Whenever he left the stable, Ben never once saw the wasp. As much as he loathed the sight of him, his absence was more than a little disconcerting. Chloe was out there alone. What if he had followed her? Ben tried to suppress his worries but at times they felt like the strongest part of him. Their voices overpowering the meek cries of reason and rationality. She was more than able to take care of herself. She had told him as much.

The last man he spoke to was especially anxious. He was constantly peering outside, speaking obsessively about the daylight. He seemed to be the youngest of the bunch. Ben had enquired after his age but the man wasn’t entirely sure; he was confident only of the fact that he was no longer a child. No arguing with that. He was tall as the wasp but built like an Eighties action figure. He-Man sprang to Ben’s mind. Every toy in that line shared the same ripped torso mould, as though Castle Grayskull was a multi-storey gym. Men of his strength were never given a day’s leave; not when there was land to be turned. He had a chin like a knobbly potato, and a kind glimmer to his eyes that had caught Ben by surprise. His head was a mass of black curls that he was constantly scratching at as he spoke.

‘I love the summer,’ he said earnestly. ‘There’s more daylight. We’re coming into the winter soon and that’ll be tough. You’ll see now, the sun won’t be long disappearing. It makes for too short a day to get any work done.’

There were only so many yawns that Ben could stifle. He was surprised the recorder’s reels hadn’t knotted themselves into oblivion out of sheer boredom. The furthering of knowledge is our ultimate goal here. And this villager just confirmed that there is more daylight in summer than there is in winter.

‘The night isn’t so bad,’ Ben replied, if only for the sake of saying something.

‘Not much to be doing inside,’ the man said, ‘except wait for the dawn, I suppose, and keep the little ones entertained.’

‘Are there no animals or livestock around that need looking after?’ Ben asked. ‘I didn’t see any on the walk here.’

‘Oh, you wouldn’t. They’re kept a fair distance from the village. And sure, you’d hear the sheep with the bells around their necks if they wandered too close.’

‘The sheep wear bells?’ Ben echoed. ‘And what’s the reason for that?’

‘It’s so the blind can find them,’ the man replied.

‘I’m sorry, what? Did you say the blind?’

‘Aye, that’s right. The blind tend to the animals at night.’

‘Okay,’ Ben said, jolting forward as if someone just pinched him, ‘and tell me why do—’

Ding-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling!