Imagine Your Feet

Gaius waits by the cellophane packet.

It's been a successful morning.

He wonders if Elodie has been lucky.

.....

Elodie sits in a sand dune, sifting sand.

An ant runs up her arm.

She tries brushing it off, but it bites her.

Ouch. She stands up and heads for the water.

She passes the campsite where First and Second Dirty are waiting to be rescued.

They are lying face up on the ground exchanging riddles.

What is round? asks First Dirty

A pebble? asks Second Dirty.

The sun! says First Dirty.

Got me, says Second Dirty. What is hard?

A pebble? asks First Dirty.

Cartesian geometry, says Second Dirty.

Elodie stops. She has seen them.

I see we're all slacking, says Elodie. I'm heading for the water. Want to come with me?

Yes. They do.

She picks up First and Second Dirty.

Wait! says Second Dirty. Can you dig up something we buried?

Is it dead? asks Elodie.

Smashed, says Second Dirty. It's a baked bean that I sat on.

Why on earth do you want me to dig it up? asks Elodie.

They explain.

She digs it up for them.

......

Meanwhile Baby Pierre has got tired of waiting for Markus and Raoul and pressed ahead to the spot where the tiny maratus felinus had been preening its whiskers.

Is it still there?

No, it has moved on.

But Baby Pierre has seen spider tracks.

They are small, because, well, it's obvious.

Imagine you were the size of a rice grain.

Imagine your feet.

Baby Pierre travels low to the ground, and he has good eyesight.

He follows the tracks.

The tracks lead behind the thick trunk of a Kingia australis.

There sits the whiskery spider.

Hello, says Baby Pierre. I'm in search of a new species of peacock spider. Might that be you?

That is the dumbest question anyone has ever asked me, says the spider.

I'll start again, says Baby Pierre.

He circles the Kingia australis, and appears a second time, with a more sensible question.