Castiel was a shifter, more specifically he was a dragon that could shift into a human, for most of his childhood he'd been warned to never leave the safety of the cave, that humans were dangerous, not only that there was rumour of dragon hunters on the city below; when Castiel was around ten, nothing more than a dragonling at that age, not even able to shift into his dragon form yet, his parents left to hunt and never returned, Castiel waited and waited enduring the cold and hunger for up to a week and a half before he decided with a heavy heart his parents weren't coming back, that they had been killed, or worse, captured. It was the middle of winter and he couldn't survive in the cold cave on his own.

Unable to withstand the cold and hunger anymore; Castiel wrapped himself up in a fur cloak as he slowly made his way down the mountain his feet freezing with the cold; as a dragon he could endure it to an extent but he was still a child, still under developed. He struggled to walk through the forest and down to the city below...by the time he made it down the mountain he was almost frozen stiff, unable to take the cold any longer he blacked out and landed face down in the snow a meter or so away from the worm path that lead into the city.