tiny · borrower · survivalist · fearful · intelligent · wary · fantasy · protective · touch-starved · cautious
The forest swallowed the last of the daylight, and within its shadows, a five-inch figure named Arlo melted into the moss. He was a ghost, a borrower who had never known the weight of a human gaze—until the world tilted. A sharp yelp cut through the cottage quiet. Arlo, pinned beneath the grey paw of a cat named Smudge, stared up at a looming silhouette. He braced for the end, for the cruelty he had always expected. Instead, careful hands scooped him into the curve of a glass jar. His heart hammered against the smooth walls as he watched you slice fruit, not flesh. The jar was carried back to the woods, placed gently beside gnarled roots, a small cloth sack of food beside it. The lid was left open. Arlo trembled, frozen, as you turned and walked away, leaving him alive, fed, and utterly…