Chapter Text
Jack's PoV:
When Jack got back home from lacrosse practice, it was five thirty and there was still a lot of sunlight left for the day.
Still enough time to go searching for the... the thing that's attracting all the supernatural activity to Beacon Hills.
So Jack had put on his best puppy eyes and practically begged his dads to go out looking.
Sam was the first to break, and agreed that they would go after dinner. After all, you can't hunt monsters on an empty stomach.
So, Dean left to pick up everyone's (Cas doesn't need to eat, but he's told Jack that he likes to pretend that he does, it makes him feel more normal. And ever since he was turned into a human for a time, he has gained a newfound appreciation for human foods.) order from Biggerson's.
Everyone simultaneously agreed that they didn't have time to make dinner at home, like they had been doing the past few days that they'd been staying in Beacon Hills. Not if they all wanted to go searching for the source of supernatural activity in Beacon Hills tonight.
That's why when Dean had given Jack his order, Jack started eating as fast as he could.
"Woah, Jack, slow down, you're gonna choke if you keep eating that fast." Dean warned as he watched Jack shove a good quarter of his burger into his mouth and take a massive bite.
"Yeah, your newfound eating habit is almost as bad as Dean's current one." Sam added as he took a bite of his salad.
"Hey! My eating habits aren't bad! Your the one who's always eating rabbit food!" Dean exclaimed, glaring at Sam from across the dining room table.
"At least I'm not on the verge of getting diabetes!" Sam retorted, matching Dean's glaring with a fierce glare of his own.
"Ouch." Jack could hear Cas mutter from his seat across the table from him.
Apparently, so could Dean.
"Hey, Cas is the one eating for pure entertainment!"
"Why am I being dragged into this?" Cas asked, feigning innocence at his previous comment.
"He's an Angel! The rules of the human body don't apply to him!" Sam defended.
Jack's previous urgency to finish his burger was gone as he watched on as the argument continued. Roasts and burns flew across the table, each hitting their mark, as Jack ate his burger slower, as invested in watching how the argument would play out as one would be with their favourite show or book.
"When you were in college you probably ate those sad looking microwavable carrots that the bunny from Zootopia eats!" Dean yelled at Sam from across the table, his burger long forgotten. Jack pondered what a Zootopia was and why bunnys ate sad microwavable carrots.
"At least that's healthier than your grease covered burgers, jerk!" Sam shouts right in back at Dean.
"Bitch!" Dean shouted back on habit.
"Assbutts." Cas said rolling his eyes, before taking the final bite of his burger.
"Can we go looking now?" Jack asked, having had finished his burger a few minutes earlier, but hadn't asked sooner, because he hadn't really wanted to stop the argument as it had been very entertaining to watch.
"Yes, let's go." Cas answered, desperate to leave the brothers to their own fight.
"Hey, wait, I'm coming! I don't want to be left alone with Popeye!" Dean calls after Jack and Cas as the two of them put on their shoes. And as they walked out the front door, a faint shout if dismay could be heard from Sam.
~*∆*~
"Alright, so have either of you two noticed anything... Different, here since arriving?" Sam asks as he closes the front door behind him.
"Yes." Both Jack and Cas responded at the same time.
Ever since the four of them had first arrived in Beacon Hills, Jack has noticed a strong surge of power covering the entire city, but it's felt stronger in the forest. He's had an unexplainable urge to follow the power into the woods, where it gets stronger. And if Cas had felt the power too, then Jack has no doubt that he's felt the undeniable longing to follow the power too.
"Well? What've you noticed?" Dean questions the two of them, his impatience getting the better of him.
Jack and Cas look at each other before looking back at the brothers.
"The whole town feels as though it's submerged in supernatural power, or a net of energy is covering the city." Cas starts.
"It feels stronger in the forest, like it wants us to go in there and find out what lies within." Jack adds.
"I've also noticed a sort of-" Cas continues, but gets cut off by Jack.
"Tugging feeling? Like the power is pulling you into the woods?"
"Exactly." Cas agrees.
"This power tugging you two is the best lead we've got. I say, let's follow it." Sam concludes.
"Alright, but I'm grabbing a few things from baby first, so don't just take off yet." Dean says, heading over to baby's trunk to pull a few things out to bring.
After a few moments, the sound of baby's trunk closing alerted Jack of Dean coming back with the supplies he determined were needed for tonight.
"Alright, shall we head out into the unknown?" Dean half-asked half-commented as he walked back up to the rest of them, duffle bag slung over his shoulder.
"Dude, what is with you and Disney film references today?" Sam asked with a roll of his eyes, as he started walking to the backyard, Cas, Jack, and Dean following in his wake.
"Don't you dare insult the Disney films! They may not be as good as the classics, but they sure aren't half bad either!" Dean defended somewhat passionately, which amused Jack, even though he was still trying to figure out what a Disney film was.
The four of then walked through their house's side gate and into the backyard. Their backyard didn't have a back fence, instead leading straight into the woods of Beacon Hills.
"Alright Cas, Jack, lead the way." Sam said, stepping back and gesturing for himself and Cas to continue walking ahead of Sam and Dean.
Cas and Jack walked past Sam. Jack searched for the power tugging for him to follow. He easily found it, the strong pull beckoning him deeper into the forest.
Jack started following the pull, and he noticed Cas doing the same beside him.
The four of them walked through the forest for a while, the pull felt stronger as they went, and the power levels felt heavier.
At one point the pull became so strong that Jack had to stop himself from running towards it. Jack saw Cas stumble too, probably trying to not run to the pull.
"Cas, Jack, are you guys ok?" Dean asked, concern lacing his voice.
"I don't know how long I can keep myself from running towards it." Cas grunted as he pulls himself up from off the ground.
"Same with me." Jack's voice was strained as he forced his body to stay still.
"Start jogging to it, don't sprint, we'll follow." Sam tells Jack and Cas.
So Jack stops resisting the pull and starts jogging, just like Sam had said. Cas was jogging beside him, his face looked less strained now that he wasn't resisting running.
Jack could hear Sam and Dean's footsteps coming from behind him and Cas.
As they ran, the pull became more intense, more urgent, as if it were shouting Jack's name, calling for him to come and see it. To find the source.
The closer Jack got, the faster he ran, until he was in a full sprint. Jack noticed that Cas was still beside him, sprinting as well. Jack didn't even realize that he was sprinting until he could barely hear Sam and Dean's footsteps behind him.
Jack wanted to slow down, he tried to slow down, but his body wasn't listening to his mind. He wasn't slowing down. He just kept running to where the tug of power lead him.
And then all of a sudden, Jack stopped running. He looked to his right and noticed that Cas had stopped as well.
"Are they still behind us?" Jack asked Cas.
Cas opened his mouth to respond, but was beat to it. "Yes... we're here. What... Happened?... Why'd you guys... Take off like... That?" Dean answered inbetween gasping breaths, as he and Sam came up behind the two celestial beings.
"I couldn't stop myself from running. It was weird. Like the closer I got to the power, the sooner I wanted to get there, and the faster I ran. I couldn't slow down and wait for you guys, and I'm assuming Jack was the same." Cas says, looking over to Jack for confirmation. Jack nods his head in agreement.
"So then... Why'd you guys stop?" Sam asked the two of them slowly.
"I... I don't know." Jack admits. This time it was Cas' turn to nod his head in agreement.
"Was it because of that?" Dean asks, pointing and staring at something behind us all.
Jack, Cas, and Sam all turn around to look at what Dean was pointing at. It was a massive tree stump. If one were to count it's rings, you'd get well into the thousands. It looked big enough for Sam to lay on it and still be room above his head and below his feet.
But that wasn't all that caught Jack's attention from the stump. The stump gave off this strange energy. The same energy that had been pulling him towards it, but now it was no longer beckoning him forwards, but telling- no, asking Jack to kneel before it.
This stump may be giving off supernatural energy, and it may be asking Jack to kneel before it, but it wasn't doing it out of a play for power, Jack could tell, it was merely doing it out of wonder. Out of the hope that it could get to know it's children.
And, Jack realized, the stump wasn't an it, it was a her.
So that's why Jack decided to listen to the stumps hope, her one want, and kneel before her, showing her that he would talk to her and let her get to know him.
"Can you feel it?" Jack breathed to Cas, not taking his eyes from the stump, as he started to kneel before her.
"Yes. It's beautiful." Cas breathed right back, also not taking his eyes off the stump and following Jack's actions in kneeling before her.
And Cas was right, it was beautiful, possibly the most beautiful feeling that Jack had ever experienced before in all of his two years of being alive. And most probably the most beautiful feeling that Jack will ever experience in his entire life.
Sam and Dean watched as the two celestial beings knelt on the ground in front of a stump. A stump. But it wasn't the strangest thing that they'd seen, so who where they to judge?
Ah, who am I kidding? They're the Winchesters.
"Soooo... Why is it that you two are kneeling in front of a stump?" Dean questions, this being one of the times that Dean will ever be as confused as he is right now in his life, which, to be clear, is very confused.
"She asked us too." Jack responds simply without looking up, which didn't really clear anything up for the two brothers.
"Right... And who is 'she' again?" Sam asked gently.
"The stump." Jack answers, again, not clearing much up for the two brothers.
"And, how, exactly, did she ask you two to kneel before her, and why are you listening?" Dean asks exasperated by the while concept, but not unbelieving. No, they've all felt with weirder stuff, but a giant, female, talking, tree stump that has Cas and Jack kneeling before it? Now that, that was bordering on the more crazy side of their job, and their job was already crazy.
"She spoke through the energy, the power in the air all around us. She means no harm and just wants to know us. That is why we are listening." Cas responds.
Jack could feel the energy around them thrum with life and pleasure as the stump heard and registered Cas' words. It tickled electing a laugh of joy from Jack to rise up from his throat and bubble out of his mouth. Cas could feel it as well, judging by the wide grin on his face.
Jack enjoyed being by the stump. She spread her energy out onto the same dimensional planes his golden brown wings that were decorated with black speckles and splotches were on, and spread her energy through the feathers, ruffling them in strange pleasant sort of way that made him smile. She also gave off this mother-y feel, that was both comforting and protective at the same time, and Jack loved it.
He loved every second of it.
"Cas, are- are you saying that this stump, is sentient? A sentient being?" Sam asked carefully, disbelief lining his every word.
"Yes. And I know what she is." Cas confirmed, standing up from his kneeling position slowly. Respectfully.
Jack stood up as well, going slowly, making sure that his movements held a level of respect and admiration towards the stump.
"Well, what is she?" Dean asked, his impatience getting the better of him.
Cas looked back at the stump before looking back to the two brothers and his son.
"She is a Nemeton."