A Borrower Abroad

The first of The Borrowers series by Mary Norton was published in 1952. They are stories about a family of tiny 'borrowers' in England. of their lives and fears and adventures.

Satoru Sato published the first of the Korobokkuru series in 1959. They are stories about a kingdom of tiny people in Japan, of their lives and struggles and adventures.

Since the adapted film of Arietty is soon to be released in Japan by the Ghibli (who created Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke etc), I thought it would be interesting to write my story of what happened to Arietty, the only child and daughter of the Borrower couple, when she ended up meeting one of the female Korobokkuru in Japan.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Borrowers nor the Korobokkuru series.

Arrietty was petrified. 'Go away, just go away!' But the relentless pecking and crowing and the spreading of the huge ghastly feathers wouldn't stop. The evils were as black as oil freshly dug up from the well and their eyes were cold. Shiny and cold like a glass. One of them was about to pick up Arrietty with its beak and fly away to its feasting table.

Then suddenly Arrietty heard a different kind of cry, more high pitched like a shriek. She was dropped to the ground and saw the big black bird bleeding from its eye. When another bird tried to seize the moment and went for Arrietty, it too, shrieked in pain. Then another, and another, until they all scattered and circled above in obvious frustration.

'What happened?' Arrietty froze in fear.

'HURRY UP YOU FOOL!!' she heard the voice.

There was a girl - in Arrietty's standard size - and she had a dagger in her hand.

No one has ever spoken to Arrietty like that before. Not even her parents. 'She must be poorly educated or have no parents to teach her manners. I wonder if she had a tough upbringing, she looks so tense.'

'MOVE IT!'

And the girl grabbed Arrietty by her wrist and pulled as though her wrist would break. For a few nano seconds, Arrietty thought she was being sucked into an invisible time wave. Such was the speed that she was travelling in, she could not recognise any of the landscape and couldn't grasp which way was up or down or front or back. At last, when they came to the hollow in the trunk of a tree, the girl let go of the wrist and Arrietty was spinning and wobbling like a drunken adolescent.

'rrrrrrrrrr' the girl said to Arrietty.

'I beg your pardon?'

'I said, are you all right?'

'Yes, thank you, I suppose. I'm Arrietty, you must be Cherry.'

'I thought you folks can run faster. Which planet do you come from?'

Arrietty went quiet. Cherry felt a slight discomfort with this guest whom she was assigned to protect. After all, Cherry was young and still learning the ropes on how to go about outside the kingdom let alone how to be polite to a snobby stranger.

Just as Arrietty calmed down enough to assess the situation, a mountain of flesh with a piercing claw caught Arrietty by her sleeve.

‘HELP!!’

Cherry, without hesitation, jumped on top of the mound and slashed the flesh just above the root of the claw. The violent shaking with the narly growling was unbearable when you are trapped inside the hollow with nowhere to escape. To Arrietty’s amazement, Cherry had jumped off before becoming sandwiched between the paw and the top of the hollow. And when the claw retreated, Cherry said, ‘I’m going to get help, you stay here as still as you can.’ Before Arrietty could open her mouth to say something, she was gone.

Arrietty cried uncontrollably in the dark. She was scared of what might become of her in this foreign land. And how she wished she could see her parents just one more time. She had never felt so lonely and helpless in her entire life. The crows were making haunting calls and she blamed herself desperately for nagging her parents to let her go out to see the world.

'Psst', Cherry signaled to Arrietty. 'Stop wimping like a girl, will you?!' 'But I am a girl!' Arrietty protested.　Soon, Chestnut and Flute also made themselves visible. 'Hi.' Chestnut and Flute had been watching the exchange between the two girls with big grins. 'Oh, am I glad to see you all!' A regained confidence started to build up in Arrietty's deflated heart in no time. 'I'm going to be okay!!'

Cherry gave a sharp stabbing look at her. But there was no time to waste indulging in a catfight.

'rrrrrrr,' Flute said.

'I beg your pardon?' Arrietty had to interrupt. She couldn't catch up with the speed of their speech and movement.

'Listen up.' Flute repeated slowly in a calm but dignified way.

Although young himself, he is the leader of the kingdom troops and the responsibilities he shoulders have made him an exceptionally fine man. Both Cherry and Chestnut, along with the peers and elders, had utmost respect for him. And didn’t he look handsome kitted in his full combat gear. A bow with arrows dipped in poison, daggers up his boots and all.

'Here's what we're going to do.'

That night in the safety and comfort of a room in the kingdom, Arrietty wrote to her parents. 'I'm fine and I'm being looked after like a queen.' In a letter to Spiller, her fellow Borrower back home, she wrote, 'You will not believe how bully and outrageous and extraordinarily brave this girl is....'