"Vision quest," that’s what many Amerindian tribes named it, seeking out the song of the totems. Different tribes and different traditions had different ideas of how vision quests worked, but most that Falcon had heard or read about described the would-be shaman going out alone into some hostile environment—a desert, the mountains, or the forest—and staying there until he heard the call. Sometimes the seeker would find mortal friends and allies along the way, sometimes he would not. But if he was really destined to be a shaman, a guide would eventually come and reveal to him the song of the totems. This guide might be a spirit or it might be in the form of a mouse or other creature, but according to all the stories it never appeared in the form that the shaman expected.