Whitefish River between two points

He chuckled again — Mordecai wouldn't have admitted it, but he had gone in circles a few times. Sometimes going in a circle was just another way of taking that path less thought of, a roundabout way of punching a reset button without actually starting over. But in all matters, there had been little in Mordecai's life that had been overly circular. Sure, the scenery didn't change and sometimes neither did the personalities he encountered, but the experience was always different. Even if the difference was minute. His travels, not his youth, had been more of a principal figure in shaping who he had become.

“In a matter of speaking, yes.” He had come from the south, and quite literally. But that wasn't something he would so readily divulge. “To be honest, I think getting here required me to go all the directions I could. And that hasn't really changed since I've been here, either. Today you and I might be walking this riverbank, and tomorrow you could be up in the mountains and me at the coast. Or somewhere else entirely.” Other than Jinx's offer, Mordecai hadn't really considered staying permanently in the Wilds. But so far, it was certainly alluring, if only for the fact that it was flourishing in that present moment.