Dear Dad,

  Reese kinda finished my last letter. He also put me to bed, which was nice of him. I kind of fell asleep on the floor, which was not very comfortable, let me tell you. I'm very surprised I managed to fall asleep there.

  We did end up leaving Vallitop Village, the little place on the top of the cliff. It was nice enough, and the people were nice enough. Really, it wasn’t what we were looking for to stick around in. I’m pretty sure the people weren’t poisoning us, but after Willow suggested it, I think the others couldn’t stop thinking about it. And anyway, we just need to keep moving forward.

  There was another slightly larger town when we reached the mountain's bottom. Hill's bottom? I don't know. It still took all day to get down, but that might have just been because we all still felt sick. This place is called Twillbottom. And I wasn't the only one to laugh at the name, but I did laugh.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  We did manage to find a place that would sell us a map for cheap, but can you believe it? They’re also asking us to do free labor for them. At this rate, we’ll never get home, all cause of the need for free work.

  Riley and Zunair split us up, Riley taking Reese and Willow out into the woods with her to hunt down something called a flail snail? And then bring back some of its slime to the mapmaker.

  Mestoa, the mapmaker. At this point, I think I could make up the spelling of all the names. Many of these people can't read or write, so how would they even know if I was wrong or right anyway?

  Then Zunair, Grace, and I are going to look for some plants that Mestoa wants. The world may never know why this guy needs slime and plants for his maps, but if he’s willing to give us it for pretty cheap, then we’ll do it. I think we’ll need to look in an area not too far from the next little town we stumbled across, but who knows how long it’ll actually take. We’ll all leave tomorrow on our assorted tasks, but we’ll see later what will happen when we go on them.

  Love, Jack