The Year of Redemption

Chapter 33: The Riddle

It was the dead of night. There was only a half moon, but the sky was still brilliantly lit up. Thousands – millions – of tiny, bright white stars shined on the huge rocks, illuminating their magnificent size and their striated patterns. The sound of powerful, rushing water echoed off the stone, giving the impression of an enclosed chamber that had the most spectacular skylight imaginable. Crickets chirped all around, adding to the harmony of nature, and wind whistled between the rocks.

Dean slowly turned around in a circle, then raised his eyes to the sky. "No," he said, disbelievingly. He turned around again, slower this time, admiring the stone surrounding him. "No," he repeated. Then he faced Cas. "You didn't," he spoke.

"It's one of my favorite creations," Cas admitted, also admiring the breathtaking landforms around them. "I always wished I could have helped with this one," he said.

Dean's eyes followed the stone walls all the way up to where they met the night sky. He lowered his eyes to the river cutting between the walls, following it off into the distance until it became a small dot between the towering cliffs. "The Grand Canyon," he breathed. "The real freaking Grand Canyon."

Dean thought about what Cas had just said. The angels created all of this. Somehow, they had helped to shape Earth. He was struggling to imagine how angels could produce such huge, remarkable landforms as this...

Dean didn't know what happened after that, but suddenly he was flying through the air, over fields and plains and mountains and ocean. An angel soared past him, then angled downwards and sped up towards the ground. Dean followed him, getting closer and closer until he was able to recognize the angel.

It was Castiel.

Cas pulled up and flew directly above the ground, trailing his hands along the Earth. Grass and flowers sprung up where he touched, and soon the entire valley was green and dotted with the season of spring. Then Cas flew back upwards. The land followed him, rising into mountains as he continued into the sky.

Castiel looked to the heavens, and rain suddenly poured onto the mountain range, splashing into waterfalls, which ran into streams and created rivers. The water formed new lakes and ponds, and more rivers branched off of these to carry water all the way to the ocean.

Cas descended the other side of the mountain and blew up a breeze into the gorge there. He flew along the ground, again trailing his hands along the earth, and this time, wheat and barley and other plains grasses sprung up from the dirt.

Dean followed Cas back into the sky and gazed out over the lush, beautiful land that just moments ago was only dry, cracked rock. But then Dean was falling, back down towards the plain, faster and faster. Soon after, the world was black.

Several pricks of light slowly lit up Dean's vision. They were quickly followed by more and more lights, until the blackness was full of blinding white dots. Except they were spinning, swirling around and around in the blackness. Dean shook his head. He regained sensation in his arms, then his legs, then the rest of his body. The world gradually came back into focus. The white lights slowed down, then stopped spinning altogether and became stationary twinkling stars once again.

After a few seconds trying to blink his vision back to normal, something blocked Dean's entire line of sight. It took him a few seconds to recognize what it was. He closed his eyes, then reopened them. "Cas," he gasped. "Jesus Christ, what was that?" Dean asked.

"You were standing in front of me, then you collapsed," Castiel informed him. "You have been unconscious for one minute and 12 seconds." Dean was laying with his back on the ground, but his head was on top of the angel's knees, cradled in Cas's hands.