A long time ago, in a small village, lived a young man called Fluff. He had a real name, but everybody called him Fluff, even his parents, because he was small like a fluff of dust. He was so small, he slept in a matchbox, and used a button for a plate.
Fluff did not like being so small. All his friends made fun of him, and he had no respect in his village. And so, one day, Fluff decided to leave home, go out into the world, and search for a cure to his smallness.
He packed his belongings in a handkerchief, put on his tiny shoes, and kissed his parents goodbye.
“I will wander the world until I find something to make me taller,” he said, “so people would not laugh at me anymore.”
Fluff walked for a long time in the woods, between tall and gnarly trees, until finally he came to a fairy kingdom. The fairies all flew around him in confusion.
“How can this be?” the fairies wondered. “Here is a young man our size, but he has no wings.”
“I’m not a fairy!” Fluff said. “I am a human, just very small. Can you make me bigger?”
The fairies nodded. “We can use our magic and make you bigger. But beware, tiny human, sometimes what you wish for is not what is best for you.”
The fairies then sprinkled him with fairy powder, and all of a sudden, Fluff began to grow. He grew and grew and grew until he was the size of a regular person. He laughed and thanked the fairies, and said, “From now, my name will no longer be Fluff, for I am no longer small. From now, I shall be known as Big Boy.”
Happily, Big Boy began to skip through the woods, back to his village. Finally, he thought, no one would make fun of him.
As he walked toward the village, he saw mushrooms growing on the ground. Big Boy was very hungry, and he began to pick the mushrooms so he could eat them. As he was picking them, he noticed something hard buried under the ground. He cleared the earth away and found a box buried in the ground. When he opened the box, he saw treasure inside.
Now this box had been buried by bandits who had stolen the treasure. And the bandits were just then returning for the box. They were bullies, and when they saw Big Boy with their treasure, they yelled at him, “You are trying to steal our treasure!”
The bandits captured Big Boy and took him back to their hideout. There, they locked him in a cage.
“You will stay in this cage forever,” they told him, “because you tried to steal our treasure.”
Then the bandits left. Big Boy tried to fit through the cage bars, but he was too big. He sat down and cried instead.
“If I were small, I could have escaped through the bars,” he said. “But alas, I am big now, and cannot escape.”
The fairies in the woods heard this cry, and flew from their kingdom to the cage.
“Fairies, fairies!” Big Boy said. “I want to be small again!”
“We told you,” the fairies said, and sprinkled him with golden powder, and he became small Fluff again.
Fluff jumped out of the cage, happy, and ran through the woods. There, amid the trees, he saw a lion lying on the ground. The lion was crying.
“Why are you crying, lion?” Fluff asked him.
“Because there is a thorn in my paw,” the lion said. “Many people have tried to pull the thorn out, but it is so small, no one can reach it.”
“Well, I am just the right size for that,” Fluff thought. He easily found the thorn and pulled it from the lion’s paw.
The lion was happy, and said, “Now we will be friends. Here, you can ride me.”
Fluff climbed onto the lion’s head and sat between his ears. The lion began to gallop, and they set toward Fluff’s home.
“From now on, I will be your pet,” the lion said to Fluff. “I won’t let anyone make fun of you again.”
When Fluff came into his village, everyone came to look in wonder at him and his lion. And Fluff saw that standing among them, barely visible, was a tiny beautiful girl. She was the exact same size as Fluff.
“Who are you?” Fluff asked her in amazement.
“I am Fluffilda,” she said, “and I am a princess. I came to this village searching for a husband, but everyone here is too big for me.”
“But I am exactly the right size for you!” Fluff said.
And so Fluff and Fluffilda got married, and they lived together in a big castle, and were very happy. And sometimes, even today, when you look outside, you can see a lion running through the woods, and between its ears sit two tiny people.
