Dear Hazard,
It's almost Christmas time here. If you lived in the Overland, you would be getting excited about seeing Santa Claus. He's this fat jolly man dressed in a red suit who lives at the North Pole (where it's cold all the time and there's snow and ice)(tell Mareth that there's glaciers there - lots of pure water. He'll know what I'm talking about) Anyway, he leaves everybody presents on this one particular night. All the kids try to guess what he gave them. If you're bad, you get a piece of coal instead of a present. Coal is a chunk of black rock that leaves you dusty black wherever you touch it. But I've never known anyone who got a piece of coal. Funny, I've known plenty of mean people, but no one who's gotten a piece of coal. It seems kind of pointless if the threat isn't real, huh?
But you would never get a piece of coal, so you have nothing to worry about. I wonder what I would give you? Something to do with animals and languages. I know! I would give you a puppy. That's a baby dog. I don't think you have dogs in the Underland, so your dog would be a first. Before a month was up, I bet you and he (or she) would be talking to each other in Bark. That's the language of dogs. I've always thought a dog said something each time it barked. I used to listen really hard, but even when I was young, I couldn't hear the difference between barks. My ears were never as good as yours are.
You're amazing, you know?
Gregor
