Aryanna was a "borrower", a member of a subspecies of Homo sapiens, identical to the larger "beans" except for their size. They live among the beans, beneath the floorboards and walls of the bean houses.
She and her parents lived in a farmhouse in a very rural part of the country. The farm was owned by a late middle aged farmer and his wife and worked by several men from the town a few miles up the road. Due to the secludedness of the farmhouse, Aryanna had only met a few other borrowers, an uncle and aunt and a couple of her cousins. Having reached the age of 19, she was well versed in the skills of borrowing, obtaining necessities of existence from the beans all the while avoiding encounters with them. One day, in early summer, she was in the barn and saw half of a candy bar at the bottom of a wire mesh wastebasket. Candy was a rare luxury for them, so she was determined to get it and surprise her parents with desert after tonight's dinner. She used her grappling hook, a fishing treble hook, and length of string to scale the wastebasket, then lower herself to the bottom to obtain her prize. Almost to the bottom, the string broke, leaving Aryanna sprawled out on the bottom of the wastebasket with no way to climb back out. Then she heard footsteps entering the barn. She looked around for somewhere to hide, but the wastebasket was empty save the candy bar and its wrapper. She saw a young bean woman walking towards the wastebasket while eating an apple. She stopped next to wastebasket and was about to drop the apple core into it, when she looked down and saw the miniscule Aryanna cowering at the bottom. She knelt down next to the basket and gently turned it on its side, allowing Aryanna to run out. Shocked that she was not eaten or squished by the bean, Aryanna started to run away when the bean woman said "Hey, you forgot this." as she tossed the candy bar towards her. Aryanna grabbed the candy bar and ran out of the barn and back into the house through a mousehole in the side of the building.
The bean woman was Gabrielle, a college student of agriculture and animal husbandry, who was working with the farmer over the summer between semesters. She had been told stories of the "borrowers" from her great grandmother so she was not really too surprised finally encountering one. Over the next few days, she would leave things near the mousehole, bits of food, sewing thread, tiny dollhouse cooking utensils, anything she thought a borrower might want or need. After a week, she was startled when Aryanna stepped out from behind a pencil holder on the desk she kept in the barn for her books and laptop. The two girls formally introduced each other to the other and they chatted for much of the day between Gabrielle's studies and chores. As the days went on, the two became friends. Aryanna would often hitch a ride on her shoulder as she walked around the barn (of course, when the farmer, his wife or Aryanna's parents weren't around), even occasionally cooling off with a dip in the creek that ran through the farm. Aryanna had never had a real friend before, especially one ten times her size and she would cheerfully greet Gabrielle when she arrived at the barn. Gabrielle would gather up some food stuffs for her, things that she would normally be out searching for, to take back to her parents to help keep their friendship and the time they spent together a secret from her parents.
In August, Aryanna's parents were to go to her aunt and uncle's house to help with the delivery of their new niece or nephew. Aryanna was old enough to stay home on her own now, so she didn't go. This made a little easier for her to spend time with her bean best friend as she didn't have to sneak around so much, and she didn't have to go back to the farmhouse for meals with her family, she and Gabrielle would share the food Gabrielle brought for her meals. Aryanna had gotten very comfortable with riding on Gabrielle's shoulder or being carried in the palm of her hand. She also was introduced to television shows, movies and music videos that she would watch on Gabrielle's iPhone.
Two weeks had gone by since her parents had left and were supposed to be home by now. Two more weeks went by, and Aryanna began to fear the worst may have happened to them. By now, the summer was coming to an end and Gabrielle would be returning to college. She could easily tell that Aryanna was very disturbed, not only the unanswered question of what happened to her parents, but the prospect of being all alone now. Gabrielle gently scooped her up in her hand and suggested she come stay with her at the college. She could leave at note at their home under the farmhouse and they could come back to the farm on weekends to see if they had made it home. Aryanna was a bit apprehensive about leaving the only home she had ever known but agreed. At the end of Gabrielle's last day at the farm, she went to say goodbye to the farmer and his wife, then walked back out to the barn where Aryanna was waiting, her few belongings packed in a bag made from a feed sack. Gabrielle placed Aryanna on her dashboard so she could see the scenery as she drove to the off-campus apartment where she stayed during the school year.
She pulled into her parking space and reached up and took Aryanna off the dashboard and told her she would have to ride in her purse in the event they encountered anyone while walking to her apartment. Once inside, she reached in and took Aryanna out of her purse and gave her a tour of the apartment while carrying her around the place in her hand. In the bedroom, was a hamster cage. Aryanna said that Gabrielle never said she had any pets.
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Gabrielle replied, "Well, I didn't have any pets. That is, until now." as she abruptly and forcefully began to remove Aryanna's clothing and then put her inside the cage. "And don't worry about your parents. They're being studied at the Anthropology Department. Sorry, but I can't take you to see them. I'm keeping you all to myself."