Rube and Lor could stand up inside the terrarium, but only just.  And that wasn’t the only thing that made it difficult to walk around.  Every step they took, they had to deal with either a branch in the face or a foot sinking ankle-deep into moss or mud.  The air around them seemed to be about half water vapour, and it was hard to tell whether it was that making your clothes damp, or your own sweat.  There was the kind of uncomfortable warmth you got when somebody turned the central heating up too high.  The insects led them down some mossy, uneven steps and into a kind of leafy bowl about three yards across.  Rube and Lor sat in what looked like the driest spots, and watched as a little group gradually gathered in front of them.

The group consisted of two moths- Annie and a bigger one who kept giving her calming pats on the shoulder- two ladybirds and three bees.  The bee who’d invited them in had introduced herself as Rosemary, and seemed to be in charge.  “Right,” she told Rube and Lor, as soon as everyone had settled in, “Tell us everything.”

They did their best.  Rube did, anyway, racking her brains for everything Sally had told her about what happened while she wasn’t there.  Lor didn’t add much except to confirm a few details of Rube’s story, which seemed strange.  Maybe the insects already knew who she was and why she was down there.

Once Rube had finished, Rosemary let out a long breath.  “So Kai’s still alive.”

“We don’t know that,” snapped Annie.

One of the ladybirds- the female one- looked from Annie to Rube to Lor.  “I have to admit, we don’t,” she said, a little apologetically.

“Well… how can we prove it to you?” asked Rube, leaning forward a bit so that the insects could hear her better.

No-one answered, but one of the bees asked Annie, “Why would they make it up?”

“Oh, I don’t know, Siobhan, because this bitch-” she pointed at Lor- “wants us to show her the way through this place?”

Lor sat up, offended.  “I didn’t say you had to show me!”

The male ladybird made a dismissive noise.  “How else are you going to get through?  You practically broke your ankle just getting this far.”

Rube tensed in case she had to grab Lor to stop her from squashing him.  Before that could happen, Rosemary the bee flew two feet into the air so that she could address the others.  “Look!  I believe them!”  She pointed a front leg at Rube.  “Everything she said… it sounded like Kai, right?  Him getting up and calling the piper as soon as he got up?  Remember how interested he was when he first heard about them?  He learned the tune and everything!”

“Lor probably coached her,” muttered Annie.

“Annie!  Come on!”

Rube relaxed a bit, now that nobody was going to squash anyone.  “Where is it you need to get to, anyway?” she asked Lor.

“Down to the next level.”  Lor shrugged.  “Whatever that is.”

“I know what it is,” said a quiet voice, “I’ve been there.”

It took Rube a moment to work out that it had been the other bee who’d spoken, the one who looked a bit shabbier than Rosemary and Siobhan.  One of his wings had a ragged edge, as if he’d been in an accident.

“How do you know that?” asked the female ladybird.

“I went to find it once.  Set an expedition for myself.”  He gave a little, barely-there laugh.  “That was when I was… braver…”

The male ladybird put a hand (feeler) on his shoulder.  “Charlie, you don’t have to…”

“It’s OK.  I can tell them.”  Charlie’s voice was low- not deep, but low- and had a careful sound to it, as if he’d put serious thought into each word.  “It’s a long way through the green, but there are…”  He faded out, then back in again.  “Eventually you make it to a sheet of glass.  The bottom of the terrarium, I guess.  There are cracks in it…  At least, there were when I was there.  Maybe they’ve fixed it since then.”

Rosemary was still hovering, but she’d gone from two feet in the air to about ten centimetres.  “You’ve never mentioned this, Charlie,” she said gently.

“He doesn’t have to tell you everything,” said the male ladybird.

Charlie continued.  “I managed to get through one of the cracks, but I didn’t get very far after that.  It was mouldy and neglected, but there were… shadows moving in the distance…”

He trailed off.  It was hard to tell for sure, but Rube thought his mouth might have carried on moving after the sound stopped.

The male ladybird rubbed his back.  “We’re done here,” he told everyone else.

“Wait,” said Lor, “Which direction is it?  We can make our own way there if you…”

“He needs to rest,” said the female ladybird.  It wasn’t a loud voice, but it was one you knew it would be useless to argue with.  “And frankly, so do you!  Your friend’s yawned three or four times in the last minute…”

“Sorry,” said Rube, catching Lor’s eye.

“…and you’re about ten seconds from an adrenaline crash.  Get some sleep.”  She pointed at the mossy floor.  “We’ll talk about directions in the morning, OK?”

Rube didn’t need telling twice.  Luckily, neither did Lor.

(To be continued)