Jacob was only 14 when he was cursed. Older than Sam was when he was cursed, but still just a kid. At the time of the story, he’s 17, so he’s still pretty new to the curse while Sam is a veteran. That means Jacob is stuck between worlds! He still remembers pretty well what his life was like before shrinking down, but he’s also getting used to the size of everything around him.
What a time to meet a giant Dean Winchester, huh?
April 30th excerpt:
Sam decided to take advantage of it all. “I wonder who’ll be taller after this!” he called. Keeping a hand on the hilt of his sword, he bounced up an inch and landed on the pillow next to Bowman, aiming to upset the sprite’s balance.
Bowman’s grin fell from his face and he stumbled backwards as the pillow sank under Sam’s weight. He tried to compensate his balance with his wings, but in the end the surface under them was too plushy for him to keep his feet.
His last ditch effort to leap up and hover above the pillow failed as well. He couldn’t find his balance and simply ended up falling backwards in a tangle of limbs. “Blast it!” he blurted out, awkwardly trying to roll over and pinning one of his wings.
Above them, Jacob couldn’t hold back a laugh. “Holy shit, Bowman,” he said through his snickers. “I don’t think anyone could have done that any better.”
April 28th excerpt:
“Judging by yesterday, I’m betting you’ll make up for a lot by babysitting some nestlings,” Jacob quipped. The feeling of the tiniest little shoes walking on his hand or his shoulders would never lose its novelty, he was certain. Those kids hadn’t even had a chance to play with Sam’s “big big brother.”
A strange, almost alien happiness came over Dean at that. “Ya think?” he asked, a bit of awe in his eyes. He’d seen Jacob with the nestlings, but most of his time in the village had been spent either with Sam at his home or planning with Scar.
The children that visited with Jacob were so small. Especially the tiny nestling that had gotten a piggyback ride on Sam’s shoulders. While they were both standing on Jacob’s knee. Within reach of not one human, but two after Dean came over to join them.
X3 It’s great to hear that! I was thrilled to get Bowman involved with the brothers. They make such an interesting combination, with no end to the sass shot back and forth. It’s why we decided to have him in the tenth story, a nice special edition.
Bowman will be back again in the future in Brothers Apart, and of course, there’s endless possibilities in the AUs we’ve designed. Not to mention, the next time he and the brothers run into each other, Jacob will be around to watch out for his sprite buddies (I can just imagine how he’ll take it when he finds out Dean kidnapped Bowman at first ^^;).
Ah, it’s definitely so great to hear that you are enjoying it! So much work has gone into this collab and it’s been a great experience to be able to see how my Bowman deals with the Winchesters. It turns out he sasses just as much but he can still get the job done. I can’t wait to add Jacob to the mix, and I hope you enjoy the AUs we have lined up. They are works of a lot of time and effort (and also many feels).
Thanks again!
Yes, Jacob finds Sam in both AUs. But to say that these two storylines are the same would be saying that Brothers Apart and Brothers Together are the same because Dean found Sam in both.
Brothers Found is placed in 2005 just like Brothers Apart. The storyline of these two will be similar. Sam is out in the rooms trying to find food for his family and he gets caught, only instead of Dean finding him, it’s a complete stranger, an unsuspecting, seventeen year old Jacob Andris.
Brothers Unexpected is placed in 1993, the same week of Sam’s curse. He is ten, and runs away from Walt and Mallory Watch. They can’t get to him before he gets caught by a young Jake, who is only four-going-on-five.
In other words, they are completely different plots and completely different style stories. If they were the same, we wouldn’t write them. Just like we shouldn’t write any more Brothers Together if it was the same as Brothers Apart, right?
The contest has closed but the fun continues! Enjoy a special sneak peek for Brothers Asunder while I’m going through the entries ❤
“Now let him go or I’ll make you regret it!” Sam shouted up, false bravado covering up the fear in his voice. His hazel eyes were hard and determined. His knees remained slightly bent, ready to leap out of the way if the human snatched at him.
Jacob’s eyebrows shot up. “Woah, woah,” he said, trying to head off the fear and nerves directed at him. He didn’t want to terrorize the little guys. His curiosity kept his hand wrapped securely around the winged one, despite the tiny kicks twitching against his palm and the bitty hands pushing on his knuckles. “I’m not gonna hurt anyone,” Jacob insisted.
He kept his eyes on the little swordsman even as the winged guy barked out a laugh at him. The little jacket had some kind of designs in the hem and the sleeves, and there was a similar design along the side seam of the pants tucked into those boots. He definitely looked like a swordsman right out of a novel, and Jacob wondered what the cape-like attachment fixed to the side of the jacket was for.
“Seriously, I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on here,” Jacob tried again. “Why don’t you have wings, too?” He reached down towards the little guy, trying to keep his hand lower to avoid that sword if he could. It might be tiny, but it looked sharp.
Bowman, twisted around to keep an eye on his adopted brother, felt his frantic heart speed up even more. “Sam!”
Sam’s eyes went wide at the size of the hand as it swept towards him and he almost went to stumble backwards instead of stay in the forms Scar had taught him. The sprite’s lessons focused on methods to take on animals bigger than the sprites.
The enemy is strong, and he is dangerous. But he will be strong and dangerous whether we cower and doubt ourselves or fly out to meet him.
Sam’s nerves solidified and he lunged forward with his sword to meet the human’s grab on his own terms.
The slash with the rapier met flesh, slicing across the human’s hand at the same time as Sam leapt out of the way of the grab. He was bulkier than any sprite, but light and spry on his feet after training for a good portion of his life. The lightweight boots and uniform helped him move like a leaf, designed for the sprites so they could swoop and dodge and not be hindered by the fabric.
Jacob’s hand moved too fast for Sam to completely avoid with a leap. To his shock and eternal consternation, he found himself landing on the back of the human’s massive hand. The flesh gave slightly under his boots and his heart pounded.
Jacob winced and sucked in a breath of pain. He lifted his hand up and away from the ground again, surprised by how fast the little guy was. He’d thought for sure he’d be able to draw his hand back if that little sword swung at him. Already there was a stinging cut on the back of his hand near his thumb, an inch or two long. But Jacob wasn’t looking at the cut.
He was staring in shock at the little fighter standing on the back of his hand.
He hadn’t even noticed the tiny boots landing there in his haste to get his hand away from the threat. Now, he wasn’t safe from the threat, but he did have the little guy more or less in hand. He kept himself as steady as he could to avoid tipping the little guy right off the side, and stared openly. “Woah,” he breathed, in awe at the dexterity just displayed to him. “Holy shit.”
Artwork by the wonderful @lamthetwickster
April 25th excerpt:
Bowman didn’t notice Jacob’s look. “He said I look like a fairy,” he said, exasperated as he could be. He remembered Sam making a similar comparison at one point in their childhood. “Someone got the wrong information into all of your heads at some point.”
“You do look like a fairy,” Dean protested in an attempt to save himself. “It’s not my fault. The only thing that would make you more fairy-like is if you had butterfly wings to go along with the whole forest getup.”
April 22nd excerpt:
Dean froze up again when he saw Bowman’s tiny body shift in place from the movement, afraid of waking him. Dean was still recovering from the shock of waking to finding someone the size of his finger using him as a bed. It was the last thing he’d expected. He was dangerous to them, especially when he didn’t even know they were close.
“What am I supposed to do with him?” Dean whispered to Jacob. “Do we need to water him or something? You said he’s like a plant, right?”
If you have any questions for any of the AU’s or any of the characters, including the ones that belong to @neonthewrite, feel free to sent in an ask!
AU’s include:
Suggestions are always welcome, and inspiration comes from all sources!
We are creating our own little multiverse over here! ❤
Asks open || Submissions open || Prompts open
April 19th excerpt:
Bowman sighed thoughtfully and then pushed himself to his feet. His sore legs protested and tried to knock him down again, but he made it. His eyes wouldn’t focus on anything in the room for very long, and the sleepy haze over everything only caused more confusion. There were corners everywhere. And big, hulking, unfamiliar things no matter which direction he looked.
“I’ll look after Dean,” he decided, fluttering his wings to fly over the bed and hover just over Dean’s chest. He settled his boots down cautiously, wondering if he’d wake the human. After a few more seconds of a steady rise and fall, he took it as a good sign.
“This human dwelling is strange,” Bowman groused at Jacob while he sat and then lay down on his side. “You and your blasted corners.” That said, he pointedly covered himself with a wing like a protective blanket, hiding the sight of the room from himself.
Brothers Apart 