~*~Arriety and the Teapot Ship~*~
Hi! I'm Gemweton, I hope you enjoy my Fanfiction, and don't worry too much if you haven't seen the movie Arriety this whole thing will still make sense!
Scarlet Curls: GOOD LUCK for your next Fan fictions, and yeah
StormSkyress: remember the homicidal doll, ok we're good now
Dude-E-Dette: ok then...ummmmmmmmm...pink unicorns like to eat bananas
DISCLAIMER: I, unfortunately, do not own Arriety, or studio Ghibli. But I would love to...
~*~ Prologue~*~
We left him. One last hug and I was gone into the shadows. I had only known Shō for a few weeks. He was going to have heart surgery... But we left in fear for our lives, as human curiosity and cruelty frightens us borrowers. We are the last of our kind, or so we thought. We are now on a journey to find the rest of our people. We, borrowers are tiny people, who borrow things from humans. We need to stay unseen, because, well due to our size, we are easily squashed. No one really knows about us, but we still live our simple lives in nooks and crannies of your house. We stay in families and look after each other. But if there is one thing borrowers hate it's being alone.
~*~ Chapter 1- Fields of Purple Plants~*~
The water below me flowed with a steady pace, as it gleamed in the summer sun. The wind slowly pushed us along in a teapot ship. Its brassy belly, where my parents lay, was dark and rusty with age. Spiller, our companion, will take us to meet his kind and the last of ours. He has always been good to me, nothing but nice, even though he can barely even speak, only grunts. I guess because our family have been living as borrowers for so long we have grown accustomed to the ways of the humans, even their lavish lifestyles. But it was awfully lonely. It's hard to explain loneliness, even though we had each other it wasn't enough. It was like we were out of place, we had to hide from the humans, but I wanted to talk to them. Although, as I soon learnt, that can be very dangerous.
I swept up the falling dust from our ship, as my father and Spiller, hunted and gathered food. I really wish I could go. But as usual I heard the same replies: "You're too young", "But that's a man's job" and "*grunt*". But I know I will someday, just because I'm a girl, I'm young (ish) and I'm tiny, doesn't mean I'm not good at hunting. You should have seen me on the roof of the old house I was like a tiny bandit, quick and precise. I looked into the clouds remembering the house I had grown up in.
"Arriety, ARRIETY!" exclaimed mum as she waved me over. I jumped up abruptly and hit my toe on the side of the ship "ow, ow, ow OOOOOOWWWWWWWWWEEEEEEE" I exclaimed in utter pain. I had never been the most elegant of borrowers.
"Yes, mum, coming!" I tried to yell back, so then she could hear me. I raced over the rim of the tea pot, its sails were made from leaves, so we need to change them every once and a while. We were in a deeper part of the garden, that's if we're even in a garden anymore. The once stream has turned into a river. And the pretty petite flowers have turned into giant trees overgrowing on the banks. I went over to mum,
"I need you to: scrub this whole untidy mess, gather some leaves and flowers, clean out the belly and what's wrong with you, you look a wreck! Get cleaned up!"
I dived into the clear, crisp water, my hair shone golden in its reflection. It was freezing and goose bumps pricked my skin. I got out and scrubbed my face. My ruby red dress clung onto the thorn of an orange rose. But it was an unusual orange. Like a sunset, on the verge of turning into night. I grabbed my dress and quickly hoisted it on. I walked ever so slowly, using the thorns as a ladder, up to the top of the rose. Its stalk was strong and deep green. We were on the ground of a beautiful oak forest. The branches of these trees twined around each other, in the slow race to sunlight. I went from flower to flower and then from tree to tree. There gnarled branches leaving me almost a staircase to the top. I climbed up to the biggest tree, the heart of the forest. It was the most amazing oak tree, its leaves spanned out like fireworks and its branches were golden brown, in the shadowed sunlight. Little birds and owls perched at the top looked out onto a wondrous view of the world above. I climbed up. I kept climbing ignoring the dangers of going so high. I reached the top. The wind blew through my tangled hair, as brown and deep orange leaves whipped past me. It was almost autumn. I looked out onto the open canopy of trees, and I spotted our teapot ship. I was impressed by the sheer enormity of this decaying forest. Through the leaves below, I could see glimpses of the colourful flowers on the bottom. I heard mum calling for me, and like a jungle cat, I briskly climbed my way down. I slowly went down the rose, and ran through the jungle of emerald coloured blades of grass. Drops of crystal dew grew on the tips of tulips.
I scrubbed the grime off the teapot. Its grease flowed into the water below. The air smelt acrid with dust. I thought it was about time that we did clean this up as it's probably going to be home for a few months. I found my father's old tool that could cut metal. It was used in case of quick escapes when going out to borrow. But I thought it could be used to cut a small window, to leave light into that dark chamber. I cut two circular (if you could even call them circles) holes, and draped curtains around them. I was finally done for the night and the sky had turned into a symphony of colours ranging from deep red to a lavish blush pink.
Father and Spiller came home with barely anything, a few berries and one extremely big cricket. I started the fire on the bank as mother started to cook. She always told me that: "whatever you get, you cook, roast, boil... WHATEVER...and there, hey presto, you have a meal!" So she went on with her "cooking". After the small, yet delicious meal, we went to bed, but as usual Spiller stayed up to guard the ship. I went up with him and brought a blanket. The full moon above us shone on the water and specks of light reflected like shattered glass. The sound of crickets echoed through my ears, as I sat next to Spiller, who was shaking in the cool wind. I am always so calm when I sit next to him. It may have been silent but it was the kind of silence that is comfortable, one that isn't awkward. I shared my blanket with him as we looked out onto the night sky. Its stars were as bright as tiny fireflies alight. And the clouds like mists covering dragons and magic beasts that cannot be seen. A haunted breeze flooded past us. He passed me a velvet red raspberry. As usual he didn't look at me. I didn't mind, we were together looking out onto the vast night sky. The raspberry stung in my mouth as the sour taste whirled in my mouth. I swallowed it in one huge gulp. I slowly made my way down to bed, leaving Spiller perfect, sitting on the rim of our teapot boat.
The boat creaked and wined, as I got up. I opened my eyes and looked upon our small brown table, but it was an odd purple colour. Actually the whole belly of the ship was a lavender purple colour. I looked outside through the window. All I could see was a purple mist. I went up to the top of the teapot, and saw Spiller, asleep, in the blanket I used. I woke him up.
"Spilller, SPILLER!"
*GRUNT* he stood abruptly, and looked up, his hands gripping his brown bow and red feather arrows. I looked up with him, where the sun was peeping through the mist, the purple light shone through, and through that little spot, I saw purple petals.
"You go to the bank, I'll go wake up dad," I called out to Spiller.
"Yep, they are garden plants, it means that we're near a house." Pointed out Dad
"Well, shouldn't we go borrow?" Questioned Mum
"Let's go then…"I said worriedly. Last time I borrowed, it was a near disaster. Hopefully I won't muck it up ever again.
We were all connected by ropes, so we wouldn't lose each other. I stepped into the thick forest of purple flowers. The scent of decay and lavender created a cruelly sweet smell that stung at my nostrils. It was almost unbearable. All I could see was purple, vibrant purple, nothing like I had ever seen before. There were so many of these plants. They created a cave to protect us from the animals above. I always looked above me and wondered what was above and there is something always telling me I need to find out. I climbed one of the plants and the purple mess of plants started to become less thick. I got to the top and spotted, not very far away, a cottage house. Its green roof wrecked with age and its windows looking out onto beautiful fields of purple. I stopped and stared at our glimmer of hope in the distance, imagining all the different wares and foods inside the house. But it looked sad. Something about this house made me feel guilty for having to borrow from it.
I started to climb down, but spotted a little black dot coming towards me. It looked as though it was charging at me. It became closer and closer. I soon realised it was a pitch black raven, it's eyes golden with spite. I quickly jumped down, landed like a cat and yelled "RAVEN!"
"Whaaaaaa!" exclaimed mum as she ran down path.
Dad led us through the jungle of flowers. I looked up and saw a grey beak, trying to poke through our protective cave of plants. I trudged along the back to protect mum and Spiller. The raven seemed to have gone so we slowed down our pace, and I climbed the plant again. I saw we were closer than before, but a little too far to the east. This place was like a maze. There were dead ends at every corner, thick with roots and vines. The plants were almost all the same, so it was hard to tell if we were going in circles. Eventually I started to notice the thick jungle of purple flowers, disperse. Until finally we got to the house, its walls waning in the heat, and breaking with age. I looked upon a single flower, the same as the ones we just walked through. Its petals branched out and faded colour as it did. The stem was green as it twinned itself up, the leaves round and plump with water. We walked on and turned around the corner to be confronted by a giant French door.