Now that they're in the swamp, somewhere they did not expect ever to have to be, the girls keep their spirits up by enjoying good conversation with each other and their two escorts, as well as discussing how Rafael will set up Valencia's photoshoot and what they'll all do if they manage to get paid for this adventure as promised. This goes remarkably well, in spite of the heat and boredom of many hours on the road, until Valencia spots two strange little creatures by the side of the road up ahead: round, green, and only about knee-high, they look like nothing so much as ambulatory melons with eyes and limbs. She points them out to Issy (Helena can't distinguish them from the undergrowth and is unsure if maybe her friends are suffering from heat exhaustion), and the two of them realize that the creatures are pointing some kind of tiny reed at the car, as if they were about to shoot spitballs at it. Issy suspects danger and tries to get Rafael to stop the car so they can investigate, but Valencia points out that spitballs are not going to harm their Jeep, and they continue driving until the little creatures shoot. A tiny dart gets lodged in the windshield, and Valencia starts to say she told everyone so... before it explodes, shattering the windshield and severely injuring Rafael and Djimy in the front seat. A few moments later, as the Jeep starts careening out of control, the creatures shoot the back windshield as well, which likewise explodes and injures all three girls. After Rafael manages to pull over, Djimy leaps out of the car to try to protect his sister, although he's badly hurt and not sure if his gun will really help against vegetation; Issy stops him and heals his wounds with a touch, leaving both of them nonplussed at this new display of power they have not previously suspected. Seeing this, Valencia and Helena try to do the same; Valencia is successful, healing Rafael's injuries much to everyone's surprise, but Helena is not and is confused about why she seems to have different rules from everyone else. There is no time for discussion of metaphysics, however, because the tiny melon creatures are advancing and no one wants to find out what will happen if someone gets shot with an exploding dart in their fragile bodies instead of the outside of a car. Helena takes charge, yelling suggestions to everyone else from her knowledge of nature, while Valencia starts performing distracting maneuvers, trying to draw the attention of the melon creatures away from everyone else. Unsure what else to do, Djimy (the only person with a weapon) and Issy (with no weapon but a lot of offended courage) rush the two creatures, and Djimy shoots one until it explodes while Issy literally slaps the other one until it breaks open like a watermelon. Covered in juice and seeds and very freaked out, they then all reconvene at the Jeep, where they decide that it's too damaged to keep driving and they'll have to continue on into the swamp on foot. (The boys complain about this a lot, since Djimy hates the swamp and Rafael doesn't want to leave his camera equipment behind, but they don't want to be left behind.) After slogging through the swamp for a while, getting ever muddier and more covered in bug bites, Helena starts to see a new strange shape far away in the trees: a rabbit, except that it's huge, easily the size of a small pony, and it appears to just be sitting there, watching them. She tries to point it out to her companions, but they don't see anything. As they continue onward, the rabbit - or maybe lots of rabbits that Helena can't tell apart - keeps appearing, far away in front of them, and she starts to get the creepy feeling that it's leading them somewhere. Slowly as they travel, Valencia and Issy start to see the rabbit, too, but they all agree they can't think of anything else but to continue onward. They finally reach a small clearing in the swamp, with a tumble-down shack that looks abandoned standing in the middle of it (not exactly the house that everyone was hoping to find their contact in). Strange noises come from within, sounding vaguely animal, but it isn't until Issy concentrates really hard that she realizes that it's communication - someone telling them to come in, in what she realizes is the language of rabbits. After a brief pause, Helena remembers that the name of the contact they're supposed to be meeting was "Mr. Hops", and everyone has a collective groan. Everyone heads into the shack to discover the same enormous rabbit they saw in the swamp, and Issy translates as it welcomes them and confirms that it is indeed the contact they were sent to find. It refuses to tell them anything further until the boys are banished outside, however, at which point it begins speaking flawless English. Confusing as she finds this, Valencia takes over to explain why they're here: that Aldonza sent them to steal alligator eggs, that she gave them Hops' name as a contact, and that they aren't sure if this is really a good idea in spite of the payday, since it seems morally questionable at best. Hops agrees calmly that of course it's morally questionable, because Aldonza is not on the side of the angels - Hops claims that she has a lover, an inhuman colossus who has a mysterious divine agenda, and that they can be sure any errands she sends them on are to benefit her girlfriend's aims. However, Hops wants them to follow through anyway - since they need to get into Aldonza's good graces in order to eventually be trusted enough to meet and defeat the colossus, the rabbit recommends they be double agents, completing the somewhat unsavory errands for her for the greater good. The girls, especially Helena, are still unsure whether or not that's really okay, until Hops explains to them that the important thing is that it's only wrong to do these things if they're representatives of civilization plundering nature for their own ends. If they want to do these things for Aldonza in order to complete their mission, they'll have to ask permission of the swamp itself - and when they do, they'll be judged as either friends of nature or punished as invaders in this uncivilized domain.
