Summary

In the seventh section of the novel, the lioness finally rests when she grows too tired to step safely. During her fitful sleep in hiding, the lioness dreams that her cubs are on fire and that she must rescue them from the stomach of a boar. In another dream, the lioness imagines a rounded river that grows flat as she thirstily laps up its contents. Eventually she enters the river and catches fish for her kittens while swimming through it. Though the lioness is overcome with hunger when she wakes from these nightmares, she still prioritizes finding her cubs above feeding herself. She now travels predominantly at night to avoid human interaction, crossing multiple state borders in the search for her kittens.

Ellmann reveals that the cubs are struggling to adjust to their new life in the zoo and the humans who constantly observe...