The others would all assume that he’d happened upon a predator on his patrols. An ambitious hawk could have snared him in its talons. A possum or a raccoon, awake at odd hours, could have caught him in powerful claws to make a meal of him. He could have gotten hurt and fallen somewhere for a snake to happen upon him. Anything at all could have befallen him out in the woods to leave no evidence of Bowman Leafwing, and it’d make no difference to them.
“Well, Bowman, let’s get going,” the giant said, putting a teasing sort of emphasis on Bowman’s name. The tupperware soared into the air. Bowman’s heart tried to stay behind.
“Please,” he said, for the first time since he’d begun his shouting at the giant. Now, his voice was reedy and quiet. “Please just let me go.”
Oh lord. Bowman gets even more ornery when he’s had a drink, if you can believe it. He’d try to flutter off only for his wings to be too sluggish and not cooperate … there would need to be someone tol nearby to catch him before he hits the ground. Maybe the teen Deans can find their entertainment sneaking him more if someone else cut him off.
Bowman shouted more curses at the huge wingless man, and slammed his hands against all sides of his cage. He rustled his wings and tried to tackle the walls, but nothing he did had any effect. The giant stuck to its word, too, gathering its things and ignoring Bowman’s cries for release. He could only follow its blurry shape with his gaze and not once did the giant answer, though it glanced his way several times.
Angry tears stung his eyes again, and Bowman brushed them away on his sleeve. He didn’t have the time to feel sorry for himself. He faced the terrifying thought of leaving his home trapped by something big enough to fit him in its mouth. He was so small.
Bowman lurched to his feet and pressed his hands against the lid, but his strength was no match for the giant. It snapped into place so loudly that he thought his eardrums might have popped. Bowman could only see vague shapes tinted red through that lid.
Everything else around him was the same, except tinted grey. Bowman was stuck inside a container barely half the width of his wingspan.
“Let me out right now! ” he demanded, slapping his hands against the lid above him.
“Shut up.” “I didn’t say anything!” “Don’t care. Shut up.”
A fun dialogue prompt for Jacob. And, honestly, who else would he have this conversation with but Bowman Leafwing?
Jacob pursed his lips in an effort to school his expression. He’d definitely heard the sound of Bowman’s landing, though he hadn’t expected it at all. He tread carefully on grassy patches and whatever stones he could find until he could catch up, and then he squatted down so he could see.
Bowman sat up and lifted his arms and wings out of the mud he’d careened right into. Globs of soaked earth dropped from the limbs with tiny plops and Jacob bit determinedly on his lower lip. It wouldn’t do any good to laugh now.
Even covered head to toe in mud, it was very easy to tell when Bowman was about to boil over.
Wild, dark green hair matted down to his head and Bowman’s eyes shone especially bright in contrast with the mud dripping onto his face. Jacob could hardly even see his lower half stuck in the mud puddle.
Bowman whipped his gaze upward. “Shut up!”
“I didn’t say anything!” Jacob insisted, his voice shaking with laughter he refused to let out.
“Don’t care. Shut up.” Bowman’s word was final, though even Jacob could pinpoint the embarrassment in his voice.
“What even happened?” Jacob asked, his voice gentler than before. He hesitated to pick Bowman up and help him out of the mud until he got permission. With the tiny sprite’s pride, one couldn’t be too careful.
Bowman grumbled to himself and tried to brush more globs of mud off his arms. His wings were coated and heavy with the stuff. “Flew through a spiderweb,” he mumbled.
Jacob’s eyebrows shot up and he was caught somewhere between amused and concerned. “You’re not gonna get bit, are you? Got any passengers?”
Bowman shook his head and some drops of muddy water flew away from his hair. “I don’t think the spider was in the center. She’s probably upset that I took her net down, though.”
Jacob sighed and a low, quiet roll of thunder rumbled overhead. As if claiming its own innocence in the whole ordeal. The rain pattered lightly against the canopy above, but only a few drops here and there fell on him so far. Bowman had happened to land in the path of the small storm’s runoff.
“How about I get you to the stream?” Jacob offered, holding out a hand towards his small friend. The fall had been amusing, but poor Bowman’s wings were drooping and it was kind of pathetic.
Bowman shot him another glare. “Fine. But not a word to anyone else, do you hear me?”
Jacob shook his head. “Not a single one. Promise.”
Bowman nodded sharply in approval, and then leaned towards Jacob’s hand. His own tiny hands left smears of mud on Jacob’s fingers as he scrambled for purchase, and when he finally managed it he had to tug himself out of the mud as it tried to keep him. As soon as he could, Jacob curled his fingers up under Bowman’s middle to help tug his legs free.
Bowman crawled to Jacob’s palm, wings dragging and his clothes sopping wet.
“What would you do without me?” Jacob asked, lifting Bowman up and nudging him with his thumb. Bowman swatted at it and glared, so he was probably alright.
“I’d die of shame,” the sprite answered ruefully. “Just get me to the stream before I decide to throw mud in your hair.”
A tent, colossal enough to fit the giant and made out of a strange shiny cloth sat nearby. The ground was scattered with things Bowman couldn’t stare at long enough to name. He only saw enough to know they were big and alien to him. His eyes lingered on a rough circle of ashes filled charred wood. The remains of a fire.
The giant had built a fire, and recently. Bowman thanked the Spirit that he hadn’t ended up cooking on the flames.
I think in our side-universe bar scene, they ignore the regular rules of if kids are allowed in bars.
Not that Dean’s even letting his teenaged self imbibe.
Kiddo Sam’s only ten, so it won’t be much of a surprise when younger kids appear (Jacob from Brothers Unexpected will only be five at the time he stops in, his other selves will have no evens I’m betting).
The Asunder kids will be full grown when they show up in the lounge, at least the way we’re writing. They all pop in when their story is done posting, leaving Sam and Bowman only slightly on the younger side, not kids.
Bowman Leafwing would scoff at the idea of ‘giants’ out there in the forest, but after a run-in with Sam Winchester and his larger hunting buddies, he’ll have a hard time denying their existence.
To a sprite, ‘bigger’ usually meant ‘predator.’ Bowman, as low as he was on the food chain, wanted to be anywhere but caught in the watchful gaze of two giants.
He frowned and tried to wrench his arm free, but wasn’t nearly strong enough. He should have known better than to reveal himself. The stranger latched onto his arm may be sprite-sized, but he must be some kind of whatever the giants were.
Maybe he was just one of their young.
Bowman desperately spread his wings and fluttered them loudly, buffeting his current captor with the leafy appendages.
“Hey, wait!” Sam tried to yell as he almost got knocked down from the wind currents. “I just wanna know what you are!”
That was all either of them had time for. Dean’s hand dropped from the sky, closing around them both in an attempt to save Sam from his attacker. Sam found himself in a fleshy enclosure, rising through the air next to the struggling winged man as Dean stood to look at what he’d caught. “This is all your fault,” Sam griped at the winged man, trying to get himself unsquished. Dean’s ring was digging into his side.
Bowman heard nothing through the white noise of his terror. He was caught by a giant of all things, his wings squashed awkwardly in the biggest fist he’d ever seen. It shouldn’t be possible to be so large.
Jacob leaned in closer too, to get a better look at whatever Dean had in his hand with Sam. It was struggling as much as it could, those bright little eyes ablaze with panic. “Dude,” he whispered, noticing the wings as they twitched desperately.
“Ah, look out!” Jacob warned, but he was too late. The new creature leaned forward and bit Dean’s hand.
“Ow!” Dean said, cursing angrily. His fist sprang open reflexively from the bite, releasing the strange winged creature and Sam.
Sam.
Who plummeted.
A bit of backstory for Brothers Found: This is actually the first AU we ever worked on, after A Lich of Sense was completed! Initially, it was all done by skype RP. The first and second stories started out that way, then for the horror story we switched to a better RP system so we didn’t lose any details.
The first story was then rewritten the same way, but the second– Bothering Bowman– remained in its skype RP form. Forgive any formatting errors that might have snuck past us, this is the one and only story we’ll post that was done in skype. It was too much of a hassle in the end.
Brothers Apart 