Lakshmi, Skye and Mandara visit the stilt-hut of Trilling, a Kiriga fisherman who had purportedly caught a live whispa by chance. Trilling repeats his story – namely that the whispa's tail was caught in the jaw of a Bromthen forest-hog that was sinking into some quicksand.

Once Lakshmi and company get directions to the location where the whispa was found, they head out. There is a minor incident as a fierce little bird known as a "squee" latches onto Skye's finger, and Lakshmi has to coax the beast to let go. Then, they overhear a screaming Bromthen hog, which had gotten caught in the quicksand. Lakshmi and Skye try to set up a trap for the whispa, while Mandara runs about on her own, repeatly ignoring Lakshmi's orders. When Mandara dives into a pool without telling one, Skye panics and dives in after her, while Lakshmi ends up fishing the both of them out. Lakshmi scolds Mandara … and while this goes on, the Bromthen hog sinks the rest of the way into the quicksand and suffocates. Not to be wasteful, though, Lakshmi hauls the dead pig out of the pit, and they cook it up for supper, since the whispas are most assuredly driven off by all this commotion anyway.