A mouse on a phosphorescent leaf navigating a bright blue tributary herds sixteen strange peas with a pole. Its eyes glint in the rushing air and manic laughter exits its mandibles in the cave darkness. The water is cold but the rodent is adroit.

The waves crash against the leafy coracle as it bobs downstream. The mouse guards its strange peas from the nonexistent threats on shore. In its greed, the mouse is unconcerned with the widening mouth of the cave. The Gods are not in its favour tonight.

What with the unstable coracle, the tumultuous gale swiftly carried the mouse and the peas in to the cave! The mouse began to get nervous as the deeper into the cave it went, the colder and darker the cave became. Until it glimpsed a flash of light in the distance.

It was the glimmer of fish scales, a multitude of them, reflecting the tumescent mushrooms lit with a cold internal fire. The cosmic salmon slid, slithered, slammed in the narrow courseway and the mouse's fragile craft skipped across their backs like a smooth flat stone.

The darkness was long.

Eventually, his eyes adjusted, the mouse timorously lifted his visor. Sniff, sniff. The air was clear, breathable. He unclipped the safety strap on his disruptor, cradled it in his claw, and stepped onto the slippery spine of the cosmic salmon underneath.

Ahead of him, an imposing gate awaited, beckoning him.