatural: Assumes that everything up to Lazarus Rizing occured. For Smallville: Assumes that Chloe and Jimmy broke it off just before Bride, but that events in Legion occured. Also assumes that Chloe shied away from any relationship with Davis.
Written for the Supernatural Crossover Big Bang at sncross_bigbang
Summary: When an old high school friend contacts Chloe Sullivan about some odd happenings at his job, Chloe agrees to help out -- never realizing that "helping" means wearing a corset. When Sam and Dean check out a disappearance at a Renaissance festival, they don't count on the help of a blonde who knows everything there is to know about paranormal -- but not so much about supernatural. All Renaissance fairs ahve a little magic of their own. But when the magic at this fair goes terribly wrong, it's going to take the three of them combined to solve this case.
Ch. 1, Ch. 2, Ch.3, Ch.4, Ch.5, Ch. 6, Ch.7, Ch.8, Ch.9, Ch.10
While Dean waited in the interminably long line for steak on a stake and home-brewed beer, Chloe found a picnic table at the edge of the magic fence that surrounded them and stretched out to enjoy the sun.
Before long the Jolly Rogers, a band of wandering pirate troubadours that she’d played with her first day on site, came up and knelt in serenade.
Chloe nodded in time with the music - an odd little song whose lyrics she couldn’t entirely catch. There was something about a dragon, a virgin and a pair of missing pants, and quite a bit about grog.
As they finished, a little boy who had been listening along tugged on her skirts. “Your boyfriend isn’t dressed up,” he said with a serious nod.
Chloe looked back at Dean, and then smiled down at the little boy. “That’s because he’s trying to blend in with our visitors.”
“Why would he want to do that?” The boy asked.
“Because he’s the village idiot,” Chloe said.
“I heard that, Blonde,” Dean said as he sat down next to her. “Just for that you get no beef.”
“Oh how will I ever survive?” Chloe rolled her eyes.
The boy looked form Dean to Chloe and back, wrinkling his nose, he turned and ran off.
“So what’s Grog?” Dean asked.
“Watered down rum and lime juice,” Chloe said. “It’s what they gave to sailors to drink on a ship.”
“Sounds like alcohol abuse to me,” Dean said. “Why would anyone do that to good rum?”
“Water spoiled on a long ship’s voyage,” Chloe said with a shrug.
“How do you know this?” Dean asked.
“I asked the pirates yesterday.”
“Right,” Dean looked off.
“Chloe!”
Chloe turned to see Chad wave at her as he raced toward her through he crowd. He stopped and doubled over as he struggled to catch his breath.
“Chad, are you okay?” Chloe asked as she touched his shoulder in concern.
“Your friend--” Chad gasped out. “Tall guy.”
“Sam?” Dean dropped his food, stood, grasped Chad’s shoulder and shook him. “What happened?”
“He was over at the fairy grotto - and he just vanished.” Chad waved his hands in the air.
Dean shoved Chad away and took off in the direction of the grotto.
“Dean!” Chloe yelled out as the invisible wall slammed into her. Dean turned and glared at her. He grabbed her arm and took off again.
“Sam!” Dean bellowed as they arrived at the glen. “Sammy!”
Chloe scanned the grotto for clues to Sam’s whereabouts. As her eyes fell on a circle of mushrooms, she pulled up short. “Dean.” She nodded to the growth. “Fairy ring.”
Dean knelt, pulled out a knife and pried up a mushroom. He held it out for Chloe to examine. She squinted at it, and then shook her head. “It’s just a mushroom,” she said. “There’s nothing special about it.”
“Damn it!” Dean shouted as he kicked another knobby mushroom. Then he dropped to his knees in a defeated posture to the leafy ground. Chloe knelt next to him, putting a gentle hand on his shoulder.
“I’m sure he’s fine,” she said. “The stories say that fairies kidnap people to keep them, not to kill them.”
“Yeah,” Dean muttered. “Because fairy tales tell the whole story.”
Chloe gave him a gentle smile. “You really do care for each other,” she said.
“I’d die for him if I had to,” Dean said. “And I kind of did.”
“Did that for my cousin,” Chloe said. “And she paid me back by stealing my best friend and my job.”
“What a bitch,” Dean muttered.
“She’s not,” Chloe protested.
“If Sam did that to me, I’d punch him.”
“So I take it that Sam’s never stolen your boyfriend.” Chloe teased.
Dean smirked back at her. “Funny.”
“Ever been possessed?” Chloe asked.
“Surprisingly? No. But Sam has. You?”
“Four times.”
“No shit?”
“No shit.”
“You got some kind of target on you or something?”
“I’ve wondered.”
“Demons or ghosts?”
“Ghosts three times. One - well, it was an advanced artificial intelligence and I nearly wiped out the planet.”
“I got sent to hell,” Dean said.
Chloe paused. “Okay, your experience is definitely worse.”
“Thanks. You’re pretty close, whatwith the AI Apocalypse.”
“It’s a hit when I bring it out at parties,” Chloe said.
He smiled at that. As Chloe returned his smile, something indefinable seemed to shift between them. She found herself leaning toward him the exact moment he did the same.
“Chloe?” His expression was tentative. Gone was the tomcat she’d been dealing with for the past two days. In his place Chloe was faced with a scared boy with his heart on his sleeve.
“Yeah?”
“I’m going to kiss you now?” He probably meant it to be a statement, but the way his eyebrows rose told her that he would only proceed with her permission.
She nodded slowly.
Dean didn’t wait for her to change her mind. His lips slanted over hers in a gentle kiss. Chloe leaned into the sensation and parted her lips in welcome. She had figured that he knew how to kiss, and she hadn’t been wrong. Dean took his time, leisurely exploring her mouth, suckling her bottom lip.
At last, when they pulled apart, Chloe almost felt awkward. She was not sure who she would be faced with: the tomcat, or the little boy.
For his part, Dean looked surprised. Chloe wasn’t sure if he was surprised that she’d been a good kisser, that she’d given in, or that they’d let themselves go when Sam was in such obvious danger.
Coping mechanism, Chloe thought automatically. Burn off the stress and then we can focus on our problem.
He cleared his throat. “We should try to find Sam.”
She nodded - relieved to have an out to the awkwardness of the situation.
“Any idea where to start?” Dean asked.
Chloe looked up in thought. “Maybe we're going about this wrong,” she said. “We've been concentrating on Scandinavian lore - but there are fairies in a lot of different cultures. Maybe we're looking in the wrong place.”
Dean nodded. He took one last lingering look around before following Chloe out of the grotto.
The faire seemed to pass in a blur of color as Dean followed Chloe back to the vardo. But where the average visitor probably saw it as magical and enchanting, Dean perceived the sinister undertones that lay hidden behind the color and laughter.
Once they arrived back at their temporary home, Chloe began to scan her database while he paced like an angry lion.
Finally, Chloe sat back and stared at the screen, wide-eyed with amazement. “Huh. That seems almost too simple.”
“What?” Dean asked.
In response, she stood and turned toward the door. “We can find almost everything we need a the herbalist's booth.”
#
They visited the herbalist, the gardens and then the forge again before returning to the vardo. Then, with the ingredients spread out before them, the two of them began concocting fairy repellent.
“This has got to be the oddest concoction I've put together,” Dean said.
“It's not all wormwood and wolfsbane,” Chloe said.
“Yeah . . . but tomato seeds? Iron supplements?”
“No flair, but sometimes the best solutions are simple ones.”
“Just as long as it gets my brother back,” Dean said.
They worked in silence for a while. Occasionally, Dean looked up to study Chloe as she ground up seeds and flowers.
“Hey Chloe?”
“Yeah?” She looked up with a tiny smile on her face.
He shook his head. “Never mind.”
“You sure?” She tilted her head.
Dean chewed on his bottom lip. Finally, he gave a small nod. “When you were possessed . . . did you do anything you regret?”
Her eyes widened. “Wow. That's . . .a loaded question.”
“Sorry,” Dean said. He looked down.
“No,” Chloe said quickly. “It's okay. I just. . . I try not to think about it too much.”
“I know the feeling,” Dean said.
Chloe looked at him and winced. “When the AI first took control - It wasn't like normal possession. As if possession could ever be normal.” she winced. “It started . . . the best word I can think to describe it is reprogramming. I started to do things that were completely out of character for me . . . but at the time they seemed perfectly rational.”
“Didn't your friends notice? Your cousin?”
Chloe winced again. “They kind of had a lot going on.”
“So you said,” Dean's eyes narrowed. “So what was out of character?”
Chloe sighed. “I put someone in a coma. I'm afraid that I might have killed him, but I'm too scared to find out.”
“Yeah, but that wasn't you,” Dean said.
“Wasn't it?” Chloe leaned on one elbow. “The thing is, I did it to protect a friend. It's like all the AI did was take away my sense of morality.”
Dean nodded.
“Sorry I don’t have any answers for you, Dean.”
“Maybe there are no easy answers.” Dean said. He reached for her hand and then squeezed it.
Chloe returned his gesture. “Dean . . .”
“Yeah?”
“If you want to tell me about what happened, I promise not to judge.”
“I know you won’t,” he said. “Maybe . . . someday I will.”
Chloe smiled. “Well, I think this concoction is ready to go.”
“Good,” Dean said. “Let’s go get my brother back.”
#
The sun was going down - and in the distance, the final canon of the day sounded.
“That’s it for the faire this weekend,” Chloe said.
“Good.” Dean threw over his shoulder as he continued to walk toward the grotto. “Less people to get in our way.”
“I hoped to have this case wrapped up by now,” Chloe said.
“We will - Once we find my brother.”
They entered the grotto and started to explore the clearing. Light shafted down in dusty golden rays, gilding the green leaves in molten gold. As Chloe turned in a slow circle, she realized that there was one gap in the tree line where the sunlight didn’t slant at quite the same angel as the surrounding trees. It was almost as if time had slowed.
“Dean,” Chloe nodded at the trees. “I think that’s a portal.”
Dean frowned, and cautiously stepped toward the portal. He paused at the threshold, then stepped through and vanished.
Chloe waited for a few seconds. When Dean didn’t reappear, she hurried over to the gap between the trees. Then she took a deep, fortifying breath, and stepped through. She felt a sickening sensation in her gut as she was pulled along like a ball on a tether.
She careened into Dean and then fell to the ground. The world she had left seemed bright and sunny. But everything here was dark and dead.
Dean helped her up and scanned the area.
“Sam!” He called out.
“He can’t hear you.”
Chloe and Dean turned - to see Star standing in the distance.
“Star?” Chloe asked uncertainly.
Dean pulled her tightly to his side. “That ain’t anything human, Darlin’”
Chloe looked in confusion from Dean to Star. With a start, she realized that the other girl’s features were too angular. Her eyes too dark.
“Oh Crap,” Chloe said. It’s the Huldra!
‘Star’ smiled, showing pointed canines. “I’ve got to give you two credit. When I tied you together, I was trying to slow you down. But neither one of you so much as broke stride. Maybe you’re better suited than I thought.
Though Dean’s touch on her arm remained light, Chloe could feel his tension. She reached into her pouch and grabbed a handful of repelling powder. Then she flung it at the Huldra.
The creature dodged, only to run bodily into Dean as he feinted around her. He fisted his hand in her hair, pulled it back and held a handful of the powder up to show her that he meant business.
“Give me my brother back!” He ground out.
Chloe recoiled. Something in Dean’s expression was frightening. His eyes held the echoes of hell. She swallowed, then stiffened her back and grabbed another handful of repellant. “And the missing children.”
The Huldra looked from Dean to her with eyes wide in panic. Without warning, a vine seemed to erupt from the ground. It wound its way around Dean’s leg, tripping him in the process. Chloe dove for the Huldra, but the creature danced back out of her reach.
Another vine sprouted from the ground, and wound around Chloe, slowly crushing her. Then the monster was there, sniffing of Chloe’s blonde hair.
“Pity you were baptized,” she whispered to Chloe.
Before the creature could say more, a shot rang out across the clearing. Bark and blood sprayed from the Huldra’s side, and it recoiled from the impact. As the creature fled, Dean knelt next to Chloe, pulling at the vines. As he stripped them off, the crushing sensation eased from her ribs.
As Dean helped Chloe to her feet, she looked around and realized that the Huldra was nowhere around.
“Damn it,” Dean hissed. “She got away.”
Chloe touched Dean’s shoulder. “You could have stopped her.”
“Yeah,” Dean nodded. “I could have.”
Just then a rumbling sound caused them both to look up. A rising column of dust seemed to be building against the sky. In the distance, they heard a horn blast.
“The wild hunt.” Chloe said quickly. She turned to Dean. “Hide your eyes!”
They both dropped to the ground. Dean whipped his jacket off, pulled Chloe closer to him and covered their heads with it. Somewhere above them, the sound of thundering hoof beats and the blast of trumpets echoed across the sky.
Eventually, the sound died away as if whoever rode in the spectral hunt had moved on. Dean risked a look. Then he sat up, taking his jacket with him.
The pocket dimension had vanished, spitting them back out into the dusk-shaded fairy grotto. Chloe titled her head as she looked around. The trees no longer carried an otherworldly feel to them. The only magic left in the land was the ordinary kind that any Renaissance faire carried.
The sound of footsteps on dead leaves caused them both to turn. In the edge of the clearing, Sam was leading the missing children back into the open.
“What happened?” Dean asked.
Chloe looked thoughtful for a minute. “What did you shoot her with?”
Dean checked his gun. “Consecrated Iron Rounds.”
“Maybe you hurt her worse than we thought,” Chloe said. “Maybe you hurt her enough that she couldn’t keep up the magic that was binding Sam and the others.”
"Maybe," Dean said.
Author: pen37
Beta: strangevisitor7
Fandoms: Supernatural, Smallville
Pairing: Chloe/Dean (If you squint)
Rating: Pg
Timeline: For Supernatural: Assumes that everything up to Lazarus Rizing occured. For Smallville: Assumes that Chloe and Jimmy broke it off just before Bride, but that events in Legion occured. Also assumes that Chloe shied away from any relationship with Davis.
Written for the Supernatural Crossover Big Bang at sncross_bigbang
Summary: When an old high school friend contacts Chloe Sullivan about some odd happenings at his job, Chloe agrees to help out -- never realizing that "helping" means wearing a corset. When Sam and Dean check out a disappearance at a Renaissance festival, they don't count on the help of a blonde who knows everything there is to know about paranormal -- but not so much about supernatural. All Renaissance fairs ahve a little magic of their own. But when the magic at this fair goes terribly wrong, it's going to take the three of them combined to solve this case.
Ch. 1, Ch. 2, Ch.3, Ch.4, Ch.5, Ch. 6, Ch.7, Ch.8, Ch.9, Ch.10
While Dean waited in the interminably long line for steak on a stake and home-brewed beer, Chloe found a picnic table at the edge of the magic fence that surrounded them and stretched out to enjoy the sun.
Before long the Jolly Rogers, a band of wandering pirate troubadours that she’d played with her first day on site, came up and knelt in serenade.
Chloe nodded in time with the music - an odd little song whose lyrics she couldn’t entirely catch. There was something about a dragon, a virgin and a pair of missing pants, and quite a bit about grog.
As they finished, a little boy who had been listening along tugged on her skirts. “Your boyfriend isn’t dressed up,” he said with a serious nod.
Chloe looked back at Dean, and then smiled down at the little boy. “That’s because he’s trying to blend in with our visitors.”
“Why would he want to do that?” The boy asked.
“Because he’s the village idiot,” Chloe said.
“I heard that, Blonde,” Dean said as he sat down next to her. “Just for that you get no beef.”
“Oh how will I ever survive?” Chloe rolled her eyes.
The boy looked form Dean to Chloe and back, wrinkling his nose, he turned and ran off.
“So what’s Grog?” Dean asked.
“Watered down rum and lime juice,” Chloe said. “It’s what they gave to sailors to drink on a ship.”
“Sounds like alcohol abuse to me,” Dean said. “Why would anyone do that to good rum?”
“Water spoiled on a long ship’s voyage,” Chloe said with a shrug.
“How do you know this?” Dean asked.
“I asked the pirates yesterday.”
“Right,” Dean looked off.
“Chloe!”
Chloe turned to see Chad wave at her as he raced toward her through he crowd. He stopped and doubled over as he struggled to catch his breath.
“Chad, are you okay?” Chloe asked as she touched his shoulder in concern.
“Your friend--” Chad gasped out. “Tall guy.”
“Sam?” Dean dropped his food, stood, grasped Chad’s shoulder and shook him. “What happened?”
“He was over at the fairy grotto - and he just vanished.” Chad waved his hands in the air.
Dean shoved Chad away and took off in the direction of the grotto.
“Dean!” Chloe yelled out as the invisible wall slammed into her. Dean turned and glared at her. He grabbed her arm and took off again.
“Sam!” Dean bellowed as they arrived at the glen. “Sammy!”
Chloe scanned the grotto for clues to Sam’s whereabouts. As her eyes fell on a circle of mushrooms, she pulled up short. “Dean.” She nodded to the growth. “Fairy ring.”
Dean knelt, pulled out a knife and pried up a mushroom. He held it out for Chloe to examine. She squinted at it, and then shook her head. “It’s just a mushroom,” she said. “There’s nothing special about it.”
“Damn it!” Dean shouted as he kicked another knobby mushroom. Then he dropped to his knees in a defeated posture to the leafy ground. Chloe knelt next to him, putting a gentle hand on his shoulder.
“I’m sure he’s fine,” she said. “The stories say that fairies kidnap people to keep them, not to kill them.”
“Yeah,” Dean muttered. “Because fairy tales tell the whole story.”
Chloe gave him a gentle smile. “You really do care for each other,” she said.
“I’d die for him if I had to,” Dean said. “And I kind of did.”
“Did that for my cousin,” Chloe said. “And she paid me back by stealing my best friend and my job.”
“What a bitch,” Dean muttered.
“She’s not,” Chloe protested.
“If Sam did that to me, I’d punch him.”
“So I take it that Sam’s never stolen your boyfriend.” Chloe teased.
Dean smirked back at her. “Funny.”
“Ever been possessed?” Chloe asked.
“Surprisingly? No. But Sam has. You?”
“Four times.”
“No shit?”
“No shit.”
“You got some kind of target on you or something?”
“I’ve wondered.”
“Demons or ghosts?”
“Ghosts three times. One - well, it was an advanced artificial intelligence and I nearly wiped out the planet.”
“I got sent to hell,” Dean said.
Chloe paused. “Okay, your experience is definitely worse.”
“Thanks. You’re pretty close, whatwith the AI Apocalypse.”
“It’s a hit when I bring it out at parties,” Chloe said.
He smiled at that. As Chloe returned his smile, something indefinable seemed to shift between them. She found herself leaning toward him the exact moment he did the same.
“Chloe?” His expression was tentative. Gone was the tomcat she’d been dealing with for the past two days. In his place Chloe was faced with a scared boy with his heart on his sleeve.
“Yeah?”
“I’m going to kiss you now?” He probably meant it to be a statement, but the way his eyebrows rose told her that he would only proceed with her permission.
She nodded slowly.
Dean didn’t wait for her to change her mind. His lips slanted over hers in a gentle kiss. Chloe leaned into the sensation and parted her lips in welcome. She had figured that he knew how to kiss, and she hadn’t been wrong. Dean took his time, leisurely exploring her mouth, suckling her bottom lip.
At last, when they pulled apart, Chloe almost felt awkward. She was not sure who she would be faced with: the tomcat, or the little boy.
For his part, Dean looked surprised. Chloe wasn’t sure if he was surprised that she’d been a good kisser, that she’d given in, or that they’d let themselves go when Sam was in such obvious danger.
Coping mechanism, Chloe thought automatically. Burn off the stress and then we can focus on our problem.
He cleared his throat. “We should try to find Sam.”
She nodded - relieved to have an out to the awkwardness of the situation.
“Any idea where to start?” Dean asked.
Chloe looked up in thought. “Maybe we're going about this wrong,” she said. “We've been concentrating on Scandinavian lore - but there are fairies in a lot of different cultures. Maybe we're looking in the wrong place.”
Dean nodded. He took one last lingering look around before following Chloe out of the grotto.
The faire seemed to pass in a blur of color as Dean followed Chloe back to the vardo. But where the average visitor probably saw it as magical and enchanting, Dean perceived the sinister undertones that lay hidden behind the color and laughter.
Once they arrived back at their temporary home, Chloe began to scan her database while he paced like an angry lion.
Finally, Chloe sat back and stared at the screen, wide-eyed with amazement. “Huh. That seems almost too simple.”
“What?” Dean asked.
In response, she stood and turned toward the door. “We can find almost everything we need a the herbalist's booth.”
#
They visited the herbalist, the gardens and then the forge again before returning to the vardo. Then, with the ingredients spread out before them, the two of them began concocting fairy repellent.
“This has got to be the oddest concoction I've put together,” Dean said.
“It's not all wormwood and wolfsbane,” Chloe said.
“Yeah . . . but tomato seeds? Iron supplements?”
“No flair, but sometimes the best solutions are simple ones.”
“Just as long as it gets my brother back,” Dean said.
They worked in silence for a while. Occasionally, Dean looked up to study Chloe as she ground up seeds and flowers.
“Hey Chloe?”
“Yeah?” She looked up with a tiny smile on her face.
He shook his head. “Never mind.”
“You sure?” She tilted her head.
Dean chewed on his bottom lip. Finally, he gave a small nod. “When you were possessed . . . did you do anything you regret?”
Her eyes widened. “Wow. That's . . .a loaded question.”
“Sorry,” Dean said. He looked down.
“No,” Chloe said quickly. “It's okay. I just. . . I try not to think about it too much.”
“I know the feeling,” Dean said.
Chloe looked at him and winced. “When the AI first took control - It wasn't like normal possession. As if possession could ever be normal.” she winced. “It started . . . the best word I can think to describe it is reprogramming. I started to do things that were completely out of character for me . . . but at the time they seemed perfectly rational.”
“Didn't your friends notice? Your cousin?”
Chloe winced again. “They kind of had a lot going on.”
“So you said,” Dean's eyes narrowed. “So what was out of character?”
Chloe sighed. “I put someone in a coma. I'm afraid that I might have killed him, but I'm too scared to find out.”
“Yeah, but that wasn't you,” Dean said.
“Wasn't it?” Chloe leaned on one elbow. “The thing is, I did it to protect a friend. It's like all the AI did was take away my sense of morality.”
Dean nodded.
“Sorry I don’t have any answers for you, Dean.”
“Maybe there are no easy answers.” Dean said. He reached for her hand and then squeezed it.
Chloe returned his gesture. “Dean . . .”
“Yeah?”
“If you want to tell me about what happened, I promise not to judge.”
“I know you won’t,” he said. “Maybe . . . someday I will.”
Chloe smiled. “Well, I think this concoction is ready to go.”
“Good,” Dean said. “Let’s go get my brother back.”
#
The sun was going down - and in the distance, the final canon of the day sounded.
“That’s it for the faire this weekend,” Chloe said.
“Good.” Dean threw over his shoulder as he continued to walk toward the grotto. “Less people to get in our way.”
“I hoped to have this case wrapped up by now,” Chloe said.
“We will - Once we find my brother.”
They entered the grotto and started to explore the clearing. Light shafted down in dusty golden rays, gilding the green leaves in molten gold. As Chloe turned in a slow circle, she realized that there was one gap in the tree line where the sunlight didn’t slant at quite the same angel as the surrounding trees. It was almost as if time had slowed.
“Dean,” Chloe nodded at the trees. “I think that’s a portal.”
Dean frowned, and cautiously stepped toward the portal. He paused at the threshold, then stepped through and vanished.
Chloe waited for a few seconds. When Dean didn’t reappear, she hurried over to the gap between the trees. Then she took a deep, fortifying breath, and stepped through. She felt a sickening sensation in her gut as she was pulled along like a ball on a tether.
She careened into Dean and then fell to the ground. The world she had left seemed bright and sunny. But everything here was dark and dead.
Dean helped her up and scanned the area.
“Sam!” He called out.
“He can’t hear you.”
Chloe and Dean turned - to see Star standing in the distance.
“Star?” Chloe asked uncertainly.
Dean pulled her tightly to his side. “That ain’t anything human, Darlin’”
Chloe looked in confusion from Dean to Star. With a start, she realized that the other girl’s features were too angular. Her eyes too dark.
“Oh Crap,” Chloe said. It’s the Huldra!
‘Star’ smiled, showing pointed canines. “I’ve got to give you two credit. When I tied you together, I was trying to slow you down. But neither one of you so much as broke stride. Maybe you’re better suited than I thought.
Though Dean’s touch on her arm remained light, Chloe could feel his tension. She reached into her pouch and grabbed a handful of repelling powder. Then she flung it at the Huldra.
The creature dodged, only to run bodily into Dean as he feinted around her. He fisted his hand in her hair, pulled it back and held a handful of the powder up to show her that he meant business.
“Give me my brother back!” He ground out.
Chloe recoiled. Something in Dean’s expression was frightening. His eyes held the echoes of hell. She swallowed, then stiffened her back and grabbed another handful of repellant. “And the missing children.”
The Huldra looked from Dean to her with eyes wide in panic. Without warning, a vine seemed to erupt from the ground. It wound its way around Dean’s leg, tripping him in the process. Chloe dove for the Huldra, but the creature danced back out of her reach.
Another vine sprouted from the ground, and wound around Chloe, slowly crushing her. Then the monster was there, sniffing of Chloe’s blonde hair.
“Pity you were baptized,” she whispered to Chloe.
Before the creature could say more, a shot rang out across the clearing. Bark and blood sprayed from the Huldra’s side, and it recoiled from the impact. As the creature fled, Dean knelt next to Chloe, pulling at the vines. As he stripped them off, the crushing sensation eased from her ribs.
As Dean helped Chloe to her feet, she looked around and realized that the Huldra was nowhere around.
“Damn it,” Dean hissed. “She got away.”
Chloe touched Dean’s shoulder. “You could have stopped her.”
“Yeah,” Dean nodded. “I could have.”
Just then a rumbling sound caused them both to look up. A rising column of dust seemed to be building against the sky. In the distance, they heard a horn blast.
“The wild hunt.” Chloe said quickly. She turned to Dean. “Hide your eyes!”
They both dropped to the ground. Dean whipped his jacket off, pulled Chloe closer to him and covered their heads with it. Somewhere above them, the sound of thundering hoof beats and the blast of trumpets echoed across the sky.
Eventually, the sound died away as if whoever rode in the spectral hunt had moved on. Dean risked a look. Then he sat up, taking his jacket with him.
The pocket dimension had vanished, spitting them back out into the dusk-shaded fairy grotto. Chloe titled her head as she looked around. The trees no longer carried an otherworldly feel to them. The only magic left in the land was the ordinary kind that any Renaissance faire carried.
The sound of footsteps on dead leaves caused them both to turn. In the edge of the clearing, Sam was leading the missing children back into the open.
“What happened?” Dean asked.
Chloe looked thoughtful for a minute. “What did you shoot her with?”
Dean checked his gun. “Consecrated Iron Rounds.”
“Maybe you hurt her worse than we thought,” Chloe said. “Maybe you hurt her enough that she couldn’t keep up the magic that was binding Sam and the others.”
"Maybe," Dean said.