Yahtzee! That's Our Monster

Dean threw his duffel in the back of the Impala and slammed the trunk while Rim sat on the back of her coupe lacing up her snow boots. The storm front was well on its way and the snow was already a few inches deep. Dean tugged his winter jacket on and just as he zipped up he felt a chunk of snow hit him square in the back of the head.

"Dude!" He yelped, wiping the snowflakes stuck in the back of his hair. "Not cool." Rim was doubled over, cackling. His features softened, watching her face light up. Her mischievous expression was a welcome change from last night.

How could I have ever thought….

"Don't start something you can't finish." He yelled over the wind. Dean felt something flutter inside his chest, something he hadn't felt in so long it took him a moment to recognise, his warning as much self-directed as it was intended for her. Rim pretended not to hear him as finished cleaning the snow off of her windshield.

Rim was perfectly distracted, "So are you going to follow me to the site or am I following you?" She called over the top of her car. Dean snuck around the back of the Porsche and slowly edged up behind her, placing his feet gently in the powdery snow.

"Dean?" She called, turning to her left to look over at the Impala. "Where did you go?"

He couldn't help the grin that spread across his face, she was so screwed. Dean jumped up, sliding across the hood of her Porsche, and tackled her into a snowbank. Rim screamed bloody murder and they struggled blindly in the snow for dominance. Rim, being much smaller, was pinned in seconds. Dean leaned over her, knees on either side of her chest, holding her to the ground.

"You give up?" He panted, his breath coming out in puffs of steam.

"Never!" She struggled futilely against him, using her legs as leverage to push her chest up against his thighs. Dean smirked and wrapped both of her wrists in one large hand, scooping up snow with the other and unceremoniously jamming the handful up Rim's shirt.

"OH MY GOD!" She shrieked, "UNCLE! UNCLE! UNCLE!" Rim writhed beneath him as Dean doubled over laughing, releasing her and rolling off into the snow pile.

"You booger!" She launched herself to her feet, flapping her jacket and shirt back and forth to release the trapped clumps. Dean dusted the snow from his jeans as he stood, smirking.

"Come on now, you had to know it was coming." Rim shrugged the rest of the snow out of her shirt and punched him in the shoulder.

"You're following me now. That's that." Dean watched her walking away and felt that unfamiliar sensation creep up into his chest again and shook his head, forcing it down.

Not smart, Dean. Not smart.

As Rim pulled up to the edge of the woods she gently pumped the brakes. Snow tires or not this weather was miserable. She didn't mind it as she was always warm, but she could tell as Dean pulled up next to her and threw the Impala into park that he was not happy.

"This weather is getting out of hand." He mumbled, slamming the door of the Impala and pulling up the hood of his black jacket. He was dressed for the weather in everything except snow pants, claiming he, "Didn't do anything but denim," in that area. Rim watched him stuff his gloved hands in his pockets and look bleakly off into the line of trees.

"Bet you wish you'd packed snow pants now, don't 'cha?" She snarked.

"C'mon, grab your shit and let's get this over with. I'm freezing my stones off." Dean shouldered his duffel and Rim rummaged in the back of her coupe for her winter tent, tarp, and camping pack.

She went camping all the time when she didn't feel like making nice with the locals. Sometimes it was more pleasant to spend the night under the stars than under a water stained, non-smoking, drop ceiling. Dean looked over his shoulder and waited a few minutes for Rim to catch up, her legs were much shorter than his and the snow was thick.

"Give me that." He gestured at her tent bag, she was near buried under equipment. Rim tried to walk past him, but he snatched her by the hood of her jacket and grabbed the supplies out of her hands before she could stop him. "I can't believe you're even considering us camping out here."

Rim sighed heavily, "This is the only time the woods won't be flooded with civilians and we'll have a real chance at taking this thing out without someone getting caught in the middle."

Dean waved her forward, stopping to pull his phone out of his pocket, "I'm gonna call Sammy, you go on ahead. I'll be right behind you."

Rim looked over her shoulder expectantly. "Are you sure? I don't want to get separated."

"I couldn't lose you if I tried." Dean gestured to the deep tracks in the snow. "Besides, your little legs aren't going to get you very far." Rim rolled her eyes and readjusted her pack, trudging forward. The phone rang twice before his brother answered.

"Dean?" Sammy's voice crackled, the connection was already shaky.

"Yeah, Sammy. It's me." He assured him. "We're headed into Black Forest. I wanted to touch base before I lost service. Do you have any news on our Hannibal Lecter? I don't want to be flying blind." Dean pulled up his jeans, already damp from the weather.

Dean heard paperwork shuffling on the other side of the phone and Sammy clearing his throat. "Yeah, actually. So apparently you're looking for a Baykok or a Pau'guk."

"Bless you." Dean shivered.

"Funny…be serious Dean, this thing is nothing to laugh about. The lore dates this thing back to the late 1800s at the earliest." There was more rustling and clicking before Sammy continued, "Apparently it was once a hunter in an indigenous tribe, the exact origin isn't clear, but he froze to death in a particularly rough winter."

Dean leaned into a strong gust of wind, "I know how he feels."

"Well listen to this, he blamed the other members of his tribe for his death. His hatred was so strong that even though his body passed on, his lust for revenge on his fellow hunters willed his spirit to stay in his body."

Dean was watching Rim out of the corner of his eye, making sure she didn't get too far ahead, "That's great, so this guy's been walking around pissed for about 150 years?"

"Yeah, apparently it not only eats it's victim's livers, but it has some kind of poison that will cause the victim to go into…some kind of pseudo-coma?" Sam grumbled, more clicking and shuffling, "Here we go, it uses a silver knife to cut into its victims and remove their livers, replacing it with a small stone. That stone will keep the poor bastard alive for a few days until their body essentially realises it's liver has been hijacked. They go pretty quickly after that."

"Yahtzee! That's our monster." Dean pumped his fist up and down, shuffling from foot to foot trying to keep warm.

"Dean, please be careful. This thing only goes after other hunters or warriors, you and Rim are optimal targets."

"That makes sense considering it's other victims." Dean mumbled, recounting the other hunter, the cop and the other poor dead bastards in the town morgue.

Sam continued morosely, "It's considered to be one of the greater undead creatures by the Chippewa and Algonquin and it's armed with arrows and a….club."

"Awesome. So how do we gank undead Katniss?" Dean started walking after Rim, she was beginning to get a little too far away for his liking.

"You're not going to like this…" Sam muttered.

Dean could barely hear Sammy now, "I'm losing service Sammy, just say it."

"There's no real definitive answer, there are some sources that say break it into pieces and burn it to ashes. Others say iron or silver?" Sam sighed heavily, "I'd just go with all three to be safe." Dean caught up to Rim and put his hand on her shoulder to slow her down. She looked up into his face expectantly and saw he was still on the phone.

"What's he got?" Rim whispered. Dean put his finger to his lips and listened as the signal got harder and harder to hear.

"Sammy, I can barely hear you…." Dean raised his voice, "Sam?"

The signal toned in his ear and Dean cursed under his breath, he was about to put the phone back in his pocket when he saw that he had an email from Sam with a few attachments. Dean opened the first one and his brow furrowed intently.

Rim craned her neck to look over his shoulder at the screen and groaned audibly when she saw it, "Well that doesn't look like fun at all."

Dean stuffed his phone back into his jeans and put his glove back on, pushing Rim forward with his other hand, "C'mon kiddo. We're going to have to get all set up before nightfall and we've still got a ways to go."