"Kind of... slithery. And tight - you know, like when you've got a sock you can't get on in the morning. And dark, too!"

Mr Mouse was telling his friends what it was like to go down a wormhole. It was - well, yeuurrchhh!

"So... " said Wizzie "How did you get in?"

"Well" said Mr Mouse "We were all lined up in a row, right in front of the wormholes. When ya got right close up to them they looked worse than ever. There was something... something kinda alive about them. Round the edge it was shiny and wet, and if your looked really closely, you could see it was moving just a bit - like it was alive. The way your mouth does if you try and hold it open in an 'O' shape. Didn't help that they were this sorta pink and grey colour, either. I tell you, it makes me feel a bit sick just telling you about them!"

"Who went first?" asked Dot. She was feeling a bit sick too!

"Oh Cousin Esure!" said Mr Mouse proudly. "He really made our family look good! He just went like "Time to dive in I think!" and did this kind of run back and just dived straight in. Went down like someone going into a swimming pool." He made a funny face, as if he'd swallowed something totally yukkerama, like that liver stuff grown-ups always say is so good for you. Then he went on.

"Thing was, the wormhole made a kind of sucking noise as he went in. That didn't make the rest of us feel any better, I'm telling you straight! And then... "

"What?" said Wizzie. You could see he didn't much like what he was hearing either!

"Well then" said Mr Mouse "Cousin Esure's wormhole just disappeared! Pfft! Just like that! Looked like it had never been there. That left just four... "

"Who went next?" asked Dot.

"Oh, the Astounding Rixman" said Mr Mouse with a chuckle. "What a top rat he is! He went "Easy-peasy - I can do that!" Brian Mallow just smiled at him in his "I'm smiling but not really" way. Old Rixman just had to do one of his magic tricks first though - got out this piece of string and made it go all straight, then he climbed up the top of it and then made it lean over till it was pointing straight into one of the wormholes, then he runs down it and pfft! He's gone too. That left three of us... "

"Two girls and you!" said Wizzie, teasing Mr Mouse again "Don't tell me you went last!"

"Yeah well, Georgia Gerbil was too quick for me" said Mr Mouse, looking embarrassed. "She was on her skates anyway, just went straight in. So did Samantha, she looked real scared, but she just sang out "I- ee -I -ee I -ee will always LOVE YOU" like that Whitney Houston - she's only a guinea pig, but talk about LOUD! - and she was in too. Then it's just me and Big Brian left out there... and he's still doing that smile..."

He stopped. Then he shrugged. "Well I just hated it. I mean I'm a mouse so I can go anywhere... if you can fit a pencil in a hole, I can get through it, but I like to choose where I go, get me? Hadda do it though! Just closed my eyes and in I went!"

He shivered. "Ugh! It was NASTY! Felt like the sides of the wormhole were trying to hold onto you! It kind of fitted round you like the finger of a glove and it smelt... it smelt like that blanket of yours Wizzo!"

Wizzie snorted. "I like my blanket that way!"! he said crossly.

"Yeah, well, maybe ya wouldn't if it was all round you like that. Anyways it was all dark too, you couldn't see a thing - and you could only go forward, not back... and you didn't know where you were going or if you'd EVER come out!"

He shivered again. "And then there were the noises... all kind of sucky, schloopy sounds all the time, every time you moved."

He shook his head, as if he was trying to get rid of a bad bad feeling.

"It felt like FOREVER! I really thought I'd had it!"