Ori and the light of Nibel

Prologue

It was a stormy night in the land of Nibel. The leaves on all the trees were swaying from the winds high speed, some of the leaves could be seen flying through the air as they detached from the trees. It was no different for the Spirit tree, the guardian of Nibel and the one that brings balance and life to the land of Nibel and its elements. The spirit tree is a gigantic tree with a lively blue light flowing through his bark. The main source of the blue light came from a globular shaped light that resided in a mantle at the top of the tree. As the spirit tree swayed in the strong wind of the great storm, a white glowing leaf broke free from a branch of the great tree as the wind was too strong. And with that, the leaf was soon carried far from the spirit tree.

As this was going on, a feminine being with a lighter shade of purple for most of her lower half, a very large spotted belly, black fur on her arms, chest, head and back while her face was pure white was sitting at the edge of Swallow's nest. This was Naru, who was observing the forest before the same glowing leaf, that was still flying through the air caught her attention. Feeling curious, Naru decided to follow the glowing leaf in question. So, she got up and proceeded to follow the leaf. It wasn't long before the leaf drifted onto the ground and soon it began to glow even brighter forcing Naru to shield her eyes. She looked when the light vanished to see a small creature sleeping peacefully, this was a spirit. This spirit was Ori, they were male and had a cat-like appearance, two long ears as well as two short horn-like antennae on the top of his head, he had hooves for feet and had white fur all around his body. Naru carefully picked the young spirit up and adopted him as a child of her own.

Weeks had passed since Naru adopted Ori. When Ori awoke revealing that his large eyes were black with white pupils, he stretched and jumped down from his handmade bed that Naru had made for him weeks prior and walked to the entrance of the cave. Once he left the cave, the suns warmth hit Ori's body it felt pleasant to him despite being covered in fur. He saw Naru up ahead at one of the fruit trees so, Ori began to jog up to her while calling out to her "Mum!" Ori's voice was small and light. Naru soon turned around to face her adopted son "Good morning. Would you like to get some fruit with me?" Naru asked him. Ori nodded happily as he went up to her.

Naru soon lifted Ori up and put him on her shoulders and began shaking the tree causing the last fruit to fall Naru caught the fruit. She decided to give the fruit to Ori "You can have this." she said before lightly chucking it in the air which Ori caught in his mouth. Ori bit down on the fruit releasing the sweet juice and flavour of the fruit which always made Ori happy. Naru then marked off the tree with an 'x' she continued her trek soon after with Ori still on her shoulders. Naru would come up to a lake a few minutes later.

Both Naru and Ori saw trees full of fruits on the other side of the lake. They both look at each other "We should build a bridge to reach them." Ori spoke as Naru seemed content "That's a great idea." Naru replied and so, they began to build the bridge.

They worked on it all day while taking breaks, of course. They drank from the clean lake while having their breaks then got back to work when they were ready. Night fell when the bridge was completed, they were soon eating the many fruits on the ground around the trees.

Ori decided to take some back to the cave as he scooped up many fruits as a flash of blue light caught his attention before he heard a voice "Ori..." Ori looked around frantically trying to find the source of this mysterious voice before he shrugged it off. Ori soon began to walk back to the cave with the fruits in his arms. Once he got to the cave's entrance, he looked to his right to see a haze-like aura of blue light, this light belonged to the spirit tree "Wow..." was the only thing Ori could say as he dropped the fruit in awe. Ori soon heard the same voice from earlier "Ori please return to me." The voice said. Naru soon picked Ori up and ran into the cave. But unbeknownst to them what Naru just did would set some unfortunate events into motion "Do not worry, you're safe with me." Naru spoke in a soft and kind voice.

Many years had passed since the spirit tree called out to Ori, the plant life was slowly dying through the passage of time. Naru, who had Ori in her arms put him on his little bed and proceeded to the cave's entrance only to see there was one fruit on the ground she picked it up and shook her head before dropping it and leaving the cave.

Once she was out, she looked around hoping to find any piece of fruit but with no success, Naru also noticed the water was gone. All hope seemed lost for her but when she looked up, she saw a branch containing some fruit. Naru tried climbing the tree but when she grabbed onto a branch that was close to the branch with the fruit, the branch snapped making Naru fall to the ground landing on her back. She headed back to the cave empty handed. When she got back, she picked up the last piece of fruit off the ground and gave it to Ori. The scent of the fruit woke Ori as he opened his eyes and looked at his adopted mother. Ori quickly sat up while Naru sat down holding her stomach out of hunger, Ori tried offering the fruit to Naru "You need this fruit more than me, Mum." he spoke hoping she would take the fruit, but Naru politely shook her head "I am fine. Do not worry." Naru politely refused the fruit then closed her eyes this made Ori look to the entrance of the cave.

Ori left the cave and saw all the life around him was withered and decayed "Oh my... I didn't know it was this bad." Ori said to himself as he reached the tree where Naru found the fruits on a high branch. Ori saw the fruits and climbed the tree from the inside reaching the fruits with ease. He shook the branch, making the fruit fall from the tree then Ori jumped down and took as much fruit as he could carry. He began to head back to the cave as memories played in his head. When he got back to the cave, Ori walked to Naru and held out a fruit with happiness on his face "Mum I found some fruit!" he said joyfully but... there was no response... Ori walked up to Naru "Mum?" there was now a hint of worry on his face. Ori dropped the fruit and started to push Naru hoping for a reply, yet there was no answer. He feared the worse as Ori began pushing again which made Naru's body fall backward then that's when Ori knew.

Naru had passed away from starvation...

Ori was upset, his ears drooped as he begun to lay down and close his eyes in grief as tears started to appear. Ori soon left going to the edge of Swallow's Nest coincidentally the same edge where Naru saw Ori being carried by the wind during the great storm years prior. He looked in the distance before dropping down.

Once he was down, he felt hunger hit him as he began walking. He came across a fallen log and struggled to climb it his strength was fading and fast, but he continued walking crying out for help only to be greeted with silence. Ori came across red glowing vines with sharp thorns he tried to carefully walk through the spikey plants but fell and got pricked by the thorns which made Ori release a cry of pain he managed to get out, visible terror on his face then he couldn't feel his legs forcing Ori to crawl. He started crawling down some terrain but began to roll down the terrain hitting his chest on the ground. Ori rose his head and began crawling with whatever strength he had left. Then his body soon gave out on a fallen tree trunk and took his final breath.

White glowing flowers soon began to grow around Ori's body soon leading a path to the spirit tree himself and bringing light to the dormant tree once more. The light from the spirit tree lifted Ori's body up and infused his light into his child, reviving Ori in the process. Then Ori dropped to the ground.