Published: 28 May 2026

Chapter 31– Getting Ready for Class to Start

I glided as much as possible as I followed the thieves’ SUV, because it not only took less energy, but it was also less painful. If you don’t comprehend what I’m referring to, whenever I’m forced to flap my wings, it causes me a great deal of pain. It’s due to the fact that whenever I flap my wings it pulls on the skin and muscles around the areas where the barn owl’s talons had dug into my back. Therefore, the fewer times I do that, the less pain I have to endure.

I followed the SUV as it left Fort Collins and continued along a rural county road that led to a less populated area. Eventually, the SUV pulled into the driveway of an old farm house that was just under a mile away from its nearest neighbors. This had obviously once been an active farm with lots of property that was now severely neglected and overgrown. The farmhouse, however, was apparently in livable condition, although it needed a fresh coat of paint and some minor repairs. I even spotted the foundation of what remained of a barn across the road, but the rest of the structure had either fallen down or was torn down long ago.

The lawn was less overgrown than the rest of the property, but it could still use a good mowing, There were a few trees surrounding the house and quite a few more lining the opposite side of the road, so I landed in one of the larger trees directly across from the farmhouse. I chose it because I could observe what the thieves were up to and wanted to discover if they intended on unloading their ill-gotten goods here or if they planned on taking them somewhere else. I didn’t think I’d been observed until one of thieves said something to his companions and pointed toward my location in the tree. Curious, I strained to hear what he was saying to his friends.

“Something just doesn’t feel right about this,” he told the others. “I’m not sure, but I think it’s the same owl that I noticed perched on the roof of the dorm next to the one we were at earlier. I wouldn’t have noticed it, but in the moonlight I’d seen it circling overhead, although I couldn’t make out any of its features. Later, I saw it again, but this time it was perched on the roof of the other dorm.”

“Are you saying that you think the owl is spying on us?” one of his dubious friends asked.

“I’m not sure what I’m saying, but I don’t like the fact that there’s the same, or possibly another owl, in the tree across the road and it seems to be watching us. It just gives me a really creepy feeling and I’m going to do something about it.”

He then turned and went into the farmhouse, and when he returned, he was carrying a .22 caliber rifle. I had no doubt about what he was planning to do, so as he took aim on my location, I dove off the branch a moment before I heard the sound of gunfire and the whiz of the bullet before it struck the tree. It’s possible the bullet hit the very branch I’d been perched on, or one that was close by, or possibly it struck the trunk of the tree instead, since I’d been close to that area as I observed the thieves.

I glided around to the opposite side of the tree and landed on another sturdy branch that was farther away from the guy with the rifle and it was located behind the trunk of the tree. As soon as I landed there, I hurriedly transitioned into a Canada jay, which I hoped would seem less threatening and more difficult to locate, and then I flew up to a much higher and less sturdy branch. I chose one that provided me with a small opening through which I could observe the thieves, all of whom were still standing partway between the SUV and the door leading into the farmhouse.

The guy with the rifle walked across the road and then paced around the tree as he searched for the annoying owl, but he wasn’t able to find it. He also did a quick scan of the sky, expecting to see it flying away, and when he didn’t find it, he called out to his cohorts to help him spot the offending owl. When their effort proved fruitless, he cursed and then stomped toward the house. He also slammed the door violently behind him after he entered, leaving his buddies staring at the door in disbelief.

Shortly after the guy with the rifle entered the house, one of the other guys started removing the smaller items from the back of the SUV and carried them toward the door that led into the house. After he opened it, he entered, but he left the door ajar, as the other two guys began unloading the larger items out of the trailer. From that point on, it was a fairly steady stream of guys entering the house carrying the stolen goods inside and then returning to the SUV or trailer for another load. The guy who’d taken the shot at me eventually joined the others and helped to remove more of the items from the back of the SUV.

Once they were all inside at the same time, I flew across the road and began landing on various windowsills so I could peek inside to see where they were taking the stolen goods. All I could tell at first was that they appeared to be walking farther into the ground floor of the house, so I flew around to the rear of the house and landed on a windowsill. That’s when I discovered the thieves were taking all of the items to a backroom, and they placed the larger items on the floor on one side of the room. The other side of the room had several folding tables set up where they arranged the smaller items.

I guessed the backroom must serve as sort of a showroom for when the thieves have prospective buyers come to the house to inspect the goods before purchasing them. It also indicated, at least to me, that their buyers were either friends or family members, because the thieves would probably only feel safe showing all of these items to people they trusted. If other people were responding to an online ad that they saw on a site such as Craigslist, they would probably move the item they were interested in to another room or different location. They’d be fools to let someone they didn’t know or trust know the location of the house or be able to inspect the item in proximity to the other items when potentially completing the transaction.

Now that I’d managed to get a good look at each of the thieves, in addition to information about their license plate, vehicle, and residence where the stolen items were stored, I flew back to the tree. After landing on a fairly sturdy branch on the far side of the tree, I transition into a crow and started my journey back to the house. When I arrived there and Devin first spotted me as I approached the backyard, I could tell he was nearly beside himself with worry. He rushed over, wrapped his arms around me, and enveloped me in a powerful hug as soon as I’d transitioned, and several seconds later he finally released me and spoke.

“Where the fuck have you been? I’ve been worried sick about you, thinking that something might have happened to you and you were unable to get back to the house. I even transitioned into a crow and flew around the two areas that you were surveilling, thinking you might be lying injured somewhere, and when I couldn’t find you, I began to panic even more!”

“Actually, I was injured, and while you’re looking at that location and treating my wounds, I’ll explain why I returned so late.” I then turned around and showed him the areas where the barn owl’s talons had dug into my back.

“What the fuck did this to you?”

“I spotted the thieves while I was flying around as a Great Horned Owl, so I landed on a roof where I could observe what was going on, but I thought being a Great Horned Owl made me too conspicuous. To make myself less obvious, I transitioned into a Northern Pygmy Owl and eventually I flew down where I could get information about their license plate and vehicle.”

“I thought I warned you about doing things like that,” Devin snapped.

“You warned me that I’d have to watch for predators, and I did. After I returned to the roof top, I opted to remain a pygmy owl, but I continually scanned the area around me looking for other threats. However, at one point a barn owl slipped up behind me and attacked from above, and it was able to sink its talons into my back right after I’d spotted it, but before I was able to react. As its claws sunk into my flesh, I immediately transition back into an even larger Great Horned Owl than before and took flight. Eventually, it broke loose from my back and flew away, but those wounds made it quite painful to fly.”

“I’ll bet they did, so hang on while I get a tube of antibiotic cream and some bandages to take care of that problem for you. You’ll be able to tell me the rest of the story while I’m treating your injuries.”

“Thank you.”

When Devin returned, he washed and dried the areas first, and then he applied the antibiotic cream to the open wounds. As soon as he’d finished doing that, he applied the bandages and used tape to attach them to my back.

“I’m surprised you were able to fly at all! The barn owl’s talons dug into your Latissimus dorsi muscles on both sides of your spine, and those are the muscles that would be attached to the owl’s wings when you transitioned. I’m sure flying around must have been very painful, because you have four deep wounds dug into both sides of your back.”

“Yes, it was painful, but I tried to block the pain out as I followed the thieves to where they were going. They all seem to be residing in an old farm house on County Rd 28 and it’s also where they’re keeping the stolen items.”

“Then you’d better inform Campus Security so they can notify the Sheriff’s Department. They’ll have to get a search warrant to get inside the house and look for the stolen property, possibly along with four arrest warrants, one for each of the thieves.”

“Ok, I’ll call them right now.”

“Are you going to give them your name?”

“I think it would be better if I called this in anonymously, since we don’t need any publicity.”

“I agree with you, so you’d better wait and use the burner phone that Gramps gave me when I was at the cabin for Christmas. He said we had to activate it before the end of a six-month period, which will end in mid-June, but once its activated we’d be able to use it for up to 180 days, or until the prepaid amount has been used up. Gramps thought we might have to make some untraceable calls about the baseball cards when chatting with prospective buyers, but I think this would be a good use for it as well. I’ve got it packed away with my things up in our room, so I’ll go get it and activate it so you can use it now.”

“Thanks, and 180 days will mean it’ll be good until mid-July, if we don’t use up all of the minutes before then, so we should be able to use it after we get the baseball cards back as well.”

When Devin returned, he’d already activated the burner and handed it to me, and then I used it to call Campus Security.

“I’m a student at CSU and this morning I saw an SUV with a trailer drive onto the campus, so I kept an eye on it to see whether they were unloading or loading the trailer. There were four guys, all dressed in dark clothing, and they went into one of the dorms and came out carrying things that they either loaded into the SUV or the trailer.”

I then gave her the make, model, and license plate number on the SUV, as well as the state the license plate was from. I followed that up by giving her a description of each of the guys, and I also gave her an idea about some of the items I saw them loading up.

“Since I believed they were stealing those things, I followed them, from a distance, as they drove away. They all seem to be living in a old farmhouse on County Road 28,” I advised her before giving her the house number that was attached to the mailbox.

“Thank you very much for this information and I’ll also need your name and information as well.”

“I’d rather remain anonymous,” I added quickly before ending the call.

“I hope they follow up on that information,” I added, speaking this time to Devin.

“I don’t see why they wouldn’t, because the information you gave them is so detailed and covers just about everything. You gave them a description of the vehicle, the license plate information, and also descriptions of each of the thieves, along with descriptions of some of the stolen items. I don’t think they’d be foolish enough to ignore that sort of tip, even if it was made anonymously.”

“I certainly hope you’re right about that.”

Now that all of those things had been accomplished, we got dressed and Devin drove us to Wendy’s to get something to eat for breakfast. We ordered the same things as before, except this time our order included something to drink, since we were dining in. When we finished eating, we returned to the house and went upstairs to brush our teeth, and then we went to our room and cuddled in bed until we fell asleep.

We merely took a short nap, though, because we wanted to be able to sleep through the night and slowly get our bodies back on a regular schedule for when classes resumed. We were still groggy and didn’t have a lot of energy for the remainder of the day, but since we had to eat, we went to Dominick’s for our last meal there before returning to the house. We brushed our teeth again and showered quickly before getting back in bed to sleep through the night.

When we eventually woke up on Sunday morning, I asked Devin a question. “Do you want to go to the dog park this morning or do you want to wait until tomorrow or after classes start?”

“I want to go there now and you’ll be able to find out how Preston made out with Bailey and Finn over the Winter Break. While you’re doing that, I’ll be able to run around with Bailey and Finn to see if Bailey still wants to do that, or if she’s fully attached to Finn instead.”

“Do you want to eat first or go to the dog park first.”

“Let’s go to the dog park first, and then we’ll stop somewhere to eat on the way back to the house, because the dining hall will have stopped serving breakfast by then.”

“Ok, that makes sense. And while you’re transitioning and getting dressed after we leave the dog park, I’ll drive to one of the restaurants that Gramps and Pops like to take us to when they’re in town.”

“Sounds good to me.”

We then went out to get in the SUV, and while I was getting into the driver’s seat, Devin went around to the other side of the SUV, but instead of getting into the front passenger seat, he got in the back. As soon as I started backing out of the driveway, he began to undress so he could transition into Bear.

When I eventually reached the dog park, I pulled in and parked, and after I got out of the SUV, I opened the rear door to let Bear out next. Preston and both of his dogs were heading toward the gate to greet us as we made our way there.

“Michael, I was wondering if you might show up with Bear today,” Preston said and he reached out his hand to shake mine.

As we shook, Bear, Bailey, and Finn were busy sniffing each other, and then they began racing around, with Bailey and Finn chasing after Bear.

“Well, that pair certainly seems happy to see Bear again,” I observed. “How were they while we were gone?”

“They were moody for the first few days that we came to the park and Bear wasn’t here, but they still had each other and were satisfied to run around and just do things together.”

“Did they interact with any of the other dogs that showed up?”

“Occasionally, but most of the time they would only pay attention for a brief time before ignoring them completely.”

“Ok, so how were they when you were all at your place?”

“They were great and spent most of their time with each other, but at some point during the day they’d find me so I could give them a little affection. I would sit in the middle of the sofa whenever they did that, and they’d each crawl up beside me, place their head either in my lap, against my chest, or on my shoulder while I petted them.”

“Aw, it sounds like the three of you had a wonderful Christmas then.”

“Yes, and I even bought them a sleeve of tennis balls and a Frisbee for Christmas and I brought them along with me when we came here. I’d toss those items for them to fetch, at least until they got tired of doing that, and whenever that happened, I ended up going and retrieving those items myself. Otherwise, we’d be leaving them here for others to use or to take home with them. In fact, those items are sitting on the picnic table right now, because we only arrived here a few minutes before you showed up.”

“I’m extremely pleased that things are working out so well for the three of you.”

“Me too, and now I’m not as worried about how I’ll make out after you and Devin graduate. Speaking of Devin, why didn’t he come with you this morning?”

“He didn’t feel that we both needed to be here, and besides, he feels Bear is my job, not his, although he’s willing to help out when needed. He’s currently back at the house trying to figure out what we can do to help catch the thieves that struck over Thanksgiving.”

“Ah, I see. Do you think they’ll strike again?”

“They might have already struck again during the break, although there have been others watching to make sure that didn’t happen. We just haven’t heard if anything happened while we were gone and if they might have been captured by now.”

“I haven’t heard anything like that reported on the local news, so either the robberies have stopped or the break-ins just aren’t getting reported. It could be that maybe they’re just lying low for a while and possibly planning on striking again over Spring Break.”

“That’s certainly possible, and Devin and I will be going home during that time because we have plans with our parents.”

“I’ll let you know if I see anything about this situation reported on the local news.”

We let the dogs run around for about an hour, and then we both got ready to leave.

“Will you be here tomorrow?”

“Yes, but Devin and I will be trading off after that, because I have a scheduling conflict on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so Devin will be bringing Bear on those days instead.”

Even though Preston didn’t realize it, Devin will be here every day as Bear and I’ll be pretending to be Devin on Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the semester.

“Ok, I’ll see you then,” Preston replied, as he called Bailey and Finn to come to him.

Since they were hesitant, I called for Bear to come as well, and Bailey and Finn automatically followed him as he came trotting up to me. We left as Preston was trying to get Bailey and Finn to stay with him, instead of following us, so he could fasten their leashes as Bear and I left the dog park. As soon as we were driving away from there, Devin began to transition and get dressed as I drove to the restaurant that I’d mentioned earlier.

After we ordered and while we were waiting for our meals to be delivered, I offered Devin a reminder. “Don’t forget that I’ll be wearing some of your clothes to the dog park on Tuesdays and Thursdays once classes start, and then I’ll change before I head to my classes.”

“Yeah, I’m glad you reminded me, because I temporarily forgot about how observant Preston is.”

When we got back to the house, Devin asked a question. “What did Preston say about how Bailey and Finn acted while we were with our families?”

“He said they missed us for a few days, but then they pretty much just hung out together and did the same things that they usually did with Bear. He says he feels better now about how they’ll be once we graduate.”

“That’s good and I’m glad to hear it.”

“But they seemed to enjoy seeing Bear again this morning.”

“Yes, they certainly did and I was afraid they weren’t going to leave unless Bear did.”

“Yeah, I got the same impression.”

“I wonder when we’ll hear anything about whether Campus Security followed up on that tip? Preston said he’ll listen for any mention about the robberies on the local news and tell me about it if he hears anything. We talked briefly about that situation this morning, so I’m hoping he’ll hear about the thieves getting busted during the coming week.”

“Yeah, because even if the information is printed in the campus newspaper, it will be old news by the time the paper comes out.”

We ate quickly once the food arrived, since we were both quite tired and anxious to get back to the house so we could get a couple more hours of sleep before we got up again. We’re only sleeping a few hours at a time, so we’ll be able to fall asleep early and sleep through the night, hopefully putting us back on schedule. I know I’m really worried about getting back into a normal routine for the rest of the semester, and I’m sure Devin feels the same way.

I set the alarm on my phone as soon as we reached the house, and then we brushed our teeth, hopped into bed, and Devin spooned up behind me and cuddled. Before I fell asleep, I thought about how the wounds on my back hadn’t actually bothered me throughout the morning, probably because I hadn’t been very active, but they didn’t cause me any pain as Devin cuddled with me either. Hopefully, this is a good sign and I won’t need to see a doctor to get a prescription for antibiotics, since I don’t want to have to explain how the injury happened.

Shortly after we woke up a few hours later, we headed to the dining hall to have lunch, and as we were walking there, Devin made a comment. “This place certainly looks different from this angle than it did from the other vantage point during the past few days.”

“Yes, it certainly does.”

We ran into several people we knew once we entered the dining hall, and after we finished eating, we decided to walk around campus to see if we’d run into others we knew. It was a fairly nice day for this time of year, in that it was slightly warmer than normal and it was a lovely sunny day, so we were in no hurry to head back to the house. During our walk, we came across more students that we knew from our classes, and we also ran into a couple of the guys we hung out with at the football games.

“Hey, we’re glad we ran into you today, because we have a favor to ask,” I stated after we’d greeted them. “The college football playoff final game is tomorrow night, and since we don’t have a TV, we were wondering if you’d invite us to join you at your dorm and then we can all watch the game together.”

“Yeah, of course,” they agreed without hesitation. “We watched all of the CSU home games and some of the away games with you, so why wouldn’t we invite you to watch the final playoff game with us too?”

“Well, we didn’t want to just presume we had an invitation, and besides, we didn’t know if you guys were planning on watching it.”

“Of course we are. We wouldn’t miss that, because it should be the best game of the year,” the other one followed.

“Great, so we’ll see you then, if not before,” Devin added in closing. After that, we all went our separate ways.

We walked around on campus for a couple of hours before we headed back to the house, and then we remained there a few hours before leaving again. In the interim, we speculated about whether Campus Security had contacted the Larimer Sheriff’s Department about the tip, and we also hypothesized whether they’d already made a move on the farmhouse. After discussing all of this, we speculated about whether the baseball cards would be at my house when we go home for Spring Break or if we’ll have to wait until after we graduated before we saw how they were graded.

By the time we finished discussing each of those things, it was time to head over to the dining hall for supper. While we were there, we ran into even more people that we were acquainted with, so we stopped to chat with them briefly or they stopped by our table to chat with us while we were eating. As we walked back to the house, we talked about what we were going to do over the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, beside going to the dog park in the morning and watching the football game that night.

I thought it might be a good time to run over to the Campus bookstore on the way back from the dog park, but that’s when I realized that it would probably be closed due to the holiday. Therefore, we had to quickly come up with another idea.

“After we spend time at the dog park in the morning,” I began, “would you be willing to go out to the hunting camp for a while so Bear and Buck can go on a run together?”

“Yeah, sure. I get a little exercise running around with Bailey and Finn, but I always get a lot better workout when I’m running around at the hunting camp with you. That’s because there’s a lot more room to run around out there and I enjoy chasing you and having you chase me.”

“I enjoy it too, and it’s one of the few times that I really get to run around full tilt as either me or as Buck.”

“And to think that you used to question why I liked to go out for runs so often.”

“Yeah, I guess now I understand what you always got out of doing it. Oh, and I just thought of something else. You should call Pops and see if he’s talked to Tokala lately about how Atsa is making out with his transitioning from an evil skinwalker to a good skinwalker.”

“That’s right, I forgot to tell you. Pops told me when I was at the cabin for Christmas that he went to visit Tokala after Thanksgiving to see how that process was going. He said Tokala and Hania reported that it was a tense situation at times, because Atsa’s ingrained evil skinwalker mentality would often rear up during the ceremonies. In fact, a couple of times they said they had to battle with him briefly and even hold him down for a while until he’d refocused, and luckily there were no weapons involved, so no one got injured.”

“That sounds pretty rough, so do they still think they’ll be able to successfully convert him?”

“Pops said they’re still optimistic that they’ll be successful, once they’re able to get Atsa through the ceremonies of switching from an evil to good skinwalker and teaching him how to stay focused.”

“Aren’t they afraid he might have a relapse later, even after the process has been completed?”

“I asked Pops about that as well, and although he said it’s a remote possibility that Atsa may relapse, Pops is confident that he’ll make a permanent transition from an evil skinwalker to a good skinwalker.”

“Ok, I’m glad to hear that, because maybe Atsa will be able to convince other evil skinwalkers to do the same.”

“Possibly, but I wouldn’t bet on it. Atsa seemed to have some doubts about being an evil skinwalker at some point, but it doesn’t mean the others will have similar doubts. If that’s the case, I don’t believe there will be any other evil skinwalkers converting, so we might have to help kill off the remaining evil skinwalkers if they become a threat. Gramps, Pops, Tokala, and Hania will have to keep an eye on him, and they’ll be among the first to hear about any other evil skinwalkers and where they’ve been seen.”

“Maybe it would be better if only Tokala converted, because too many good skinwalkers could create another type of problem. If they can’t learn to control their impulse of acting as an evil skinwalker whenever they’re around others, especially if they feel threatened, then there’s no way this will work.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right about that, so let’s hope Atsa can overcome that particular problem.”

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