Rump sends a message to Red, telling her that he is going to seek the Witch of the Woods and asking her to take care of his livestock if he doesn’t return. He searches in vain for the path that Red took when she led him into the Woods months earlier. Red finds Rump and warns him that the witch is unlikely to help him and that more magic might worsen the problem. When Rump insists that Opal’s predicament is his fault, she guides him into the Woods, and a path appears for her. Red leads the way to a cottage in the forest, and Rump is astounded when he sees that the Witch of the Woods is Red’s grandmother. Apprehensively, he enters the cottage, half expecting the witch to try to eat him.

The witch gives Rump a delicious bowl of stew and tells him about his mother, who was a spinner from a sheep-herding town in the region of Yonder. She explains that his mother was born with the ability to spin straw into gold. Not understanding the cost of her magic, Rump’s mother was already weak from using her power by the time she reached the Village.