What happens when you have Winchesters in the Wellwood? A bad day for Bowman Leafwing, as an encounter with a certain hunter and his brother goes awry, and zombie wolves move into the forest.
Characters:Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester, Bowman Leafwing
Sam turned his attention to the relaxed sprite too, giving a partial smile at the sleepy demeanor. “So, still not a morning person?” Sam asked as brightly as he could fake, knowing that a happy-go-lucky attitude like that could piss off anyone that wasn’t a morning person. Needling Bowman would be a good distraction.
Bowman turned a tired, exasperated gaze in Sam’s direction. A bright tone like that was just too much. It shouldn’t be possible, this soon after waking, for him to even hear such nonsense. “No,” he answered simply, letting the blunt word carry sass with it rather than crafting more of an answer. It was too early for it.
Bowman couldn’t sleep, and usually when he couldn’t sleep, that meant his wings twitched and he tossed and turned for hours before giving in. Tonight, he wasn’t going to do that. He lay in his bed and almost glared at his window and the serene light that broke through it. The moon cast its cool, sharp glow upon the village of Wellwood in shining bars that mimicked the golden light of its sky sibling.
Moonlight might not be quite as refreshing as the sunlight, but Bowman knew that flying through it was just as peaceful, just as liberating.
He sat up in his bed, the oval-shaped basin in his room, and stretched his wings carefully. Why deny himself a little flying just because his aunt and uncle told him it was too dangerous to go out at night? Their warnings had never been frightening enough to keep him from it. He had to practice to be the best in the village one day, after all.
“Ah,” he muttered quietly, moving to hold up a placating hand. Jacob, in his curiosity, had all but trapped the tiny sprite by the rocks. She couldn’t risk slipping into the deeper waters without putting herself closer to him.
He remembered how terrified Bowman was of him when they first met. And, ruefully, he remembered how often Bowman scolded him for the simple crime of being tall. He tried to crouch down farther, but knew there was no hope for it.
“Please don’t be scared of me,” he said quietly, earnestly. His brown eyes remained fixed on the tiny aquatic woman’s shivering form. “I’m not dangerous. I’m just big.”
The shimmery little girl put her hands over her face. Jacob’s worried frown deepened. He never wanted his size to scare someone so much. With sprites, it was difficult. They were extra tiny in a world full of obstacles. Clearly, water sprites were just as skittish as wood sprites.
“I didn’t mean to startle you,” he muttered, in a voice barely more than a whisper. She didn’t move. “It happens sometimes. My wood sprite friends tell me I stomp around too much. Not much I can do, I tell them. There’s a whole lotta me to carry around.”
That drew more of a reaction from her. Tiny hands, as silvery as the rest of her, slowly dropped until her widened eyes peeked up at him from behind her bangs. Jacob smiled softly and shrugged. The action caused her back fins to flinch, but she didn’t try to hide her face again.
A tiny voice mumbled at him. The girl kept her hands over her mouth, masking the words and leaving Jacob unsure of whether they were fearful, pleading, or just plain curious.
“I’m … sorry, miss,” he answerred, still muttering. “I can’t hear you very well.”
She blinked up at him before hesitantly lowering her hands. “You have wood sprite friends?”
He nodded. “Yep. My best friend is a wood sprite. His name is Bowman. The wood sprites I know all live in a different forest.”
She was still pressed against the rock, but something in her bearing relaxed. “Oh, I see,” she answered. “How … you’re so big …”
Jacob chuckled. “That’s true. Bowman tells me so, too. It was all kinda tough at first. He was really nervous and I wasn’t as calm about finding him, either,” he admitted.
“But now he’s your best friend,” she echoed, and Jacob nodded. “And you won’t … you won’t hurt me or try to catch me?”
“Miss, I will never do that,” Jacob intoned seriously. “I promise. I know sprites are people just like I am, even though they’re smaller.” Her eyes were wide and she simply stared at him. Jacob smiled again. “If I were to guess, I’d say you must be a water sprite?”
She nodded and finally stopped pressing herself into the rock behind her. Her fins rippled and she stepped forward with the water lapping around her legs and the fins growing from them.
“Y-yes, sir,” she replied. Her fins fanned a lot like the butterfly wings they seemed to mimic. “My name is Kadmianika Greyfin, sir.”
Jacob smiled in greeting, inwardly amazed by her appearance. She was so like the wood sprites and yet so different. “You don’t have to call me ‘sir’,” he told her. “I’m Jacob, and it’s really nice to meet you, Kad… Kad-mi-anika.” He had to say it slowly, but he managed to say her name correctly. She seemed pleased.
#12: “Please don’t be afraid of me. I’m not dangerous, I’m just big.” with Jacob Andris of Fairy Tales: Bowman of Wellwood.
Yep, that sounds like Jacob after he became friends with Bowman. He became very aware of how big and scary he could be, especially to the sprites.
This story is the first thing that came to me with that line. So, allow me to introduce the first glimpse of my water sprites!
A Chance Encounter (½)
Jacob almost had a crick in his neck from turning it this way and that as he walked. Usually, walking among nature relaxed him. However, the scenery around him drew his eyes in every direction, and it was due in large part to the slopes that angled around him. He was Midwestern, through and through, and the mountainous region of Colorado might never cease to amaze him.
Nature hikes through relatively flat forests were one thing. Adding mountains gave him an extra challenge and took his breath away in more ways than one. The views, when he could glimpse beyond the trees, were beautiful and unlike anything he’d seen before.
He couldn’t help but think that Bowman would love it.
A stream caught his attention, and Jacob wandered nearer to watch it fall over the rocks. It burbled down a miniature waterfall before angling sharply towards a thicker copse of trees, and Jacob followed it absently.
Not long after pushing aside low branches heavy with leaves, Jacob found a shallow pool only five or six feet across. Ferns and small wildflowers lined the edges of the water, with some tall grasses braving the shallowest parts.
A shimmer of motion among some rocks piled high against one side of the pool caught his eye. It was the barest twitch, and yet he zeroed in on it immediately. Normally, he’d never have noticed it at all. But Jacob’s best friend was a wood sprite, whose leafy wings allowed him to blend in among the trees with ease. Jacob was used to paying closer attention.
He hopped down a slight drop to approach the pool, and fell to a squat next to the rocks. Most of them were no bigger than a grapefruit, but a few reached the size of basketballs.
A tiny girl was pressed against one of the bigger ones, failing to hide in the shadow of the other stones.
Jacob’s jaw dropped and he stared openly. She was like nothing he’d ever seen.
Her skin was light grey, almost blue, and it shimmered in the light from the water that lapped around her legs. Long black hair hung down her back in damp locks, while her bangs stuck to her forehead. At first, Jacob thought she was caught in a net, but he realized that she was wearing it as a shawl shirt, with a short skirt tied close around her hips.
The girl had fins. The sides of her thin little legs sported what looked like tail fins; if she held her legs together, they would take on the appearance of a mermaid. From her back sprouted four silvery fins with dark blue markings that looked remarkably like butterfly wings. With the way she pressed her back against the rocks, the fins were spread wide and displayed for Jacob to see. A water sprite! That’s gotta be…
She stared up at him, her murky eyes wide and filled with terror.
“It’s a rectangle,” Sam told the little sprite. “Most of the stuff we have has corners.”
Bowman’s wings fluttered and he took the sheet of paper, turning it this way and that to look at it from every angle. The gleaming white paper stood out almost as much as the red swatch of cloth. Bowman ran his fingers over the corners a lot, fascinated by the feeling and by the appearance. It was weird. He ended up bending one of the corners over and gasped, hastily trying to fix it.
“I broke the tangle,” he said quietly, clearly repentant and frustrated that he couldn’t fix it. Then, after a pause, he made similar folds in the other corners and stood the paper up like a little tiny table. He picked up the handkerchief and draped it carefully over, then giggled. “It’s like a bed with corners. Do your corner-houses have those too? ”
Oh, I love this prompt! It’s adorable and it is something I’ve mused about here and there but not nearly enough.
To answer the question, no, Jacob doesn’t play any instruments. He’s definitely more of a sporty guy, and he is on his high school’s boxing team. The guy’s definitely not one to tussle with. Though now that you mention it, I could see him toting around one of those huge sousaphones. XD
Note: Long-ish post. A little over 1000 words of drabble.
Human Music
Canon: Yes
Taking place the spring after the events of Bowman of Wellwood
The calm afternoon brought a feeling of peace that Jacob rarely experienced back home. It wasn’t that home was stressful or hectic. But out in the woods, with the sun shining on the clearing and the leaves rustling in the breeze, Jacob knew an entirely different sort of serenity.
For the most part. A shifting around on his head reminded him that normally, someone might be scolding his ear right off right now. He was careful not to tilt his head while he read the book in his lap. It could make Bowman fall off, and then he’d have to take out the earbuds connected to his iPod to hear him gripe.
The wood sprite was stretched out on his hair, basking in the warm sunlight that shone down on them. Wide, leafy green wings spread out and draped partially over the side of Jacob’s head, and the sensation nearly tickled him. Not enough to complain, but enough to know his tiny, four inch tall friend was there.
Many of his visits ended up like this. He would come out to the forest to see Bowman, and they’d mill around in the woods for a time. Bowman would tell Jacob about goings-on in the village, and Jacob would explain some new human thing to Bowman. There was never an end to the questions Bowman threw his way.
Unless, of course, he decided to catch some sunlight and some Z’s while lounging on Jacob’s head.
Jacob didn’t mind these moments of quiet. He’d visited several times since the previous Summer and had become good friends with Bowman, despite all the griping and scolding. Theirs was an interesting friendship, one that had seen Bowman bop Jacob right on the forehead more than once. His reasons were many, and Jacob stopped trying to find a pattern long ago.
One pattern he knew for sure he could count on, though, was that Bowman’s stirring on his head meant that soon more questions would likely spring forth. Bowman was stretching his little arms and legs, and even his wings twitched and fluttered, signaling his battle with the sleepy, trance-like state that sunning always put him in.
Jacob found a stopping point and closed his book before pulling his earbuds out one at a time and reaching for his hoodie pocket to shut off the music player.
“Waitasecond,” Bowman interrupted. Jacob turned his eyes upwards, but didn’t move his head. Of course, he still couldn’t see the sprite sitting up there, but he was paying as much attention as he could, all things considered.
“What? I didn’t move,” Jacob said, a smile leaking onto his face despite the indignant protest.
“No, giant, you’re always moving, but that’s not what I’m talking about.” Bowman scooted forward. Jacob could feel him army-crawling closer to his forehead and waited.
Sure enough, a leafy green wing reached into view, the outermost finger pointing vaguely towards the earbuds in Jacob’s hand. “What’re those things? Why do you stick them in your ears? Are they just supposed to block things out so you can concentrate?”
The curiosity had returned. Jacob smiled and drew out his iPod, pausing the music, and held it up to show Bowman. “I listen to music with them. They’re connected to this thing, and it sends the music to these earbuds here, and they play music.”
Bowman scoffed. “How does that thing play music? It doesn’t even look like it’d make a good drum!”
Jacob had to chuckle, which of course caused his head to shake. Bowman grumbled one of his choice sprite swears and pushed himself to a stand before fluttering off of Jacob’s head. He landed on the hand that held the iPod, and Jacob angled it so that he wouldn’t throw the little guy off balance.
“You’re telling me that this thing plays music,” Bowman said skeptically. The older model iPod was almost as tall as he was, and much wider. It was definitely heavier. “No way.”
Jacob smirked. “It’s not an instrument itself. It just stores the music as a recording. You remember when I explained recordings to you, right?” Bowman paused, then nodded. “So this thing is just full of recordings of music. I like to listen while I read.”
Bowman paused to take it all in before nodding and deciding that it was acceptable. His wings twitched and he looked back at the music player curiously. “Lemme hear some of your human music!” he demanded, an almost excited curiosity overtaking his expression. He twisted around to look at Jacob eagerly.
Jacob grinned. Bowman’s reaction to the music should be entertaining. “Alright. Just hold these,” he replied, placing the earbuds in Bowman’s arms.
It was a show all on its own to watch Bowman fumble them before tentatively holding them up to his ears. He frowned skeptically. “I don’t hear anything!”
“I haven’t started anything, you dork,” Jacob shot back, reaching past Bowman with his thumb to press Play on the iPod.
Bowman jolted as the brass instruments of a ska band blared out of the earbuds, and his eyes were wide as he listened. Jacob didn’t have the volume up high enough to hear it himself, but he could follow along well enough just knowing what song was playing. Bowman’s bright green eyes were wide and his wings flexed open and closed ceaselessly.
“How do they make those noises?! Why is he singing so fast? I can’t understand … this music makes no sense at all!” Bowman’s assessment made Jacob chuckle and he paused the music. Bowman sighed.
“Maybe I have something a bit more chill,” Jacob suggested. He got an exasperated look from Bowman, but noticed that the sprite hadn’t put down the earbuds yet, so he must be curious. He scrolled through his song list for a soft rock song instead.
This one seemed to go over much better with Bowman. Instead of getting agitated almost immediately, he looked confused, no doubt trying to identify the sounds of a guitar while he listened. He swayed a little in time with the song before glancing up at Jacob.
“All the words humans put to their music are so stupid. But otherwise it sounds interesting,” he determined. Jacob paused the song, increasingly amused by the way Bowman yelled his opinions to be heard over the music blaring in his little ears.
“Glad you approve,” Jacob answered wryly.
“I wanna hear more,” Bowman blurted, staring expectantly up at Jacob. That wide eyed curiosity was free of his usual snark, and Jacob only saw a will to learn more despite the complaints. He couldn’t say no to that.
“Okay, lemme see if I have something orchestral, we’ll see what you think of that…”
Brothers Apart 