Chiaroscuro awakens on a mountainside, in the Ashdod wilderness, and soon runs into an ornery critter known as a skedat. Fleeing that, he makes his way through the fog to another hillside, where he runs into several strange and dangerous birds (eeps), and then ends up curling up with a makeshift "camp", hoping to wait out the fog. When he awakens, he finds a strange silk ball in the place of his talisman, and that the fog (and the swarm of strange birds) has cleared. He finds his way to a little shed at the top of the mountain, and investigates.