The boat docked silently. I hadn’t seen any crew and I suspected it was as much a boat as Thruor’s steed was a motorbike. It was probably an orca spirit or something. Coyote jumped onto the beach. “Come on.”

“Not worried I’ll escape?” I followed him.

“You’d only get lost,” he pointed out. “I don’t think anything here would hurt you, but…”

I shrugged. “I probably would at that, but it’s tempting to try anyway.” It was. The forest almost touched the shore, but I heard the sound of a waterfall…and yes, there was the stream. “Where are we?”

“As you guessed, we’re in the spirit world, but where we’re across from is Gitchi Gummi.” A pause. “Lake Superior.”

“We got here fast…or did you cheat on time?”

He grinned. “I cheated.”

But if I found a way out of the spirit world, I’d be in Minnesota or something. Maybe even Canada. I thought about the trek back to DC from there, and decided that I was right – sticking with Coyote was the best plan. “So, you wanted to show me something?”

He nodded. “Yes. It doesn’t exist any more in the real world.”

He led me up through the forest. A good walk, but I didn’t find it unpleasant. I hadn’t ever been this far out of a city in my memory. Of course. “Are there any humans here?”

“Sometimes. Or rather, things that used to be human.”

I nodded. “Got it.” I thought of Kanesha. Would she become something like that because I loved her? Would it be a terrible fate if she did?

There was an otter in the stream. I eyed it suspiciously, even if I was pretty sure it wasn’t my father. He was, though, fond of otters. It waved a paw at us as we headed up the trail. The going was rough, but I was wearing decent shoes, and I certainly…actually, I felt as if I had endless stamina.

Probably something to do with being in the spirit world. The stream burbled, and then I saw the waterfall. Half of it vanished into a hole. “I know I don’t want to go down there.”

“It’s bottomless in the real world.” He grinned, then mischievously. “Actually, I put a net down there to catch all the stuff they throw into it, so they’ll never find out where it goes. With Otter’s help.”

I laughed again. “You…you…”

“Trickster? You should try it. It’s fun.”

“I dabble. But I’m not my dad and not trying to be.” I looked at the waterfall again. Then we kept going.

Finally, he stopped. By a spring. “This is where I intended to bring you.”

“Doesn’t exist in the real world?”

“Dried up centuries ago.” He looked at the spring, then at me. “If you drink this, you’ll get your memories back.”

I stared at him. “Odin did that.”

“I don’t answer to Odin.” Coyote grinned. “He can’t touch me. And he won’t touch you.”

I knew he was right. I looked at him, then at the spring. My memories. Who I had been before Odin had stripped my memories and exiled me to Earth.

Which he had implied he’d done to…help me make the right decision.