“Good one,” said Mucum, unsure of what he’d just seen. “You … touched that thing?”

“Yes, and … I felt it! Everything! Every tunnel mapped out in that magnificent brain of hers. Dark, though. And lonely.” Ark’s face was a curious mix of smiles and tears. His voice ran at a hundred miles an hour. “We’re quits now? Yes? You with the rats, and me talking to a mealworm! Well, thinking, anyway. And it worked! Well …” Ark paused, not sure whether he could say it was all his doing. “Let’s go, eh. I’m starved!”

Joe, with his long legs, had to trot along to keep up with the new hero as Ark virtually leapt back along the passageway under the dim glow of the fungus.

“What’s got into you?” puffed Mucum as he tried to keep up.

“No idea!” Ark’s eyes were bright. “Lightening up!”

“Hmph,” grunted Mucum. “We were gonna be munchkins! Cheers.” Part of him felt grateful, part, jealous.

Ark was on a high. “I told you before, she really likes you! I can tell you that, thanks to my magical powers!” His eyes glittered with mischief.

“Yer what? Who you on about?”

“Flo!”

“Give it a rest, will yer?” Mucum growled.

“Never in a million years. ‘A right young pair!’ she said. I feel lurrvve in the air!” The thought of Flo’s big staring eyes suddenly gave him the giggles. “I dare you to give her a kiss! As soon as we get back!”

Mucum looked like thunder. “Look, right. Fair’s fair, you savin’ me life and all that. But give the subject a rest before I head-butt that conkers brain right out of yer skull!” This new, bouncy, chatty Ark was beginning to get on his nerves.

“Lookee in ’ere. This is where we grow’m little ’uns!” Joe pointed down a side passage. The phosphor dimly revealed an earthy tunnel, the floor littered with white bulbous shapes.

Mucum was horrified. He knew the Rootshooters were weird. This explained it. He imagined the children with feet rooted in the subsoil like skinny sapling monsters. “Yeurghhh!” he exclaimed.

Joe frowned at Mucum’s comment. “Whoi the funny face? They be right tasty! Yow wants to try one?”

Mucum stepped back, almost knocking Ark over. He wanted to whisper to him to run. “They’re cannibals! They eat their own young!” he hissed, hoping Joe wouldn’t hear. Unfortunately, Mucum missed his footing and fell with a dull clump straight onto the shining white … things. “Help!” he squealed. “They’ve got sharp teeth. I’m being bitten!”

Ark had already figured out what was going on and was almost doubled up with laughter. “Those aren’t teeth. They’re thorns!”

“Yas!” said Joe. “Can’t have dulberries without brambles! Let’s pick a few fer the journey back. They be ever so sweet.”