That night, Ellie dreams that she is near a dried-up river. Trevor appears “buried to the waist” in the dry riverbed, and he tells her that “it’s not just a drought” but “the consequence of greed” (321). He warns her that Willowbee has taken all the water because “that’s what leeches do” (321). Trevor speaks in riddles, talking of magic users and their dances and fairy rings and asking about Baby Gregory. Suddenly, “Trevor’s face [begins] to darken with bruises” (322), and he asks Ellie to please help him as he cries out in pain. Ellie wakes up, wondering why Trevor “warn[ed] her about the danger of strange dances” (323).

Ellie recalls the last time she had to meet with the Lipan Apache elder, Dan. Ellie was 12 years old and giving a presentation in front of her homeroom class. When a classmate argued that Kirby couldn’t be a real ghost dog because “animals don’t make ghosts” (325), Ellie decided to prove him wrong by commanding Kirby to howl. The ghost dog howled, and the otherworldly noise destroyed the classroom and gave her terrified classmates nosebleeds. Ellie realized that she had lost control of Kirby at that moment, and she was suspended from school.