Sam and the Piestalk
Jun. 30th, 2012 11:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tikificTitle: Sam and the Piestalk
Fandom: Supernatural
Author: tikistitch
Rating: PG
Characters: Sam, Dean, Castiel, Crowley, Bobby
Warnings: Cursing.
Word Count: 3300
Summary: After an angel steals their pie, the boys plant some magic beans and have an adventure up in the clouds.
Notes: Since people seem to dig my twisted fairy tales, here’s another. Most sincere apologies to Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli.
“Are you through with your chores, boys?”
“YES UNCLE BOBBY!” chorused Sam and Dean.
“All right, kids,” said their gruff but loveable (but mostly gruff) guardian. “Now, I have to head into town for a spell. I've left a pie cooling on the windowsill. You boys keep watch and make sure nothing happens to it, all right? That's the one thing you need to remember!”
“Yes, Uncle Bobby!”
“I'll be back soon!”
So Bobby headed off to town, and Sam and Dean were left all alone in their little cabin deep in the woods.
“Hey, Dean,” said Sam after a time.
“Yeah, what?” asked Dean, who was busy sharpening his hunting knife.
“What was it Uncle Bobby said we needed to do again?”
“Oh, uh,” said Dean. “The pie,” he said, pointing the knife towards the window.
“What pie?”
“The one cooling on the windowsill?”
“There is no pie on the windowsill,” said Sam.
Dean looked up.
“Oh, shit!” said Dean. Both boys went racing outside the cabin.
They found a small, blue-eyed boy wearing a long coat sitting under the windowsill, the pie tin in his lap, gooey purple pie filling all over his hands and face and down the front of his shirt. He looked to be about Dean’s age.
“Did you take our pie?” asked Dean, a question which appeared somewhat unnecessarily given the circumstances.
“Yes, I'm Castiel, angel of the Lord,” said the little boy. “I saw your pie cooling on the windowsill, so I had to steal it.”
“But that was our pie!” protested Dean, who was now anticipating getting his hide tanned by their gruff but loveable (but mostly gruff) guardian, Uncle Bobby.
“Well, you should know if you leave a pie out on the windowsill, it's likely to get stolen by an angel!” Castiel told them, stifling a big huckleberry-filled burp.
“How were we supposed to know that?” asked Dean.
“Everybody knows that,” said Castiel, standing up and greedily licking his fingers. He overturned the pie tin and wore it as a hat.
“We are in such big trouble,” said Sam.
“Not necessarily,” Castiel the angel told them. “Here!” he said, sticking out a huckleberry-covered hand.
“What are these supposed to be?” asked Dean, looking at the large seeds in the grubby angelic hand.
“These are angelic magic beans! Plant them in the moonlight, and they'll grow and grow, and you can climb up the magic piestalk and come visit me.”
“You live up a magic … piestalk?” asked Dean, who was a skeptical boy, especially when concerning pie-encrusted angels.
“Yes, I live in a castle up in the clouds!” Castiel told them. “We have many pies there, always more than enough. Just plant the magic beans, and you can come up and visit me, and we'll have all the pies we can eat!” And with that, Castiel the angel brought out his dark little wings and he fluttered away, up to the sky.
“Wait,” said Dean, “if you have all the pies you can eat, WHY DID YOU STEAL OURS?” But, unfortunately, Castiel was already gone. “And where do you think you're going?” he asked Sam, who was running off.
“I'm going to find a shovel so we can plant our angelic beans!” said Sam. “I wanna go visit Castiel up in his castle in the clouds.”
“He doesn't live in a castle in the clouds! He's an angel. And angels are liars,” stated Dean.
“Says who?” said Sam.
“Everyone knows that!” declared Dean. But he couldn't dissuade Sam, and soon the two boys were digging a hole in the garden. And then by the light of the moon they planted the seeds, and Sam got a bucket from the well and watered them. And then both boys sat down in the garden to watch the seeds grow.
“They'll never sprout,” yawned Dean.
“Of course they will!” said Sam, who blinked sleepily, and then soon fell asleep in Dean's lap. Dean, who was older, tried to stay awake a little longer. He tried and tried to keep his eyes open, but slowly he began to nod off.
But then he saw the strangest sight.
“Sammy!” said Dean, shaking his little brother. Sam opened his eyes.
Some strange creatures had emerged from the forest and were now hovering over the little garden plot. The biggest one was as large and furry as a bear, but was unlike any bear Dean had ever seen. He was so chubby he was almost spherical, although he balanced very gracefully on his tiny clawed hind feet. He had a broad face that seemed more like a cat or rabbit than a bear, with very long whiskers and a curious little nose. He and some much, much smaller versions of himself were now doing a little dance around the garden.
The big, big one had an umbrella. It was human sized, so it looked slightly ridiculous in his big claws. But he was waving the umbrella over the garden. And as he waved it, before Sam and Dean’s astonished eyes, the seeds started to sprout.
“See, I told you, Dean! I told you it would work!” said Sam. Sam and Dean watched, astonished, as the magical piestalk began to emerge and grow up, up, and up, towards the sky. It didn’t stop until it disappeared into a cloud high, high above.
The creature with the umbrella bowed, and then he and his companions vanished back into the forest.
“We’ve got to go!” Sam insisted. “We can climb up and visit Castiel!”
“All right, Sammy, but first go get our pack. Uncle Bobby would never want us to leave the house without our hunter tools.”
“OK!” Sam ran back to the house, and then a few moments later appeared toting a backpack. Dean hiked the pack over his shoulders, and then he and Sam began to climb. There were a lot of little leafy hand holds, so it was pretty easy to climb, especially for boys like Sam and Dean who liked climbing trees.
“Look how far we’ve come, Dean!” said Sam after a while. Dean looked down and saw that the ground was now far below him. Uncle Bobby's house now looked like a little toy.
Unfortunately, while the boys were looking down, they didn’t notice that a sinister looking black cloud was drifting by. It floated right into the path of the piestalk and came to rest, cozied up all around it.
“Look!” said Dean, looking up. “The cloud is just up above!”
“I bet that’s Castiel’s cloud!” said Sam.
“Let’s go,” said Dean. The two boys climbed further, up through the dark cloud, and were very surprised to find that there was a large, dark castle up on top of the cloud.
“Well what do you know?” said Dean. “There is a castle up here!” And, indeed, on top of the dark cloud, there was the biggest, spookiest old castle they'd ever seen, ranging from a moat down below to battlements high above.
They ran across the dark cloud and over to the spooky castle, across the broad drawbridge. “Do you think there are crocodiles down there?” asked Sam, who had never actually seen a crocodile.
“I dunno,” said Dean. Actually, the moat just looked like more dark cloud.
There was a latticed portcullis across the entryway, which started to slide up as the boys approached. They ran through the entryway, and ended up in a grand room that looked like a throne room, probably because it was a throne room. At the far end, up on a dais, a boy about their age sat on the throne and stared down at them. His feet didn't quite reach the ground, so he was swinging his legs.
“I am Crowley, King of the Crossroads!” declared the boy, who was lazily sipping a Diet Coke.
“Wow, a real king!” said Sam.
“You’re a king?” asked Dean. “But you’re a kid like us.”
“And who exactly are you?” demanded Crowley.
“Where is Castiel?” countered Dean.
“I don’t know any Castiel,” sighed Crowley, waving his drink. “Anyway, he sounds so boooring.”
“He’s an angel of the Lord,” said Sam. “Are you an angel too?”
“Uh. Yes. Maybe. I mean, something like that,” hedged Crowley.
“I’m Sam, and this is my brother Dean,” said Sam. “We live with our Uncle Bobby. He’s a famous demon hunter. What’s the matter?” he added, as Crowley had just spit Diet Coke all over his shirt.
“Uh. Dothing. Just god a liddle Coke up my dose,” said Crowley, manically brushing the spilled soda off the front of his shirt. “So,” he continued, snorting. “You guys want to play?”
“What should we play?” asked Sam.
“Hey, you know what would be fun? Ghost hunting!” said Dean.
“Yeah, Dean, I bet this place is crawling with ghosts!” agreed Sam.
“Uh,” said Crowley.
“Come on!” said Dean, who grabbed his pack and removed an EMF meter. He frowned. “Wow, the readings are pretty high in here.”
“What is that?” asked Crowley, who got up off his throne to come over and look.
“An EMF meter. It detects supernatural – WOW!” he said as Crowley came near and the needle jumped. Crowley, cringed, and stepped back.
“Oh, that must be because he's an angel,” said Sam.
“Yeah, that must be the thing.” Dean pointed the EMF meter the other way. “Here, we're getting readings this way. Come on!” He ran into the next room, but then he felt a blow to his stomach and was suddenly thrown off his feet, the EMF meter scattering across the floor.
“What was that?” he asked, looking around.
“Oh. That's my puppy,” said Crowley.
“What puppy?” asked Sam, who liked puppies, even though he had never met one.
“This puppy,” said Crowley, patting his hand beside him.
“That's a dog?” asked Dean, who was seriously wondering about his new friend's mental health.
“He's invisible!” said Crowley. “Go!” he said, pointing to Dean.
Dean scowled, but then suddenly felt his face being licked. “Hey!” he said. Sam ran over and patted more or less where the dog's head was.
“You got an invisible dog, Crowley!” said Sam. “That's really cool!”
“Well. Except for the invisible dog piles. Be careful where you step in this room,” warned Crowley.
“I wonder if he could sniff out demons for us?” said Dean, scratching the invisible dog behind its invisible ears.
“Uh,” said Crowley.
The invisible dog let out a whine, and suddenly Sam and Dean didn't sense him any more.
“Hey, where did he go?” asked Dean, grabbing air.
Just then, the castle walls started shaking. It was like an earthquake, only in the clouds, as bits of plaster and wall hangings started to fall.
“What's going on?” asked Dean, jumping to his feet.
“Oh no! Oh no!” said Crowley. “He's coming back!”
“Who's coming back?” asked Dean.
“King Lucifer.”
“Wait, I thought you were king?” said Dean.
“Uhhhh, I've had a great time playing with you guys, but now I gotta, uh, do my homework. See ya!” said Crowley, who abruptly disappeared.
The shaking continued, and seemed to be getting worse. “Sammy,” said Dean. “I don't know who this King Lucifer guy is, but he doesn't seem to be good for real estate values. Let's get outta here!” He grabbed Sam's hand, and they began running, trying to find a way out of the castle. They nearly got knocked over a time or two by a falling grandfather clock, or a crashing chandelier, but they kept running, and eventually, they made it outside.
“Wait, where's the piestalk?” asked Dean, as they had apparently emerged through the castle's back door, and no piestalk was in sight.
Dean stumbled as one foot passed right through the dark cloud, which seemed to be breaking up.
“Look Dean!” said Sam, pointing to the sky. Dean held up a hand and squinted into the sun. Coming towards them was the most remarkable little golden airship.
“Do you think that's Lucifer?” worried Dean.
“Sam! Dean!” came a familiar voice over a megaphone.
“CASTIEL!” shouted Dean.
“Climb up!” shouted Castiel, and then Sam and Dean saw a rope ladder dropped down from the ship. Sam scrambled up and Dean climbed right up after.
“Boy, thanks Cas!” puffed Dean as Castiel gave him a hand up on deck.
“I wondered why you were taking so long to climb my piestalk!” said Castiel. “So I went out to look for you. Were you playing with Lucifer?”
“Lucifer?” asked Dean.
“That's his kingdom,” said Castiel. “Down on that dark cloud.”
“We were playing with King Crowley!” said Sam. “But, he's not much fun.”
“Crowley is a demon,” Castiel told them.
“Oh, that explains stuff,” said Dean. “Is Lucifer a demon too?”
“Well, no,” Castiel told them as he took the wheel of his marvelous ship. He looked grim.
“You know Lucifer?” asked Dean.
“He's my big brother,” sighed Castiel. “But, we're not close. He and my father got into a really big fight. And he doesn't like pie. Not at all!” he sniffed.
“Sounds like a douche,” agreed Dean. “Hey, is that your house!” He pointed ahead to a white fluffy cloud with a Victorian mansion perched atop.
“Yes, that's my home! Come on in and have some pie with me!” said Castiel. He threw out an anchor which hooked on the cloud, and then they tossed down the rope ladder again and all of the boys climbed down.
“I wonder if this place is haunted?” said Dean, sizing up the place from the front yard, which was actually a cloud bank. “I lost my EMF meter with Crowley.”
“Uh, I dunno if ghost hunting up here is a good idea,” said Sam.
“Oh, yes of course it's haunted! The ghosts are my best friends!” said Castiel. “But they can't eat pie with me,” he continued sadly. “Because they're ghosts.” He looked up again. “Do you want to meet them?”
“Yeah, sure!” said Dean. “Hey, what's that cool looking telescope up there for?” he asked, pointing up to the very top level, where there was a lonely tower room.
“Oh, that's my observatory. My Father went away, and so I go up every night and watch for him. So I'll know when he returns!”
“Oh,” said Dean.
“Our daddy went away too!” said Sam.
“Come on inside! I'll show you! I'll show you everything!” said Castiel. As it turns out, they didn't get much further than the very first room, which was a warm, cosy kitchen. As Castiel has promised, there was pie everywhere. Since their adventure climbing the piestalk had made them very hungry, the boys first sat down and had a big piece of delicious, fresh baked apple pie, complete with ice cream.
“You have a lot of pie,” marvelled Dean.
“Yes, I have a pie tree that grows pies,” said Castiel.
“Really?”
“It's out back. I'll show you,” said Castiel. “And I get the ice cream from the ice cream mine.”
“Oh, I guess that was too much for him,” laughed Dean, as Sam dozed off and fell face first into his pie.
“I guess you boys have had a lot of excitement. It might be time to bring you home,” said Castiel.
“But we just got here,” yawned Dean, who was feeling quite sleepy himself, but didn't want to end the adventure.
“You could come back some time,” promised Castiel.
“Can we come back again?” asked Dean.
“Sure! When you want to play, just leave a pie on your windowsill, and I'll be sure to find it!”
“But, you have plenty of pie here...” muttered Dean, who felt himself slipping into a dream.
“What do you two idjits think you're doing?”
Dean snapped awake. He was sleeping sitting out in the garden, Sam's head still in his lap. Bobby stood over the two of them, shaking his head.
“Oh, uh, we must have dozed off Uncle Bobby!” said Dean, waking up little Sam.
“Where's Castiel?” moaned Sam.
“Come on! I just got back from town, and I'm hungry for pie!” declared Uncle Bobby, who turned around and headed for the house.
“Ulp, we're in trouble,” Dean whispered to Sam. The two boys followed Uncle Bobby with some trepidation. But when they got into the house, to their surprise, there was the pie, still cooling on the windowsill.
“Come on you two! Let's all sit down!” said Bobby.
“Was this all a dream?” Dean whispered to Sam as they ate pie.
“I dunno,” mumbled Sam, stuffing more pie into his face. He let out a big, pie-fueled yawn.
“It's late, you should probably head to bed, Sammy” Uncle Bobby told Sam, who slipped down from the table and went to wash his face.
“May I be excused too?” asked Dean.
“Not just yet. I have just one question for you, young man,” Uncle Bobby told him. He leaned over close to Dean. “Did you let an angel steal that pie?”
“Uh, what?” asked Dean, his eyes wide.
“You can't fool me,” said Bobby. “I left a huckleberry pie on the windowsill. That was gooseberry! You think I'm too danged dumb to know the difference?”
“Uh, yeah we did, Uncle Bobby,” Dean admitted. “We lost the pie. The angel's name is Castiel, and he's a kid like us.”
“And angel kid? That's pretty weird,” said Bobby.
“And he gave us magical angel beans and we climbed up a magical piestalk and saw his house in the clouds!” said Dean, who figured he might as well let it all out.
“A magical … piestalk?” asked Bobby.
“And we also met Crowley. He's a demon, but he was mostly OK. He had an invisible dog!”
“An invisible dog, huh?” Bobby scowled at Dean for a while, in a gruff but caring (but mostly gruff) manner. “Well,” he finally said, “I should be mad, but there are worse things than having an angel as your buddy. OK, you get along to bed!”
“Yes sir!” said Dean, who was already off the chair.
“I'll clean up around here I guess,” Bobby said, mostly to himself, as the kids were gone. “Invisible dog,” he grumbled, scraping a plate into the kitchen sink. “Those damn kids.”
Bobby froze.
It had felt just like someone – or something – was nosing the back of his leg.
He turned around, casting his eye across the room, but saw nothing.
He turned back to the sink. And jumped as he was nudged again.
Frowning, he picked up a bit of uneaten pie from a plate. He held it up for a moment, and then let it drop.
It disappeared, halfway to the floor.
“Be damned,” he said. He shook his head. “Well, whoever you are, don't even think of pooping in my damn house!”
And then he soaped up a rag and began to wash the dishes. Because it needed to be done.
Fandom: Supernatural
Author: tikistitch
Rating: PG
Characters: Sam, Dean, Castiel, Crowley, Bobby
Warnings: Cursing.
Word Count: 3300
Summary: After an angel steals their pie, the boys plant some magic beans and have an adventure up in the clouds.
Notes: Since people seem to dig my twisted fairy tales, here’s another. Most sincere apologies to Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli.
“Are you through with your chores, boys?”
“YES UNCLE BOBBY!” chorused Sam and Dean.
“All right, kids,” said their gruff but loveable (but mostly gruff) guardian. “Now, I have to head into town for a spell. I've left a pie cooling on the windowsill. You boys keep watch and make sure nothing happens to it, all right? That's the one thing you need to remember!”
“Yes, Uncle Bobby!”
“I'll be back soon!”
So Bobby headed off to town, and Sam and Dean were left all alone in their little cabin deep in the woods.
“Hey, Dean,” said Sam after a time.
“Yeah, what?” asked Dean, who was busy sharpening his hunting knife.
“What was it Uncle Bobby said we needed to do again?”
“Oh, uh,” said Dean. “The pie,” he said, pointing the knife towards the window.
“What pie?”
“The one cooling on the windowsill?”
“There is no pie on the windowsill,” said Sam.
Dean looked up.
“Oh, shit!” said Dean. Both boys went racing outside the cabin.
They found a small, blue-eyed boy wearing a long coat sitting under the windowsill, the pie tin in his lap, gooey purple pie filling all over his hands and face and down the front of his shirt. He looked to be about Dean’s age.
“Did you take our pie?” asked Dean, a question which appeared somewhat unnecessarily given the circumstances.
“Yes, I'm Castiel, angel of the Lord,” said the little boy. “I saw your pie cooling on the windowsill, so I had to steal it.”
“But that was our pie!” protested Dean, who was now anticipating getting his hide tanned by their gruff but loveable (but mostly gruff) guardian, Uncle Bobby.
“Well, you should know if you leave a pie out on the windowsill, it's likely to get stolen by an angel!” Castiel told them, stifling a big huckleberry-filled burp.
“How were we supposed to know that?” asked Dean.
“Everybody knows that,” said Castiel, standing up and greedily licking his fingers. He overturned the pie tin and wore it as a hat.
“We are in such big trouble,” said Sam.
“Not necessarily,” Castiel the angel told them. “Here!” he said, sticking out a huckleberry-covered hand.
“What are these supposed to be?” asked Dean, looking at the large seeds in the grubby angelic hand.
“These are angelic magic beans! Plant them in the moonlight, and they'll grow and grow, and you can climb up the magic piestalk and come visit me.”
“You live up a magic … piestalk?” asked Dean, who was a skeptical boy, especially when concerning pie-encrusted angels.
“Yes, I live in a castle up in the clouds!” Castiel told them. “We have many pies there, always more than enough. Just plant the magic beans, and you can come up and visit me, and we'll have all the pies we can eat!” And with that, Castiel the angel brought out his dark little wings and he fluttered away, up to the sky.
“Wait,” said Dean, “if you have all the pies you can eat, WHY DID YOU STEAL OURS?” But, unfortunately, Castiel was already gone. “And where do you think you're going?” he asked Sam, who was running off.
“I'm going to find a shovel so we can plant our angelic beans!” said Sam. “I wanna go visit Castiel up in his castle in the clouds.”
“He doesn't live in a castle in the clouds! He's an angel. And angels are liars,” stated Dean.
“Says who?” said Sam.
“Everyone knows that!” declared Dean. But he couldn't dissuade Sam, and soon the two boys were digging a hole in the garden. And then by the light of the moon they planted the seeds, and Sam got a bucket from the well and watered them. And then both boys sat down in the garden to watch the seeds grow.
“They'll never sprout,” yawned Dean.
“Of course they will!” said Sam, who blinked sleepily, and then soon fell asleep in Dean's lap. Dean, who was older, tried to stay awake a little longer. He tried and tried to keep his eyes open, but slowly he began to nod off.
But then he saw the strangest sight.
“Sammy!” said Dean, shaking his little brother. Sam opened his eyes.
Some strange creatures had emerged from the forest and were now hovering over the little garden plot. The biggest one was as large and furry as a bear, but was unlike any bear Dean had ever seen. He was so chubby he was almost spherical, although he balanced very gracefully on his tiny clawed hind feet. He had a broad face that seemed more like a cat or rabbit than a bear, with very long whiskers and a curious little nose. He and some much, much smaller versions of himself were now doing a little dance around the garden.
The big, big one had an umbrella. It was human sized, so it looked slightly ridiculous in his big claws. But he was waving the umbrella over the garden. And as he waved it, before Sam and Dean’s astonished eyes, the seeds started to sprout.
“See, I told you, Dean! I told you it would work!” said Sam. Sam and Dean watched, astonished, as the magical piestalk began to emerge and grow up, up, and up, towards the sky. It didn’t stop until it disappeared into a cloud high, high above.
The creature with the umbrella bowed, and then he and his companions vanished back into the forest.
“We’ve got to go!” Sam insisted. “We can climb up and visit Castiel!”
“All right, Sammy, but first go get our pack. Uncle Bobby would never want us to leave the house without our hunter tools.”
“OK!” Sam ran back to the house, and then a few moments later appeared toting a backpack. Dean hiked the pack over his shoulders, and then he and Sam began to climb. There were a lot of little leafy hand holds, so it was pretty easy to climb, especially for boys like Sam and Dean who liked climbing trees.
“Look how far we’ve come, Dean!” said Sam after a while. Dean looked down and saw that the ground was now far below him. Uncle Bobby's house now looked like a little toy.
Unfortunately, while the boys were looking down, they didn’t notice that a sinister looking black cloud was drifting by. It floated right into the path of the piestalk and came to rest, cozied up all around it.
“Look!” said Dean, looking up. “The cloud is just up above!”
“I bet that’s Castiel’s cloud!” said Sam.
“Let’s go,” said Dean. The two boys climbed further, up through the dark cloud, and were very surprised to find that there was a large, dark castle up on top of the cloud.
“Well what do you know?” said Dean. “There is a castle up here!” And, indeed, on top of the dark cloud, there was the biggest, spookiest old castle they'd ever seen, ranging from a moat down below to battlements high above.
They ran across the dark cloud and over to the spooky castle, across the broad drawbridge. “Do you think there are crocodiles down there?” asked Sam, who had never actually seen a crocodile.
“I dunno,” said Dean. Actually, the moat just looked like more dark cloud.
There was a latticed portcullis across the entryway, which started to slide up as the boys approached. They ran through the entryway, and ended up in a grand room that looked like a throne room, probably because it was a throne room. At the far end, up on a dais, a boy about their age sat on the throne and stared down at them. His feet didn't quite reach the ground, so he was swinging his legs.
“I am Crowley, King of the Crossroads!” declared the boy, who was lazily sipping a Diet Coke.
“Wow, a real king!” said Sam.
“You’re a king?” asked Dean. “But you’re a kid like us.”
“And who exactly are you?” demanded Crowley.
“Where is Castiel?” countered Dean.
“I don’t know any Castiel,” sighed Crowley, waving his drink. “Anyway, he sounds so boooring.”
“He’s an angel of the Lord,” said Sam. “Are you an angel too?”
“Uh. Yes. Maybe. I mean, something like that,” hedged Crowley.
“I’m Sam, and this is my brother Dean,” said Sam. “We live with our Uncle Bobby. He’s a famous demon hunter. What’s the matter?” he added, as Crowley had just spit Diet Coke all over his shirt.
“Uh. Dothing. Just god a liddle Coke up my dose,” said Crowley, manically brushing the spilled soda off the front of his shirt. “So,” he continued, snorting. “You guys want to play?”
“What should we play?” asked Sam.
“Hey, you know what would be fun? Ghost hunting!” said Dean.
“Yeah, Dean, I bet this place is crawling with ghosts!” agreed Sam.
“Uh,” said Crowley.
“Come on!” said Dean, who grabbed his pack and removed an EMF meter. He frowned. “Wow, the readings are pretty high in here.”
“What is that?” asked Crowley, who got up off his throne to come over and look.
“An EMF meter. It detects supernatural – WOW!” he said as Crowley came near and the needle jumped. Crowley, cringed, and stepped back.
“Oh, that must be because he's an angel,” said Sam.
“Yeah, that must be the thing.” Dean pointed the EMF meter the other way. “Here, we're getting readings this way. Come on!” He ran into the next room, but then he felt a blow to his stomach and was suddenly thrown off his feet, the EMF meter scattering across the floor.
“What was that?” he asked, looking around.
“Oh. That's my puppy,” said Crowley.
“What puppy?” asked Sam, who liked puppies, even though he had never met one.
“This puppy,” said Crowley, patting his hand beside him.
“That's a dog?” asked Dean, who was seriously wondering about his new friend's mental health.
“He's invisible!” said Crowley. “Go!” he said, pointing to Dean.
Dean scowled, but then suddenly felt his face being licked. “Hey!” he said. Sam ran over and patted more or less where the dog's head was.
“You got an invisible dog, Crowley!” said Sam. “That's really cool!”
“Well. Except for the invisible dog piles. Be careful where you step in this room,” warned Crowley.
“I wonder if he could sniff out demons for us?” said Dean, scratching the invisible dog behind its invisible ears.
“Uh,” said Crowley.
The invisible dog let out a whine, and suddenly Sam and Dean didn't sense him any more.
“Hey, where did he go?” asked Dean, grabbing air.
Just then, the castle walls started shaking. It was like an earthquake, only in the clouds, as bits of plaster and wall hangings started to fall.
“What's going on?” asked Dean, jumping to his feet.
“Oh no! Oh no!” said Crowley. “He's coming back!”
“Who's coming back?” asked Dean.
“King Lucifer.”
“Wait, I thought you were king?” said Dean.
“Uhhhh, I've had a great time playing with you guys, but now I gotta, uh, do my homework. See ya!” said Crowley, who abruptly disappeared.
The shaking continued, and seemed to be getting worse. “Sammy,” said Dean. “I don't know who this King Lucifer guy is, but he doesn't seem to be good for real estate values. Let's get outta here!” He grabbed Sam's hand, and they began running, trying to find a way out of the castle. They nearly got knocked over a time or two by a falling grandfather clock, or a crashing chandelier, but they kept running, and eventually, they made it outside.
“Wait, where's the piestalk?” asked Dean, as they had apparently emerged through the castle's back door, and no piestalk was in sight.
Dean stumbled as one foot passed right through the dark cloud, which seemed to be breaking up.
“Look Dean!” said Sam, pointing to the sky. Dean held up a hand and squinted into the sun. Coming towards them was the most remarkable little golden airship.
“Do you think that's Lucifer?” worried Dean.
“Sam! Dean!” came a familiar voice over a megaphone.
“CASTIEL!” shouted Dean.
“Climb up!” shouted Castiel, and then Sam and Dean saw a rope ladder dropped down from the ship. Sam scrambled up and Dean climbed right up after.
“Boy, thanks Cas!” puffed Dean as Castiel gave him a hand up on deck.
“I wondered why you were taking so long to climb my piestalk!” said Castiel. “So I went out to look for you. Were you playing with Lucifer?”
“Lucifer?” asked Dean.
“That's his kingdom,” said Castiel. “Down on that dark cloud.”
“We were playing with King Crowley!” said Sam. “But, he's not much fun.”
“Crowley is a demon,” Castiel told them.
“Oh, that explains stuff,” said Dean. “Is Lucifer a demon too?”
“Well, no,” Castiel told them as he took the wheel of his marvelous ship. He looked grim.
“You know Lucifer?” asked Dean.
“He's my big brother,” sighed Castiel. “But, we're not close. He and my father got into a really big fight. And he doesn't like pie. Not at all!” he sniffed.
“Sounds like a douche,” agreed Dean. “Hey, is that your house!” He pointed ahead to a white fluffy cloud with a Victorian mansion perched atop.
“Yes, that's my home! Come on in and have some pie with me!” said Castiel. He threw out an anchor which hooked on the cloud, and then they tossed down the rope ladder again and all of the boys climbed down.
“I wonder if this place is haunted?” said Dean, sizing up the place from the front yard, which was actually a cloud bank. “I lost my EMF meter with Crowley.”
“Uh, I dunno if ghost hunting up here is a good idea,” said Sam.
“Oh, yes of course it's haunted! The ghosts are my best friends!” said Castiel. “But they can't eat pie with me,” he continued sadly. “Because they're ghosts.” He looked up again. “Do you want to meet them?”
“Yeah, sure!” said Dean. “Hey, what's that cool looking telescope up there for?” he asked, pointing up to the very top level, where there was a lonely tower room.
“Oh, that's my observatory. My Father went away, and so I go up every night and watch for him. So I'll know when he returns!”
“Oh,” said Dean.
“Our daddy went away too!” said Sam.
“Come on inside! I'll show you! I'll show you everything!” said Castiel. As it turns out, they didn't get much further than the very first room, which was a warm, cosy kitchen. As Castiel has promised, there was pie everywhere. Since their adventure climbing the piestalk had made them very hungry, the boys first sat down and had a big piece of delicious, fresh baked apple pie, complete with ice cream.
“You have a lot of pie,” marvelled Dean.
“Yes, I have a pie tree that grows pies,” said Castiel.
“Really?”
“It's out back. I'll show you,” said Castiel. “And I get the ice cream from the ice cream mine.”
“Oh, I guess that was too much for him,” laughed Dean, as Sam dozed off and fell face first into his pie.
“I guess you boys have had a lot of excitement. It might be time to bring you home,” said Castiel.
“But we just got here,” yawned Dean, who was feeling quite sleepy himself, but didn't want to end the adventure.
“You could come back some time,” promised Castiel.
“Can we come back again?” asked Dean.
“Sure! When you want to play, just leave a pie on your windowsill, and I'll be sure to find it!”
“But, you have plenty of pie here...” muttered Dean, who felt himself slipping into a dream.
“What do you two idjits think you're doing?”
Dean snapped awake. He was sleeping sitting out in the garden, Sam's head still in his lap. Bobby stood over the two of them, shaking his head.
“Oh, uh, we must have dozed off Uncle Bobby!” said Dean, waking up little Sam.
“Where's Castiel?” moaned Sam.
“Come on! I just got back from town, and I'm hungry for pie!” declared Uncle Bobby, who turned around and headed for the house.
“Ulp, we're in trouble,” Dean whispered to Sam. The two boys followed Uncle Bobby with some trepidation. But when they got into the house, to their surprise, there was the pie, still cooling on the windowsill.
“Come on you two! Let's all sit down!” said Bobby.
“Was this all a dream?” Dean whispered to Sam as they ate pie.
“I dunno,” mumbled Sam, stuffing more pie into his face. He let out a big, pie-fueled yawn.
“It's late, you should probably head to bed, Sammy” Uncle Bobby told Sam, who slipped down from the table and went to wash his face.
“May I be excused too?” asked Dean.
“Not just yet. I have just one question for you, young man,” Uncle Bobby told him. He leaned over close to Dean. “Did you let an angel steal that pie?”
“Uh, what?” asked Dean, his eyes wide.
“You can't fool me,” said Bobby. “I left a huckleberry pie on the windowsill. That was gooseberry! You think I'm too danged dumb to know the difference?”
“Uh, yeah we did, Uncle Bobby,” Dean admitted. “We lost the pie. The angel's name is Castiel, and he's a kid like us.”
“And angel kid? That's pretty weird,” said Bobby.
“And he gave us magical angel beans and we climbed up a magical piestalk and saw his house in the clouds!” said Dean, who figured he might as well let it all out.
“A magical … piestalk?” asked Bobby.
“And we also met Crowley. He's a demon, but he was mostly OK. He had an invisible dog!”
“An invisible dog, huh?” Bobby scowled at Dean for a while, in a gruff but caring (but mostly gruff) manner. “Well,” he finally said, “I should be mad, but there are worse things than having an angel as your buddy. OK, you get along to bed!”
“Yes sir!” said Dean, who was already off the chair.
“I'll clean up around here I guess,” Bobby said, mostly to himself, as the kids were gone. “Invisible dog,” he grumbled, scraping a plate into the kitchen sink. “Those damn kids.”
Bobby froze.
It had felt just like someone – or something – was nosing the back of his leg.
He turned around, casting his eye across the room, but saw nothing.
He turned back to the sink. And jumped as he was nudged again.
Frowning, he picked up a bit of uneaten pie from a plate. He held it up for a moment, and then let it drop.
It disappeared, halfway to the floor.
“Be damned,” he said. He shook his head. “Well, whoever you are, don't even think of pooping in my damn house!”
And then he soaped up a rag and began to wash the dishes. Because it needed to be done.
