Summary

This chapter shifts to Niska's first person narration. Xavier moans in his sleep while they canoe down the river. She knows that there is a sickness within Xavier that she cannot cure with a her or root. While Niska looks at the river and its coloring, she thinks back upon her childhood and remembers a story about her father. She decides to tell it to Xavier, in the hopes that it will keep him alive.

Niska narration stays the same but the reader is then taken back to Niska's childhood when there was a harsh winter. 30 Anishnabe tribe members banded together for their winter camp in order to survive. Niska was a young girl, almost to puberty, who has convulsions that allow her to see small glimpses of her future. When winter had come upon the small tribe, there were signs that...