The ladies are still exhausted, but with Helena's dire pronouncements ringing in their ears, there's no time to rest, so they quickly outfit themselves as best they can for the swamp and call Helena's Uncle Cisqo to bring his fanboat and take them toward the heart of the Everglades as fast as possible. On the way there, Helena continues to see horrible omens in the environment, causing her to spur them on as quickly as possible, but the shadow of the indistinctly frightening future hangs over them, scaring them half to death. As they approach another night, they see that the moon is still not fully repaired in spite of their efforts, but Issy and Helena are able to combine forces and help it along, sealing some of its leaks so that only a single moon creature falls out of it tonight. Issy mourns for the lost creature, but they're too far away to try to find and rescue it tonight. After sunrise, the girls run into another fanboat out in the swamp, this one carrying a few attractive young men, instantly brightening the trip's prospects for Valencia. Everyone but Uncle Cisqo indulges in some flirting - even Helena, who is terrible at it! - and the men invite then to a beach party a few days in the future, which they happily agree to. As the two boats part ways, the men have a discussion in Portuguese, and Helena attempts to listen in... but her Portuguese isn't very good, and she's fairly certain that she overhears them planning to cannibalize the three girls, leaving them very unsure whether or not they should actually accept this invitation after all. Helena tries to push the fanboat quicker to escape them and get to the center of the swamp, but she's so tired at this point from all her magical work that she almost crashes several times, and her friends convince her to rest with them while her uncle drives instead. As they drift through the swamp, they encounter the beginnings of a fierce storm, full of rolling thunder and blinding lightning in the distance, and the closer they comes to its epicenter, the worse they all feel, suddenly developing horrible stomach pains and trouble breathing (except for Valencia, whose hardy constitution seems unaffected by whatever is going on out here). Helena is even almost swept away by the strong winds, and is rescued in the nick of time by Issy, Valencia, and Djimy, who together manage to get hold of her legs and keep her in the boat. The painful effects get so bad that they're forced to turn back and camp for the night, getting some badly needed rest while the storm pounds the swamp and causes damage to water levels and treelines, before resuming their attempts when the sky clears in the morning. A little further into the swamp, the fanboat is ambushed by several more boats full of the same melon creatures that menaced them last time they came into the swamp, obviously agitated and out for blood; there are more of them than before, and Issy and Djimy aren't sure if they can rout them before everyone else gets very badly hurt. Helena tries to figure out how to communicate with them, but comes to the conclusion that their plant language is beyond her and that they aren't very bright anyway, and that something has upset them far worse than usual, which makes it unlikely she can do much to calm them down. Issy starts using non-lethal force to try to back them off, but it isn't working until Valencia decides to take matters into her own hands, authoritatively commanding the melon creatures to stand down and behave themselves. Even though they can't understand her, they're so awed by her overpowering presence that they start deferring to her, although it takes a little while for them to stop menacing the other people in the boat, and they still seem obviously panicked about something. The ladies reach the point where they can no longer go any further into the swamp without striking out on foot, and leave Uncle Cisqo behind to mind the fanboat and try to repair the worst of the damage from the storm and crashes. They set off into the wilderness, Valencia still trailing her new mini-horde of melon creatures, until they finally arrive at the center of the Everglades... and discover there the twisted, lightning-blasted hulk of what was recognizably once the swamp spirit they spoke to. Helena becomes hysterical over the loss of her mentor, whose death she now realizes was the source of the terrible omens, and she and the melon creatures all descend into screaming panic at the idea that some outside force has killed the creature; even Valencia's and Issy's attempts to reason that the swamp itself still exists and therefore it's unlikely that the spirit could really be dead have trouble getting through the overwhelming grief. After Valencia and Issy comfort Helena for a while, they decide, disheartened, that they should try to go find Hops, knowing that she might know something about what happened here or what they should do next. They haven't gone far before they start hearing a terrifying voice in the trees, however, gloating that it's coming for them as more signs of the frightening storm begin to manifest once again. The three girls try to run, not at all confident they can handle something that destroyed the awe-inspiring swamp spirit, but on foot are too slow to escape and are soon confronted by a huge demon with red skin, glowing eyes, huge teeth and nails, and a very nasty grin. It informs them that it has come to tear out and devour their belly buttons, and they're so afraid they can't do much except cower together. Realizing, however, that this creature must have killed her friend, Helena decides that she's finally had enough, and unleashes such a scathing stream of self-esteem-destroying mockery that she takes the monster aback and it becomes defensive. Recognizing a weakness when they see it, Issy and Valencia join in, relentlessly roasting the creature, making fun of its appearance and behavior, mocking it for being bad at causing storms and damage, and so aggressively hurting its feelings that it eventually starts weeping and runs away. Its parting shot, a lightning bolt meant for Valencia, is intercepted by Rafael as he throws himself in front of her, and the girls boo the monster off into the distance to think about what it's done. The danger temporarily past, everyone is much too exhausted to do much else except administer some first aid to Rafael and all take a very well-deserved nap, curled up together on the swamp floor in a single crowded tent.
