The herd finds its path leading them into a dark forest. Horse is ready to enter, but Wammawink seems paralyzed in fright and needs to be cajoled for details — she only explains that the woods are called the Lost Forest, and that the shamans there are a pair of trees — before needing to be pushed into the woods.
When the herd finds them, the shamans announce that they can give them what they need, but not necessarily what they want — the difference is shown when Ched is turned into a horse to make him get over his irrational hatred of horses. When they step up to the wishing stump, Wammawink is sent to sleep, and Horse vanishes.
Horse appears in a war-torn, burning landscape, and at first believes herself to be home before seeing a younger Wammawink and realizing that she's in her dreams. Wammawink heads over to the scorched forms of the shaman trees, and Horse realizes that the Lost Forest used to be her home and that she's reliving Wammawink's memories of its destruction. Wammawink asks if the shamans can bring her herd back, but they announce that while it's what she wants, it's not what she needs. Wammawink accepts this and leaves dejectedly.
Horse, however, is furious that the trees just callously sent her off like this, and after an attempt to comfort Wammawink — stymied because the latter cannot see or hear her — wakes up in the trees' glade. Still angry, she gets Ched — under the pretense of getting used to his horse body — to start kicking the larger tree. They go overboard with this and knock it down, reverting Ched to normal and revealing a piece of the key within its trunk. They take this and quickly leave; as they depart, the tree casually restores itself and muses that Horse has obtained what she needed, but that what happens next won't be what she wants...
This episode contains examples of:
- Be Careful What You Wish For: The Shamans give you what they think you need instead of what you want, like Ched getting a Karmic Transformation into a horse to get over his dislike of them.
- Doomed Hometown: A flashback shows that Wammawink's hometown was utterly destroyed in The Great Offscreen War.
- Heroic BSoD: Wammawink spends the half the episode sleep deprived and delirious due to some deep-seated trauma regarding the Lost Forest.
- Karmic Transformation: Ched has a deep-seated, irrational hatred of horses in general and Horse in particular. The shaman trees respond to this by turning him into a horse.
- I Let You Win: The larger tree Shaman could likely have stopped Horse and Ched if she really wanted, and casually restores herself after they leave.
- Ironic Nursery Tune: At the end of the episode, a field of flowers sings a light, ethereal song about the coming of darkness and of the terrible Nowhere King.
- Jaw Drop: The herd does a collective one when they see Ched's Karmic Transformation into a horse.
- Lyrical Dissonance: The song the flowers sing at the end of the episode is a cheery and upbeat tune about how the Nowhere King is going to come, engulf the world in darkness, and enjoy seeing the light of life fade from your eyes.
- Not Herself: Wammawink is clearly terrified of going into the Lost Forest. Horse, not knowing why or having much empathy at this point, just assumes she's being her goofy self.
- No Ontological Inertia: After the larger Tree Shaman goes down, the changes they made are reversed.
- Pet the Dog: The Shamans let Durpleton keep the positive change to his farts even after Ched is returned to normal.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: After Horse and Ched (in horse form) kick down the larger Tree Shaman, Wammawink retrieves the next piece of the key from inside the stump, and the herd all assume that Horse knew it was there the whole time. Horse decides to roll with it.
- Wants Versus Needs: The Tree Shamans will usually give a "disclaimer" that they will use their magic to give a person what they need over what they want, claiming to be so old and wise that they would know the difference on sight. While they are usually right, they can also come across as rather callous.->Our roots reach down, our branches rise
From sky to ground, our wooden eyes
Have gazed upon desires, hope, and greed
But to each soul who walks this way
A tree disclaimer we must say
We give not what you want - but what you need
