I would very much like to find a fic that I read about 5 or 6 years ago. At that time it was a WIP with only three or so chapters posted. I remember it as J2 AU, but it's possible that it was Sam/Dean. I don't remember the rating.

The story opens with Jared walking down a dirt road (he possibly pauses at a crossroads). He collapses from exhaustion. His parents/mother had died and he was trying to make his way to a town but was close to giving up. Jensen comes by on horseback and (I think) saves him from being eaten by something. Jensen is the son of someone important (a king, maybe, who lives elsewhere). Jared befriends a monk/hermit (Jim Beaver?) who came into town. It is revealed that the hermit was Jensen's uncle, who had abdicated in favour of Jensen's father. Jensen was surprised by this and found out just before he had to leave to defend the castle/fort/town from something.

I remember it being sort of medieval/post-apocalyptic, with dragons mentioned but not yet seen (or it's possible I just felt there should be dragons . . . I'm not too clear on that.) For some reason it's tied in my memory to the movie Reign of Fire, but I can't remember why. At the time, the journal had white text on a black background, which I found a bit harsh to read.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Before I got around to bookmarking it, my computer crashed. I remember thinking that I would never forget the name of the author, and I stupidly didn't write it down. *facepalm* Full disclosure: I read this late at night, when I was sick with the flu and had a mild fever. But I'm sure that I didn't imagine it! (Well, mostly sure.)

I searched for it here a couple years ago and received links to various collections, but still had no luck. This will be my last search before I give up on it and chalk the whole thing up to a really interesting sickness-induced hallucination. 