I guess I should get started on one of these now that I have a few chapters out
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Amongst the Stones
Synopsis:
Yew is a member of a borrower village—people that rarely exceed 5 inches in height—nestled amongst great boulders in the woods, where she holds the vital position of watch guard. It’s a fairly quiet life—they live nearly independent from humans, and rarely ever encounter them. A poor harvest however forces Yew and some others to venture into the human world for supplies, where Yew’s duty as guard is pitted against her overwhelming fear of humans whom she barely understands.
This story may delve into mature themes from time to time (such as language, violence and/or grief) but otherwise will be SFW. I'll try to use content warnings if appropriate.
Chapter 1: Desperate
Chapter 2: The Night Watch
Chapter 3: Upturned
Chapter 4: Atone
Chapter 5: Revenge
Chapter 6: Treason
Chapter 7: Exile
Chapter 8: Goodwill
Chapter 9: Rendezvous
Chapter 10: Losing It
Chapter 11: Snowfall
Chapter 12: In Defense
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One-Offs
Wretched Beasts
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Amongst the Stones will probably be my main focus for the foreseeable future but if I publish anything else it'll go here too. Also please note I have no upload schedule for anything, it's just whenever I feel it's ready. Enjoy :)
I know most borrower scenarios focus on individual borrowers and humans, but I think it’s really cute imagining a human befriending a whole community of borrowers and coexisting with them.
Imagine the human helping set up a little festival in their backyard, with stout candles set up like campfires for light for the borrowers, the human making a list of preferred food and drinks to supply for the festival, and the decorations provided by both the human and the borrowers…
You see a lot of art and stories with borrowers/fairies/etc riding or taming mice, rats, crows, hawks, etc - and don't get me wrong I love those - but I feel like there's not enough art or writing of borrowers interacting with bugs.
Just think of how many spiders you find in your home on a regular basis. Think of how many other bugs are crawling in your walls and void spaces. Think of how many bugs are in a square meter of your yard. I have to imagine that borrowers, especially if outside, would constantly be running into critters.
Consider the following:
Picking aphids off crops. It's probably like a human plucking grapes off a vine, except they can move and have legs. If you're very patient you might get a ladybug to eat one out of your hand
Going into your dug-out cellar and there's 3 hibernating woolly bear caterpillars just curled up in a corner somehow
Trying to get back into your house at night but the humans left a light on and there's one of those giant silk moths in your way and even though it's literally harmless you're too scared to shoo it because it's bigger than you
Keeping a wolf spider as a pet in your house. It darts across your floors at all hours, keeping your home pest free. But sometimes it just jumps on you out of nowhere
One of my story worlds has four kinds of tiny person, one of which used to live like borrowers before they were discovered. But the one that lived like borrowers were driders the size of ordinary spiders called Takers. They have four human arms and four spider legs.
The other kinds include chibis that average two inches tall (and they're the biggest kind of tiny in this world), Beetlefolk, and Gastri (singular Gastro, these are snail centaur things the size of garden snails).
Going to the Field Museum in Chicago, I got the idea of these tinies domesticating certain species of bugs. In real life, there are domesticated honeybees.
But that could require me to decide what they'd domesticate and what uses they'd have.
You see a lot of art and stories with borrowers/fairies/etc riding or taming mice, rats, crows, hawks, etc - and don't get me wrong I love those - but I feel like there's not enough art or writing of borrowers interacting with bugs.
Just think of how many spiders you find in your home on a regular basis. Think of how many other bugs are crawling in your walls and void spaces. Think of how many bugs are in a square meter of your yard. I have to imagine that borrowers, especially if outside, would constantly be running into critters.
Consider the following:
Picking aphids off crops. It's probably like a human plucking grapes off a vine, except they can move and have legs. If you're very patient you might get a ladybug to eat one out of your hand
Going into your dug-out cellar and there's 3 hibernating woolly bear caterpillars just curled up in a corner somehow
Trying to get back into your house at night but the humans left a light on and there's one of those giant silk moths in your way and even though it's literally harmless you're too scared to shoo it because it's bigger than you
Keeping a wolf spider as a pet in your house. It darts across your floors at all hours, keeping your home pest free. But sometimes it just jumps on you out of nowhere
trying to convince my friends to watch the secret world of arrietty with me (somebody mentioned studio ghibli so naturally i jumped on the opportunity)
n i was explaining who arrietty is and what borrowers are. and my friend cuts me off mid sentence to go “oh so she’s a thief.”
like damn if i woke up as a borrower tomorrow i know who’s house i don’t wanna be in…
Sunflower is a flower of the sun, summer, a symbol of loyalty and devotion.
I really love sunflowers, I've always associated Trevor with them.If I were talking about Bennett, I'd probably find some elegant flower that doesn't like a lot of sun. But a sunflower is a flower that is not difficult to find, to which you are accustomed, which is associated with the road to the village, to the house where you are expected, with summer days that are also waiting for you, with something happy, even if you have never experienced it.At least that's the case for me, even though I've seen sunflower fields in other circumstances, they've always been great, I've always wanted to just stop the car, run out and wander there, stay as long as possible.
It's bound to happen someday.
Drawing material: oil pastels.I love oil pastels, you don't have to mix colors for a long time (my hated part of drawing), you don't have to draw an exact sketch, it will be erased anyway.Just put the pastel on the paper and start, start painting with color.AHHH, my favorite material))
You see a lot of art and stories with borrowers/fairies/etc riding or taming mice, rats, crows, hawks, etc - and don't get me wrong I love those - but I feel like there's not enough art or writing of borrowers interacting with bugs.
Just think of how many spiders you find in your home on a regular basis. Think of how many other bugs are crawling in your walls and void spaces. Think of how many bugs are in a square meter of your yard. I have to imagine that borrowers, especially if outside, would constantly be running into critters.
Consider the following:
Picking aphids off crops. It's probably like a human plucking grapes off a vine, except they can move and have legs. If you're very patient you might get a ladybug to eat one out of your hand
Going into your dug-out cellar and there's 3 hibernating woolly bear caterpillars just curled up in a corner somehow
Trying to get back into your house at night but the humans left a light on and there's one of those giant silk moths in your way and even though it's literally harmless you're too scared to shoo it because it's bigger than you
Keeping a wolf spider as a pet in your house. It darts across your floors at all hours, keeping your home pest free. But sometimes it just jumps on you out of nowhere
Sometimes you just have to take a several months long break from posting chapters while you try to figure out the plot. And that's okay
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Chapter 12: In Defense
Word Count: 2.3k
CW: A little blood, nothing graphic
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Any previous notions Yew had of what this experience might feel like were quickly shattered as she realized just how awful being on a human was. Moving down the steps of the front porch felt like going straight into a short freefall, twice, and Hilda trudging through the deep snow didn’t feel much better. Yew’s stomach rose up with one step, only to sharply drop with the next. Through these jarring undulations, Yew gave Hilda strict instructions she could only hope would be followed.
“There’s one boulder closer to you than the rest, the one with a crack down the middle. Stop a little bit before it and I’ll get down.”
“Alright.”
Thankfully the torture only lasted a few minutes; it was quite shocking how much distance a human could cover in such a short amount of time. A couple feet away from Yew’s boulder, Hilda knelt down. But before Yew could get up from her position, both were startled by a small whirring noise that whipped past them. Another soon followed, and another. It wasn’t until one whirring sound was abruptly stopped by a muffled pop that Hilda realized the noises were coming from actual projectiles, and that they were being fired directly at her.
Moments after the first pop, several more could be heard, upon which Hilda realized those were the sounds of the projectiles embedding themselves into the surface of her coat. She looked down, incredibly confused, to find what appeared to be…small arrows, dotting her arms and chest, with another flurry on its way. She lifted her arms to cover herself, but not before a few of the arrows lodged themselves into her face.
She leaned down, her face contorted from the punctures. “Ack…why?!” Though she couldn’t see who was firing at her, she had a decent idea. “I’m just here to drop off Yew!”
Yew, meanwhile, wasn’t quite aware of what was happening. From her perch in the hood of Hilda’s coat, she could barely see over Hilda’s shoulder. She knew something was wrong though when Hilda coiled into a defensive posture.
“Yew! They’re firing at me!”
“What?” Yew pinched the fabric of the hood with her hands and hoisted herself up onto Hilda’s shoulder. From this vantage point she understood what Hilda was talking about. The villagers had taken defensive positions, and she spotted several archers peering out from their hiding places to launch arrows in their direction before ducking back down. They were easily seen by Yew, but she imagined if one didn’t know where to look they’d be nearly invisible.
“Stop!” Yew shouted, but the volley continued. They couldn’t hear her. Biting her tongue, Yew stumbled onto Hilda’s arm and slid down with surprising grace. With Yew in full view out in the open, the arrows ceased almost immediately.
For several seconds the whirring was replaced by silence, interrupted only by the occasional sound of a snow flurry billowing past in the distance. Yew decided she would have to be the one to break it. Jumping off Hilda and onto her boulder, she climbed to its peak and addressed the villagers.
“It’s okay,” Yew bellowed. She turned around to face Hilda, who had since lowered her arms. She had an expression that Yew had never seen on a human before…her eyes wide, mouth slightly open…she looked rather horrified. A few drops of blood had begun to trickle out of the wounds in her face, the arrows still lodged inside. Without any words, she quickly got up and rushed back to the cabin.
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Once Hilda had gone back inside, a quiet but steadily rising cheer emerged from the stones. The archers and other villagers popped out from their hiding places to see that they had successfully scared the human away, a feat even the toughest outdoor borrower clans would find impressive.
Yew plodded her way down her stone and into the awaiting crowd. The elders, the younger adults, even the children all scrutinized her intensely, checking for injuries or anything else out of place. She couldn’t help but wince under such thorough examination. Her distraught expression caught the attention of the mayor, who meandered his way through the crowd.
“Yew, welcome home! Hawthorn told me you got stuck over there. I hope that human didn’t hurt you.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “She didn’t. I just…couldn’t leave yet.”
The group now enclosing them grew impatient with their questions. One spoke up. “Why’d the human come over here? Did she follow you?” Then another. “What did she want?!”
The mayor, diplomatic as always, reassured the crowd, only this time he sounded much more relieved. “I’m sure Yew has a lot to tell us, but for now let’s give her some time to settle back in.” He grinned. “I don’t think that human will be coming back.” He turned to face her, his voice much quieter. “Tonight, at the meeting hall. Perhaps you’d like to regale us with your adventures then?”
“I suppose so.”
“Wonderful. I’ll see that a celebration is in order.”
With that, the crowd slowly dispersed, returning to the warmth of their homes. Yew walked back to her boulder, shivering slightly as her body finally took notice of the cold outdoor air. Once in her home, she finally took a deep, relaxed breath and flopped onto her bed.
She woke up some time later to a knocking outside her home. Groggily, she stumbled out of bed and poked her head through the doorway where a familiar figure stood, perturbed.
“Hawthorn.”
“Yew. Is this a bad time?”
“No, it’s alright. Come in.”
They both sat down at Yew’s table, which was hardly big enough for two people. Yew waited for Hawthorn to speak, but when he didn’t after nearly a minute, she finally asked the question.
“What did you tell them?”
“Not much,” he replied. “I told them the human was looking for bugs, not us, and that you were okay but needed to stay longer. I didn’t get into specifics.”
“Did they believe you?”
“I think most did, but there’s a lot of skepticism. I have a feeling there will be a lot of questions tonight.”
Yew sighed. “...Yeah, I imagine there will be.”
Hawthorn stared at the floor contemplatively. “What are you going to tell them? If you want to come up with an explanation, you’d best get your facts straight now. I’ll help, if you want.”
Yew shook her head. “I can’t lie to them anymore.”
He gave an understanding nod. “Alright. Still, if you want help, let me know.” He got up and started walking towards the doorway before stopping abruptly and turning around. “By the way, how’d you get that human to take you home?
“I asked her.”
“What did you offer in return?”
“Nothing. I just asked and she said yes.”
“Really?” He seemed genuinely surprised. “Hm.” With that, he turned back to the doorway and headed outside.
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It was probably around eight in the evening or so when the villagers began to gather in the meeting hall. Unlike most of the borrower homes, the meeting hall was entirely underground—repurposed from some animal burrow. The walls and ceiling of the hall had been reinforced with carefully cut stone slabs and stone archways, but the floor remained packed dirt. Various small holes were carved out of the ceiling for ventilation, and also to allow a large bonfire to be placed in the center. It was a grand room by borrower standards, easily capable of housing the entire village, and indeed it served as a shelter for the village in violent storms. Several narrow tunnels connected the room to the homes in the boulders above.
Yew made her way to the meeting hall with the others, surprised to see that in the short time since the snowstorm, the villagers had already begun the work of plowing and packing the snow on the surface into walkable paths, making travel within the village significantly easier. They had even marked out fake deer tracks in the peripheries to make it look as though the area around the stones was disturbed by foraging deer rather than its actual inhabitants. She headed further down into one of the connecting tunnels, at the end of which she was met with a roaring bonfire and several tables of premium food laid out for all the townspeople.
The mayor certainly wasn’t kidding about a celebration. Dried meats, fruits, and whole foraged nuts were laid out in surplus, so much so that Yew questioned if they had really needed to borrow from the cabin in the first place. It all seemed a bit much just to mark her return home…but Yew supposed there was also reason to celebrate for scaring Hilda away. She sat quietly among the others as she ate, trying her best to be cordial but avoiding too much conversation.
As the banquet settled down, and the children went off to play amongst themselves or fell asleep, Yew and the other adults took to sitting near the bonfire. Despite the battle earlier, most seemed to be in good spirits, joking and laughing with each other. Only Yew and Hawthorn seemed a bit apprehensive to join in their jubilation. Eventually, the mayor quieted everyone down so Yew could tell them exactly what happened in the cabin over the last two weeks.
Several dozen pairs of eyes on her, and sweating anxiously despite the cold, Yew began. She kept it light at first, about how nice it was to be in a heated home, how she evaded the cat and how easy it was to borrow from such an oblivious human. There were even chuckles and cheers when she mentioned cutting the shower pipe in an attempt at revenge. But as the story went on, and Yew nervously explained her thinking and how she ended up speaking to the human, the smiles around the fire soon disappeared, replaced by expressions of confusion, concern, and once again—fear. Yew thought she might be interrupted by questions, but her audience remained silent as she continued—she talked about the conversations they had together, how she helped the human when they were sick, how she wasn’t alarmed by her instincts, and of course, how Hilda brought her home. At the end, Yew looked around the fire at her fellow borrowers—only to see most had gone pale as ghosts.
After a moment of silence Yew spoke up again, trying to alleviate their fear. “I really do think, though, that we don’t have to worry about the human any further. Especially after today.”
For once, the mayor offered no reassurance, as speechless as the rest of them. Once or twice he sat up as though he might say something, only to slouch back down with nothing said. Several hushed whispers filled the air. Finally, across the room from Yew, Hawthorn spoke up. “I think Yew’s right.” Everyone turned to face him. Yew relaxed slightly with the attention taken off of her.
Hawthorn continued. “Based on what Yew said, that human had many opportunities to seek her out or try and capture her, and didn’t. Even when Yew revealed herself. Our instincts are not to be taken lightly either. If Yew didn’t sense danger with the human, then I don’t believe there was any.” He looked around at the others’ faces, his gaze steady.
One of the other men sat up. “As long as the human doesn’t come back here, I suppose we’re not in danger.”
Across from him, a young mother chimed in. “The human knows where we are. How can we trust them with that knowledge?”
The debate continued back and forth around the fire, until it began to splinter into smaller discussions and murmurs, each no closer to an agreement than before. The mayor, still at a loss for words, sighed and listened quietly, resting his chin on his closed fist. Yew, only a few feet away from him, got up and sat down beside him.
“I’m—I’m sorry,” she choked out. “This is why I was afraid to come home. I know there’s no fixing this.” Her throat tightened up as she rose to her feet. “If…I’m not welcome here anymore—”
“Stop.” He looked up at her. “They’re scared, Yew. I’m scared. It only makes sense. But, I want you to look at them—not a single one is angry with you. We don’t reject our own, we move forward.”
“How can you be so sure?” she inquired.
“Listen.” Yew strained to hear the hushed conversations. She could make out talks of building better defensive structures, temporarily relocating, digging out more underground rooms, even scaring the human further. “They’re all trying to figure out our next move. Not one of these conversations has been about blame.”
Yew found that hard to believe, but the more she listened, the more it seemed the mayor was right. She couldn’t make out her name in any of the whispers.
“Now, chances are they’re going to keep talking for a while, and I should probably stay here in case they have any questions for me. But if you’d like to head out for the night, go ahead.”
“...Alright.” Yew wasn’t expecting the group would let her leave any time soon, assuming she’d be bombarded with accusations for most of the night. Instead, she got up and quietly made her way to one of the tunnels, most not even taking notice of her leaving. Feeling as though she could breathe ever so slightly more easily, Yew got in her bed and soon fell into a dreamless sleep.
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A/N: Sorry for the long wait, lol. I wanted to finish this arc of the story before posting any more chapters, which took a while. I now have up to chapter 16 written and I hope to publish these somewhat more regularly. These will more or less conclude "part one" of the story and after that I'll likely take another hiatus from posting while I work on writing the next part. Thanks for reading!
"It was reckless and stupid, no doubt, but also strangely thrilling to address and be answered by a creature of so vast in size, who yet could seem so gentle; to see the giant eyes light up and the great mouth softly smile."
hell yeah you should and ill explain why (spoilers for iron giant)
I didn't realize it until this gif, but its a small parallel to the dead deer scene earlier in the movie, where howgarth is explaining death to the giant. He reached out to nudge it awake, where howgarth yells at him not to do it. He remembers he's not supposed to disturb the dead.
Howgarth isn't dead in this scene, he's knocked out. But the giant doesn't know that. Despite all that love he has for his friend, he lays dead as a result of forces he doesn't even know. All those memories, gone in an instant and he can't even feel his embrace one last time, or he disrespects what Howgarth begged of him.
There is so much love he has in his heart, but has to restrain it out of fear of hurting Howgarth again. And isn't that already tragic? To love in spite of the trials given just by difference alone?
I love that g/t trope where because of some suddenly dangerous situation. The giant has to quickly grab the small in the situation. especially if they aren't fully comfortable being picked up yet. Maybe it sets off the tiny's fear respond, and they struggle in their hand. It's fruitless, but the giant can still feel it. They have to protect their friend at all cost, but its killing them that they had to do it so forcefully. Because it isnt a pet or animal in their hands, but another person. Living and breathing, and they took away their agency. Even if for but a moment. And the tiny, truely has to come to terms with just how powerless they are. No matter how much their friend tries to treat them as an equal. Their is nothing they could do if they truly wanted to hurt them.
Mini lore snippet lol: at first I just doodled the cat alone in the middle of a page, but I loved him so much I just turned the page and drew the whole thing. He's so great.
Yes, this is a very short part, compared to what it was.But please don't think that I've run out of ideas, I just want to do a few nice and calm chapters before moving on to a new story arc.And it would be strange if Barbara came to meet Trevor and after that they would not interact at all, because they have similar personalities, or at least behavior, they would be good friends.
In the future, they will also come up with fun activities together, so I still have time to come up with something else these two could surprise Bennett with
