Dear Dad,

  We found the stupid, evil giant rabbit thing and dealt with it. I was right and Reese and Zunair were wrong and they can bite me.

  It was evil and stupid and stupidly evil, and I think I would have preferred dealing with it more than the mayor, but it is dead and done with.

  We started out like we had the last couple of days, the girls more or less glaring at us as we left the castle with our lunches, just hoping either to find the thing we were looking for or to at least fill the quickly becoming boring days with something that was at least a little more interesting.

  At this point, we've walked all over the woods around the little castle. Still didn't find anything too cool and nothing that would help us home, but we saw the deer again.

  No rabbit monster with them, though.

  We wandered around some more until we saw more of the stone statues. These were in a lot worse shape than the ones we'd seen earlier and miles worse than the squirrels we saw the other day. These ones were all but reduced to rubble. We could still tell that they used to be animal-shaped and sized, but it was hard to tell exactly what was what.

  Zunair thought this might be a sign of a den or something nearby, so we looked for that. I don't think Reese wanted to find it as much as I didn't want to because neither of us was looking very hard while Zunair was crawling through the underbrush looking.

  There weren't any dens in that area, at least not that we could tell. Still, Zunair insisted on doing a proper search in the area nearby, lining us up so we could do circles in that area with him.

  We must have been doing those circles for hours. Yet, we didn't find anything, not a single thing other than other statues that could have led us closer to or further away from the creature, and to be honest, I think it just left the statues all over the place. I mean, it's a rabbit, right? Even if it's a big rabbit, it's not going to be dragging those huge statues all over the place. They're heavy, almost too heavy for me to lift, so how was something half my size going to do it without issue?

  I eventually just sat down to eat. Reese joined me while Zunair complained about how we should keep looking. But I was hungry, and Zunair had just been getting more and more bossy all morning, so I didn't care.

  I'm pretty sure we only caught the thing cause we were all on the ground, making us easier targets.

  Zunair finally sat, and that's when I saw the rabbit out of the corner of my eye. It was hiding in the underbrush and was surprisingly well camouflaged for something that was snowy white. This close, I could see its pink albino eyes and that the horn was the same color. I wondered if this was normal for this creature or if we really had just happened to be sent to kill the only albino one of these.

  I think it was circling us for a bit because it was trying to figure out who to attack first, or maybe it was just trying to figure out who would be the best target.

  Before it made its choice, though, Reese spotted it.

  I don't think he was thinking when he just threw himself at it because he hadn't even grabbed his sword. I think he was just trying to catch it, you know?

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  But that scared the rabbit thing, and it jumped like four feet straight into the air.

  And then the chase was on!

  It was really, really, really funny to see and take part in. Cause the bunny thing was so fast! We were chasing it all over the place, and Reese totally forgot his sword, and Zunair had his out but was weighed down by it, and I was just trying to keep up with everyone.

  It led us all over the place, and then every now and then, it would turn around and charge back at us, which would cause us to scatter, and then it would run off again!

  We nearly lost it a couple times. It was just so fast, and the three of us, especially tripping over each other like we were, were not.

  I think we must have chased halfway around the castle when it was apparently done being chased, cause it started chasing us back! No more Mr. Nice Bun Monster! It started chasing us around and trying to stab us with its horn. It even managed to cause Zunair and me to trip backward over logs, trying to get away. Luckily, Reese used that movement to grab my sword from my belt and slash at the rabbit thing.

  As soon as Zunair was up, he grabbed his sword, and together they managed to kill it. It wasn't a pretty sight.

  But the evil rabbit thing was dead, and we'd saved the day and the village, so I think it was a good thing, all things considered!

  The rabbit thing was literally almost as tall as me, and I wish we had a camera to show you how weird it was in comparison to me. Zunair was curious about the turning to-statue thing, so he opened it up, and its belly was full of rocks! Zunair thought it might be like those fish that eat lichen off of rocks, but Reese said that if it was turning things into stone, maybe it was just eating it.

  While they argued, I broke off most of the horn. It was kinda thin and about as long as my hand. It was about the same color as the palm of my hand, which is why I don't think the guys noticed what I did.

  I tucked it into my shirt. I didn't think I really wanted it as a keepsake, but I thought it was cool.

  Zunair decided to skin the rabbit thing so we could take the pelt back with us and not have to worry about lugging around like 50 pounds of dubiously edible rock-eating rabbit thing meat.

  The fur was beautiful, though, and I thought it would hopefully be good enough proof for the mayor. We ended up just wandering around until we found a river so Zunair and Reese could scrub the blood off, then we just played in the river until it was too dark to do so anymore, then waited till the castle was all lit up for us to return.

  The mayor was super excited when we showed him the fur and said that it was great and that he have us stay as his guests for one more night, then we could leave in the morning.

  Which I didn't like, and it didn't look like any of my friends liked it either, but what would we do?

  There was a big feast thrown, which, if the whole point of killing the monster was cause it was turning all your food to stone, wasn't this a little excessive?

  But it didn't matter, I guess.

  Then, some guards led us back to our rooms. I was hoping that Alista would stop by. I wanted to show her the horn from the creature to see if she knew what it was. And she did! Both things actually, she told me about the beast. She called it a deathly sculptor and said it was supposedly the pet of an ancient wizard who'd disappeared. Part of the legend was that the sculptor had turned its own master to stone and eaten him. Which sounded a little gruesome but okay.

  When I showed her the horn, she seemed surprised and asked why I hadn't given it to the mayor as proof of death. She thought it would have been a lot more appreciated than just the fur, but I didn't know why I didn't want him to have it, just that I didn't. I asked her if she wanted it, figuring I would break if I tried to bring it with me. She was surprised and thought about it, asking me a couple times if I was really sure. But I was, and she seemed so happy that I didn't mind her having it. And it was just weird, so I figured she might find somewhere safe to put it.

  Alista thanked me for the horn when she left and told me she was glad I'd survived my encounter with the sculptor. I thanked her for helping me know what it looked like so I didn't die.

  Hopefully, we'll be back on the road tomorrow, so I don't know when my next letter will be, but I hope it finds you soon.

  Love, Jack.

  my patreon, all paid tiers get access to new chapters weeks in advance!