A scientist obsessed with learning more about the mysterious borrowers of legend creates a device to allow herself to see their world more clearly.
Regrettably, her first expedition goes massively awry.
She sighed as she gazed up at the massive plastic structure, almost unrecognizable as the masterfully crafted result of almost 2 decades of her work that it was. Panic had long since given way to dread which in turn had given way to frustration at the fact that she was more than able to reach her size ray but unable to even begin to use it due to her size.
The flea sized mouse sat under the loop of the trigger guard, feeling almost taunted by the shadow of a trigger she couldn't hope to press even if she had an army of dust sized scientists assisting her. Was this that hubris that lecturers kept warning her about?
All Irma could do was sit and seethe while pondering how she might meet her end in this situation. There was of course the inkling of a hope that someone might visit the old abandoned house she picked to conduct her experiment...but being a mouse of science she didn't put too much stock into that happening. Besides, she was so unfathomably small that she would likely go unnoticed and her size ray dismissed as a discarded toy.
No, most likely she would get eaten. The only question that remained was by what? Perhaps a cockroach would make a meal out of her, or perhaps she'd have the grand honor of serving as an ornament on a spiders Web until the arachnid could be bothered to eat her. So many possibilities.
Irma sighed again. This was on her for not following proper experiment procedure, having a partner or two to make sure she didn't shrink her self too small or something. In hindsight she likely should have designed the ray to be something other than gun shaped. The mouse cursed her tendency to allow excitement to overshadow her reason. She had plenty of time to mentally admonish herself until the end, at least.
As she was about to lie down and give up, the ground shook under her feet. The mouse bolted upright and onto her feet, fearing an earthquake. Another tremor coursed through the tile floor, nearly throwing her off her feet. "What the he-" she mouthed as a third, far stronger tremor shook her clean off her feet.
A shadow passed overhead as a massive shape peaked past the grip of the size ray. Irma froze and stare up at the silhouetted figure, primal instincts screaming at her to get up and run but the mouse's body was too paralyzed with fear to even shake.
The massive figure moved closer and blotted out the bright light of the midday sun that flooded the abandoned home and could be seen clearer. A colossal possum stood by her size ray, the single largest living thing Irma had ever seen. The ground shook with each of this titans movements as it seemed to focus on the size ray in front if it.
She blinked, feeling as if time had just unfrozen for her. For a moment she had forgotten her own situation and fully believed she was looking up at some unfathomable massive colossus, but her mind quickly caught up and noted that this giant only stood about as tall as her size ray was wide, i.e only about three inches at most. It was a borrower.
Irma's mind raced. She had just become the first person to find definitive proof that borrowers were in fact real. Her eyes darted and up and down the massive figure's body, examining every detail she could as fast as she could make them out.
The borrowers were said to be just like tiny people, but Irma had assumed that this was simply a mistaken account or the result of multiple folktales merging over time. But this possum would have been nearly identical to a regular person were it not for their size...relatively speaking of course.
The possums build was slim, definitely more on the bottom heavy side. Irma could see it was a male judging by the breadth of his chest. His clothing was made of brownish-reddish cloth, crudely stitched together and held in place by over-sized buttons, confirming another of her theories that borrowers were in fact intelligent and not mythical pests.
Her heart began to race. Perhaps this borrower might assist her. From what she had studied about them throughout history, she gathered that borrowers did have something of a moral code, only taking what they needed to survive, hence the name borrower. If she could get his attention she might be able to get back to her normal size!
Irma quickly began to run towards the towering borrower, waving her arms wildly. "Hey! Heeeeey! Down he-"
She had not even traveled ten meters before the giant shifted. It happened so suddenly that she could barely react in time as the gigantic borrower stepped around the size ray. In the blink of an eye a gigantic foot slammed down inches away from her, the impact sending her reeling back in shock as a gust if displaced air knocked her down.
Irma slowly picked herself up, finding herself faced with a crudely-made-sandal covered foot that had nearly ended her life in a second. Had she not been shaking with fear and adrenaline she might have found it ironic that she'd almost died being stepped on by something so small. She picked herself up and stared up, unable to even see the borrowers face from her position. The mouse swallowed to steady her nerves before trying again.
One moment there had been a big wandering around the house, not the usual bigs that showed up occasionally that always took the same route around the house, always using strange terms such as 'restoration' and 'market value'. The next moment this intruder was gone. While the situation reeked of danger, Orris couldn't help but allow his curiosity to get the better of him.
All he could see was this strange object. It looked like a toy gun as far as he knew...but somehow more intricate, and certainly heavier. The mouse had brought this with her and then left it and for the life of him he couldn't tell why.
As the possum fiddled with the device, examining it from every side, he heard the faintest, softest squeak. Orris craned his head around to discern the source but as soon as he moved it stepped. The borrower grunted to himself.
When he turned his attention back to strange device, the sound appeared again. The possum tensed up and slowly looked around, slowly tracing the noise towards the ground. As he looked to his feet, he saw a tiny white speck standing about an inch away from his left foot.
On any other day, he would have assumed this to be some sort of pest, like a flea or something. But this was an odd day. Orris opted to take a closer look. The little speck visibly shifted away from him as he knelt down, not taking his eyes off it for even a second. When he got closer, his face practically level with his knee, Orris could see what it was.
It took him a moment to register what he was looking at. It was like seeing something familiar but in such an unfamiliar location that it short circuited his mind for a bit. For a moment he thought he might be hallucinating, that was the only explanation he could think of as to why he was seeing the mouse lade from earlier on the floor, barely taller than the sole of his sandals. Orris flinched as the mouse waved.
The mouse flinched at his flinching but seemingly managed to steady herself. She brushed herself off and adjusted her glasses, the faintest throat clearing could be heard. "Oh thank goodness you found me! Uh-greetings!" She squeaked in a high pitched, hard to hear voice. "I-i am professor Irma. Do you uh- speak?"
He blinked, still unsure whether what he was seeing was real or not. "Yes?" Orris leaned in closer. "W-what are you?"
The mouse breathed a sigh of relief, her tail twitching excitedly, as if elated at the fact he could speak. "F-fantastic! I uh- I'm not sure what you call us but I'm a normal sized person. I came here to study borrowers using my newest invention but i-- i overdid it a bit."
Orris furrowed his brow. He glanced up at the device and then back down to the mouse. "This object did this to you?"
"It's a size ray." Irma corrected. "It can shrink and grow things in size." The mouse wrung her hand together nervously. "Could you help me? I'm too small to turn myself back to normal."
The possums brow furrowed a bit at the word 'normal'. He examined the device closer. "How does it work."
"On the side is a dial uh- the round button there." She explained. "If you spin that towards yourself it should work in reverse."
Orris nodded, still unsure if this was a dream or not. "Uh huh."
"Now, I'm not sure how we should do this-" Irma continued. "Maybe you could hold me in front of the barrel and somehow reach the trigge-" before she could finish her pondering, the possum rose back to his full height. "Wait, what are you doing?"
He ignored her squeaking and quickly reached for the dial of the device. He turned it around until the dial pointed towards the number '1' and stepped away from the mouse, positioning himself until he was right in front of the barrel and just barely able to reach the trigger with his foot. Orris cast a glance at the floor, spotting the little speck of a mouse frantically calling and waiving at him. He gave her a wide smirk before putting pressure on the trigger.
A bright flash flooded his eyes. The possum let out a shrill shriek as he felt a shock through his entire body. When his vision finally cleared, the world around him looked far different, almost alien.
Chairs and tables that once towered over him now looked just the right size to sit in. Shelves that he could once walk across now seemed barely spacious enough to hold even a single foot. The house that had been an entire world to him was now nothing but a cramped space that he could barely walk around in without bumping into something.
He looked down at the floor, spotting the size ray. The possum bent forward and picked it up, examining the toy like device briefly before turning his attention back to the floor, smirking down at the little flea of a big he knew was down there.
"Sorry about this- Irma? Was it?" Orris said in a faux sad tone. "But I'm thinking I'm gonna borrow this from you." He twisted the knob further and further until he couldn't twist it anymore. "Honestly, I don't know why you bigs think us borrowers want anything to do with you."
He raised his foot over the area the size ray had been sitting in, assuming he wouldn't miss the little mouse.
"But I gotta thank you. I've had a grudge with your kind all my life and you just gave me exactly the thing I need to pay you bigs back for a lifetime of traps, poisons and all sorts of nasty business." The possum smirked wider. "I think it's time for a change, don't you think?"
With that, he placed his foot down slowly, allowing his heel to touch down first as he slowly placed his sole down flat, twisting his foot a few times for good measure and savoring the chill that went up his spine.
The possum linked his lips and turned the size ray towards himself. With another squeeze of the trigger, the room was flooded in light. All he heard was a short crash and the sudden sensation of cool air on his skin. As he opened his eyes, the brightness of the outside world stung them. Orris wiped his eyes to help him adjust.
Gone was the room of the house, replaced with a wide field of green, with small brown mounds sticking out of them. He blinked and looked around. The size ray was gone and at his feet was what looked like a small cluster of grey blocks, the tallest of which didn't even reach the top of his toes.
He'd only ever seen glimpses of these things when he dared venture to a window of his old home. From what he could tell these were also buildings, but far larger...or rather they used to be.
Orris let out a sharp gasp as he squatted down, getting a better look at fabled bigs city, marveling at the organised layout of streets between them, now too small for him to even fit his smallest claw between them. He reached towards the largest skyscraper and plucked it up with ease, the lower half of it crumbled and rained down onto the street below as he raised it to his face.
It was hard to believe that this little grey box held thousands of bigs within it. Orris still felt like he might be dreaming. With a chuckle, the possum rose to his full height, casting a shadow over the landscape in front of him. With minimal effort, he pressed his fingers together and demolished the building, wiping his fingers clean of debris on his tunic. "Amazing."
The possum raised his foot and moved it over the city, the sandal easily wide enough to cover the entirely of the city in length and width. Slowly, Orris took his first step at this new size. The subtle crunch of hundreds of thousands of buildings crumbling to dust under his treads sent slivers up his spiders and his foot sank into the ground as he placed his full weight onto his foot.
Licking his lips, he raised his foot slowly, inspecting the crater that remained in his wake. With a wide grin on his face, the possum stepped forward, looking for more of these cities to play with.
Borrowers only ever took things that wouldn't be missed... and Orris certainly wouldn't miss the bug sized bigs at his feet...
