Trepeeset was flying above the treetops once again, the forest moving in a blur below him. Higher, higher, a voice told him. Trepeeset seemed compelled to obey. He flapped his wings harder and harder, making the earth below him grow smaller and smaller. His wings quickly grew tired, and eventually Trepeeset was too exhausted to flap any more. By now he could see for miles when he looked down. Amazingly, even though Trepeeset had stopped flapping his wings, he was not falling to the earth. He was floating in the sky! He looked around in wonder. Colors flowed freely around Trepeeset's owl body, reds, blues, and tans.
"My son," a booming yet gentle voice resonated. Trepeeset looked up. The soup of colors parted to reveal a glowing blue figure of Pocohono above Trepeeset, smiling down upon him!
"F-Father!" Trepeeset said, not realizing that he had transformed back into human. He remained floating naked in the sky, but Trepeeset was only paying attention to the apparition of his father.
"My son," Pocohono repeated.
"I see you, Father! You speak to me after your death?"
The figure of Pocohono began to look tired. It began to fade from Trepeeset's vision. "Father, where are you going! Please, don't leave me!"
"My son," Pocohono whispered, now looking exhausted.
"What!!" Trepeeset cried frantically.
The figure of Pocohono locked eyes with his son, piercing Trepeeset's soul. He said simply, "Avenge my death."
A shudder travelled through Trepeeset's body. He was a warrior, but he had never killed before. Still... "Of course, Father. Who has killed you?"
The figure closed its eyes. It was now glowing dimly. "Tired...but...cannot...sleep..." Pocohono's soul was adrift. It was stuck between the earth and the sky, where Trepeeset was currently. Pocohono was using what little spiritual energy he had to communicate to his son. Trepeeset realized with anguish that until Pocohono's killer was slain, Pocohono could not enjoy his eternal sleep.
"Father, I swear to you," Trepeeset yelled, "I will avenge your death. On my honor! But I must know who! Was it the Pale Man? The Tadafek? What shall I do?"
The now barely visible image whispered "Do...what you must," and disappeared.
"Father!" Trepeeset cried with anguish. "Father, come back!" Tears began to stream from Trepeeset's eyes. As a warrior, he would have been ashamed of himself, but his emotions were too strong. "Agh, Father!"
A coldness enveloped Trepeeset. It was a signal that Pocohono's soul had gone away. It was not at rest, but it was too weak to continue communicating with Trepeeset. The colored streaks faded to black. Suddenly, Trepeeset felt the force that was keeping him floating in this limbo state weaken. "Oh no," Trepeeset whispered. He began to sink downwards. And then with a lurch, the force gave out completely, sending him plummeting to the earth!
"AAAAAAAAH!"
Trepeeset tumbled end over end as the ground became larger and larger. Terrified, Trepeeset finally got his wits about him to try and turn back into the owl, but it wasn't working! The medallion must have fallen off his neck! Trepeeset screamed as the wind whipped his body. "Father! Anyone! Save me!" He desperately flapped his arms, trying in vain to turn into a bird, a spider, anything! Trepeeset's scream reached its peak when he was five seconds from the ground. He closed his eyes and waited for the grim end. He gritted his teeth, and...
Trepeeset shuddered and screamed as he awoke. The tanned deerskin blanket surrounding Trepeeset's body was drenched in sweat. "Oh..." Trepeeset moaned. It was a dream. But what a vivid one. There was no doubt in Trepeeset's mind that Pocohono, though dead, had communicated, or at least tried to, with him. Pocohono wanted his killer brought to justice, but how? He said "Do what you must," but what did that mean?
Trepeeset sat up and removed the clump of resin containing his late father's hair from his ripped breechclout. Staring at it, he muttered "I have to do something." But how? He didn't know who the killer was. Trepeeset rubbed the medallion, which he was relieved to find never left his neck. Looking back at the hair, he recalled how he transformed into his father that afternoon. When he became Pocohono, he was able to look at some of Pocohono's memories and he could probably access some of his skills in magic as well. But if he were to use the hair of Pocohono that he was holding, there would be no memory of his death, because it was shed a few years before that. He would need a hair from after Pocohono was attacked. But where could he get that?
Trepeeset began to pace around his teepee. The only place where he could get hair from Pocohono was from Pocohono's body, which they buried earlier that day. As sick as it was, Trepeeset would need to dig up his dead father and take some of his hair to find out who his killer was. Trepeeset was grossed out by all of this, but he promised his father he would act. And act he would.
The first thing Trepeeset did was angrily rip his dreamcatcher down from the ceiling, because it obviously did not prevent nightmares like it was designed to do. He then sprinted from his teepee and across the village. He raised his arms as he concentrated on his owl form. As the thick feathers grew on his body, the night lit up as if it were day. Trepeeset's body shrunk and his mouth hardened into a beak. With a few flaps of his wings, he was off to his father's burial site.
"I'm coming, Father," Trepeeset thought, the medallion bouncing up and down on his hard, feathery chest as he flapped his wings. "I am coming."