Chapter Text
As the day was turning into night and entering that moment where the sun colors the sky in red, everyone here and there were coming back home on this lovely day of autumn. Despite a light cold wind, the weather was fine, and red and orange trees completed the lovely scenery of a calm town. Most people probably enjoyed this day. But for some, the day was not finished… If by chance you are looking into a small and dark alley between two houses, you will see nothing. And it’s better like this, for the small adventurers who are trying to silently find an entrance.
Wearing heavy backpacks two silhouettes were hiding behind large trash cans. One of them had strange features – long horizontal ears sticking out from long messy black hair and a lion-like tail moving nervously between his legs. Even if his front pack was hiding most of his torso, a red scarf and a black jacket were still visible. His pale face was watching the individual in front of him, a genderless figure characterized by a brown color palette. From head to toe, he was dressing in brown of different shades, including his tan skin and his light brown hair. Wearing one bag on his back, he was inspecting a small vent.
“So? What do you think?” Asked the dark-haired figure, observing his partner from behind.
“The vent seems abandoned. No one will pay attention to it, but it may be full of pests.”
A gust of cold wind chose this moment to blow into the small alley, making the dark-haired man shiver.
“Hmm… The night will be here soon… I don’t think we have the choice…” he said.
“I know you are exhausted… Me too. But don’t worry Gregory, we have each other’s back. Plus, it’s only for the night, we could still leave in the morning if it’s too uncomfortable,” answered the brown figure in a confident way that was meant to be reassuring.
“Yeah… You’re right,” said Gregory, sensible of the short motivational speech.
The brown-haired man began to dislocate the already-broken bottom line of the old vent, and so created a way inside. For more discretion, he left his bag outside and then went into the vent. His partner helped him to silently bring all the bags into the vent. When both were safely inside, Gregory lit a lantern made with a small yellow LED and a handmade switch.
“Better be inside than outside,” whispered Gregory, feeling the warmer air in the vent.
“Especially at the night,” finished his companion.
Especially when you are less than 5 inches tall. Despite their differences, one common point was shared by the two individuals: their size. For humans small folks only exist in tales and legends, but there is still a part of truth in the stories. There’s no smoke without fire, right? The mere existence of the two borrowers was the proof of this truth. Living in such a big world can be dangerous. Rodents, birds, dogs, cats, big spiders… lots of things could see them as prey. And the worst of them are the humans. The dominating species. Throughout history they decided to impose themselves by domination, destruction and appropriation of everything they saw. Such beings are already so dangerous for their environment, and even more when they are fifteen times your size. All borrowers were taught this and learned to survive as best as they could away from humans’ gaze. But despite their dangerousness, living close to them provides one of the best chances to survive, for a borrower. Living in their walls can bring you warmth, easy protection from the weather and wildlife, access to a stable food source, drinkable water, specific materials such as iron, plastic, rubber… That is the life that inside-borrowers chose. Naturally, some borrowers live far from their worst fear, they are called outside-borrowers. However Nature gives them other difficulties to overcome, from wild animals to changing weather. No matter where borrowers decided to live, each day their survival was challenged.
The two companions were walking down the vent to leave the cold from the outside. They marked their path regularly to make sure they had an exit if anything bad happened. When they didn’t feel the wind on their bodies anymore, they decided to take the next turn and get ready for the night. The end of the tunnel faced the inside of the wall. The thin space was dark but welcoming for the small explorers; it was much warmer than the vent and the thick isolating wool could probably be used to make a warmq blanket. Despite the building being old and made of brick, which was known to keep its coolness, the borrowers could enjoy a warm night.
Just as they turned the lantern lit up two silhouettes, projecting their shadows on the walls behind them. Based on their shadows, it seemed that the silhouettes were huddling and appeared as a round mass. What was making the shadows was definitely alive, due to the sudden movement made by one of the silhouettes getting closer to the other. The newcomers in the walls stopped, on alert, and tried to study the mysterious shadows, to know if they were in danger or not. Both pulled out their weapons, their long needles, and got closer to whatever it was. As they went slowly closer, they could distinguish dark humanoid features and a pair of bright green eyes.
Now standing in front of the silhouettes, both could clearly see who they belonged to – two young borrowers with dark skin and black hair. The younger figure, with messy curly short hair, was looking at the incomers with big brown eyes full of tears on the verge to rolling down, and scooted closer to the older one. The other one was taller and had less chubby features, his frizzy hair was short too but a lone lock of hair dressed with pearls was hanging on his right. He was the one with the bright green eyes. He had his left arm protectively around the smaller borrower, and was pointing at the strangers with a shard of glass wrapped into a cloth. It seemed that they ripped off a piece of the blanket hugging the young boys as an improvised guard. Despite being a bit hidden because of the light directly on them, their eyes were screaming fear and exhaustion. They couldn’t be older than 10.
“Carl…” gasped Gregory. “They… They are kids.”
“I see that…” answered Carl, as shocked as his partner.
Touched by the wary looks of the kids, Gregory sheathed his needle, knelt in front of them and showed his empty hands in an attempt to appear friendlier and non-threatening. Now closer to the boys’ perspective, he could clearly see that they were both shaking.
“We mean no harm. We were just looking for a place tonight. I’m Gregory, you can call me Greg, and this is Carl. We can help you, if you need it. How long have you been here?”
A bit behind Greg, Carl nodded at the mention of his name. He was observing the scene, his needle still in hand but hidden. Even if he didn’t think the kids could attack, the older one was still aiming at them with the shard of glass and his fear could lead to unreasonable and uncontrollable decisions.
Quickly after the presentation, the kids looked to each other, and in a silent agreement they seemed to accept their help by lowering their improvised weapon. The older one cleared his throat before answering with a raspy voice.
“We… we don’t know… probably two or three days… We may need help.”
“We can help you. Are there only two of you?” replied the adult borrower, trying to hide his shock.
“As far I know, yes.” he said while nodding.
“Are any of you injured or feeling sick?”
“No… I don’t think so…”
The crouching adult opened a pouch in his front bag and pulled out two blueberries, each one carefully wrapped in a leaf, and offered them to the kids in front of him.
“You must be hungry. Here, take this. It’s not much, but it’s all we can offer you for now.”
The older kid took the blueberries from his hands and handed one to his younger brother, always keeping an eye on the stranger. The younger one looked to his older brother who returned his look. After a silent conversation between the kids, the younger one brought his attention back to the fruit in his hands, and dug his teeth furiously into the blueberry. More carefully, the older one began to eat his fruit, but rapidly devoured it with the same energy as his younger brother.
Same as the kids, the adults shared a look, and came to same conclusion: they really need help and they will not survive alone. Carl finally sheathed his needle and crouched next to his partner.
“We can’t leave these kids on their own. They are too young,” whispered Greg. The kids seemed too focused on their meal and didn’t hear them at such a low volume.
“I know that… But what are we doing now?”
“I don’t know.”
“You seem to have a good touch with them. How about I explore the surroundings and you stay with the kiddos?”
“Sounds right. Be careful, please.”
“Always, darling,” replied Carl, giving a quick kiss to Gregory before standing up.
Coming back to reality after finishing their blueberries, the kids jumped a little seeing the other adult suddenly standing back up.
“Oh…” Carl exclaimed seeing the kids reaction. “The name’s Carl. I’m going for a stroll, just checking the rest of the walls. I won’t be long and Gregory will stay with you, so don’t worry, everything is fine. You are safe with us.”
With these words Carl put down his heavy backpack, only taking his borrowing bag, and left the small group, while Gregory got closer to the kids.
“Okay, kids. Let’s talk about… things!” said Gregory, trying to find a harmless topic of conversation. “First of all what are your names?”
“I’m Elmet,” answered the older one.
“And I’m Julian!” piped the younger one. “I’m his younger brother!”
“How lucky you are to have each other! I’m an only child, I don’t have any siblings. Sometimes, I’m jealous of other people with siblings. And how old are you?”
“I’m 4! And Elmet is… hum…”
“8,” intervened Elmet.
“Yes! He is 8!” exclaimed Julian, showing his fingers, four on one hand and four on the other one, just in front of Greg’s face.
“Wow! You two are such big kids!” And too young to be alone like this… thought Greg, horrified about the situation. “And I see you know your numbers, that’s great!”
“Yeah, mommy taught me.” replied the young kid, before pausing and looking down, feeling the tears coming back to his eyes as he thought about his mother.
“It’s okay, it’s okay! You don’t need to worry, while we are here, Carl or me, you have nothing to worry about. You’re safe with us and everything will be okay. How about we play a small game?”
Gregory was obviously aware that the brothers were mourning their parents, it’s something they would need to open up about to help grow up healthy, and the sooner the better. But now was not the time, he just wanted the kids to feel as safe as possible and far from negative thoughts, and it goes with trust, reassuring presence, and positive energy. Plus there was a very slim chance their parents were still somewhere in the building, and Carl would find them, and it would be a happily ever after ending. Greg had always been a hopeless optimist and relied a lot on hope to survive mentally in the world. But in this situation hope would probably not be enough…
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About an hour later, during which Gregory discussed and played a lot with the brothers, Carl came back from his exploration. It was not considered a long time for a borrower to do a one hour exploration, but he was already tired from a long journey when he went there. So when he came back, dust and fatigue could be seen on his face. Jogging towards the trio, he stopped a few meters before them and glanced at Greg to speak in private. The black-haired adult immediately noticed the glance and quickly stood up while apologizing to the kids. Even if the return of the other adult meant important news, the kids tried to keep up the good ambiance they formed with Greg to lighten up their mood.
“So, how is it?” whisper the black-haired one.
“Well… depending on the perspective you have, I have bad news and good news,” answer his partner. “Bad news, I didn’t find any trace of borrowers in the building, so no parents around. Good news, it seems to be a good place to settle. I think we need to make a decision.”
“Yeah, we need to decide… together.”
Turning toward the brothers, the kids were looking at them with a bit of wariness in their eyes. Carl looked at them and with a sorry look shook his head. The tears began to well up in Julian’s eyes, while Elmet’s face dropped. Greg immediately crouched in front of them.
“Hey hey hey, don’t worry we’re gonna find a solution.”
“Yeah don’t worry, everything is fine,” joined Carl, sitting next to his companion. “In fact, I may have a solution. Would you like to live with us here? We will not stop the search in the meantime, I swear. The building is quite big, I didn’t have time to search in every area but your parents could still be here.”
“Yes! Your parents couldn’t be very far from here.”
“Really?” Asked Elmet, unsure about the proposition.
“Of course! You can stay with us as long as you wish, until we find your parents, does that sound right?” responded the brown-haired borrower.
“Yes, it does. Thank you very much.” replied the older brother, relaxed to have finally found help in this nightmare.
“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” exclaimed Julian, hugging Greg’s thigh.
Elmet proceeded to do the same thing to Carl, and quickly it ended up as a big group family hug. The small reunion lasted until both kids fell asleep, exhausted by all of these emotions. For the night, the adults decided to sleep here and add their own blankets to the kids’ one. They finally all slept together, Julian and Elmet in the center, and Greg and Carl around them, interlacing their hands over the kids.
They couldn’t imagine that this decision would lead them to something much bigger.