Saki and the others follow Mamoru's tracks through snow covered mountains until they find him in a shelter. They meet Squonk, the Queerat who saved Mamoru and which Saki saved from drowning years earlier. Mamoru reveals to them that he left the village in fear because firstly, he suspected that he had been followed by an Impure Cat, and secondly, signs that the Board of Education intended to dispose of him.