Soren took his time as he walked along the rafters and beams all the way back to their home. His head was buzzing, and it felt as though adrenaline had replace every other compound in his body. He was vibrating and shaking slightly, but not with nerves – it was excitement. It was a feeling he hadn’t felt in a long time, and this only brought a bout of crushing guilt.

Why did he feel excited? It was Ashlynn. He had seen her hundreds of times and, more importantly, he had not seen her in years. Sadly, he knew where the guilt was coming from – and he didn’t know what to do about it except to lock it away like so many other things rolling around in his head.

He couldn’t think about any of this now. What he had to think about was all of the things he needed to pack and what they should leave behind. Could they bring everything? Should they bring everything?

There was another question that tugged at the back of his head. Were there going to be other Borrowers? Ashlynn said she thought there might be others, but she hadn’t really said she had found any exact evidence. Then again, they had other things to talk about that were more important than specific pieces of evidence.

Besides, they were going to find out soon enough.

Soren made it to the line and pulled himself up and finally crossed over the threshold of his home with Dorian, Rey, and his daughter. The moment he did, he could hear Rey and Dorian in some kind of dispute. It didn’t sound serious, but it was enough to bring Soren from his spiraling thoughts to the present.

“You can’t bring that,” said Dorian from the other room. Soren walked past the postcard divider and peered into the boys’ once shared room which now belonged entirely to Rey. Rey, who was currently packing some of his so called “inventions,” stood defiantly in between his belongings and his brother.

“Who said I can’t bring it?” asked Rey.

“We can’t pack it all. It’s common sense,” argued Dorian.

“That’s if we were packing it all ourselves. Ashlynn is helping us,” pointed out Rey.

“Yeah? So?” retorted Dorian.

“So? So, Ashlynn could probably get all of our stuff in one load with one arm. So what if I want to bring a couple of my inventions along?” countered Rey.

Soren too this opportunity to step in with a chuckle and a grin.

“What are you two going round and round for? Rey’s inventions? Or packing space?” asked Soren.

“A little of both,” muttered Dorian. “Rey wants to bring a lot of things that don’t make sense. We won’t have room to bring everything and, frankly, a lot of these things don’t work.”

“Dorian, you have plenty of things that you are refusing to take because you are thinking that we have to move all of this stuff ourselves. If we don’t have to start from scratch, then why would we?” emphasized Rey. “And for your information, if I had more borrowings, I could get these things to work. I’m missing a couple of key components and then they’ll be good to go.”

“Okay you two. You’re old enough to compromise. Dorian, if there is anything you want to bring, regardless of how silly you think it is, bring it. I don’t think Ashlynn will mind. Rey, you could probably do with a few less tinkerings gone awry. Disassemble what you can and bring all the parts with you. Deal?”

Both boys shared a mutual, dissatisfied look before giving a reluctant nod. Soren turned and began heading back off to his room when he heard his name coming from behind him. He turned to see Dorian walking up to him, something obviously on his mind.

“Soren?”

“Yes, Dorian?” asked Soren as he stopped just outside of his room. Dorian glanced behind him as if to check and see if Rey were listening in before looking back to Soren.

“You don’t… well… you don’t think any of this is, I don’t know, weird, do you?” asked Dorian. Soren felt his head turn in confusion.

“Weird? I’m not sure I follow,” stated Soren, a feeling starting to come up in the back of his mind. Dorian had become more wary of going out into the human world, and he had every right to be after what happened, but the reason for his suspicion was unfounded even if it were justified.

“You don’t think it’s weird that Ashlynn managed to make it back just before this destruction? I don’t know. The timing seems off to me,” muttered Dorian.

“Dorian,” said Soren reassuringly as he reached out and clasped Dorian’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. It’s Ashlynn; and we’ll be looking out for one another as always. Okay?”

Dorian gave a half-hearted nod before heading back to his room to finish packing. It wasn’t unlike Dorian to be wary more so recently than when he was a child. Still, there were other things to attend to.

With that, Soren turned and headed off into his room and began gathering his own belongings. He grabbed a few satchels and began packing immediate supplies he knew everyone would need such as fresh cloth for cleaning themselves, thread and scraps of clothes as emergency garments, and practically their entire pantry.

For his other belongings, he laid them out on his bed including his own personal clothes and weapons. Everything had a place and was organized. He couldn’t help but see it and feel a heavy sadness in his chest. This house, this apartment complex, had become a home multiple times over through settling down, meeting Ashlynn, meeting Lucy, and then having Mayzie. Now, once again, they have to leave a place that meant so much to him.

Soren sat on the edge of the bed, reminiscing, until he heard a soft cough and a cry just from the other room.

Mayzie was awake.

Soren pushed himself up off of the bed and walked into the next room, turning the Christmas ornament light on which instantly cast the room in a warm yellow glow. There, standing with one hand on the makeshift crib and one slightly chubby fingered hand rubbing her eyes, was his daughter.

Her nightgown was twisted off to the side and her wavy brown hair kissed with the slightest auburn frizzed out around her face, making it look rounder than it already was. The moment she saw Soren approaching, a toothy grin spread across her sleepy face and one hand raised as a signal to be picked up.

“Good morning sleepy head,” cooed Soren as he reached down into the crib and lifted Mayzie into his arms. “Did you sleep so good?”

Mayzie instinctually leaned into her father’s shoulder and nodded, still obviously sleepy. Soren walked back into his room and sat on his once shared bed as he pulled Mayzie upright slightly.

“Are you hungry? Thirsty?” asked Soren. The toddler muttered some odd babbling phrase. She sounded interested, but was more interested still in being close to her father. Soren bounced his daughter slightly and chuckled. “Well, let’s see what we can do about that. Let’s get you changed first.”

Soren changed Mayzie and got her a snack as he began laying down the things that could topple over. The eldest Borrower suspected that Ashlynn could easily pick up the entire tile their things were on and carry it if she wanted to. With that in mind, he tried laying the taller pieces of furniture including a matchbox drawer set on its side and a mirror vanity he never had the heart to close.

Mayzie finished her snack and watched her father work, eventually climbing off of the bed and retrieving some of her own things. In her babbling talk, the overarching theme was, “Whatchadoin?”

“I am packing because we are going to go on a trip – a very long trip. I have to put all of our things into these bags,” replied Soren. Some of these words meant something to the Borrower toddler, but many of them did not.

Soren watched as Mayzie toddled into her room and retrieved a cotton ball bunny she had as a toy all her life. Seeing her wander back into the room with her most precious belonging and begin to put it in the bag made his heart ache.

“Like this then this then this,” she mumbled in her toddler speech as she tucked her bunny into the bag.

“Mayzie,” chuckled Soren as he stepped forward and gave his daughter a pat on the head. “You can keep your bunny.”

“Bunny stay? Bunny needs tuck in,” said Mayzie as she continued to tuck her cotton ball bunny in with the edges of the half packed bag. Soren, watching his daughter, realized now that all of these preparations would make little to no sense to her. One thing that would make sense, however, was an apprehension toward strangers.

She was young enough that meeting someone new was going to be a challenge – and Soren didn’t want that to taint her experience meeting Ashlynn for the first time. Soren, who had never done this before, had to think of something, someway, to introduce them. A thought occurred to him which brought a smile to his face.

He sat down on the ground next to his daughter and brought her into his lap, pulling her favorite bunny from the pack and placing the bunny into his daughter’s hands.

“Hey, Mayzie. You know who hasn’t met bunny yet? My friend Ashlynn,” said Soren. Mayzie turned her hazel eyes to Soren and looked at him curiously as her chubby little fingers squeezed the soft stuffed animal.

“Aslyn?” she asked, not quite able to make the name completely through her chubby cheeks.

“That’s right. Ashlynn. Ashlynn is very tall and she is a good friend. We’re going to see her tomorrow and she would love to meet bunny,” said Soren.

“She love bunny?” asked the toddler. Soren chuckled and held her close.

“Yes, she is going to love bunny; and you are going to love her. Ashlynn is very kind and very sweet just like you,” said Soren.

At this point, Mayzie didn’t seem very interested in anything other than playing with her stuffed animal; and, for now, that was all that was required of her. Soren would have to hype her up the next day. What mattered now was spending the last night in their home together. Soren began bouncing Mayzie intermittently and humming playfully.

He listened to her giggle and watched the waves in her hair bounce in the Christmas tree lights. The way she giggled was like her mother, full of joy and life unhindered by the weight of the world; and what a big world it was – and it was only getting bigger.

Little did Soren know how much bigger it was going to get.