scans_daily | "Coyote is no liar, and therin lies the danger."

Filling the request of

mullon for more Gunnerkrigg, and

box_in_the_box for Coyote specifically. This is a very spoilery and image-heavy post.

First off, have a helpful map, courtesy of Chapter 20.

For those not already neck deep in the comic, Gunnerkrigg Court (where the humans and robots live) is separated from Gillitie Wood (where Coyote and the other magical creatures and animals live) by a river called the Annan Waters. Because no one can cross the river, the only path between the two is a long bridge, from which our protagonist, Antimony, fell during Chapter 7.

Helpful map, yes?

Anyway, the incident with the bridge comes back up in Chapter 14, where Coyote and Ysengrin, his second, demand a meeting with the Court's leaders just as school's letting out for the summer. Having been on the other side of the river before (and because, as we find out in this chapter, her mother was once the Court's medium), Annie is invited to the parley session.

Which doesn't exactly start out well, as Ysengrin refuses to accept speaking to the new medium students.

As the session continues, Ysengrin brings accusations against the Court of intentionally damaging the Wood's side of the waters in a spy attempt. His evidence is a mostly destroyed Tic-Toc, one of many mechanical birds of unknown origin that watch over the court, and a damaged jumper belonging to an "A. Carver". Annie reveals it's hers, and that both that and the Tic-Toc are a result of her fall from the bridge. This does jack to lessen the tension of the meeting, however, until...

Ysengrin does not take this apparent disrespect well, to say the least, and Coyote breaks up the resulting fight.

Jones, another of the adults at the meeting, and later revealed to be the trainer of the medium candidates, reveals that Ysengrin's rage, and possibly Coyote's provocation as well, was a ruse to plant something of unknown origin, and we don't see him or Coyote again for several more chapters.

Having talked with Jones about it in 17 (who informs her to be careful of handling Coyote's advice, as his truth is dangerous), in Chapter 20, Annie decides it's time to take Coyote up on the offer to meet, so Eglamore escorts her to the edge of the Wood, and Ysengrin escorts her to Coyote.

He also mentions the process working the other way as well, which Annie's aware of, having already met a couple of fairies who'd become human. Both sides of the test were Ysengrin's idea, to prevent humans from becoming permanent residents of the Wood, as a handful had been after the Wood and Court were split.

And so Annie heads home (discovering once she's there that there's now a huge fingerprint in the side of the moon), and thus we have the end of chapter 20.

In Chapter 25, we learn some of the truth behind what the people of the Court did to the Annan Waters. I won't spoil that, other than to say it rattles Annie and her friend/sidekick Kat good. Which prompts Annie to make another visit to Coyote in the current ongoing chapter.

Also, a bonus page from Chapter 20.