“Murky, hang on!” Laura called up to her. “Whatever you do, don’t fall in!”
“Um, it’s not like that was on the top of my list of things to do,” Murky muttered, but most of her concentration had to stay on her grip. This thing was incredibly slippery, and it was taking all of her effort not to tumble the rest of the way in. Although it was dark down in the gullet of the mushroom, she thought she could see some white spots that might have been the remains of bones.
“Look out!” Henderson called to her. She looked up just in time to see one of the vines whipping at her, obviously in an attempt to dislodge her and give the mushroom its meal. It barely missed her head, but a second one reared back, ready to hit her straight on. Murky closed her eyes, thinking this might very well be it, only to snap them back open again a second later as Chicago jumped at the tentacle and clawed the end of it right off, sending it flying into the mushroom’s gullet. The fungus only barely reacted to this and certainly didn’t seem to feel pain, but it did react when Chicago finished his absurdly high jump and landed right with his claws in the lip of the mouth. The entire mushroom swayed and shook violently in an effort to get the dinosaur off. Murky could feel her grip slipping, and she didn’t think that she would be falling to the outside if she did.
“Chicago, help!” she called out to the velociraptor. In response, he opened his mouth and lunged his head at her, a movement that would have terrified her in any other circumstances. But instead of chomping down hard and killing her, he took her as gently as he could in his mouth and lifted her from the lip of the mushroom. The thorn that her shirt had been stuck on tore away with her and got caught between her and the dinosaur as they both tumbled away from the mushroom. Chicago let her go before they hit the spongey roots, keeping her from getting impaled by his teeth on impact.
Murky wanted to take a moment to hug and kiss the dinosaur in gratitude, but before she could, Laura was hauling her to her feet. “Come on! We’ve got to get out of here!”
They all ran past the mushroom as several more of the tentacles lashed at them, but now none of them came close to catching them. The element of surprise that it had had when it first attacked was gone, and the fungus couldn’t do anything but reach out after them in vain as four kids and one dinosaur skipped out on their intended destiny as its dinner.
It was strange, but as they ran, Murky thought she could hear the mushroom make a weird creaking sound that was almost like a cry of rage.
Chapter Nine
They didn’t stop running until they were far enough down their current tunnel to no longer see or hear any sign of the carnivorous mushroom. When they did stop, the four of them collapsed to the stone floor in exhaustion. Chicago, who had been limping along behind them, made a series of strange whining sounds as he too leaned his body against a wall for support.
“That was crazy,” Jesse finally said when he got his breath back. “We seriously almost could have died.”
“Murky,” Laura said. When Murky looked over at her to see what she wanted, her big sister grabbed her in a tight hug and kissed the top of her head. “I thought I was about to lose you.”
“Aw, don’t be like that,” Murky said, although she too had been terrified that she might not make it. “I’m perfectly okay.”
“But are you?” Laura asked. She held Murky out at arm’s length and looked her over as best she could in the dim green light. “What happened here?” she asked, indicating the huge gash in Murky’s shirt. It wasn’t positioned so the hole exposed anything embarrassing, but Murky felt self-conscious about it anyway.
“I got caught on one of those tooth things in that plant’s mouth,” Murky said.
“That fungus’s mouth,” Jesse corrected.
“Plant, fungus, whatever,” Henderson said. “It was still something that shouldn’t even have a mouth.”
“Are you hurt?” Laura asked her. “There’s… there’s blood on you.”
“What? Where?” Murky looked down at herself and saw that, yes, there was indeed a large smear of blood on her clothing, but when she checked herself, she couldn’t find anywhere that the blood might be coming from. “I don’t think this is mine.”
“What, was it from the fungus?” Henderson asked. “Not only is this a place where mushrooms try to eat you, but you’re telling me they actually bleed as well?”
“I don’t think it’s from the mushroom either,” Jesse said. “Look.” He pointed behind them. They’d been so caught up in their escape that none of them had noticed that Chicago, while still following them like a lost kitten, had fallen significantly behind. Once he limped closer, they could all see that he had to have been the source of the blood, as there was a fresh patch of it streaming down his leg.
“He must have gotten caught on the broken thorn while we were falling,” Murky said.
“Do you think one of us should try to help him?” Jesse asked.
“Murky should,” Laura responded. “She’s the one with all the experience in taking care of animals.”
“I take care of cats and hamsters,” Murky said. “Those are really not even close to a dinosaur.”
“Let me put it this way,” Laura said. “Out of all of us, you’re the one most likely to be gentle with him, and therefore the least likely to cause him pain.”
Henderson snorted nervously. “And less likely to piss him off enough to want
