Ori and the light of Nibel

Chapter 8: The confession and climbing higher up the Ginso tree

The two spirits were resting, leaning on the ancestral tree. Ori was relaxing while Sein was in thought "Come on, you need to tell him. But what if he doesn't feel the same way?" she was fighting with herself. Ori sat up when he noticed that Sein seemed distracted "Hey, are you ok? You seem distracted." he asked. Sein was brought out of her thoughts and looked at him "Yeah, everything's fine." she tried to reassure him, but Ori saw through it. "Hey, you can tell me anything. I'm here for you." Ori told Sein while bringing her close to comfort her. Sein thought for a moment before taking a deep breath "It's now or never." Sein thought "This is the thing that's been on my mind. I never answered your question back when we first entered the Thornfelt swamp, and the answer is: yes. I l-love you, O-Ori." she said looking away while deep blue appeared on her cheeks. There was only silence "I knew it." Ori thought as that same deep blue appeared on his cheeks. He began to intertwine his tail with Sein's, catching her off guard "Remember when I told you about how spirit lovers would show their feeling for each other by intertwining their tails?" he asked, Sein nodded confused then realisation hit soon after "D-Does that m-mean." she stammered "Yes, Sein. I love you, too." Ori said with a smile.

A big smile began to form as Sein felt an overwhelming amount of happiness "I can't believe this is happening!" she thought as she began hugging Ori which caused their tails to untwine. Ori imminently hugged back like he was waiting for this moment. After a while, Sein soon kissed Ori, surprising him but soon kissed back. This was like a dream come true for them. They soon broke for air, lightly panting while looking into each other's eyes "You have no idea how long I wanted to do that." Sein said once she caught her breath "Same here. I suppose this is the best day of our lives." Ori replied which made Sein nod.

The two lovers began to get back to their mission of restoring the three elements of light. They bashed off a lantern leading them to a portal "Are you ready?" Ori asked "Always." Sein answered before they both entered the portal.

They came into an area with some thorns and a Hopper, Sein was about to shoot the Hopper with her spirit flame before Ori stopped her "Why did you stop me?" she asked "I have a feeling we can bash off the creatures. We can bash off the Hopper up to the ledge it's on." Ori explained. Sein nodded understandably "Ok. Let's test it then." she said. The Hopper saw them and hopped into the air giving both spirits an opening to bash it. Ori and Sein bashed in unison, both getting up to the ledge while the Hopper was left dazed on the ground. "Yep, we can bash off them. Very handy." Ori said as they both began to wall jump up a wall coming to a huge gap with thorns in it, and one of those projectile plants. "We'll have to use those projectiles to get across." Sein said to her lover. "I was just thinking that." Ori replied. He soon bashed the projectile and waited for Sein which followed soon after.

They bashed off a lantern and bashed a projectile that came from another projectile plant, almost getting hit by said projectile. "Whoa. That was close." Ori said as they were now under the projectiles. Sein nodded "Yeah, that was close. And getting killed right after getting in a relationship is not on my list." she half joked "Understandable." Ori said. Ori looked up to see a breakable wooden par of the roof above them "Hey, there's a breakable of the roof above us." he said which made Sein look up "But how will we bash a projectile upwards without hurting ourselves?" Sein questioned. Ori thought for a moment before getting an idea "I might have an idea." Ori spoke as his paw began to radiate a lot of lightning. Sein imminently knew what his idea was "Just don't overdo it. I don't want you to use too much energy." she told him "Don't worry, I won't." he replied. Ori soon shot the breakable part with enough lightning to break it "We can now continue upward by using these projectiles." he said as his paw went back to normal.

They bashed up towards the now open path, to see another projectile plant on the ceiling near a portal "For the sake of keeping my energy. We should bash the projectile through the portal." Ori said "Where does that portal lead though? It could be anywhere." Sein pointed out "well, time to find out." Ori replied and imminently ran through the portal, this made Sein sigh "What am I going to do with you." she thought. She soon heard his voice above her "Well, the portal leads up here." Sein looked up to see Ori "Well, that answers that." Sein replied. She soon bashed a projectile through the portal, it flew passed Ori nearly hitting him and broke a breakable wall.

They soon continued and imminently came across a Crawler which Sein killed, they both used wall jump and double jump to get up to higher ground and soon began wall jumping up a wall. The two spirits then landed on a ledge. This caused a Mortar worm to pop out the ground higher up "We can bash off their projectiles to get up." Ori told Sein. She nodded as the Mortar took its shot only for the spirits to bash off it in unison, making the Mortar worm retreat into the ground, soon another Mortar appeared from the ground and shot a projectile at them just for the two spirits to bash off the projectile in unison once more.

They soon bashed off a nearby lantern to reach a higher ledge which led to a lot of thorns, some lanterns, four keystones, and two big portals "Ok, so bash the lanterns. Avoid the spikes. Collect the keystones and use the portals. Got it." Ori said while Sein nodded in agreement. They began to bash while collecting the keystones, soon reaching a spirit gate requiring four keystones "well, we have the keystones." Ori said to his lover, they both put the keystones in causing it to glow and open like all the other ones.

The two lovers walked through the gate and saw a life pod and a single energy crystal with some thorns on the ground in front of a portal "We must be careful on what's on the other side of the portal." Sein warned Ori while grabbing his paw "Don't worry. I learned from the last time." he told Sein as they walked through the portal.

On the other side however, they would end up in an area with moving platforms, and thorns all over the floor, and a purple orb-like creature hovering in the air with stone surrounding it "It's a Sentry stone, they will shoot powerful projectiles. But I'm sure we can bash them back." Sein told Ori. Just then, a log fell and blocked the portal that they came from "Great. We need to fight it." Ori said as he jumped on a moving platform. The Sentry stone soon shot a projectile which Ori bashed back at it, hurting the sentry stone and almost ended up headfirst into thorns. He just saved himself with a double jump "That was close. Too close." Ori said as he landed on another platform, with Sein joining in soon after. 

They were bashing every projectile the Sentry stone shot at the two spirit lovers back at it which eventually destroyed it, causing the moving platforms to remain up while a door opened revealing a spirit well "Oh, a spirit well. I do need the rest after fighting that Sentry stone." Ori said with Sein giving a nod of agreement "Agreed. It would be nice to rest after all that jumping, and bashing." They soon went to the spirit well and used its light to recover any lost spirit light and heal any damage that they potentially had acquired before they sat down with eachother in their arms.

While they were resting, Sein decided to bring something up that has bothered her ever since she knew that she loved Ori "Hey, Ori. Can I ask you something?" she asked while looking up at him since she was leaning on him, with their tails intertwined. "Sure. What's on your mind?" Ori replied while looking at her. Sein took a deep breath "How will you fair after our journey? I'll be back on the mantle on top of the Spirit tree and... we won't be able to be with each other anymore..." Sein's voice was filled with pain and sorrow when she told Ori this. Ori wasn't expecting this, but he knew what she meant "I... honestly don't know. I don't want to lose you but if it must happen then I guess there's no stopping it. No matter how painful it is..." tears soon began to freely fall from Ori's eyes with Sein's eyes also beginning to tear up from the awful realisation.

Theysoon began hugging each other as their tears were flowing freely "I hope thereis a way for the forest to remain balanced with light while I get to stay withyou." Sein spoke through little sobs "I hope too, Sein." Ori replied also through little sobs. After a while they both calmed down "I'llask the Spirit tree if there's a way later. We have an element to cleanse." Orisoon spoke, making Sein nod "Yeah your right." she said. They soon shared aquick kiss before getting up and continuing to climb higher up the Ginsotree.