( 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.
Writerly Things 