Fawn and the In-Between

Fawn LaRose has never been particularly interested in staying on the well-worn trail. She prefers rabbit holes.

Returning to SHIWA-the School of Human Interaction With Animals-Fawn arrives in the Wyoming wilderness with a head full of questions and an irresistible fascination with everything hidden beneath ordinary life. Little people. Animal voices. Dreams. Sinkholes. Sacred songs. Strange maps. And the mysterious disappearance of twenty-one students known as the Caterpillar Clan.

Most people would consider that enough reason to stay safely aboveground. Fawn considers it an invitation. As she follows signs into increasingly mysterious territory, the boundaries between imagination, spirit, and reality begin to dissolve. Sinkholes become portals. Animals become messengers. Songs open unexpected doors. And the little people she has spent years wondering about may be far closer than anyone realizes. But every journey downward asks something of the traveler.

To go deeper, Fawn must learn that courage is not always about pushing forward. Sometimes it means surrendering. Sometimes it means trusting what cannot be proven. And sometimes finding your way requires becoming completely, gloriously lost. Alongside Heron, T-Bird, Paisley, and the wild-hearted students and guides of SHIWA, Fawn follows an impossible trail through Wyoming's mountains, rivers, caves, hidden realms, and the mysterious country inside herself. Because perhaps getting lost isn't always the opposite of finding your way.

When the path disappears, listen for the song that knows the way.