Eaten Up From Inside

Cheater! says Sweetpea, hopping away down the carriage.

The Kroombit tinker decides not to follow.

What's going on? asks Nicolo.

One simple tickle, says the Kroombit tinker.

I wouldn't have thought he'd have felt it, says Nicolo.

With a feather, says the tinker.

Even less so, says Nicolo.

It was to increase his hopping and warm him up more, says the tinker.

A good plan, says Nicolo. Is he on his way back yet?

He's stopped at the far end, says the tinker.

Go and get him, says Nicolo.

What about the ticket inspector? asks the Kroombit tinker.

You're unlikely to see him, says Nicolo. But if you do, just come back. I'll have the Pringles tube ready.

The Kroombit tinker hops down to the far end of the carriage.

I'm sorry, says the tinker.

What for? asks Sweetpea.

The tickle, says the Kroombit tinker.

But look! says Sweetpea. The fungus has gone.

A few passengers look round to see who it was that had fungus.

A sweet little infant with a red nose, and a frog! 

That frog has a fungus! says a passenger.

Merde! says another.

Probably that dreadful chytrid fungus, says a third passenger. It eats them up from inside.

No, it eats them up from outside, says the first passenger.

It stops them respiring, says the second.

They know a lot, says Sweetpea.

They know nothing, says the tinker. Come on.

Sweetpea follows the tinker back to where Nicolo and Arthur are sitting.

I'm fixed! says Sweetpea.

Nicolo looks at Sweetpea's toes.

Bravo! there is no more cheesy fungus infecting those hard little digits.

Arthur leans across to inspect the phenomenon.

But what's happened to the fungus?

Arthur suspects that Sweetpea will have left cheesy hopping footprints all the way down the passage.

In which case.... it's probably best to do nothing.