The Narrow Road Between Desires

Bast realizes that he is running late. He runs to a dell and washes his clothes in a pool formed by a stream called Littlecreek. Sounds like the twittering of excited birds come from the nearby bushes and trees, where some of the townspeople have come to ogle the muscular Bast as he bathes. He pretends not to notice his admiring audience, and they don’t observe that his legs look “somewhat…odd” (70).

After his bath, Bast returns to the holly tree where he left his master’s book. In its place, he finds a note from Rike asking to talk to him. Back at the lightning tree, Viette, the mayor’s youngest daughter, comes to see Bast. This is the first time that she’s made a bargain with him, so he asks her to recite the rules. The rules stipulate that he only makes deals with children shorter than the greystone near the lightning tree, that they must come alone, and that they can’t tell adults about the bargains.

Viette has a white kitten that she suspects is magical. To his surprise, Bast confirms that it is. The mayor doesn’t want to let her keep the cat, so Bast counsels her to act as though she’s too despondent to eat or get out of bed until her father changes his mind.