What they could see of Bowman amounted to his scrunched up wings crowded around him under Dean's hand. They twitched and pushed against Dean's fingers to no avail, and Bowman could be heard grumbling underneath.

"Blast it, Dean!" he finally yelled. He couldn't push against Dean's fingers with his hands clutched around his coffee, and he didn't want to lose the bitter drink. So, stooped over and nearly invisible to the others, he used his wings and his complaining instead. "Get off me!"

Jacob tilted his head in an attempt to catch sight of the little guy. He found a bright green glare leveled at him. "Don't pout at me, you were the one talking shit."

Dean shook his head ruefully. "I thought you wanted me back to my giant self, small fry," he snickered, curling his fingers in to free Bowman and settling his index finger on top the sprite's green mess of hair to ruffle it more. "Careful what you wish for."

When he felt Bowman's tiny head under his fingertip, he very nearly froze up all over again, like when he'd woken up that morning to find Sam and Vel using his hand as a sleeping bag. After a week under a shrinking spell, Dean wasn't prepared for his own size, never mind theirs.

It took a second longer to compose himself compared to normal, but Dean shifted his hand away from Bowman, freeing him from its shadow. His breathing went back to normal, and though Sam arched an eyebrow at Dean for the odd behavior, he didn't comment on it, choosing to give Dean time to figure things out for himself.

Bowman was too preoccupied with the teasing to notice Dean's lapse, and he pointedly brushed at his messy hair as soon as he was able. His wings twitched before flaring wide as if he might deter the giant from messing with him again. Now, his wings weren't so wide compared to Dean.

"I suppose you're right," he griped. "It's better with Dean back at his giant size. As much as all you giant humans like to cause trouble."

"I like to think of it as 'keeping things interesting,' " Jacob chimed in. When Bowman rounded that glare on him once more, he raised his eyebrows innocently and changed the subject before any scolds could come. "Do you wanna go get the nestlings waking up soon? They probably need some fruit before we all head out and they'll need time to get ready."

Bowman finally turned his gaze to the other sprites in the room. The cuddle pile remained where they'd left it, exhausted children sleeping the sun up. "Yeah," he replied. "They'll be excited to see Dean back to normal, too."

Dean eyed up his cell phone, clearly weighing his options. "We should probably give Bobby a call soon, too," he said reluctantly, not looking forward to explaining just how the hunt had gone for him and Bowman.

"He said he had important information for us," Sam reiterated. "I bet he'll barely notice when he finds out you were my size for the last few days."

Dean snorted. "Since when was our luck that good?"

If Dean radiated any more reluctance, it would become a physical weight hanging in the air. Bowman shifted his wings while he finished off the last of his coffee. He wished he had more, but there was already a telltale blossom of energy in his core.

It made him bold. "Well, are you gonna do that, or should I?" he snarked.

This made Dean arch an eyebrow, immediately rising to the bait. He glanced to the phone and then back. The smartphone was bigger than Sam or Bowman.

This will be fun.

With a quick movement, Dean scooped up the phone, switched it on and flicked through his passcode. He dropped it directly in front of Bowman and gestured grandly. "Be my guest, small fry."

Bowman leaned away from the phone as if it might attack. All sarcasm aside, he had no idea how to operate the thing, and the screen had an accusing brightness as it stared straight up. As much as he wanted to shoot Dean a flat look, he couldn't. He'd snarked himself right into this one.

"This phone doesn't have as many buttons as Jacob's," he complained. By his count, there were at least ten buttons missing.

"It's a touch screen," Jacob supplied helpfully. He watched with interest to see what Bowman would do with the technology. After spending some time with Sam, he was back in familiar territory. He guessed that, even if Bowman tried, he probably wouldn't manage to make the call in Dean's place.

Bowman squatted down and reached out, hands twitching as if he was about to touch fire. He placed his palm over one of the squarish images on the screen, and immediately the colors changed and something new spread to cover everything. It happened so fast that he twitched back again and his wings fanned open.

His cheeks heating up, Bowman stood and crossed his arms. "I don't know how to do it," he grumbled.

Dean's grin didn't falter. "Sammy?"

Sam came to Bowman's rescue, tapping the home button to clear the screen of the application he'd opened. "This to go back," Sam supplied helpfully as he worked on the huge phone, "and this to open 'Contacts.' " It took some scrolling to get down to Bobby Singer in the list. All either hunters or women Dean didn't contact often. Sam, Bobby and John were near the bottom.

He tapped on Bobby's name, bringing up the number, and hit call. "Here we go," he warned Bowman, turning on the speaker and making the sound of a phone ringing echo through the room.

"Sam? That you? "

Sam grinned at the familiar voice as it spoke up. One of his few close friends in life, they owed Bobby a lot. Including the information that got them to the warlock's house.

"You bet," he said. "And you won't believe who we've got with us."

"Dean? "

"Hey, Bobby," Dean leaned forward to take part in the conversation. "Betcha missed me."

"Bowman and all the sprites are back, too," Sam assured Bobby.

"Uh, yeah," Bowman chimed in, momentary shyness aside. If anything helped to prove that telephones really worked, it was hearing a completely new voice out of the flat device. "They were just in time."

Jacob wasn't sure if it was his place to chime in, but Bowman had already barged through that courtesy. "Dean, Bowman, and five missing nestlings all accounted for. Turns out it was that missing professor guy stealing people."

"Hey, you don't, uh, tell other humans about sprites, right? You keep us a secret like Sam's folk?" The question all but spilled out of Bowman, as if he'd been holding it in for a long time even though the conversation only just began. Once he knew, he could leave Sam and Dean to talk to their friend. But he had to know.

"Don't get your wings in a twist, I ain't talkin,' " Bobby assured Bowman through the line.

"He didn't even tell me about Sam's people," Dean said in an aside, still sounding galled at the entire subject.

"You don't exactly give off the 'cautious around littles' vibe," Bobby scolded him. "If I told you, I couldn't exactly chaperone you now, could I? "

"That's all in the past," Sam interrupted before those two fell into their old squabbles, as they were prone to doing. Bobby not trusting Dean, Dean discovering the tiny people on his own, the revelation of first Sam, then Walt. It had all been said and he was sure they'd say it again. "You told me when all this started that you had information for us?"

There was a pause. "Yeah, I did." Sam waited patiently as Bobby composed his thoughts. "You're not going to like it, though. Either of you."

"Do we ever?" Dean asked, darkly humorous.

"You'll like this even less," Bobby assured him. "It's about that Cas fellow that saved your ass, and his erstwhile big sister, Saraqael."

Sam frowned. That name again. "Those kind of sound familiar whenever I hear them…" he said tentatively.

"They should. Anyone who's picked up a Bible might have strayed over them."

"A Bible? " Dean sputtered in disbelief. "You expectin' me to believe that our witch was working back in ancient times? That she lived that long?"

"Not at all," Bobby said, amusement in his voice. "I'm telling you that they were up and active back then. Because Castiel is an angel and Saraqael... is his fallen sister."


A long moment of silence passed in the room. Dean stared down at the phone, unable to believe what his ears were telling him.

Sam caught up much faster, bolting to his feet. "You're telling me some angel is the cause of all this?!"

"An archangel, actually."

The sound of the voice coming from behind them made both Winchesters jolt, and Dean nearly fell out of his chair twisting around.

Placidly standing directly behind Dean, with his hands clasped casually behind him, was the man in the trench coat from their last case. The angel, Castiel.

"Did you ever hear of personal space?" Dean blurted, nothing more intelligent coming to mind at the unexpected shock of finding him in their room, which was locked, deadbolted, guarded by salt lines and every other protection they could find.

At first, Bowman didn't even register that there was another person in the room with them. That wasn't possible, so the looming figure only caused confusion at first. Then, the realization hit him and his wings snapped open in a startled threat display that felt woefully underwhelming.

He didn't know what an angel was, or what a castiel was. All he knew was that this giant had appeared out of nowhere, while the nestlings rested on, vulnerable and out in the open.

He glanced their way once before turning his wary glare on the man. At least Dean didn't seem ready to attack, and Jacob was too surprised to do much either. "What business do you have just appearing like that?!" he demanded. His wings remained open, even if he knew they wouldn't instill any fear. If he needed to, he was ready to dart to the side to guard the younger sprites.

Neither Bowman nor Dean appeared to faze Castiel, who looked around the room as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened. His gaze rested briefly on the sprite children, then on Bowman and Jacob, and finally fell to the Winchesters, whom he stood closest to.

Sam was the first to break the silence after Bowman's outburst. "W-what do you mean, archangel? " His voice shook, but he couldn't tell if it was from the sudden burst of nerves or the way Castiel's gaze left no tingle across his neck to tell him it was there.

Castiel met Sam's eyes evenly, and then Sam blinked and the angel was gone.

"It's good to finally meet you properly," came from right next to him, nearly jolting Sam two inches in the air.

The so-called angel stood next to Sam on the table, and was now a hair shorter than the younger hunter.

"Y-you j-just… How?!" Sam demanded.

"What's goin' on? " came from Dean's cell. Bobby was still on the line, his voice fading in and out.

"Call ya back!" Dean said, punching the END button before Bobby could protest.

One thing at a time.


A/N:

Presenting: Castiel, angel of the lord!

Enjoy the holidays and stay safe!

Cowritten by PL1, the creator of the Wellwood sprites and Jacob Andris!

Beta read by creatorofuniverses on tumblr.

Leave us a review to let us know what you think!

Next: December 27th, 2020 at 9pm