In this chap­ter, the pro­tag­o­nist arrives at a pub­lic dock after endur­ing a fierce three-day storm. As he dis­em­barks, he encoun­ters a young girl in the cock­pit of his boat, play­ful­ly teas­ing him about his fish­ing skills and the state of his boat. Despite the ini­tial ten­sion, she offers to help him find sup­plies in the near­by town of Win­ton, where her uncle, referred to as “King Richard,” runs a store that trades in var­i­ous items. They have a brief exchange about the girl’s life and her strug­gles with her uncle, whom she claims is not tru­ly relat­ed to her. The pro­tag­o­nist sens­es her fear and the weight of her past as she shares trou­bling sto­ries about King Richard, and it becomes clear that she feels trapped.

As they walk through Win­ton, the pro­tag­o­nist is appre­hen­sive, not­ing that the town appears rough and unsta­ble. He also reflects on his cau­tious nature, as he notices many locals armed with weapons. When they reach King Richard’s store, they find it locked, prompt­ing the girl to sug­gest vis­it­ing Richard’s house instead. Upon arriv­ing, they meet King Richard, a rugged man who seems to embody the town’s harsh­ness. The pro­tag­o­nist offers to trade a pis­tol for sup­plies, and King Richard, while dis­mis­sive of the exchange, shows inter­est in the gun’s his­to­ry.

After com­plet­ing the trade, the pro­tag­o­nist is pressed to under­stand more about Richard’s true nature. King Richard’s atti­tude implies he has not been an effec­tive guardian for the girl. Despite the unfriend­ly atmos­phere, an exchange occurs where the pro­tag­o­nist decides to take the girl with him to escape her dire sit­u­a­tion. After some com­pelling nego­ti­a­tions, he man­ages to con­vince King Richard to let the girl go in exchange for his beloved bass gui­tar.

In a moment of brief lib­er­a­tion, the girl intro­duces her­self as Sol, and they leave the oppres­sive envi­ron­ment behind. The chap­ter con­cludes with a mix of relief and appre­hen­sion as the pro­tag­o­nist feels an unset­tling bur­den of respon­si­bil­i­ty toward her, pon­der­ing his capa­bil­i­ty to pro­tect her as they return to the boat, which remains untouched at the dock. The sense of loss for his gui­tar weighs heav­i­ly on him, sym­bol­iz­ing the sac­ri­fices made for their new­found free­dom.