Dear Diary,
Somehow, things got incredibly worse and then immediately better.
After my last entry, we continued through the swamps and trees. We stumbled across a puddle that seemed normal enough, but it began to move slowly. The more you looked at it, the more it looked like slime rather than a regular water puddle.
Of course, we were intrigued and went to investigate closer. Somehow, Munin's pouch slipped off him as we were perched on a branch above it, watching. It fell into the puddle. This didn't seem too big of a deal at first, but as we came down to get it, we realized it—and all of its contents—were dissolving rapidly. We couldn't react fast enough to prevent every last bit of our resources from being dissolved by this acidic slime.
Discouraged, we just froze there, staring at this thing. We wanted to give up right then and there, so we discussed our options—or, I guess, the fact that we had no options. We had no food, water, or potions, just my book. That's all.
We began crying, begging the universe to give us a break and let us have our girls back. It felt like this voice spoke to us right when we were truly broken.
"Brave kitten, you have come far," it dragged its words through a deep, bellowing growl, "please do not weep."
Seconds later, in front of us landed a large, bronze-colored, vine- and moss-covered dragon. He was larger than a city bus from home. He looked as though he was part of the swamp itself, as if he could become part of any ground or plant in this whole place at any second.
After what felt like a full five minutes of silence and processing, the dragon spoke again, telling us of how he watches this swamp from a massive tree home in the center of it. On his regular watch today, he saw us and heard us, struggling to make it so short of a distance and the hardships of losing our last supplies. We both expected ridicule or an attack, but this dragon caught us by even more surprise; he offered us help.
His name is Abo, he is the ruler of the Swamps of Sloth. Abo told us of a guide who could show us what to forage and collect for the rest of our journey. He is in the Forests of Envy, Abo warned us that he may not be the best of friends, but he is the best guide for us right now.
As we said our goodbyes after being shown the path to the forest, Abo promised this would not be the last we saw of him. It feels like a huge positive to have a friend in this place.
-Felicette