I didn't know where to go after the big bat so I stopped there. I also feel like the shield-bird sadly is underused, I would like to have seen it more.
When you die, your dad tells you nothing can go wrong, just retry. I think it’s there to tell you that nothing really happens when you ‘die’, you just restart at your last checkpoint and nothing went wrong.
Perhaps it’s a little too far, but that’s the link I suppose.