The four women are busy preparing for their journey to the land of the Fat-Eaters. The local men do not hold back in telling the women that “‘the strongest men wouldn’t do such a stupid thing’” as take the trip (147). Angel is nervous on the eve of her departure, worrying about Bush’s sanity, given that the plan was hatched in the depths of winter. Nevertheless, she resolves that she has to go on the journey. Angel spends her last night in Tommy’s arms in the cot in Agnes’s house and feels so comfortable she needs none of Dora-Rouge’s potion to sleep. 

The morning of the departure, people come to see Dora-Rouge off. Canoeing is exhausting work and though Angel complains, driving is not an option, as “there were herbs to gather, places Dora-Rouge wanted, needed to visit” (163). At the end, when Husk and Tommy wave them off, Husk hands Bush a gun, saying they might need it. 

When they set up camp for the first night, Dora-Rouge tells a story of how she ran away from white school agents with “big pale hands” and how her traumatized little sister was taken to another school and lay down on the ice and froze to death (167).