A Tall and Small Collection | S2

Epilogue

Was it possible to be so happy? Was it possible to experience this kind of bliss? To think so many years ago that he was the lowest of the low, scraping just to get by. Now, he and his family were able to live comfortably - happy.

They were able to live their lives and then some because they were doing it together.

Soren couldn't believe his life. It was the best of all worlds, and all because of one terrifying accident so long ago. He couldn't have known that accidentally getting snapped in that mousetrap could have given him and his family opportunities that no other Borrower was able to experience.

At least, that he was aware of that is.

From the community that blossomed to his time spent with Ashlynn, everything felt better than a dream.

He remembered their moving day fondly.

Moving wasn't the hard part. It was figuring out what to do with the space since there was so much of it. The attic was the perfect place for the Borrower community. There was sunlight, which many of them hadn't been accustomed to in a long time, and the vertical space was amazing.

With a little help from Ashlynn as well as a few well thought out purchases, bookshelves were installed and constructed to make apartments and hallways for the Borrowers. Many of them started their own constructions by using popsicle sticks to make cottages and homes in the main area in the middle of the room.

It was agreed that Ashlynn wouldn't go upstairs to the attic unless invited or scheduled and, naturally, she wouldn't interact unless spoken to first.

The days of the Borrower community were spent in an unprecedented era of peace. They didn't always need to borrow food, water, and tools. Some of them found a way to the roof and or the back yard to tend to their own gardens. Granted, they had to be careful when they went outside because of Bella, but her time outside was always predictable and came with a warning of Ashlynn or Theo calling for her to be careful.

If they needed something, they could interact or be as invisible as they always had been. Nothing on that front had changed, but young Borrower children were being told the stories of how they came to this house and how it was with this one, helpful human that it was all possible.

Hero had something to do with those stories. Though the number of humans he could help daily had significantly decreased, he was able to stay in contact with Sam through the game station Ashlynn got him for his birthday. Hero and a few others sometimes went to neighborhood houses to borrow and gather various supplies, which was the opportune time for him to go and help the people they went to go borrow from.

On these adventures, Hero made sure to be careful and, thankfully, he wasn't seen by any of the neighborhood humans. His days of going out and being seen had grown more cautious. He did frequently miss those days and looked on them fondly, but only when necessary would he reveal himself.

Rey, more often than not, would go on these adventures with Hero. The two of them would go on little camping adventures to the tree in the backyard. Rey, not so secretly, was building a "secret hideout" in the tree where he had additional supplies and places to test his more unorthodox inventions. With Theo in the house, the two of them would venture out there and test some of their more sophisticated devices.

It was also a chance for Rey to practice his flying. Despite the instruction manual saying otherwise, some of those little drones were capable of carrying weight, and Rey happened to fit nicely underneath the whirling blades.

The first time he tried his new toy, he ended up with one whole part of his arm scabbed, but it only fueled him to practice and do better. Within a week, Rey was flying everywhere in a MacGyvered style drone with a controller. In a few words, he was a natural; but not only at flying. Turned out that Rey also had a knack for 3D printing and virtual design. Once Theo showed him how to work the program, he was off to the races.

Not only was he making designs with Theo for their now joined business, he was making things for the girl whose affections he won. Larkspur, the Borrower girl he saved, ended up developing the biggest crush on Rey. It would take months of her asking him to help her readjust the wheelchair he helped construct for her for him to get the hint that she just wanted to spend time with them.

Very soon after, the two of them were spending nearly every waking hour with one another. It would take another month for them to admit their affections to Soren and Ashlynn, but they soon were branded with the boyfriend girlfriend label and they became inseparable.

Turned out, Larkspur was rather adventurous and was always testing the limits once she broke out of her timid shell and was allowed time to heal from her ordeal with Austin. It even seemed like she might be able to walk again with the tips and tricks Theo was able to give her.

That was another thing that was a little different for their new living space – they gained a new basement companion. After some discussion, Theo and Bella did move into the basement of Ashlynn's home. While Bella wasn't told the secret of who else lived with them, Theo was more than willing to help where he could, inventing and printing anything and everything the Borrowers needed.

The little coins that Rey and Hero found were, as a matter of fact, actually quite valuable. While some of them merely looked like pennies and dimes, several of those coins were rare enough to pay for Theo's medical bills as well as the startup for his and Rey's business, which they worked on frequently.

Dorian's days were recently spent with his music troupe as well as his own songwriting. His follower count had skyrocketed to the point where many were asking for him to release his own album or music video. It took some convincing and some ingenuity, but the music troupe and Rey came up with the perfect setting and mechanisms to actually pull off his first music video.

Some of the Borrowers who were interested in technology but never had the opportunity spent time learning how to edit videos and photos, working in groups to get phones and other smaller cameras to take the pictures they wanted.

The anonymity of their online presences let them venture into new territory and explore parts of their personalities that even they didn't know they enjoyed.

Soren and Ashlynn, along with Mayzie, spent most of their time together. Soren and Mayzie more frequently tagged along with Ashlynn to various house showings so they could explore the walls. Now that Mayzie was getting older, she needed to understand how to use the hooks and lines.

Years passed and Mayzie came to know Ashlynn as mom, even calling her that. Though Mayzie knew her mother, Lucy, was gone and Soren made sure to tell her stories about her mother, it was Ashlynn who stepped in and had difficult, emotional conversations with the thumb-sized Borrower girl. Ashlynn made sure she helped train Mayzie to respect the fear that came with interacting with humans while training her, but also had discussions about how different their life was compared to the lives of other Borrowers.

The two of them were thick as thieves, and Ashlynn, Soren, and Mayzie became a kind of three musketeers.

When Mayzie was off playing with the other Borrower children and when Soren's brothers were otherwise occupied, it was Ashlynn and Soren - as it was in the beginning.

Forthe Borrowers and the humans inside, their world became that house, and thathouse became their world – and the adventures they were about to embark on wereonly just beginning.