Who's Cas?

Chapter 5

Everyone got used to Cas now. The young fledgling had zero outbursts like before. Now that he was officially a fledgling, his grace had dematured and it couldn't do more than flicker the lights if he got particularly scared. To be honest he didn't even get scared now. He was mostly ok. As he slept, Gabriel watched over him. Cas had a blanket but he mostly used his wings as a blanket. You wouldn't see them unless you were specifically looking for them but they were heavily scarred. He wanted to know why. He put a hand on Castiel's forehead and whispered a few words in enochian. He too then fell asleep on the sofa.

He was in the garden in heaven, watching a young fledgling running for the trees. Gabriel could see the bruises, his pale skin turning blue and black around his angelic robes. His black feathered wings gave away his age, he was not long into his third mellennia. His wings had only started to develop their flight feathers and the soft downy plumage coated the majority of his wings like a cloud of fluff. He curled his wings down, keeping them out of sight as he hunkered down into the long grass, hiding just under a large bush. His wings blended in with the shadows around him and he kept quiet. That's when Gabriel saw them, a group of three angels. All of them older but not fully matured angels yet. Their grey, white and brown wings were half way through fledging and had just enough baby down to hinder flying and their flight feathers hadn't grown to their proper size. If Gabriel had to guess, he'd say they were a few centuries away from becoming full fledged angels at least.

"Castiel!" They called out, "Castiel? We're not supposed to be in here." Gabriel looked over at the smaller angel that hadn't moved from his hiding spot, having tucked himself into such a small ball he could have broken his back. Gabe could hear his breathing increase but he made no other noise. That was when Gabriel spotted Joshua in the garden, gently nurturing brightly coloured tulips out of their buds. He looked up at the angels as they prowled the garden, looking for Castiel. Then his eyes fell on the shaking bundle in the bush and immediately his face hardened into a scowl as he turned to the angels,

"Hey!" He called to them, immediately getting their attention, "what are you doing here? You have no permission to be here." Joshua was always protective of the garden, it was pretty exclusive to only the angels he trusted to help, even the archangels needed permission to enter. The angels immediately backed off, heads lowered,

"Sorry sir," they said. Once they left, Joshua went over to Castiel's hiding place,

"They're gone now," Joshua tried coaxing the angel out before eventually having to drag him out. The fledgling flinched at Joshua, fearing he'd get into more trouble but Joshua softened with him, returning to his usual nurturing nature. "Where did you get these?" He asked, looking over the bruises. Cas flinched again at his voice. His feathers hid them well and it wasn't until Joshua saw blood on his own robes that he realised there were small cuts on Cas' shoulders and wings. It was clear by the fact they weren't healed that they were done by an angel blade or maybe more than one. "It's alright, I'm not angry at you." Cas finally looked up at Joshua with sad blue eyes. They were bloodshot and clearly he had been crying. Despite maybe being close to what a human would call a five year old, Joshua still cradled the boy on his lap, a brown feathered wing wrapping around him as he called for Michael. Michael appeared to Joshua, probably expecting small talk but instead he had a young, injured angel on his hands.

"Joshua I don't have time for this," he replied,

"Michael, these angels have gone too far. It's one thing to tease and chase your brother, it is another to stab him," Joshua replied, "this needs addressed."

"Who did this?" Michael asked Cas. Cas seemed too terrified to speak to Michael. Considering this may have been one of the very rare occasions he's seen the archangel. Cas opened his mouth to say something but merely a squeak came out. Gabriel shook his head at his older brother's actions. Michael wasn't patient enough for the young child, giving him a look that made the fledgling retreat back into a cocoon of black feathers. That's when Michael noticed the wounds. They were shallow wounds, meant to inflict pain rather than damage. They were short, some still bleeding. Michael took a hold of the wing as he inspected them, his palm turning red with a single touch. Cas panicked slightly at this action and the wing started to flap a bit, sending out damaged downy feathers,