Kate's glad for the extra height and weight in this body. It's just a little something extra to bolster himself against the near-ton battering ram galloping to and fro — and still getting the hang of braking.

He laughs, a wild, joyful, infectious cackle that leaves a warmness in his belly he hasn't felt for some time. Milliways is bizarre more oft than it's not; things are strange, sometimes frightening, unsettling and disturbing. You face exposure to magics and technology you wouldn't get back home. You get turned into things, fed otherworldly delights, locked up and shot at; you have experiences that would get you locked up if anyone back home ever found out.

And, sometimes, you get to play fetch with a horse, his great legs like pistons firing clods of earth into the air, his body wriggling with delight, lips pulled back in an equine grin. And you think, shit.

What a wonderful place.