Frightful starts to head south but turns back to hunt with Mole. However, the farm where Mole used to live looks different, and Frightful cannot find him. Food is scarce, and Frightful’s energy wanes. She eventually catches a mouse and is attacked by a bald eagle shortly after. She escapes from the eagle and roosts for the night in the Beaver Corners church tower. Frightful remembers being in this location before, when the poachers took her away from Sam. Continuing to weaken from hunger in the winter landscape, Frightful feels torn between the need to go south for food and the need to find Sam.

She eventually starts flying but doesn’t understand how to use the sun’s rays to sense the direction she should go. She weathers intense storms for several days before finding a migratory route. She stops to hunt near a cabin called Woodchuck Lodge, the former home of nature writer John Burroughs, where she finds Mole living under the porch. The farm where Mole used to live was sold to the aunt and uncle of Hanni and Hendrik Van Sandtford, friends of Sam and Alice. Hanni and Hendrik tried to make Mole their pet, but he chewed through his leash and ran away.