The dracoraptors heard movement in the grass. The leader looked over the field, smelling the air. The flying enemies circled lazily above them, paying no attention to whatever had entered the floor.

Of course not. The fliers were stupid things that only cared about the western gate. The dracoraptors knew that both gates could bring enemies.

The leader hissed a command, and the team moved silently through tall grass towards the eastern gate.

Movement. Whatever was coming was loud, clumsy, and smelled like meat.

The leader stopped. Around him, the rest of the team halted. No command had been given, no signal had been sent out. The efficiency and intuitiveness of his team made him proud.

He sniffed the air. What was that scent? It was familiar and yet… not. It sparked a distant memory. A happy memory. A memory of…

He moved again, his team following instantly. They surrounded the enemies in a loose formation that ensured the enemy didn’t know they were surrounded.

That smell. That smell, that smell…

Blackberry. He didn’t know where the memory came from, but the dracoraptor knew he smelled blackberry.

The enemies were walking in a straight line, a rope tying them together. He moved into their path and waited.

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The enemy leading the group didn’t see him until she was practically on top of him. She jumped back, startled. He stared passively at her.

“Umm, Nikki? I found the raptors. You’re up…”

***

Dear Diary,

Well, I made a cake for whatever was above the raptors, but it didn’t get there. Turns out raptors love blackberry. Who knew! Well, raptors like everything except lasagna, apparently. But they really like blackberry. Or at least the leader of the pack does.

I gave them other stuff, like cheese and pizza and meatballs. But they kept sniffing me until I handed over the blackberry cake. I mean, I’m not complaining. Now we know what they like, so I can just keep making that for them.

Anyways, that means we got to Floor 89 without any food offering. But that’s ok, because we didn’t really see anything to give food to.

Floor 89 is a swamp. Swamps have two things: mosquitoes and quicksand. The mosquitoes are a very slightly less annoying version of the flying ants. They’re not all that bad, really. But suffocating in quicksand is a new, horrible way to die. I imagine it’s like drowning mixed with being crushed by a boa constrictor, but worse. We don’t know how far the quicksand goes, so tomorrow Mika is going to freeze us a path through it. Hopefully it works. If it doesn’t, we’ll have to find some kind of plank to lay over the quicksand.

Mostly I hope nothing else lives on that floor. I suspect something even worse is up there, like how the ants share the floor with spiders and the giant worm thing. But who knows.

I have to make a bunch of blackberry stuff for the raptors tomorrow and all week. Oh! Maybe I should put blackberries into meatballs! I wonder if I can make some kind of blackberry cheese sauce, and put it over meatballs.

Time to experiment!

Goodnight, Dungeon!

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