Dean must save the tiny sprite kiddo. And Vel promptly decided that the human is his now. We’ll find out soon whose leaf boat will win the race!
Fun fact: Vel’s wings flutter involuntarily a lot because of their development. Wood sprite wings are full of nerves, and once they’ve uncurled from the leaf bud shape of early childhood, they’re extra sensitive to everything, which makes them twitch and flutter. Vel is just barely six, so his wings wouldn’t have been uncurled for very long at all.
April 10th excerpt:
Sam didn’t know what kind of poison Scar had given him, but he hoped it would be potent enough to make a difference. Scar’s wings provided enough cover for him to pry off the cork and slather it onto the sharp, silver blade. Dean had imbued in Sam at a young age a care for his weapons that he’d taken to heart after his curse.
The blade might be small, but it was all he had.
Good thing it’s only a few hours away then 🙂 Lets all find out what happens to the wee-est sprite around!
April 6th excerpt:
“Dad,” Bowman spoke up before his father could fly far. Gunner glanced at him, schooling his concerned expression into a neutral one. “Be careful, wouldja? This thing seems pretty dangerous.”
Gunner smirked faintly and nodded. “You got it, kid,” he answered before darting away. Bowman rolled his eyes before wandering closer to Jacob. In short order, he’d landed right on the human’s head.
“Comfy?” Jacob asked, amused. A wing, spread wide, slapped down on the top of his head.
April 4th excerpt:
Jacob offered a warm smile to the closest of the nestlings, still a few feet away from him. They perked up in surprise, as if they didn’t expect him to be able to see them wandering closer to him. Tiny wings, some of them still slightly curled at the edges, fluttered at their backs.
“Hi,” he greeted them, and the nestlings stumbled forward even more. Some that were on the opposite side of the stream set to work carefully hopping from stone to stone, avoiding the water. “Be careful over there,” Jacob warned them. He got a few sheepish grins in return and some approving nods from the parents who hung back to continue the washing.
“We’re always careful,” someone answered, and Jacob looked down to find that a nestling had reached him. He tensed up slightly, staring at the absolutely tiny child standing in the grass, well within reach of the arms he rested on his knees. “If someone fell in the stream, their wings would get so heavy!”
April 2nd excerpt:
“I might not swat them if they catch me off guard, but I can pretty much guarantee they’d get grabbed.”
Jacob chuckled. “Hopefully it won’t come to that, but I think even Bowman will forgive you for it, no matter what he says.”
Bowman scoffed. “Humans are impossible,” he said, glancing aside at Sam. His adopted brother could easily be included in his grousing, and it went without saying.
March 30th excerpt:
Rischa’s eyes were wide in the dark.
She’d only noticed a shadow descending on her before something large and fast closed around her, trapping her body and her surprised, fluttering wings in a small space. The shape of the light that leaked in showed the silhouettes of fingers clamped tightly around her.
“Oh,” she breathed, her heart beating faster. The human’s feelings crashed around her in a startling clarity, and she was immediately certain that it wasn’t Jacob.
A giant she didn’t know had snatched her up, and no one even knew she was out there.
“Oh no.”
“Let me guess, someone stole your sweetroll…” (Skyrim, friends, we’re referencing Skyrim like big TES nerds)
Flowerkin is actually neither an insult nor another species, though in the recent excerpt Sam is using it to tease Bowman (Actual tease –
“Bowman is still a dainty flowerkin like always. He didn’t even get a bruise on his wings.”). It is simply a word wood sprites use to describe particularly dainty wood sprites (which is saying something because they’re all kind of willowy and thin thanks to their metabolisms). In my sprite lore, flowerkin wood sprites are responsible for the popular artistic depiction of fairies wearing flower petals and such.
For example, here is a wood sprite character that I have developed who would be considered very flowerkin:
This little lady has yet to show up in any of my stories, but she will (someday… when I get around to it).
Art by the-searching-one.
( In reference to this post )
#19: “How tall would you say you are now?” With Bowman Leafwing and Jacob Andris of Bowman of Wellwood.
Sounds like those dorks, alright. It’s something of a running joke with me that Bowman finds Jacob’s height excessive (and really, who needs to be that tall anyway?).
Enjoy!
Jacob watched Bowman wheel around in the air, brushing past new leaves and looping in tight spirals around branches. Seeing how easy he made it look and how casually happy Bowman’s face was brought Jacob a smile of his own. He’d barely known the little wood sprite for six months, but it hadn’t taken long for Bowman to show off his skills.
Jacob might tease him a lot, but in the end he was impressed. Bowman flew through the air like a fish swims through water.
“You’re falling behind, giant!” Bowman crowed from the canopy. He darted ahead, flew back towards Jacob, and then turned forward again. Jacob kept his usual walking pace, a calm contrast to Bowman’s speedy turns.
“I’m not a giant,” Jacob mock complained. “Just ‘cause I’m taller than you.” Bowman snickered and landed lightly on a branch above Jacob’s eye level. When Jacob caught up, he reached up and whipped the branch with his palm.
Bowman fluttered off with an aggravated scoff. “Hey! Giant! Don’t do that!” he groused.
“Don’t land right in my way,” Jacob shot back with a grin.
Bowman groaned, before dropping to bank in a close circle around Jacob’s head. Jacob had to stop walking to avoid a sprite smacking into his head, and Bowman snickered. “This is right in your way. That branch wasn’t, you’re just so blasted tall.”
“You got me. I’ve been getting taller in the last few months,” Jacob admitted with a sigh.
That made Bowman falter. He did an incredulous double take before swooping up to land on Jacob’s head. The light sensation of tiny boots always surprised him, but Jacob had learned not to wave the sprite off if he didn’t want to be scolded for five minutes straight.
“You’ve been growing?! What in the world for?”
“It’s not like I control it,” Jacob chuckled.
“How tall would you say you are now?”
“Hmm … about six foot four, I think. I dunno.” Jacob almost shrugged, but he had to wonder if that’d upset Bowman’s perch on his head.
Bowman paused. Then, he blurted. “That’s seventy six inches tall! How tall were you when you first showed up here?!”
Jacob saw the question coming. He glanced straight up, but couldn’t see the tiny person standing up on his head. He had a feeling he knew the reaction to come. “About six foot even, so I grew like four inches.”
“What?!”
Predictably, Bowman’s light weight nearly stumbled right off the top of Jacob’s head. His wings fluttered and soon he was flying along at Jacob’s eye level.
“Are you serious?” Bowman asked, stuck between awe and irritation. It was an expression that Jacob had come to recognize in his few visits since the previous summer.
“Yup. Very,” Jacob answered with an amused grin.
“That’s how tall I am! You grew an extra Bowman height – which you didn’t need, by the way – in a couple seasons!”
“It’s true. I’m sneaky like that,” Jacob quipped, laughing at the flat look Bowman gave him.
“It’s the only sneaky thing about you, giant,” he remarked, before banking up towards the canopy once more, while Jacob continued to crash through the foliage below.
If anyone has other prompts for @neonthewrite, ask here!
March 26th excerpt:
Jacob watched Sam move along for a few seconds. He was tempted to offer to help, and very nearly did. But the hilt of Sam’s sword glinted in the light, reminding Jacob of how capable the little guy was on his own. Jacob offering to help could just come across the wrong way, though he had never had to consider that before.
Once Sam and Bowman were a little more out of range, Jacob grabbed his backpack and stood to his full height. The pair of them dwindled away below him, and he stared for a second. Bowman kept looking over his shoulder to peer up at him, flicking his wings almost in annoyance.
How dare I be tall.
Brothers Apart 