The Marrow Thieves: The Four Winds Summary & Analysis

Frenchie explains that after the Indigenous people left their territories, lots of the surrounding businesses disappeared. Eventually, the big resorts closed too, though lots of companies hired security firms to build fences and patrol the resorts to make sure nobody was trying to live there. Frenchie and his family come to the Four Winds resort, which has twelve-foot-high, razor-edged electric fencing. Miig drops his pack and prepares to touch the fence to test if it's still electrified. Frenchie watches the looks of fear cross over everyone else's face, decides that Miig is too important to lose, and grabs the fence himself. Frenchie feels a jolt of adrenaline but no electricity, and he says that they're safe in a small, scared voice.

Chi-Boy uses a Pendleton blanket to get himself safely over the fence and then begins to hunt for a way to get everyone else in. Miig forces Frenchie to look him in the eye and tells him sternly that nobody is more important than anyone else, and nobody should sacrifice themselves. He turns away when Frenchie's face burns. Frenchie feels sorry for himself until Rose grabs Frenchie's hand and squeezes it quickly. Chi-Boy gets a gate open and everyone files in. The sight of the resort shocks Frenchie, and everyone enters the main building with an air of awe and reverence.

Everyone walks down the hallway until they reach a dark opening. Miig and Chi-Boy begin to pull back the drapes to let in moonlight. Miig insists that they can't use the stone fireplace, but he suggests they light the huge candles. Slopper curiously runs his hands over some lumps covered in sheets, and he's delighted when Chi-Boy pulls off the sheet to reveal a green sofa. RiRi and Slopper giggle, and Frenchie feels happy to be in a confined space. He gets up to look behind the front desk. He tests the telephone, finds a package of bottled water, and then yanks open a drawer filled with what Miig identifies as room keys.

The group shuffles upstairs with room keys and candles. Chi-Boy unlocks the first room cautiously, but when it's clear that there's no threat, he snuggles onto the bed with a silly grin. Frenchie grabs a key and runs to the corresponding room, tailed by RiRi. RiRi is shocked by how huge the room is and she gets very upset when Frenchie takes his boots off without checking for snakes first. He assures RiRi that there are just monsters under the bed. RiRi flounces away to accompany Rose to her room. Frenchie listens as everyone settles in and as RiRi and Slopper race up and down the hallway.

Frenchie hears Wab settle Minerva in a room. Because of her age, Minerva would've spent more time than any of the rest of them in a real bedroom. She's delighted to be indoors and even speaks in full sentences. Frenchie hears Minerva tell Wab to bring the girls into her room so she can tell them the story of the Rogarou. Excited to hear an "old-timey story," Frenchie sits outside the door to listen. Minerva explains that her grandmother told her this story when she was becoming a woman, and that Rogarou is a dog that "haunts the half-breeds" and keeps girls inside while men travel.

Minerva tells them that she was drawing water from the river when she felt Rogarou watching her and smelled the blood. She stood and spun, but the big black dog just watched her and breathed steadily. She raised her arms, growled, and the beast stood up and came close. It was huge, but Minerva wasn't scared: she took her heavy water dipper and hit Rogarou across the nose, giving him a huge bloody gash. As the blood dripped onto his chest, he began to transform and when he finished, a tall, naked man stood before her, looking like a hungry, desirous man. At this, Wab insists that she needs to take RiRi to bed.

After a moment, Minerva says that it started and ended with violence: she beat Rogarou with the dipper and then a switch, but they eventually became "like man and wife." They bit each other and gradually, Minerva became just a woman, not a daughter, a granddaughter, or a Catholic. She says that she's "marked." She believes that some people know that Rogarou marked her. One man told her that they kill unless a person challenges them without fear. The man says that Rogarou will come back every full moon until his chosen target dies—and then, Rogarou will mark the next member of the family. Minerva laments that she's damned her whole family. She stops talking and minutes later, she starts to snore.

Rose catches Frenchie outside the door and gives him a tight smile before heading to her room. Frenchie guiltily slips back to his room and crawls into bed, but he can't sleep. Someone pulls Frenchie's door shut and he sits up and sees that it's Rose. She has a strange look on her face that makes Frenchie's breath catch. She climbs into bed next to Frenchie, snuggles in beside him, and then starts to tell him her story.

Rose says that her mother's family were all extremely short, and her dad was from an island on the Indian Ocean. Both of her parents were taken at the beginning of the experiments, before people realized they needed to run. Rose stayed with her grandmother until it became clear that they needed to run. At that point, Rose's grandmother refused to leave her home and sent Rose with her brothers, William and Jonas. They traveled for six years until William fell ill and died. Jonas was quiet but told Rose that their family survived residential schools and cautioned her to trust no one. He'd say that children need walls of some sort to keep them safe. He declared that he was Rose's walls, and when he died, that Rose should use a rifle to make her own walls.

Jonas taught Rose to hunt, showed her the direction to go in, and eight months ago, he died. Rose says that she sat by his grave for four days. She considered returning to her grandmother but started walking and ended up running into Miig. Her story finished, she nuzzles into Frenchie's chest. Frenchie starts to get an erection and puts his hand over it to hide it, but Rose puts her hand over Frenchie's. They kiss and Frenchie feels ready to die of happiness, but the moment ends when RiRi sneaks up and asks if she can sleep with them. Rose lets RiRi in and pulls her close. Frenchie tries to snuggle close to Rose but gives up when Slopper asks to crawl in on Frenchie's side.

Frenchie wakes up to hear Minerva coughing. She's sitting in a chair and waves to Frenchie. He looks around and sees Tree and Zheegwon lying perpendicular across the bottom of the bed, Wab and Chi-Boy sleeping close to each other on the floor, and Miig on the floor across the room.

After two days at the Four Winds, Miig wants to leave. Chi-Boy scouts around for supplies and finds knives, blankets, candles, and a lady's fur hat that he sneaks into his sweater. Miig discovers a two-wheeled cart that they can use to pull Minerva. That afternoon, Frenchie wanders around in search of something to convince Miig to stay longer. He hopes that Rose might visit him again. Frenchie happens upon the manager's office and finds Wab sitting at the desk with a bottle. She looks sleepily at Frenchie and says that her mother was awful. She asks Frenchie if his mom was horrible too, and then says that before she found Miig, she ran.

Frenchie is scared and feels like Wab should be alone. Wab's face darkens. She stands, steps around the desk, and then falls onto Frenchie and cries. Frenchie tells the reader that everyone is uneasy around Wab. Her trauma seems dangerous and messy. Miig has never been willing to share her coming-to story, and the boys often swap rumors that Wab was a mercenary. Miig, knowing that the boys all had crushes on Wab, told them that if the rumors are true, they should be careful. In the present, Chi-Boy helps Frenchie carry Wab to the front room. Miig lights a smudge for her and with Minerva and the little kids safely on the front porch, Wab tells her story.