“Lucky I’m such a morning person,” Jacob joked. “We could get on the road for a bit before grabbing some breakfast. Since nowhere will be open yet.” He lowered his hand to the desk for Dean so he could at least get himself ready for the trip.
“And then onwards! To the next hunt!” Dean boasted loudly as he slid off Jacob’s hand.
Light peeked under the hat. Bowman’s
eyes widened as the side slowly lifted, and he pondered diving underneath to
escape. A huge hand snaked its way under the brim and his nerves shattered.
Fingers the size of his body fished in the dirt, looking for him. Bowman tried to evade them, but
soon enough one of the giant fingertips brushed his arm.
A fearful squeak formed in his throat as
he tried to sidle around the hand only for a giant finger and thumb to pinch
the front of his shirt. He twisted away, but that grasp dragged him forward
several irresistible steps before the whole hand lunged forward and clamped
around him.
The skin was much thicker than his, to
say nothing about the strength of the grip coiled around him. Air fled Bowman’s
lungs and the hand dragged him out of his prison at last. It engulfed his body
from the waist down, with one arm pinned to his side. Bowman felt the human’s
slow pulse, heavy and powerful compared to his own, and heat radiated all
around him.
He squirmed with every ounce of strength he
had, and his wings twitched with him. He pushed as hard as he could on the
giant’s thumb as it lifted him up. The huge face loomed close, and Bowman did
what he could to ignore it.
By the time the giant was back at its
full height, panic had settled around Bowman’s heart like a cage. The giant
stared awkwardly at him, and he trembled every time he glanced up at those
enormous brown eyes. His attempts to escape didn’t bother his captor at all.
With no other options, Bowman let a
desperate impulse drive his actions. He leaned forward and sank his teeth into
the giant’s finger. The thick skin resisted his effort at first, and then his
sharpest teeth broke through just enough. A faint taste of copper came just
before the giant dropped him.
He fell like a stone, taking a deep
breath with newly freed lungs. Then, his wings snapped open and he leveled off
in the air. He hurtled towards the edge of the clearing with his wings blurring
in the night air to bank upwards.
No giant would catch Bowman Leafwing when he was flying.
( To find out what happens, find the book here: x )
You’ve got it! #sb stands for Something Borrowed, and the something that gets borrowed is……..
Jacob!
(Our working titles for this were Borrowed Without Permission and An Unexpected Journey, so you can imagine how fabulous this is going to go for wee Jake).
The rumbling in the floor died out with the giant no longer in motion, and Jacob stared with wide, stunned eyes at the hand that had become a wall to him. He was less than four inches tall; that hand dwarfed him so easily it didn’t even feel real. He could see minuscule scars and calluses in the thick skin, details he probably wouldn’t even notice if he wasn’t so damn small.
Twisting around with the thought of darting back under the dresser, he found another hand blocking his way. Jacob was trapped between hands big enough to crush him with just a few fingers.
That realization settled in the pit of his stomach, and finally prompted him to look up.
Looming overhead was a giant, grinning face, smug for having caught him so easily. Jacob still couldn’t see the real motive in that face, even though he could see more than half of it now. He just saw someone smirking down at him, someone easily twenty times his own size. He was scared.
Legs shaking and nowhere to run to, Jacob held his hands up weakly. “W-wait,” he said, unsure if his voice even carried up enough for the man to hear.
Dean barely noticed Jacob talking, too riveted on the tiny teenager he’d trapped. He moved one of his hands quickly towards Jacob, knocking the kid’s feet out from under him and tipping him onto the palm of his hand with the tiniest yelp of surprise Dean had ever heard. Despite the fact that all of Jacob’s weight tumbled into his hand, Dean could barely feel him lying there.
Fascinated, Dean lifted Jacob up into the air, his intent green eyes taking in every one of Jacob’s few inches. The kid was tiny, not even stretching all the way from one side of Dean’s palm to the other. He was wearing a hoodie, slightly too large for his frame, along with jeans. Dean curiously pinched one of the tiny hands between two fingers, feeling the soft skin and precise movements of little fingers.
“Dude!” Dean couldn’t keep in the exclamation, earning a startled flinch from Jacob. “The news wasn’t kidding about you, was it?”
Dean couldn’t hide a scowl, backing into a corner in the hopes of evading her. He knew it was hopeless, but he had to try.
The grab that came was quick and decisive. Instead of trying to pry him out, she merely nudged a finger against his legs, prodding hard enough to bruise the skin by his kneecap. With a cry, he tumbled to his knees and found himself swept up into a light grasp, a familiar hold used on stubborn borrowers.
Unable to reach the edge of the palm before it rose, Dean found himself curling into a ball around Sam as the ground dropped away. Then stopped. Pulse pounding, Dean blinked his eyes open in confusion as the hand paused in place.
Done with arguing with the giant, Dean shifted towards the edge of his hand, intent on getting down and getting away.
Jacob hadn’t expected it out of Dean after earlier. He’d half expected to receive the cold shoulder, or at most a noncommittal acknowledgement that he existed.
This was definitely not the cold shoulder.
Dean’s hands were warm and his pulse heavy, both things Jacob noticed right away. The grasp around him wasn’t tight, but it didn’t seem as controlled as usual. The smell of a bar clinging to the skin of each hand added to it. Jacob squirmed enough to pull his arms free and loop them over Dean’s knuckles, ready to hang on if things became bumpy.
With that said, he finally slid the last length down to Dean’s hand. Giant, Jacob-sized fingers were curled up, creating a net for him to land safely in. Jacob wasted no time lifting the cuff of Dean’s sleeve as much as he could. Part of it was held down by the ropes.
“Aha!” he said triumphantly, practically diving into the sleeve. There was a blade tucked in between the shirt and jacket, just like Jacob thought. He grabbed the dull edge with both hands and planted his tiny boots on Dean’s wrist to give the hidden weapon a tug. It would be three quarters of Jacob’s length, perfect for sawing at the bindings.
The blade was big, but it was made to slide free with just a flick from Dean’s wrist, making it easy for Jacob to pull it out. The slight tickle against his wrist made Dean twitch under Jacob’s boots, but he didn’t rouse. There was only some slight flexing of those massive fingers before they relaxed.
A smirk tugged at the corner of Stan’s mouth as Dean once again exuded that cocky air he’d gotten to know. Before he could even give it a second thought, the hand Dean had been poking swept out, catching those little bowlegs behind the knees and curling his fingers into a low awning over Dean’s head as he fell into Stan’s grasp.
“Oh, my! What have we here?” exclaimed Stan in mock surprise as he lifted his hand to his eyes to peer in at Dean. Behind his smug grin, a warm bubble of pride rose in his chest, glad to be able to do that with none of the apprehension he had before. Even if it was just to rise to Dean’s bait and tease him a bit. “You lost, mousie?”
Stan blinked quickly as he watched Dean step on, and it took him a few seconds to remember to breathe. For all his bluster and readiness to boss around people much taller than him, it was easy to forget just how small Dean was. His every movement, every shift of his minuscule weight, tickled Stan’s palm, and it was all he could do to keep perfectly still. In such a precarious position, Stan certainly didn’t want to knock Dean over with a twitch.
Brothers Apart 