Dear Risa,

  We’re back to sleeping in the wagon. The inn kinda… no longer exists. There was a truly huge earthquake, and none of the buildings are safe to enter now. I’d be hesitant to call most of them buildings any more.

  And there’s still over a week left. So more earthquakes of that size or larger are going to happen.

  When an earthquake hits sand, it shifts. Anything on top of it gets… vibrated down. Meaning walking on the beach is a death sentence now. No more surfing for us.

  Which, honestly, is probably for the best. My poor fur is completely wrecked from all that salt water. The hair stylist here told me how to make a hair mask which can help, but the best thing would have been to get a weak water-repellant charm and wear it. That way at least the salt water wouldn’t have been sitting in my hair.

  Echo is an elf, so she doesn’t have fur or a tail. And her hair is short. No real hair worries for her. Instead, she’s been worried that her “sunscreen” for skin is running out. I guess skin can burn just from the sun? Or, that’s what she says, at least. It’s a little weird; after a day of surfing, her skin would be kinda pink, and then the next morning it’s a shade darker than the morning before. But the skin where her shorts have been covering is still super light.

  I don’t know if I could deal with that. I mean, if your whole body changes color, how do you know what color clothes to buy? And then there’s the whole matter of lines…

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  Oh, damnit. I’ve gotta stop writing this in pen.

  Wellll yeah. Echo is an elf now. She switched from being a fairy to elf back in Eightport. I guess, if you meet her, she’ll be an elf, and I said she was a fairy, sooo it’d still be obvious what she really is.

  I was trying to be polite or something. But she’s not ashamed of being a changeling, or worried about how people will react. She doesn’t tell everyone we meet, but it was like the first thing she told us. Maybe it would have been more polite of me to just say that, without trying to hide it.

  Anyhow, another thing you will notice when we see you next is, Maki has two magic specialties now. Yep. Somehow, he got psychic magic.

  He needed it. When the big earthquake happened, and all the buildings started collapsing, he just really needed to be able to find people. He’s a Guard, through and through. To save and protect people, he had to be able to find them. To find them, he needed telepathy.

  I’m proud of my big brother. Without him, a lot more people would have died yesterday. Including the two people who work as the town’s guard, who were trapped under a wall. Maki did a good job.

  When you see him, you’re gonna break. Purple ears on him just looks freaking adorable. He obviously wasn’t thinking about it when he asked for the magic, since, duh, people were dying, but he’ll probably be asking for a shade change. We’ll see what it ends up as.

  Although, I must say, Echo also thinks it looks adorable. She might convince him to keep it exactly as it is.

  Mas is gonna die when he sees Maki. Oh, by Bonnie, Mom might go comatose. If he says he’s getting rid of it, I will insist he at least keep it until we’ve visited home.

  Snickering Regards,

  Maeve Zee