Victory City

Pampa and her three daughters, Yotshna, Zerelda, and Yuktasri, flee from Bisnaga with the help of Haleya Kote and Grandmaster Li Ye-He. Pampa leads them to the Forest of Women, an enchanted forest where only men “who have achieved complete self-knowledge and mastery over their senses” (122) can survive in male form. Any man without such knowledge is transformed into a woman. Li He-Ye is sworn to protect the women, so he enters the forest. He retains his male form due to his self-knowledge. Haleya Kote accepts that he is nobody special, so he also remains unchanged when he enters the forest. Inside the forest, nature rules. With the forest’s permission, they make a camp. Their food is provided by the forest, as they individually decide what they will refrain from eating. Pampa befriends the crows and parrots of the forest, who become her advisers. Both species are ostracized by the other birds: crows had once fought a war against the owls, which Pampa regards as a fight for liberation, while parrots are considered to be a lower caste among the birds because they cannot truly sing. The parrots and crows tell her what is happening in Bisnaga.