On Floor 94, the dire wolves grew restless. Memories of good food and dragon-like bipeds playing with them faded. The old hierarchy reasserted itself as their fur grew dull and shaggy. They patrolled their territory daily, ready to attack anything that trespassed.

*

On Floor 95, the kraken slept. Sharks circled calmly in the water above her. She had peace. And yet, with that peace, came something unexpected. The calm waters had nothing to disturb them, and she was… bored.

*

On Floor 96, the slimes rested. The air barely moved, and this was good. Not a single thing vibrated throughout the entire maze, which made them content. This was good. All was good.

*

On Floor 97, life continued on. The racers raced, the musicians played, Nat cooked with whoever needed grandmotherly advice, and Bonecrusher the Black made sure everyone got along fine. Y drew up blueprints for a catapult, and recruited people to help build it. No one said anything, but it was clear that something felt missing. They hoped it wouldn’t stay missing long.

*

On Floor 98, the ants swarmed over the desert, searching for food. They were hungry. They were always hungry. But now there was a… viciousness that hadn’t been there before. They missed their friend, a grief which turned into anger, causing them to lash out at anything that got in their way.

They found the trail of the gusanote, and lightning flashed in their eyes. Driven by pure emotion, against the warnings of their queen, they decided to attack. They were weak, but they were many. They would kill the worm, even if it took all cycle.

*

On Floor 99, the yetis decided, by anonymous vote, to move to the other side of the ravine. It seemed like a far more peaceful place to live.

*

And on Floor 100, surrounded by mountains of gold and gems, the platform with six buttons on it gathered dust. A dragon slept nearby, unaware of the passage of time.

*****

Dear Diary,

Again, it’s been like a week, sorry!

Kimi is better, mostly. She’s been using fireballs to melt the snow off our roofs, which looks like a lot of fun.

Lilly has been trying to figure out if any of her spells would allow her to go through either door, but hasn’t had any success yet. She’s not upset about failing, so that’s good.

Aya and Mika wrote out the rules to a couple games, and we’ve been playing those a lot. With Via, of course. If it’s a team game, I’m always teamed with Aya. Via and Mika can basically communicate by tapping their nails on the table to make music, so they always play together. It’s kind of cheating, but Aya and I don’t mind. If we win, their cheating just makes our victory sweeter. And at this point we’ve kind of learned what some of the music means. Like, in hearts, if Via taps a scale that goes up, that means she’s going to try to shoot the moon. Or if Mika whistles the first eight notes in Ode to Joy, she has a good hand.

It’s fun. Which, we need something fun.

Oh, Kimi just came in, I have to go.

Goodnight, dungeon!