The treetops were erupting into flame, and Yappea couldn’t see any of it.

It was awfully hard for someone as small as he was to have any fun around this time of year. In the winter, he could appreciate a gift or two, as well as make snow pea angels. The spring flowers looked like forests above him, allowing him to jump and startle his friends. Besides, he could pull a stem down and get to smell them for himself. In the summertime, all the Chia needed was a child’s water wing to float in a pool.

Yappea hated autumn.

He was never the first to see the trees change color, said leaves threatened to swallow him alive, and no matter how he tried, he couldn’t scare anyone on Halloween, much less hold a candy basket.

Being pea-sized had its advantages and disadvantages, but he had a hard time seeing the former once fall rolled around.

He trudged on top of the leaves, for once not minding the pairs of feet that constantly threatened to crush him flat. He didn’t care.

All he wanted was to be able to see higher up—was that too much to ask?

Yappea stopped. The floor no longer felt like a leaf. To his horror, the leaf in front of him was a leaf of yellow lined paper, folded up ever so slightly.

“There’s my airplane!” A voice above him called. Its owner picked up the folded paper airplane, and Yappea cried out as he fell into the middle crease.

To his simultaneous delight and horror, the pea Chia felt himself being whisked into the air and thrown. He hung onto the side of the airplane for dear life, hoping he landed safely.

Suddenly, Yappea looked up and gasped, for he had never seen anything like this, before—and chances were, no one else had…

The Chia laughed aloud in glee as he scanned the landscape beneath him. For once, he felt like a giant, looking down on the world instead of up to it.

So this is how they see my world, Yappea thought, a tiny hand combing through the invisible tresses of air. Strangely, he was relaxed, despite the initial fear of being so high up in the air. Perhaps, it was because he finally experienced what he was so curious of, to be big for once.

Unfortunately, the calmness was shattered as a particularly violet wind steered the aeroplane to a humongous oak tree, making Yappea grip the edge of the paper while screaming in apprehension. With his eyes shut, he crashed into the fiery leaves of the foliage and fell out of the folded paper to a bed made out of tiny branches...

“Are you alright?”

To his horror, the apple suddenly had a pair of eyes, a wide smiling grin, and six spindly branches for legs.

Yappea was no seedling. He knew of the dangers lurking for a small one like himself. He briefly contemplated jumping over the side of the branch to escape the apple Spyder, but one glance through the branches at the sheer drop convinced him otherwise.

“Are you hurt?” the Spyder asked. “I saw you take a tumble there.”

Keeping his good manners, Yappea said tentatively, “I think I’m ok.”

“Where did you come from?”

Yappea noticed two tiny, sharp teeth as the Spyder spoke. “I got caught in a paper plane,” he explained. “I’m very sorry for crashing into your bed.” He hoped the sincerity in his voice would keep him from becoming a midday snack.

The Spyder smiled. At least, Yappea think she smiled. “Oh, that’s not my bed,” the Spyder said. “It’s his…” One twig leg pointed behind Yappea, and the pea Chia turned to see…

"Why hello there, stranger," the Lupe called out to the pea Chia.

"Er, hello," Yappea awkwardly replied, though he wasn't sure if he was more dumbfounded by encountering a Neopet his size or by the fact Lupes lived in trees... or by the fact the Spyder could talk, now that Yappea thought--

"Name's Henry," the Lupe continued, interrupting Yappea's reflection. "I've lived in these parts for years... you look lost."

Wait, YEARS? The pea Chia frowned contemplatively. Who was this guy? "I am lost, I guess," Yappea weakly replied. What else could he have said? "I'm Yappea."

"Well, you're the right size to have come to just the right place," Henry concluded vaguely and obscurely. "Follow me."

Yappea turned back toward the apple Spyder. "Seems like you haven't much of a choice, hon." She flashed her teeth again in an almost encouraging manner.

The pea Chia scampered quickly away in pursuit of the tiny (relative to the rest of the world -- or at least Yappea's world) Lupe.

At last he caught up with the Neopet and they walked side-by-side. "Where are we going?" the pea Chia inquired.

"We're almost there."

Another few steps and it all came into view. Below them, in what seemed almost like a leafy valley, was a whole town of irregular Petpets and tiny Neopets...

"This is amazing!" Yappea exclaimed. Finally, a place where he could congregate with pets just like him! A place where he wouldn't have to avoid huge, clumsy feet or freezing, bucket-sized raindrops!

The Lupe he stood with noticed his glee and shot him a smile. "Wanna see it up close?"

"Yeah, yeah! Definitely!" Still in the throes of excitement, Yappea took little time to notice as his companion casually grasped him with a front paw and placed him gently on his back. Bracing backwards and preparing his hind legs in a pounce-like motion, he looked up at Yappea with a rogue-ish grin.

"You ready, kid?"

"Yeah!!! I wanna--huh?" And with that, the Lupe jolted off of the branch, and began careening towards the village below them at top speed, head-first. Yappea screamed in terror, holding on for dear life as he remembered his earlier brush with death on the paper airplane. The Lupe's slick, matted fur seemed to turn to blazing fire in his hands, and he sent up all the pleas of obeisance he could think of to whatever gracious Faeries there may be out there who could help him.

Just as the pair reached a height mere inches from the ground, and Yappea shut his eyes in preparation for death, he felt all the pull of gravity leave him, and instead started to float gently in midair! Slowly opening his eyes in shock, Yappea looked all around until his eyes fell upon his savior...

"Thank you..." Yappea breathed. Then he remembered the mask-wearing Lupe and scowled. "Where did he go?"

"Oh, the Lupe? Henry? He went over there somewhere." She gestured breezily with her hand as you would expect an Air Faerie to do. "He means no harm. Henry just developed a habit of messing with the new citizens that doesn't make him too popular with them. So, you're a new arrival, huh?"

"Wait. Before we get to that. Why don't you get someone else to go find newcomers?" Yappea inquired.

"No one draws 'em in like good old Henry does." Laughed the Faerie. "So, as I was saying. New arrival?"

"You betcha." Sighed the Chia. "It feels good, it feels bad. What can I say?"

"I'm, as you probably figured out, the Air Faerie of this place. There's a whole clan of Faeries, just like in Faerieland. Luckily Henry hasn't found a tiny Jhudora yet." She shuddered and Yappea laughed. "Anyway, I'm the one who shows you how everything's done. It's pretty much the same as normal Neopia except it's a bit harder."

"Harder? In what sense?" Asked the befuddled 'pet.

"In the sense that you have to do everything yourself, rather than getting someone else bigger than you to do it. Putting that aside, do you want to see this place up close or what?" Yappea nodded eagerly. He peeped past the Air Faerie and gasped in delight of what he saw...

"It's amazing..." Yappea said in awe.

"I know, it really is." The Air Faerie said, and soon was leading the way into the tiny town proper.

The scale was absolutely perfect for a pea Yappea's size, and she couldn't help but keep a smile on her face as she looked through the miniature Neopia Central.

"So, as you can see," The Air Faerie said, "Everything you know and are used to, we have here for pets our size. We have a vending machine for Nerkmids, a Magic Shop with our own Kauvara, though we call her Smallvara for kicks, and of course, our own Soup Faerie."

Yappea was only partially paying attention, as she was drawn to the changing leaves on the tiny trees, and then seeing a few drop from their branches, fluttering harmlessly down. There was no risk getting buried this fall!

"It's perfect..." Yappea said. "I don't care if it is a bit harder, I love it here!"

"I'm glad you like it." The Air Faerie said, but then suddenly her face dropped, "But I'm afraid it's not all perfect. There is some bad news."

"Bad news?" Yappea said, "Oh no, what is it?"

"You see, the thing is..."

She paused, and then asked: "Do you still want to stay?"

Yappea frowned. Staying inside for an entire season? He wouldn't be able to make snow pea angels, and he'd have to buy his gifts months in advance... and who would he even give them to? He didn't really know anyone here, and he couldn't very well knock on his neighbour's door if he was snowed in. The idea suddenly seemed very lonely.

"I don't know," Yappea admitted. "Why don't you all move somewhere else for the winter season?"

"This village is our home," the Air Faerie said simply. "All of our belongings are here. Our friends. Our livelihoods."

"Hmm," said Yappea, thinking hard. "Where did Henry go? I may have a solution, but I'm going to need some help..."

"It's true, I did," Yappea replied, nodding fastly. "I need your help."

The Air Faerie looked back and forth at both of them, but her gaze settled on the pea Chia. "What ideas have you in mind, new one?"

"A giant geodesic dome covering our tiny Neopia Central could be implemented annually, after the initial snow falls but before the winds rustle too hard."

The Air Faerie gasped. She had heard of nothing like this before.

The masked Lupe narrowed his eyes. "And you're suggesting you want this to become reality for our wintertime?"

"Yes," Yappea concluded. "It can be suspended from a branch and anchored to a few other branches."

"Oh hey," Henry responded as his eyes lit up, "I can actually work with that!"

The Air Faerie blinked. "And how would we get such a dome up here?"

"That's an easy one," Yappea finished. "A transparent plastic bowl, from the surface world."

"Ooh," his counterparts awed in unison.

"And how will we come to acquire this?" the Air Faerie inquired.

"All the tiny faeries could band together and travel to the surface world, secure the bowl from any odd shop or something. Heck, tiny Jhudora could probably just conjure one up if we all brought her the right it--"

"There's a JHUDORA here?" Henry squeaked.

The Air Faerie sighed. "Now you've set him off on his faerie fancrush," she whispered to Yappea.

Yappea grinned.

"I shall relay this plan to the other faeries of the council," the Air Faerie finished before flying away.

It hadn't taken long for the seasons to change... before he knew it he had been celebrating Halloween by giving tiny treats to tiny children, and then sharing a tiny roast dinner with Henry and his other tiny-acquaintances.

Yappea watched the first snowfall from the comfort of his tiny Neohome in tiny Neopia Central.

The day next, he would oversee the implementation of his dome idea. It had really caught on, and he was appointed to be the first non-faerie non-Henry on tiny Neopia Central's council.

He'd have to go make snow pea angels soon...

Maybe return the surface and make them there, too. Let the wanderers wonder how something so small could make his mark on the world.

"Like me and tiny Neopia Central," Yappea mused as he dressed in winter clothes.

The End.