Chapter Thirty-One

Before we traced into the beaver's territory, Odin undressed and left his clothes in the corridor. I concluded that he was going to shift. I just didn't expect the form he chose. As soon as we came out of the Aether, Odin shifted into a giant beaver.

It was a good plan. It should have at least given the real beaver pause. It did not.

With a terrifying shriek, the Beaver God rushed Odin. Blood flew as his teeth—made for cutting down trees—slashed into Odin's hide. The rest of us scattered and launched our attacks. We had no choice. But as everyone hit the beaver with magic, knocking him backward, the territory started to tremble.

The swamp turned against us again, mud sucking us down. This time, vines also wrapped around me, pulling me under faster. I shapeshifted into a dragon, the sheer size of my body bursting the bonds and bringing me to the surface. Around me, gods were sinking. I grabbed Torrent first since his only defense would be to unmake the beaver, and I didn't want that.

Donnie surfed the mud as if it were water, using a board he formed out of water. It was odd, but it worked. Odin continued to battle the beaver, but he also covered himself in a shell like an armadillo. It's nice to be a general shapeshifter. You can transform into anything, even things that don't exist. That is, if you were powerful enough.

Viper transformed as well, turning into a giant snake. With that lithe body, he slithered through the swamp with ease, making a beeline for the beaver. Que took to the sky but didn't last long. He shrieked as he fell and aimed for the beaver. Kirill didn't shift. Instead, he turned the swamp into a winter wonderland. He had pulled Trevor and Ty out of the muck and had them on the ice, but Finn and Morph were still floundering.

I yanked Morpheus out first, gave him a shake to clean his wings, then set him down. Finn was deeper, and I had to root around for him. As I did, the beaver rolled into me, knocking my face into the mud. I came up with Finn, both of us coughing and sputtering muck. Que fell into the beaver and got knocked away with one giant paw. Viper curled around one of the beaver's legs, but that was ineffective as well. He opened his jaws, ready to sink his poisonous fangs into the beaver.

“Viper, no! Don't kill him!” I roared. “Beaver God, we aren't here to hurt you. Stop attacking us, and we will stop as well!”

Everyone paused, including the beaver.

The beaver stepped back, and the territory went still. The ground hardened, the water draining. Our group drew together, waiting and watching the beaver.

The beaver looked from Odin to me. He stared at me with huge brown eyes. Then his form went blurry as magic encased him. The enormous body condensed, but as it did, it headed into the log cabin. I was grateful for his modesty. It was surprising in a shapeshifter.

A few minutes later, a clothed man stepped out of the cabin. He was Native American, with long, black hair braided back from his angular face and a muscular body thicker than most Native American gods that I had met. He wore a collared shirt and jeans with a pair of worn boots. Very casual and approachable. But he also wore an angry expression.

“What do you want?” he demanded .

“Hey, reel it in, dude,” Donnie said. “You've done some real bleak shit recently, and still, the Godhunter is being chill with you.”

The Beaver God stared at Poseidon.

“Look, I understand why you've been flooding the world,” I said. “You're upset because humans have gone back to hurting the environment. You expected more from the Faerie God. From all of us. And we let you down. But it's hard to police the entire world. We didn't know what was happening with the dams and the logging and all those things. You've made us aware of them. The Faerie God will make it right, I promise. But your last attack caused a magical backlash that has put my husband into a type of coma.”

The Beaver God scowled. “I did not intend to hurt any of you. But you were attacking me. I had to defend myself and my little ones.”

“I get that,” I said. “And I don't hold you responsible. So how about we call it even? You stop flooding and attacking, and we won't come after you. When my husband wakes up, he'll be more diligent with the humans. And you can contact us anytime if you catch them doing something harmful. We will handle it without violence. Okay?”

The Beaver God considered this. Then he nodded and extended his hand. “I accept your offer of peace.”

I shook his hand. “Great. I'm Vervain, by the way.”

“Yes, Godhunter, I know who you are. I am Amisk, God of Beavers.”

“Amisk?” Torrent asked. “You're not Wishpoosh?”

“No. He is another beaver god.”

“You're the one who flooded the world,” Torrent said .

“That is a myth. There was a great flood once, but I did not cause it. They made me into a scapegoat.”

“A scapegoat and a beaver,” I said.

Amisk grinned. “Yes.”

“Wait,” Torrent said. “If you're not Wishpoosh, then you don't know Coyote.”

“I know Wisagatcak. He is the Cree god associated with the Coyote Spirit and the one who tries to trap me in our myth.”

“Do you know where we can find him?” I asked.

He frowned, and then his expression cleared with revelation. “It's you.”

“What's me?”

“Wisagatcak told me someone would come looking for him, but he didn't say it would be the Godhunter. If he had . . . well, I wouldn't have attacked you.”

“Did he give you a message for me?”

“He left a trunk for you. It's locked. He said you would know how to open it.” With that, Amisk went into his cabin. At the door, he looked back to say, “Come inside. I have coffee.”

Viper, Que, and Odin shifted into human forms. Or human-esque in the case of Odin, who went weredragon so he could cover his naughty bits with scales. Que had his loincloth, but Viper was nakey. And gave zero shits about it. When we went inside, Amisk handed Viper a blanket.

“Thanks, man,” Viper said. “Uh, awesome fighting, by the way.”

“Thank you,” Amisk said. “Would anyone like some coffee? ”

I knew better than to demand the trunk instead of coffee. I was trying to make an enemy into an ally and he had just offered me an olive branch in the form of a warming beverage. I had to socialize. So I accepted a cup along with everyone else.

The inside of the cabin was more like a rustic palace. We passed many rooms full of marvelous things on the way to the kitchen (including the one with that stalker-wall but I was going to let that slide in the light of our new friendship). The kitchen was equipped with modern appliances, but the furniture looked hand-carved and old. Baskets hung from the ceiling along with dried bundles of herbs. Braided rugs covered the hardwood floor, and a twelve-foot-long table stood atop one of them within the nook of a massive bay window. The view from the window wasn't of swamp land but of a bubbling river complete with a beaver dam.

I went to sit at the table with most of the others while Odin, Trevor, and Viper helped Amisk with the coffee. He emptied the pot and started a fresh one.

“Sorry,” Amisk said as he brought the cream and sugar to the table. “I wasn't expecting company. It should only take a few minutes to brew more coffee. I have some fruit if you're hungry.”

“That's very kind of you,” I said. “But we're fine with waiting for the coffee. Why don't you sit down and tell us more about the beaver habitats that you're trying to save?”

Amisk's eyes widened. “Truly?”

“Yes, we're angry about this too. We want to protect all the wildlife, including your beavers. But it would help us to have a list to start with. If you can tell us where to look, we can do this faster.”

“I can make a list with names and sites for you.”

“Great. That will be perfect. And I promise to keep you updated on our progress.”

Amisk stared at me for a few long moments, blinking back tears. “I went about this wrong and for that, I'm sorry. I had the wrong idea about you and your family.”

“It's all right. We can move past it now.”

“Uh, I'm sorry about your husband. I don't understand why he would be in a coma. He's a god. Even if he hit his head, he should have been fine.”

“He was using a new magic, and it backfired at the very moment of your attack,” I said. “But we're working on healing him.”

“I see. I'm glad it wasn't entirely my fault.” He pulled a notepad and a pen out of a drawer and sat down with us. “I'll make that list now.”