The dinosaur took a couple of tentative steps forward, sniffing the air. Murky wasn’t sure if the marshmallow smelled like anything at all to it, but it hadn’t ripped her arm off yet, so maybe that was a good sign.
“Maybe it’s a nice dinosaur,” Murky said. “Like those ones down there with long necks eating the mushrooms.”
“No, I don’t think it is,” Jesse said. “That looks like some kind of version of a velociraptor.”
“Never heard of it,” Henderson said.
“Let’s just say there’s nothing in any of my books about them eating marshmallows.”
Yet the velociraptor really did seem intrigued by the puffy white treat in her hand. Not wanting to get too close, Murky tossed it the remaining foot in the dinosaur’s direction. It deftly snapped the marshmallow out of the air and chewed exactly twice before swallowing it down. It cocked its head as though considering what it had just tasted, then made a sound that Murky could only interpret as “Can I have another?”
“Yeah, of course you can!” Murky said as she pulled out the next marshmallow.
“Uh, Murky? Who are you talking to?” Henderson asked.
“Never mind her when she does that,” Laura said. “She goes and thinks she knows what animals are thinking, then forgets that other people would find it weird when she replies. It’s something you get used to.”
“You’re not so bad,” Murky said as she offered it the marshmallow. This time she didn’t throw it, instead growing bold and getting closer to the velociraptor. It could have easily chomped down on her and severed her hand, but instead it almost daintily took the marshmallow from her fingers and chewed. “Hey Laura, I think I made a friend. What should I call him?”
“How do you even know it’s a him?” Henderson asked.
“I don’t, but I’m sure he would tell me if I was wrong.”
By the time she was finished giving him everything that had been in the marshmallow bag, she had completely lost all fear of the creature. Even though Laura made nervous noises behind her, Murky went right up to the velociraptor and tried to pet its head. It didn’t seem especially pleased at the touch, but neither did it try to shy away or attack her.
“I’m going to call him Chicago,” Murky said.
“What?” Jesse asked. “Why would you call him that?”
“Because that’s his name. I decided so just now.”
“Murky, you can’t just name a dinosaur after a city,” Henderson said.
“Why not?”
“I mean, just think about it. Who would call a dinosaur Minneapolis? San Francisco? Denver?”
“It doesn’t matter what she wants to name him,” Laura said. “He doesn’t get a name because we’re getting away from him as quickly as we can.”
“What? Why?” Murky asked. “Can’t we take him with us?”
Henderson shook his head. “Murky, we can’t just walk around with a valet ratchet.”
“Um, I think you mean velociraptor,” Jesse said.
Henderson shrugged. “Whatever. It’s still something that will try to eat us as soon as it’s finished digesting those marshmallows.”
“He’s right, Murky,” Laura said. “Good job on stopping him from attacking us, but we have to get out of here now. He could turn on us at any moment, and we still need to figure out what direction we’re even going.”
Murky perked up. “Maybe Chicago could help us with that!”
“I doubt that,” Henderson said.
“Maybe he can follow the missing people the same way a dog would. Maybe we can have him sniff something one of them touched and then we can follow him to them!”
“One, I don’t think dinosaurs work like that,” Henderson said. “Two, we don’t have anything that could be used for that.”
“How do you know a dinosaur doesn’t work like that?” Murky asked. “Have you ever met one before?”
“Um, no.”
“Then shut up! And maybe he doesn’t need something that was owned or touched by one of the others. Maybe he can just follow them by smelling us. I mean, he’s probably never seen humans before. We’ve got to smell strange and easy to track to him.”
“I’m not sure that’s how logic works,” Jesse said.
“Look, let’s just get moving,” Laura said. “We’ll find the tunnel that seems to have the brightest fungus and keep going with the same thinking we were before.”
Laura, Jesse, and Henderson carefully skirted around the dinosaur and went back out into the main cavern. Murky pouted but followed them, sure that Chicago would lose interest and run away if she wasn’t continually giving him attention.
He didn’t.
Chapter Eight
“Please tell me he’s stopped,” Henderson dramatically whispered to Laura. Laura, however, used her normal voice when replying.
“Nope. We’ve still got a walking razor blade following us like a lost puppy.”
“Maybe we can make him stop,” Henderson said. “Like, I don’t know, whack him on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper.”
“A, we don’t have any newspaper,” Laura said. “And B, if you want to be the one who risks bopping a carnivorous dinosaur on the snout, go ahead and be my guest. I’ll be sure to see what I can do to reattach your arm afterward.”
“Nobody’s hitting him!” Murky said. “He’s my friend.”
Chicago had been following them for the last ten minutes, but he wasn’t doing anything at all to make them think he was stalking them in any way. If anything, he appeared to want to get closer, especially to Murky, but seemed afraid of what the others might do. Murky was amused by that, a dinosaur that could rip any one of them apart being afraid of a human. A couple of times she had almost been able to coax Chicago to walk right beside them, but he’d backed away and instead followed them from a distance every time.
“Murky, maybe it’s not a good idea
