Once upon a time, there was an old, fat man with thick, white beard who lived alone in a big mansion, far away from the town. The rumors said he was a rich man with a serious mental problem, drowning in his own fantasies ever since he was a little boy. Little that people knew, the said crazy kid had always paid attention to his surroundings, watching over every little things that people did with his round, innocent eyes that kept too many secrets deep in them. Then that he wasn't a part of the society anymore, he did that from afar; watching people with his magic telescope, while doing the things he liked very much. Mostly, having some tea while reading a thick book, or just experimenting in his small "lab".


It was a cold day in mid-December when the old man got busy in his work room. He was sitting in a wooden rocking chair, before him was a wooden table with a tiny baby blue and white egg sitting on it, showered by the yellow light of the table lamp. Softly he blew the cup of hot jasmine tea in his hand as he stared at the slightly trembling egg with his loving eyes.


"Come on, baby, you can do it~" he cooed. The egg stopped moving, but in exchange, the fat man could hear the sound of his baby struggling, punching the skin of the egg with his tiny fists from the inside. And finally...


Crack. A tiny crack appeared on the skin, and then soon there were more until the roof of the egg was pushed aside, giving a way for a little brown head to peek outside and look around timidly. The baby boy clutched the edge of his cracked egg with his tiny hands as he raised his head slowly, until his sparkling round eyes met with his creator's dark brown orbs.


"...Pa...Papa." A bright smile bloomed on the man's face as he put his cup aside and gave his palm to the teeny-tiny baby. He stood up from his crouching position inside the egg, and ever so doubtfully he crawled out and climbed onto the huge hand. He was just as big as the human's thumb. As soon as he realized that he had nothing covering him, he gasped and covered his tiny manhood with his hands immediately, his flushed cheeks making the giant human chuckle.


"How adorable." The man placed a soft kiss on the baby's head extra carefully. Happy to get the kiss, the tiny one spread his arms open and hugged the man's cheek, his eyes curving up into happy crescents.


The man put his youngest baby back onto the table and began dressing him up. Just like his older brothers and sisters, he was given a long sleeve red shirt with black stripes, a pair of black pants and a suspender to hold them up.


"Now, what should I give you to differ you from the others?" the man his beard as he eyed the shy tiny one closely. And then suddenly he snapped his fingers, making the baby flinch and cover his head with his skinny arms immediately. "Aha! I know. This will match you really well!" He opened his drawer and took a pair of cute deer horns, and then stuck them on the top left and right of the baby's head. He put a small mirror in front of the little deer to let him check himself out.


"Do you like your look, baby?" he chuckled softly. The baby reached up his hands to feel the new accessories on his head while gaping cutely at his own reflection.


"Uhm!" he nodded fervently. Lastly, to complete his look, the man put a round red hat on his head with two holes on top, so his cute horns would not be hidden.


"There you go, little boy," said the man, as he took the little one and lifted him up in his cupped hands. The happy baby rounded his sparkly eyes, his lips forming a small circle as his creator said, "From now on, you will be called Luhan, and you will call me Papa Beard! That's what your brothers and sisters call me."


"Lu... Luhan," the baby repeated his own name with his cute voice, "Papa... Beard."


"That's right! Now, before I let you meet the others, I'll teach you some lessons. Pay attention, okay?" with a nod of the deer's head, he continued, "First, you are an Inchling, and you will live in a place called Peeweeland. Well, actually you're bigger than just an inch, and when you're older you'll grow a little bit taller!" He showed his ring finger, "You see? Just a tiny bit taller, maybe about one centimeter. When you're that tall, you will see me again. It’s about four years from now of Peeweeland time. One year for Inchlings equals four years for humans! You will live longer than them. But until then, you will live happily with the others. You will have your own little house and a small garden behind it, everything you need is there. You have to be a good boy and you must not do bad things, take care of your own house and don't take people's belongings. Never mind about what will happen after you meet me again four years later, you will find out for sure and don’t try to find out before it’s time, let’s just keep that a surprise! Do you understand, Luhannie?"


"Uhm," Luhan nodded with his eyebrows knitted together, trying to save everything his Papa said into the back of his little head. With that, Papa Beard brought him away from the table and placed him inside a thin and tall glass tube in the middle of the room. Luhan placed his hands on the glass wall surrounding him as he saw his creator walk away from him. Panic began to wash over him; what was going to happen to him? Would he be okay without his Papa?


While he was busy panicking, suddenly he felt the base of the tube where he was standing on disappeared; a long and loud shriek escaped his mouth as his body fell into the bottomless hole.


"Eeeeekk!" he squeezed his eyes tightly and clutched his hat with both hands as he went down the dark hole in full speed, the wind blowing his bangs up wildly. It lasted that way like forever and his throat was getting hurt from all the continuous screaming.


"Hyaaaaaa- Oof!" Luhan finally stopped falling when his met with something soft and he curled into a sobbing ball immediately. Baby Luhan was so scared. How could his Papa let him experience something that scary just a moment after he had come out of his egg? His heart was beating really fast and he really wanted someone to hold him and calm him down. However, even after crying for what seemed like forever, no one was there to comfort him. Apparently he was all alone there.


Slightly shaking in fear, the baby deer lifted his head off his arms and flew his blurry gaze around. He had expected to find himself in a scary place, maybe deep in a dark forest or in a cave, but surprisingly what he found was totally the opposite. It was a small yet very comfortable house; the floor was made of white maple wood and the walls were painted in beige, in the middle there was a small, round wooden table with two wooden chairs, also another table and chair next to the small yet fluffy bed he was sitting on. There was also a small mahogany cupboard, when Luhan opened it, he found six more outfits that looked exactly the same as what he was wearing; probably one for each day in a week. Next to the cupboard was a box of toys, there were even storybooks and coloring books in there, complete with the coloring kit. There was a small kitchen on the left side of the room and a fridge with a few bottles of milk and some juices in it, a small bathroom, and lastly, in the corner next to the door were some gardening tools. The Inchlings were basically gardeners. Everything in that small house was small, but since Luhan himself was small, it all was more than enough for him. The sad baby became happy again.


Knock. Knock. "Hellooo~?" Now he became scared. He ran back to his bed and hid under the thick blanket. Who is that? Is it a monster? A wolf who wants to eat me? Luhan thought in panic.


“Hello, anybody home?” the soft voice and the knocks came again, “We saw the hole above your roof, we know you’re in there! It’s okay, you can come out, we won’t hurt you! We just want to see our new little brother.”


Brother? Perhaps he’s an Inchling too? baby Luhan peeked out of his blanket a little, and then slowly crawled off his bed and went to the door. He twisted the door knob with his shaking hand and let a small gap appear.


“Oh, I knew it, he’s really here!” the voice exclaimed, followed by some happy cheers. Before he knew it, his door was pushed open wider and he was pulled by a pair of small hands, as small as his own. He was immediately greeted by the sight of huge white mushrooms standing neatly in many rows; some had red roofs with white dots, some other had blue or purple. Those were houses, just like his own; a red one. But Luhan couldn’t really focus on that pretty sight, because in front of him there was a sea of red and black; lots, lots of tiny people, all wearing the same outfits as his. The Inchlings.


“Hello, welcome to Peeweeland!” Luhan was amazed. They all looked similar, but not really the same; each one of them had something that differed them from one another, just like his deer horns. There were squirrel tail, cat ears, panda face, chubby hamster cheeks… and the one standing the closest to him, the guy who had just pulled him out, had a pair of small dove wings on his back.


“Hello, my name is Suho,” the taller guy with white wings beamed and held out his hand, “I’m the one in charge here!” Luhan gave his hand to Suho doubtfully and let the latter shook it very excitedly. “What’s yours?”


“Umm,” Luhan tried to recall his name, “L-Luhan…?”


“The deer’s name is Luhan!” Suho announced to his people, who then cheered and clapped their hands happily. ”Well, Luhan, we all will take care of you from now on! Do not hesitate, because we are all family. If you need anything, just talk to one of us!”


The baby deer was happy that he got a new big family. Later that night, the Inchlings threw a party for him; the males had picked the fruits and vegetables from their gardens and the females had cooked lots, lots of food. They all ate so much until their tummies grew bigger and they couldn’t move around anymore. However, Luhan was exceptionally happy; being the baby of Peeweeland had earned him lots of love.


Since that day onwards, Luhan had become close to one certain Inchling, who was born just six months before him and lived next door. It was an owl boy, Papa Beard had named him Kyungsoo. He had a pair of small brown wings on his back that he could only flap around cutely, they were just some accessories, not something that could actually make him fly. The deer and the owl spent most of their time together, coming over to each other’s house, playing with each other’s toys and reading each other’s books together, even sometimes going to the public hot bath together or to the theatre near the town hall to watch some puppet shows. Both Inchlings loved singing, both had a beautiful voice. They enjoyed many nights sitting on one of their roofs, watching the moon and the stars while singing some songs made for children in Peeweeland. Luhan loved Kyungsoo as much as Kyungsoo loved him.


One year in Peeweeland was very long, it was the same as four years in the humans’ world. Nonetheless, Luhan felt like the time flew really fast. By then two and a half years had passed, and he wasn’t the youngest anymore; the baby deer had grown into a more mature kid who could take care of his own house and little garden. Every Inchlings had different types of fruits and vegetables growing in their backyards; for Luhan, he had an exceptionally big love for strawberries. Raised with lots of love, his strawberries tasted really sweet and were almost as big as his own head. He could eat them every day and he would never get tired of the red fruit, or even if he got a bit bored eating them, he could make them into many jars of strawberry jam and many bottles of strawberry juice filling his fridge, even some strawberry ice cream and everything that contained strawberry in it. Meanwhile, his best friend Kyungsoo had an equally big love for oranges. They often exchanged their strawberry jam and orange marmalade, filled some breads with the jams and had a small picnic on their own. It was a lovely friendship that they had.


One sunny day, Luhan and Kyungsoo were sitting on the latter’s red and white checkered picnic cloth on his backyard, Luhan on a bottle of cold orange juice and the other happily having a piece of strawberry cake. Some tiny birds, tinier than most normal birds in the human world, were surrounding them two, not even stepping a foot on the cloth because even the birds there knew some manners. They were only tilting their heads side to side, hoping that maybe one of the two round-eyed Inchlings would throw them some of the breads’ crumbs. Luhan grabbed a piece of his strawberry sandwich and waved it at the birds with a teasing grin plastered on his face, tempting the poor animals’ faith.


“Luhannie, don’t do that, they’ll come and peck you,” Kyungsoo giggled as he shoved another piece of the yummy pink cake into his mouth with his fork.


“Nope, they won’t,” the naughty deer got onto his knees and brought the food closer to the birds, but before they could peck it, he pulled it back and cracked a naughty giggle. Not until one of the birds hopped forward, bravely making its way to the sandwich; the other birds followed suit until the deer boy had to get up and run away.


“Kyungie, help me!”


“I told you so,” Kyungsoo chuckled. He took his own bread and threw a small piece of it towards the group of birds, and with that he had saved the deer. The owl boy shooed the petite birds away by flailing his arms and jumping around cutely, his own tiny wings flapping as he did so, making Luhan laugh at his action. Kyungsoo fixed his hat’s position before calmly sitting back down next to his giggling best friend.


“Look, they’re back!”


“Oh, it’s really them! Finally, it’s been so long!”


Luhan and Kyungsoo looked at each other. “Who’s back?” asked the deer.


“It’s probably The Collectors,” Kyungsoo shrugged, “do you want to see them?”


Luhan had always been curious about these older Inchlings called The Collectors. They went away for a long time and came back with some weird changes; their personalities changed somehow, they were quieter than before, they kept a bunch of secrets but they always smiled. Usually a few months after they were back was the time for another baby Inchling to be born, but when it came to Peeweeland, some other new Inchlings also came along with it. The young ones believed that Papa Beard created extra Inchlings as a reward for them, but the truth of that belief had never been confirmed. Luhan had always wondered why the name had to be “Collectors”; what did they collect? All he knew was that Inchlings only collected fruits and vegetables from their own lawns.


So, taking conclusion from everything he knew, what Luhan temporarily believed was that The Collectors were the older Inchlings who went away to a much bigger garden to collect a much bigger amount of fruits and veggies with much bigger sizes. That was why they took so long, and perhaps because they had been so tired, they all became quiet but Papa Beard kindly rewarded them by giving them new friends; more new Inchlings. It all made sense to him.


But that day, little Luhan found himself doubting his own belief.


Soon after the two best friends ended their picnic and put everything back in Kyungsoo’s purple mushroom, they joined the other Inchlings standing on the sides of the street to see The Collectors walk around and greet everyone. From the whispers buzzing around, Luhan knew that initially there had been twenty Collectors who had gone away, but then there were only ten who came back to their land. Then, where were the rest half of them? Had something happened to them? It made Luhan scared somehow, but weird, Kyungsoo seemed perfectly calm when The Collectors walked right in front of them. There were three of the ten who caught Luhan’s attention; the one with unicorn horn and white wings, the one with bunny ears and also the one with blue-green and yellow dino tail. The other seven were walking ever so charmingly, but these three were joking and laughing with each other as if nothing had happened to them.


“Hey, Baekhyunnie! You’re a bunny, why are you walking like this? Jump!” The dino guy laughed and pushed his bunny friend playfully.


“I’m a y bunny, I walk ily,” the bunny pulled one of his long, fluffy white ears and covered half of his face seductively with it. “Hey you too, Chenchen, dinos’s arms are supposed to be short! But, but, look at Lay, he has wings but he can’t fly.”


“Huh? Do unicorns fly?” the unicorn asked with utterly confused face, making the other two snicker at him.


“Why are we talking about this again though? It’s not like we were born yesterday,” said the bunny guy with a goofy grin. “We’ve only gotten these special parts back. But now we’re true adults! We’ve completed our mission.”


“Yeah, we’re finally back here! Ahh~ I missed my tail, and my pumpkins too,” the dino wiggled his tail and beamed.


Mission? Luhan thought to himself. Could it be a mission to collect some rare fruits? But, what did the bunny mean though? Got their special parts back? Did they lose them?


Luhan’s head was filled with too many questions, yet he ended up shaking them off because he was still way too young to think that much. Even in human’s age, he was only ten years old, so he was just going to act like a normal kid who barely cared about adult stuff. Just like his owl friend, Kyungsoo.


But no, he was too curious... He needed to find out more.


"Luhannie, let's go back home!"


"Umm... You can go back first, Kyungie. I'll catch up later."


"Huh? What are you going to do? I'll go with you then."


Luhan contemplated whether he should tell his friend about his curiosity or keep silent about it, but in the end, he whispered, “I’m going to follow The Collectors and find out what they’ve done.”


“Huh?? No, you can’t do that!” Kyungsoo’s big eyes got bigger as he whispered loudly and looked around, making sure no one had heard what the other had just said. He pulled Luhan away from the crowd and continued his short lecture, “What are you even thinking? We’re not supposed to know that before the right time! What if something happens to you after you find out? Come on, let’s just go back-“


“No.” Kyungsoo tried to pull Luhan’s hand, yet the latter’s feet were pinned to the ground. “I really need to know about this, Kyungie. I’ve been curious for so long. I’ve tried to ask the older Inchlings, but no one would tell me the truth. Then I’ll just find out about it by myself. Are you going with me?”


Kyungsoo looked at his best friend in disbelief. Unlike him, the deer boy had such an adventurous soul and a huge curiosity inside his tiny body; if Kyungsoo preferred staying at home and avoiding any troubles, Luhan would rather go find the source of that trouble instead just to satisfy his curiosity. This was the only thing that differed their personalities.


“…No. I’m sorry, Luhannie. I’d do anything for you, except this, I don’t want to get into unnecessary troubles,” the owl said bitterly. He rarely rejected anything the other asked for.


“Very well then,” said the deer rather sadly, “I’ll go alone.”


“If you really do find something, please don’t tell me about it when you come back. I’ll wait for one more year, until I turn four, like Papa Beard told me to.”


Luhan turned his back towards his upset friend, who then balled his tiny hands into fists and said emotionally, “You’re doing what our Papa forbade you to do.”


“I know.” Luhan sighed and turned his head slightly, “Are you mad at me, Kyungie?” The owl remained silent. Growing anxious, he turned his body back to the other completely and asked with a heartbreaking tone, “After I come back, will you still play with me?”


Kyungsoo couldn’t help but stormed forward and squeezed his friend in his arms as tight as he could. “Of course. I’m not mad, I’m just worried about you! Just please come back soon, don’t let them catch you. I’ll be waiting. Be careful, Luhannie.” With a kiss on the cheek, he let his deer friend run away from his sight, towards where The Collectors were gathering; the central park. Luhan was determined to find out what they had done without getting caught by them.


In the central of Peeweeland, there was a very big park where couples – from the young ones to the old ones – and children liked to spend their time at. The grass was fresh green, but the trees were colorful; green, pink, yellow and orange. There were also many kinds of flowers, and in the middle there was a big lake, where Inchlings could relax on some small boats in shape of swans, or just sit on the edge and on the bridge to catch some little fishes. The playground for kids was big, and the space to have a picnic was much, much bigger. There were many wooden picnic tables placed neatly here and there. That day, one of the picnic tables was occupied by ten grown up Inchlings, called The Collectors. They were eating and chitchatting happily, protected from too much sunlight by the shade of the trees surrounding them. Without their knowledge, a certain young Inchling with cute deer horns was hiding behind a tree not far away, slightly shaking as he tried his best to sharpen his hearing and catch the group’s conversation. His heart was drumming against the inside of his chest and his little hands were sweating. He felt like a spy on a mission; mission to eavesdrop a group of important people who kept the biggest secret that could ever exist on their land.