This was a fun one! Premonitions and spirits and danger oh my!

Let me tell you about the first time I entered the Spirit World. . . .

"Are we there yet?" Kuruk grumbled. If he had known that the walk would have taken more than ten minutes he would have ridden Aggie. The polar leopard needed exercise after all. Kuruk wasn't putting any force behind his complaints, more voicing them just to speak. They had been crossed the river and been walking along the opposite bank for about half an hour.

"Hush up, we're nearly there."

"But Hinun how do you know?"

"You can't feel it?" Hinun asked, turning to his younger companion and smiling. "Come on, this is an old river spirit. A water spirit. "

Kuruk paused for a second. "You can feel it?"

"Yeah. You should be able to. Here." Hinun placed himself in front of Kuruk and placed his own hands together, palms flat as if he were going to bow to Kuruk. "Breathe, alright? Like meditate, but try to think about the way a river moves, both up and down and towards and away. Breathe, and imagine that you're rising with the tide, exhale and imagine you're falling with it."

Kuruk clentched his eyes shut, took a few deep breaths and settled into his meditation. It took a few minutes but he had the image down, and then the feeling. Like he was moving with his mind. There was a drift, a pull on his feet and when he opened his eyes he was smiling. "I feel it! The current is pulling us."

Hinun laughed. "I'll teach you to be an avatar yet." He said, tying up his dreadlocks, "Let's keep going."

The two continued down the waters edge, Kuruk now very aware of the slight tug on his boots every time he took a step. Wordlessly, they turned and walked into the forest, and in a few meters saw a shrine in the center of a treeless space. The first thing they noticed was a red-crowned crane, fishing. There was a pond, and a small trickle of crystal clear water ran from the pond to the river. Behind the pond there was a small house, and a frame had been carved out of a white marble that looked like it was glowing in the near-evening light.

"This is it." Kuruk said, and Hinun had to bite back an 'Oh, really?'

As they stepped forward, both were suddenly hit with a force that felt like a migraine. Hinun's eyes widened and Kuruk turned to his friend only to see Hinun on the ground, staring wordlessly at the treeline. Kuruk tried to bend down to help him, but the crane had somehow appeared in front of him, much bigger than a usual crane. Before Kuruk could say anything, the crane stretched its impossibly long neck forward and – this was the only adjective Kuruk could use later – dipped his beak into Kuruk, a ripple pulsing from around the point.

In a second Kuruk felt like he was falling forwards.

When he opened his eyes, he was in the grove still, but the trees were bigger. There was more noise and the small shrine had turned into a large lake.

At the lakes edge there was the crane.

Kuruk glanced down where Hinun had been only to see an unrecognizable middle aged man. He frowned and turned to the crane.

"What have you done to Hinun?" He asked, as calmly as he was able. The crane ducked its head and walked out of the lake, getting larger and larger until it was standing at eye level with Kuruk.

'That is his true form, here.' The voice was androgynous and while he didn't see the cranes beak move Kuruk knew that it came from the bird.

"So he really is possessed."

'In a way. Much like you are possessed by all of your past lives.' The crane said. 'But I have brought you here for something else. I cannot speak in your world'

"Who are you?" Kuruk asked, wary.

'I am Xian He, of dreams.' The crane replied, bowing its neck slightly. Kuruk could see that the red crown on his head had been extended, the small line of red feathers trailing down the crane's back and even into two longer feathers at the end of the birds tail. "I am the river spirit to whom this shrine is dedicated."

"I am Kuruk, of the water tribe." Kuruk bowed, realizing he must be seen as very rude.

'Kuruk. I am going to give you a dream.'

"What?"

'It will help you learn that simply because there is peace and prosperity, you are not meant to simply let life go on around you. This is a warning.' Xian He spread his wings and Kuruk backed away. 'This is your choice, young avatar.' The voice was louder. 'This is your choice.'

Kuruk began to run towards the spirit of Hinun, and he suddenly felt very sleepy. He looked down and saw Xian He's beak sticking out of his stomach.

"Oh."

When Kuruk woke up it was to Hinun hitting him in the face.

"Do you know what just happened?"

It was dark out and Kuruk felt a little sick. He waved Hinun away and sat up, taking deep breaths, his eyes closed. He opened them and a crane called somewhere in the distance. In an instant his dream came back.

"That bird we saw here. It was a spirit."

"The river spirit?"

"Yeah."

"You talked to it?"

"It actually pulled me into the spirit world."

"What." Hinun looked shocked, and Kuruk couldn't tell, his head was pounding and he had placed his hands over his eyes, but a little angry. "What happened."

"You were there too. Or your water fighter man was. The one inside you. But. . .Xian He told me he'd send me a dream."

"I thought this was a river spirit."

"I don't know Hinun, that's just what the giant spirit crane said, alright?" Kuruk snapped, standing up. Hinun sighed.

"I'm sorry. What kind of dream."

"A nightmare." Kuruk frowned. "Lets get going back to camp."

Hinun followed Kuruk, annoyed. "I didn't even realize it was a dream at first," Kuruk began. "It was like I was still in the spirit world. But I was in this like mangrove, right? I was looking for something. Then there was this girl. I turned her around to talk to her, but she had no face. No hair. Nothing."

"No face?"

Kuruk shook his head. "None. So I turned to run, but there was this spiders web, and I ran into it. It was giant, and I couldn't bend or anything. Then I saw the spider and it was at the edge of the web and started crawling towards me, but instead of just the spider moving it . . . extended. Like there were ten bodies in that one body and they were all attached and each of the bodies had all those legs and eyes and it came up to me and sat on my chest and I could feel it breathe-" Kuruk shuddered. "It opened its mouth wide and my face was there. And I smiled.

"Then I woke up." Kuruk muttered. Hinun sighed and put an arm around his friend. They walked in silence on the beach.

"I didn't have quite that experience. I fell asleep and dreamed that I was back home. That was it." Hinun said, squeezing Kuruks shoulder.

"What does it mean Hinun?"

"I'm a spiritual advisor in training, Kuruk. I have no idea. We can ask the priest –"

"No!" Kuruk exclaimed. "Hinun, you don't understand. I felt like guilty in my dream. Like I had done something terrible. I felt like I deserved to be caught and eaten."

"Calm down. We'll just ask about the crane spirit."

"Xian He."

"That. Don't worry about it."

The two walked back to the camp and immediately the earth priest ran over, wringing his hands. Hinun stepped in front of Kuruk, holding his hands up. "We're fine. Just went for a walk."

That seemed to satisfy the man, who went back to the fire. "Well," he said, "You're just in time for dinner, anyway."

As they ate, Kuruk and Hinun sat next to the earth priest.

"You're familiar with the spirits around here, right?" Hinun asked, Kuruk was still melancholy and not at all his usual happy-go-lucky self.

"Of course."

"Can you tell me about the spirit, Xian He? It takes the shape of a crane with a red patch on his forehead."

The priest nodded.

"Xian He is an ancient and powerful spirit. When the moon and the ocean spirits began to move, they realized that there were other bodies of water they had created. So they created spirits for them. Xian He is one of those spirits. He is very strong."

"Does he have anything to do with, uh, dreams?"

Frowning, the priest put down his roughly hewn plate. "Yes. He does. How do you know that?"

Kuruk glanced at Hinun and Hinun shrugged nonchalantly. "Just a guess." Hinun said, smiling lamely. Any excuse would have been pretty feeble anyway.

"Xian He is a spirit associated with prophetic dreams." The priest said, returning to his meal. Next to Hinun Kuruk tensed up. "He cannot speak to us, so he sends dreams. He cannot lie, but he does not necessarily show us the truth." Kuruk relaxed and Hinun looked at his friend, ruffling his hair. Kuruk jerked away and Hinun sighed.

"Alright. Thank you sir."

"Were you visited in a dream by Xian He?"

Hinun opened his mouth to answer but Kuruk stood up suddenly, whistled for Agler, jumped on and took off down the river.

"Avatar!"

Hinun put a hand on the priests arm sleeve, pulling him back down. "I was."

"Was the Avatar?" the priest asked, sitting down slowly.

"He was."

"What did Xian He say?"

"To Kuruk? That's his business." The priest looked disappointed. "But I can tell you what Xian He gave to me." The priest perked up. "A vision of home." Hinun smiled and then began to focus on his own mean. Xian He might not be able to lie, but he could.

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