The only sound she could hear was her own breathing and her footsteps as she shuffled through the layer of dust in the ventilation shaft. The only light was that which filtered through the seams and what could be seen through the occasional vent.

Not that it mattered; these vents were now as familiar to her as the back alleys of Quepos had been to her in her former life.

Elena wasn’t sure how many days had passed since she’d awoken in the Land of the Giants, time seemed strange here. It felt like it was too long between sunrise and sunset. Her stomach, if nothing else, seemed to want to be fed far too often for it to be a normal twenty-four hour day.

Of course, she realized soon enough that there wasn’t much point in keeping track. It’s not like she had appointments to keep. At the moment, all that mattered was survival.

She paused for a moment to adjust the makeshift bandana tied around her face. At one point it had been a lurid pink color, but dozens of trips through the dingy corridors of the giant Airport, or wherever she was, had rendered it’s coloration a bit more mute.

Still, it kept Elena from inhaling a mouthful of dust with every breath, and for that reason it had been worth the risk to obtain.

When she had been a little girl, her mother had given her a book titled Los Incursores, about a race of tiny people that would take things that they needed from the comparatively giant humans they lived around. At the age of nine, she’d found the idea magical, and wished to meet one of the tiny people in real life.

She never expected to become one of the Borrowers.

But, as strange as it seemed, that was Elena’s life. She traversed the ventilation system and appropriated anything she could take that might be useful. Most of what she took, she stole from the giants who worked in the building she was trapped in, but occasionally she managed to swipe something out of one of the traveler’s suitcases.

That was where her face mask had come from. A tiny square of fabric had been sticking out of the mostly-closed opening of a giant woman’s travelling bag. Elena hadn’t been able to grab the whole article, but she’d managed to cut free a sizeable square with the sharpened metal shard she carried in her belt.

The clothes she’d been wearing when the abduction had taken place had been worn down to scraps. All except for her shoes, which she cherished. Elena had created makeshift togas and wraps for herself out of cloth scraps, and had woven a belt from loose threads.

That had probably been the biggest challenge besides avoiding the giants. The material she had to work with was sub-par, and the only weaving she’d ever done was a handful of friendship bracelets she’d created as a girl. It had taken quite some time for her half-remembered skills to produce her belt; but if there was one thing Elena now had in abundance, it was time.

The belt she now wore around her waist was a mishmash of colors, and made from threads of varying lengths and thicknesses, but she was proud of it all the same.

Elena rounded a corner and closed her eyes against the sudden glare of light that shone through a crack in the vent.

Just beyond was what would be a small crevice in the drywall to the Giants, but to Elena it was a space that was just big enough to make a cozy room. The light source was a small penlight-like device that she had stumbled across on one of her frequent excursions. It had no doubt slipped from the pocket of a passenger, but it made a perfect lamp for Elena.

She’d be very sad when the battery finally died, assuming these giants still used batteries of course. For all she knew it ran off of cold fusion or magic space-rocks that lasted for a thousand years.

With a sigh she hefted her pack onto the floor and collapsed into the nest of fabric she used for a bed. This latest excursion had been exhausting, and she’d travelled further from her home than she’d ever gone before, but it had been worth it. She’d discovered the cafeteria.

Up to this point, she’d been pilfering food from the kitchens, which was pretty hazardous to say the least; with the constant movement of dozens of giant cooks, dishwashers, bussers and whatever else.

But the food court had proved to be a goldmine of spilled food and crumbs, which was only cleaned roughly once an hour. Plenty of time for her to sneak in and nab whatever she could get her hands on.

True, the cafeteria was rather crowded, but the giants were too busy going about their own affairs to worry about what was going on at their feet. As long as she could avoid being stepped on, (and she was becoming very adept at avoiding the footfalls of the humungous beings,) then she would be alright.

Of course, now that the hard work of surviving was done with for the night, she didn’t have anything to distract her from her own thoughts.

Despite her best efforts, her mind wandered back to home. The faces of her family floated through her thoughts and she felt her throat close up. Her eyes teared up and she covered her face in her hands. She hoped that her family was okay. She hoped that they’d managed to move on, and that one day maybe she’d be able to see them again.

But for the time being, there was a rather large hole in her heart where they were supposed to be.

Elena shook herself and sat up. She couldn’t dwell on the past. Grabbing her pouch, she set herself to the task of repairing a small hole that had appeared in the corner of the bag. She needed to fix it, as she didn’t want to devote the effort to making a new bag.

Anything to distract herself from her memories.

*.*.*.*

Elena’s eyes opened.

She carefully rolled free from her nest and stretched her arms, trying to work the kinks out of her neck.

She flicked on her lamp and crossed to the other side of her hideaway where a small basin of water was waiting for her. She splashed some of the water on her face and noticed that that it tasted a little stale.

She’d probably need to change it soon.

Still she drank as much as she could, not wanting to waste any of it. Water was easy enough to find, she had discovered several spots where enough moisture would condense that she could collect it; the difficulty was in bringing it back to her lair. More than once she’d stumbled over a rough spot in the floor, or misjudged a turn and bumped into the wall, only to splatter the water she’d been trying to bring home.

At least she knew what she’d be doing today.

She dunked a length of cloth into the water and quickly scrubbed as much of the dust and grime from her body as she could, all the while wondering how long it had been since she’d had an actual shower.

After her sponge bath, she shrugged into one of the shifts she’d made for herself and strapped her belt on over it to hold it closed, before tying her hair back away from her face. She might be forced to live like a rodent, but there was no reason she had to look like one too.

Elena threw her newly repaired bag over her shoulder and set off to check on one of her collection basins.

Shafts of light punctured the darkness inside the ventilation shaft as daylight found its way through the occasional crack in the seam or loose panel. It wasn’t really enough for Elena to see by, but it did help her navigate.

She traversed her own personal highway, mostly by instinct. She’d spent what was likely months familiarizing herself with the paths to all her water spots and scavenge areas. She tried to remember which of her basins she collected from last, so she didn’t waste time going for one that might not yet be refilled.

After walking for what was probably about twenty minutes, Elena found herself at another grate, which she easily slipped through and out into one of the station’s thoroughfares. She pressed herself against the wall and for a moment she watched as the giants walked past and went about their own lives, completely oblivious to the struggles of one tiny lifeform just trying to survive in their world.

She sighed and banished those thoughts from her mind. There was little use in dwelling on what was and wasn’t fair. She had work to do.

Walking along the wall, she spotted her target in the distance. A small machine butted up against one of the windows. Elena didn’t know what it was for, but if she had to guess she would swear it was a giant vending machine.

What mattered to Elena, however, was the tubing that ran underneath the machine that was incredibly cold. The temperature caused water to condense on these tubes. It wasn’t much, at least not so much the giants would notice; but it was enough that given enough time Elena could collect a bottle cap full of liquid after a day or so.

That’s what most of her basins likely were. Giant bottle caps. This was another reason Elena suspected the machine was a snack vendor. She’d found at least a half dozen of the caps wedged underneath it on her first day discovering the spot. Tossed there by giants unconcerned by the messes they might make.

Just like she had been.

Elena sidled up to the cap and dipped her hands into the water. When she’d first discovered this location, she’d been afraid of contaminants (or some sort of radiation, for that matter) but she’d been drinking and bathing in this water for some time now and hadn’t yet suffered any ill effects.

She sat underneath the machine and watched as the giants wandered past. Occasionally, one of them would stop and the mechanisms above her would roar to life for a brief moment as it dispensed something and then the enormous person would continue walking.

Elena stood and stretched, finally deciding she’d had enough of people watching and was ready to head back to her den. She bent down to pick up her bucket of water when something caught her eye.

There was a giant bench near to the vending machine, and sitting on this bench were a couple of titans; but what caught Elena’s attention was the cage sitting at their feet. Inside she could clearly see a number of human shapes moving inside of it.

A shiver ran down Elena’s spine. She couldn’t believe it. After weeks, months, of not seeing another person her size… there they were, and they were in a cage.

Conflicting emotions warred within her. On the one hand, she felt an urge to rush out there and try to rescue them; on the other, there were the two giants looming above them. She didn’t want to join them in that cage either.

Elena shook herself. She had no choice; she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she didn’t try. She’d want someone to rescue her.

So she crept out from under the vending machine and approached the door to the cage. As she got closer, she was able to make out three distinct shapes, two of whom were laying on the floor, possibly sleeping.

“Hey!” Elena whispered, peering through the bars of the cage as the people within them stirred and turned to look towards her. “My names Elena, I’m going to get you out.

One of the people, a young girl with black hair and green eyes rushed to the bars of the cage. She peered out at Elena and spoke in the strange language of the giants. But of course Elena couldn’t understand her.

“I don’t know what you’re saying.” Elena sighed. She looked up at the overarching forms of the two giants sitting above them, but they remained oblivious to what was going on.

“Hang on.” Elena said, turning back to the girl. “I’m going to try and get you out.”

By this point, another person had crept towards the cage door. This was a young man with long brown hair and skin close to the same shade as Elena’s. The third person remained at the back of the cage and didn’t seem terribly interested in what was going on.

Elena scanned the cage door and noticed that it was held in place by a simple bolt. It was simple enough to open from the outside (assuming one was strong enough to move it) but there was no way to reach it from inside the cage.

She imagined that must be frustrating for them, to be able to see the means of escape but have no way to enact it.

Of course, she also had to be able to reach it.

Elena grimaced. There was only one way she could think of to boost herself up high enough to even have a chance at moving the deadbolt.

She dashed back to the vending machine and grabbed her basin. She took a deep breath and steeled herself for a moment before dumping out the water.

After this, and sparing a moment to mourn for the lost water, she made her way back to the cage. She stepped onto the overturned basin and was just able to reach the latch.

She struggled and pulled on the metal bar for several minutes, hoping that her luck would hold out and the giants would stay put long enough that she could finish her task.

Finally, Elena pulled with all her strength and the deadbolt shifted just enough to slide free. The door to the cage slowly drifted open.

Elena hopped down and ran to the door of the cage, where the two people who had stepped forward were staring at the opening with unsure looks on their faces.

“Come on!” Elena whispered urgently. “You’re free now!”

The girl whispered something to her companion. The young man looked uncertain, but then nodded. Cautiously, he stepped out of the cage and looked up at the giants, who were still oblivious. He seemed to decide that it was safe, so he turned and offered a hand to the girl, helping her out as well.

The two of them turned to follow Elena, when the girl leaned back into the cage. Elena heard her say something to the third occupant. The answering voice’s tone was dismissive and possibly a little angry. When the girl turned back towards Elena, she had a sad look on her face.

But there wasn’t any time to worry about that. Elena grabbed both their wrists and led them back towards her hiding spot under the vending machine.

“We need to go before they notice us!”