Dear Dad,

  So, the monster hunt happened, and things managed to go completely terribly.

  While Ben was with Grace, I stepped outside and got to hear some of the plan, which was bad. They basically just wanted to corner the animal and then charge, which I could tell was a bad idea cause what do animals that have been cornered do? They fight back extra hard so they can get away. Willow was arguing for them to use a net or something to trap it or any way of trapping it, and no one wanted to listen to her or do that. I thought it would work cause if it’s all caught up in a net, how will it get away, or worse, attack? But when no one listened to her and kept talking over her, she just shut up. I tried to tell her I thought it was a better idea, but she didn’t want to talk to me. I wouldn’t want to talk to anybody, but when I told her she should try to bring a net anyway, she said I didn’t know what I was talking about. I mean, I don’t, but it’s still a better, more sound idea what whatever it was that they had come up with.

  The hunt went really, really badly, which I could have told you was going to happen, but luckily, they brought the healer with them. So, while they weren’t really prepared to fight the thing, whatever it is, owlbear? They weren’t ready to fight that, and they got multiple people hurt. Luckily, no one as badly as Grace, but Willow said it was pretty bad, and the healer’s been out of here quite a bit now. He’s been focusing on getting people bandaged and keeping them alive. Making sure there’s no infection like he’s been doing for Grace. But he hasn’t used his magic on most of them. Riley said that he used most of it or all of it? Yesterday was just keeping people from getting infections and falling on the battlefield.

  Which seems insane. I can’t even imagine what it would be like, what it must have been like to try to fight that thing not once but twice. Just crazy. And these people had a lot more than one person injured by this thing previously, and he still went out there without much of a plan.

  I know that this all could have gone better and that everyone’s really upset right now for a lot of reasons. MY friends cause they feel like they should have kept Grace from getting hurt, and then because the plan didn’t work. And the locals because people just keep getting hurt, and their plans aren’t working. And people keep getting hurt. I can’t even imagine how they must feel. They’re terrorized all the time. And then the bear thing is attacking random people on the road, making it hard to get supplies in and out. And now even more people are hurt, and they’re still no closer to being rid of the thing.

  There is some good news: Grace woke up for a little while last night. She was a little confused but remembered some of what we talked about yesterday, and she seemed to have more color. But not like, a blush or anything, but she wasn’t like, waxy and pale and frail looking anymore. We talked a little bit. She just wanted to know where we are and what’s been going on. Which makes sense. She’s been asleep for, like, 4 days straight. It would be confusing for anyone. She said she’s had some weird dreams but doesn’t remember any of the details anymore. She asked where the others were, and they were mostly around, but none of them had spent much time in there with her. She was worried they were mad at her, but I made sure Grace knew that they were all just worried and trying to make sure that the thing that hurt her couldn’t do it again. She asked why I didn’t go with them, and I told her that I’d do my best to stay with her so she wouldn’t wake up alone. That seemed to make her happy.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  I told her what I could remember about the attack, and then I kind of made up a story about their first attempt to fight the owlbear and tried to make it sound like it was very heroic and not at all something that had gone so terribly. She fell asleep before I finished, though, so I guess it was a good story. Or she was just really tired.

  I talked with Reese about what we should do while the others were gone. He thought I was worrying too much about them. I think I was worrying just the right amount, though, because they did end up coming back hurt. But they weren’t dead or grievously injured like I was worried they’d be. He doesn’t know what we should do if they end up getting hurt. He thought that it was something that we’d just have to deal with when the time came.

  He was very quick to reassure me that it wouldn’t come to that, though. he was just talking in hypotheticals and that they would be just fine, that he was just making sure that I was prepared. But I mean, I asked him, so I think he wasn’t actually thinking about it at all, either.

  I also explored Ben's house while they were away. I mostly did it because I was bored, but I didn’t touch anything. I know you have to keep everything sterile, not that anything in this place is sterile, so people don’t get infections. But it was an interesting look into someone else’s life and, to an extent, how these people live their lives.

  I knew that the healer was some kind of priest because he told us, and so did other townsfolk when I was trying to find him initially, but this guy lives how I think a monk would live. Not a lot, a couple changes of clothes, his bedroom very modest with a symbol that I think was his deities symbol on the wall, an area set up in the light that has a lot of like, almost textbooks but not quite that are all full of like, healing stuff, like a medical book, and potions and stuff. I don’t think they’re actually potions, not like magical ones. At least, I don’t think they are. But, like, stuff to put on wounds so they don’t get infected or whatever. And there were a lot of things for putting on rituals that are apparently part of this world's prayer. They seem to really like putting on plays. I mean, in school, we learned that there used to be a lot of plays to teach people the bible. it just seems all really different. A different way of doing things isn’t always bad, though.

  There’s going to be another meeting to try to plan something else to do to fight the bear monster, and hopefully, this one works or at least has some success. I mean, if the bear thing dies after they go out, even if they don’t kill it, kill it, and get a trophy, it’ll still be dead. I’m going to go listen this time. that way, if they try to talk over Willow’s good ideas, I can shout them for her.

  I’ll talk to you again soon,

  Love, Jack