Scar frowned and twisted in Bobby's hand, trying to pull himself loose. Every stride took them farther from his weapon, and the knight hated being at this much of a disadvantage. At least with a sword, he could fight back against what was happening to himself and his pupil.
Clearly, reasoning with Bobby would get them nowhere. The human was just like the animals described in the Archives. Giant, brutish, and selfish. It was merely luck for them that he didn't seem to intend to eat them.
After a few minutes of walking, Bobby shifted his grip on both of them. He forced Scar's wings to fold against his back before squashing the sprite into the same hand already wrapped around Sam to free up his other hand. The fence was approaching.
Scar winced. He couldn't actually see Sam very easily, because one of his wings was pressed against the other knight's side. "Sorry, boy," he hissed, trying to free an arm like Sam had so he could try to push free.
"Don't worry about it," Sam hissed back. He peered up to see what Bobby's attention was on, and found the icy blue eyes turned towards the path he was following out of the forest, a path that Sam couldn't even see for himself. The teen must know more about the forest than they'd assumed.
I'm doing it because it's my land and I've been looking for sprites for forever!
Sam scowled at the memory of those presumptuous words. They could only be glad that this guy, either with or without the demon, hadn't stumbled over the entire village. They didn't know why he wanted to find the sprites, and they had no way of knowing what he'd do if he found the others.
"At least it's just us," Sam mumbled under his breath, relying heavily on his strange power of knowing when he was being looked at to know if it was safe to talk. "We can figure this out. Dean's out there, and now that he knows I'm alive there's no way he'll let some kid just walk off with us."
Scar nodded absently, but his eyes were scanning the trees around them. Only a few other knights were out with him to scan the woods. Only a few other pairs of eyes that might know what was happening to them, and they would be concentrating on the areas closer to the village. Wellwood was on the defensive.
Scar didn't want to say it out loud, but unless Dean caught wind of what was happening, he and Sam were on their own.
"We will figure it out," he said instead, trying to at least shift his wing so it wasn't shoved against Sam. It was impossible to be comfortable in the human's tight fist, but they might be able to lessen some of the worst of it.
"We may yet get a chance to hide farther away. If we secure that much, I will bring the other humans to you."
"You two planning a party?" Bobby quipped, moving his hand back and forth just slow enough that it didn't give them whiplash, but enough to make them dizzy. "See that fence up ahead? Beyond that is civilization. You're not crossing it again, that's for damn sure." Bobby chuckled. "Maybe you two will even get famous, depends on what I decide to do, I guess."
Sam squirmed in the grip, ice flowing in his veins at that. Even if Bobby didn't come back and find the village, either of the two tiny people being revealed to the world would start a witch hunt for others like them.
He had no way of knowing if he was the only human that was tiny, but there were many more sprites in the world, hidden from sight. All of them could be in danger because of them, and they'd never see it coming.
"I bet you're the one hoping to get famous," Sam spat back. "Pretty sad you need us to do it."
"Sad, or resourceful, runt?" Bobby shot back without even a second thought. He bounced the pair in his hand again, smirking at the dazed look on the sprite's face. The little thing was still trying to pull his arms free.
"I think I'll go with the latter. I mean, we've known about your piddly little colony hidden away somewhere out here for years. I have no idea why the family would let an opportunity like that just lie around." Bobby lied a little. He did know. Most of his extended family were convinced it was an old folk tale. Just a cheesy family story. Bobby would gleefully prove that wrong, first.
He crossed through the fence without bothering to close it behind him. It wasn't likely that someone else would wander this far.
"Blast it," Scar muttered. He hadn't been this far from the village in years. Back when Sam was first found, the patrolsprites and knights had expanded their search farther and farther until the danger of finding a human other than the one they were looking for became too great. Too much time had passed since Sam's appearance in the forest.
Scar had failed the little lost nestling then, and he was failing him again, even after training him to be able to fight.
"I have poisons with me," he whispered in as low a voice as he could manage. "You still have both your weapons?" It wasn't much of a plan that he was forming, but desperation had become the theme for both captive knights. They had to try something.
Sam bowed his head, hoping to hide the fact that they were talking. So far Bobby had treated them as beneath him. Maybe they could catch him off guard. Overconfidence could be a real problem for someone so presumptuous. The long brown bangs covered his face completely, but it wasn't like he needed to see their surroundings.
They were already far from any place he'd recognize.
"I've got both," Sam said tersely. "And my wingsuit is ready to go if I need to jump." After years of flying, heights was the last thing he was worried about. The jump from Dean's hand earlier on that day was all in good fun, a jump from Bobby meant he'd need to be ready to move fast when he hit the ground.
Humans were big. There wasn't much chance of Sam being able to outrun one unless he could find a place to hide, and fast.
Scar nodded, trying to shift his wings yet again. They were clamped uncomfortably close, and the hilt of Sam's sword was digging into one. Thankfully the blade wasn't angled dangerously for it. Sam wouldn't be able to get to the rapier from this belt without slicing Scar's wing, but he had another weapon that most knights didn't usually carry with them: his dagger.
"Human," Scar spoke up louder, putting the first part of his plan into action. He knew well enough by now that asking Bobby to unhand them entirely was out of the question. But Sam didn't need that if he could just get a hold of his dagger. For that, he just needed an opportunity.
Bobby glanced down at them, but kept walking as the dark closed in more and more around them. "What? I'm not letting you go so don't bother."
"Yes, you've made it clear," Scar shot back, managing the same amount of condescension in his voice despite his position. "But you're cutting the circulation in my wings with your monstrous hand."
Bobby actually stopped walking to smirk down at them. "Is that so? Precious little leafy wings getting sore?" he mocked. His other hand appeared, and Scar tensed.
Bobby did more or less what Scar expected him to do and loosened his grip on them. While Bobby was focused on him, Scar hoped Sam might have the opportunity to get his knife from his jacket. The other hand eclipsed view of Bobby's smirk long enough for Scar to move and reach into his own jacket for the vial of poison he carried and shove it at Sam.
Bobby's thumb and first finger clamped around Scar's torso and pulled him away from Sam. After merely a second of them shifting around, the hand closed around Sam's middle again and Scar winced at the pressure around his chest, unable to see if his knight had what he needed to make some kind of counter attack against the human.
"This better, sprite?" Bobby mocked, applying a little more pressure and forcing the air from Scar's lungs.
Though it hurt to ignore Scar's plight in the human's hand, Sam was set on his own goal.
The knife was easy to slip out of his jacket. There was a special pocket sewn inside, modified the same way as the 'cape' that made a regular knight's jacket into a wingsuit. Sam had learned from the sprites how to fix his own clothes, and put those modifications into everything.
Now, it would hopefully save them both.
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.
Praying it was enough, Sam aimed at the webbing between Bobby's thumb and fingers. If pain meant nothing to the human, maybe a reflex would be enough to escape his grasp, aided by the poison.
"Fuck! " burst out of Bobby's mouth and his hand flinched despite his recently-learned disregard for pain. His grip opened around Sam before he even had time to look at his captive. He fumbled against the small shape slipping through his fingers, and found that his thumb didn't quite want to cooperate with him so soon after the vicious attack.
His spasmodic movements just barely managed to slow Sam's fall just enough that Bobby managed to pinch his second and third fingers around one of the tiny legs before he fell. "God fucking dammit, you little shit!"
He even nearly lost his grip on the sprite, who was ready for the attack. The little bastards would pay for that.
A heavy, dull pain like an invisible bruise was already spreading from the small stab wound. Bobby let Scar fall into a tight fist grip while lifting Sam up so he hung in front of his eyes. "Bravo, squirt," he said, with no hint of actual congratulations in his voice. Despite the unconcerned facade, he was still breathing a little hard from the close call.
"Having fun trying to poke holes in me? If either of you does it again I'm gonna have to start poking back, I hate owing favors."
Sam dangled in place, glaring unblinkingly back at blue eyes the size of his head. It was too bad Scar never had the chance to live up to the Wolfblind name against Bobby. Disregard for pain or not, that would put someone out of commission in no time flat.
"You're right, you do owe me," Sam said flatly, folding the silver knife up his sleeve and hoping it was out of sight. He was more terrified of losing that blade than anything else, because it was his last connection to Dean. Now that he was seeing his big brother slip away again, he didn't want Bobby to snatch it away. "Since I helped you get away from that demon and everything. I doubt it would have jumped bodies without my little exorcism. So how 'bout you let us go and we'll call it even?"
Bobby scowled, for a moment unable to come up with a retort. He didn't need help. Especially not from someone who fit in his hand. The little stabs and the backtalk were becoming annoying. "You didn't 'help' anything," he pointed out. "What you did was end a very interesting conversation like the pest you're so determined to be."
He took a second to assess his grasp on both small people before narrowing his eyes at Scar. "You little sneak," he said to him. Scar's face became a grimace of pain as the pressure around his body steadily increased. "Pretty clever. When we get back home I'm gonna have to reward you."
He held Scar like that for a second more, ignoring any protests out of Sam, and just when it seemed like one of the sprite's tiny bones might snap, he relented. Then, he finally turned Sam right side up and closed him in the same hand as Scar once more. This time, he made sure that both of them had their arms thoroughly trapped. There was a little swelling in his empty hand, courtesy of the poison, and he wasn't going to give them another chance.
"Cute effort, guys, really. Time to go," he dismissed, before lowering his hand to carry the two knights at his side, swinging slightly in time with his hurried steps.
Sam sighed in aggravation as they swung in place, gladder than ever that he wasn't afraid of heights. "That… didn't go to plan," he admitted in disheartened defeat as the forest began to pass them by again. The constant swinging was almost enough to make him nauseous, if he wasn't so used to being buffeted about by the wind currents when he was in his glider.
All too fast, the village was dwindling into the distance, out of reach for Sam with no way to fly. His only hope to get back there at this point might be help from a human, unless the sprites had a way to carry him home. His heart went out to Dean and Bowman and Jacob. If the demon had truly possessed the teenager, no one would see it coming.
There might not be anyone left to save them.
"Are you hurt?" Sam asked Scar, remembering the struggle and how easy Bobby could snap a bone if he wanted to.
"No," Scar answered simply, his voice a little tight with discomfort. Being squashed into one hand with another person didn't leave much breathing room, and they had it worse because his wings were in their way. His pride might be wounded, but they could still recover this ... somehow.
Sheer dumb luck had kept Bobby's grip on Sam. His other hand was probably swelling up terribly, out of sight from them, and not cooperating as the poison made his muscles sluggish. He'd be an angry giant that they'd failed to escape.
Scar cast his gaze around in the dark, very unaccustomed to having little idea what to do next. If they tried anything so soon after the last stunt, he worried that the human might really do some lasting damage to Sam.
Scar would do his best to prevent that from happening. From the looks of things, Bobby valued finding a sprite above finding a shrunken human.
"The other knights are all defending the village," he muttered. They were on their own, but at least someone was ready to fight if the demon got too close to the village. It was a dim reassurance in bleak moments, but it was better than nothing. "We may end up in unfamiliar territory for a while, Sam, but I'm sure we can put the environment to use, as always."
"I should be able to remember enough." Sam cast his mind back years to when he'd lived as a human, before his curse. "It'll be different now, because of the size, but there has to be a way we can use what I remember." The frown lines deepened on his face. "Actually, there might be something more I can use."
Since discovering Jacob, Sam had found a strange sensation that hit him whenever he was being stared at by a human. Not a sprite, not an animal or an insect. Humans. Dean and Jacob both had the same effect. He hadn't paid enough attention to Bobby after the human had awoken, but it was there.
"When Jacob or Dean look at me, I can feel it," Sam told Scar urgently, his voice low. "I didn't think much of it at the time, but it was useful that first time we ran into Jacob. Now, I can use it to know when Bobby's paying us any attention at all."
Scar actually grinned. That was a useful trick against a foe that had so far proven tougher to figure out. It was a shame it didn't sound like a skill that Sam could impart upon the other knights. Even so, it would prove very useful for them, in the long run.
"Some good news, at least," he muttered. He squirmed a little to try to move one wing, and both captives felt a threatening squeeze around them. Bobby didn't even lift them up or say anything. He drove his point home as casually as if he was brushing hair out of his face. All the while, the forest around them became less and less familiar.
Scar hissed in annoyance and pain while the human kept walking. "This sun-hated sprout had better not get used to that," he groused.
Sam grimaced in agreement. He wasn't as easy to damage as a sprite was, due to his bulkier build. Sprites were lean, made to fly through the air. Sam would be able to stand up to more pressure than Scar. Compared to a full-sized human, not much more, but enough that if Bobby flexed his hand the sprite would be in more danger.
So he focused on not moving for the moment. They needed to save their strength for an opportunity.
"Too bad we have to prove the archives right about humans," Sam grumbled to himself, disappointed. He'd been so proud of Jacob, and now Dean. It only takes one.
Scar heard his comment, but only barely. He kept to himself, but he still couldn't bring himself to discredit the entire species just yet. He'd watched Sam, a human, grow into a compassionate and thoughtful man over the years, and had no doubt that any human had as much capacity for growth and good as he did.
Demons were a new variable in an equation that no one knew.
At length, the trees thinned out and a starry sky above glittered at them as Bobby carried the two knights of Wellwood farther from home. Scar looked up, admittedly dazed for a moment by the sight that he so rarely got to see. An unhindered view of the sky usually meant danger of a predator spotting them.
They were already in danger. So, he decided to enjoy it until they reached a huge metal beast sitting idly on the grass. "What?!" Scar hissed, but before he could form an actual question for Sam, the hand around them lifted and held them closer to Bobby's chest.
The human opened a door in the side of the metal giant, and after a few lurching movements, opened a strange compartment inside the inner chamber. The grasp around them relented, finally, dropping Sam and Scar on what looked like paper before the box they were in surged upwards and slammed closed.
They were in the dark as a rumble roared to life all around them, as Bobby started his car and began a long trip far away from the forest.
A/N:
The drama continues!
Be sure to let us know what you think! This story is going to be a bumpy ride.
Next: February 23rd, 2020 at 9pm EST.