Willodeen bumps into Connor Burke, a boy from town who makes animal likenesses out of weeds and grasses. She tells him about Sir Zurt and, overcome with guilt, she heads back into the woods to look for the screecher. Connor offers to join her as he has a lantern, and it will be dark soon. Willodeen is reluctant until Duuzuu clambers out of her pocket and onto Connor’s shoulder, which finally makes her agree. The group finds Sir Zurt dead, and Willodeen buries the body as best she can. The entire way back to town, the refrain “he was the last, the last, the last” repeats in her head (45).

On her way home, Willodeen passes through the village center, where people are setting up for the fall fair. By this time, there are usually at least a few hummingbears in Perchance, but none have arrived yet this year. People make fun of Willodeen because she smells like a screecher, but she ignores them and hurries to the cottage where she lives with Mae and Birdie, the women who adopted her after her family died in the