Before dawn, Charlie packs sparse supplies, arms himself, and calls Andy Chen to lock Bowditch’s house and shed, planting a Chicago cover story for Radar’s “treatment.” At the shed, Radar hesitates, then eagerly paws at the well boards, deciding to go. Charlie seals the entrance with magazine bundles and carefully descends, relieved to find Radar safe at the bottom.

They traverse the corridor and reenter the poppy-draped world. Radar, energized by familiarity, races to Dora’s cottage and leaps into her arms. Dora welcomes them warmly. Inside, she serves rich rabbit stew and tea. Charlie notes a Singer sewing machine and a signboard verse later confirming Bowditch’s handiwork, reinforcing Bowditch’s long-standing ties to Dora.

Communicating by gesture and a chalkboard, Dora writes “googir” and directs Charlie to walk the road to meet the goose girl while Radar rests by the stove. Trusting Dora, Charlie leaves his pack, pockets three small green leather pieces she gives him, and follows the road bordered by poppies and woods.

At a farmstead, Charlie finds the beautiful Goose Girl tending geese—rosy-cheeked and blue-eyed but with no mouth, a white scar in its place. Two gray-skinned farmhands briefly appear; she waves them off. She shares feed for the geese with Charlie and then signals a white, ribbon-braided horse, which speaks in a woman’s voice, explaining it will answer because Dora sent him and that the Goose Girl knows Charlie’s blue-stoned concho belt.

Stunned by the ventriloquism-like exchange, Charlie lets the Goose Girl take his hand, and she leads him around the farmhouse, promising the next step toward answers about this world and, implicitly, the path to the sundial.