Ori and the light of Nibel

Chapter 11: Entering the Valley of the winds

The two lovers made their way through the now destroyed wall soon coming across a Hopper, and a birdlike creature with four eyes which resembled Kuro. "What are those purple birds? And why do they look like Kuro?" Ori asked, a bit of fear in his tone as he remembered what happened on the top of the Ginso tree. "Those are Darkwings. As for why they look like Kuro, I'm not sure myself." Sein replied.

The Hopper began hopping towards them only to be killed by Sein's spirit flames. Soon the Darkwing flew straight at them with incredible speed "Watch out!" Ori said as he grabbed Sein's paw and quickly jumped out of the way, causing the Darkwing to just miss them. Ori soon focused the Spirit tree's light and shot the Darkwing with his lightning, killing it. "You protected me from getting harmed a second time. Thank you, Ori." Sein said before hugging him, "I couldn't do nothing and let that Darkwing harm you. I love you; you know that." Ori replied while he hugged back. "And I love you too, Ori." Sein said before they would share a short kiss. "Well, let's continue to Misty woods and get the gumon seal." Ori said with Sein agreeing with a nod.

Just as he spoke a big shadow soon came over both spirits "Quick! Inside that hollow tree!" Sein said, they both went in the hollow tree just as Kuro landed. "It's Kuro..." Ori whispered while looking out a hole in the bark. Kuro surveyed the area and flew off soon after once she didn't spot the two spirits. The two left the hollow tree. "It seems Kuro knows that we survived the fall from the top of the Ginso tree." Ori spoke. "Gumo saved both of us from Kuro yesterday. I suppose I owe you an apology for not believing in your decision to help him..." Sein told him with sorrow in her voice.

Sein soon felt Ori's paw in her paw "Hey, its ok. For all I knew, he could've probably ran off with it again. So, I should owe you the apology for not thinking ahead." he said while looking into Sein's eyes. This made Sein surprised hearing him say this "Is he finally taking responsibility for his actions?" she thought. "We should start moving now." Sein spoke causing Ori to nod in agreement and they soon began walking.

While walking, they came across two more Darkwings, a spitter, and a switch "One of those stomp switches. Let's see at what it opens." Ori said and stomped it. The sound of something being moved could be heard "Well, it moved something? Let's go check it out." Sein said, Ori nodded, and they headed to the source of the noise to see that a wooden door was opened. "Well, there's our answer." Sein said.

They both went through and saw a Spitter on a big rock surrounded by water with a Snapper in it, and a Crawler on a wall "Ok. It appears we'll be wall jumping." just after Ori spoke, the Spitter shot a projectile at Ori, who just sidestepped out of the way "And bashing." he added. Soon Ori bashed the Spitter into the water, it died instantly when it touched it "Yikes. Guess they're not a fan of water, huh." he said, "No. It appears they aren't." Sein replied as they kept moving.

Sein killed the Crawler that was on the wall before they began to jump up the wall using wall jump. They soon saw a set of lanterns above a lot of thorns. "Lanterns. You know what I'm thinking?" Ori asked. Sein nodded and  they both double jumped to the lanterns and began bashing. They soon came to a branching path. The two landed on the ground where a Crawler was as Sein killed the Crawler before it could do anything. "Well, what path do we take? We could keep following the lanterns or follow this path?" Ori asked which made Sein think for a moment. "Let's follow the lanterns, if there's something blocking our path we can come back here and follow the other path." she explained.

Ori soon gave her a nod "Ok then. Let's continue." he said before bashing the lanterns once more. This made Sein smile "I love how he's focused on saving the forest despite having no knowledge about his surroundings." she thought as she began to follow Ori.

Once they reached safe ground, they entered a valley "Wow..." Ori spoke before feeling a dark presence, a very big dark presence. "This is strange... This has never happened before." he thought. The Spirit tree's light was still fusing with his own spirit light, granting him new abilities. Ori looked up only to see Kuro perched on a giant piece of rock. Ori's eyes widened in fear and pulled Sein back the way they came from "Are you ok? Is something wrong?" she asked, a hint of worry in her voice "I-I saw K-Kuro." Ori stuttered with visible fear in his voice. Sein looked and saw Kuro "Oh no. She blocks our path to the Misty woods. Not that there's one anymore." she thought while looking at the broken bridge that once led to the Misty woods.

She soon noticed a loose pile of rocks above Kuro. Sein soon had an idea and returned to Ori, "I have an idea." she told him "What's your idea?" Ori asked "I saw some loose rocks above Kuro. If we can get to them, we can stomp the rocks and hopefully distract her." Sein explained her plan to Ori. "Well, it's worth a shot. Let's get up to those rocks." Ori spoke and they both headed back to the other path.

Once they got back to the other path, they came to a wall with some thorns, and a Darkwing. "Well, let's begin." Ori said and began to wall jump with Sein following Ori. The Darkwing soon flew at them only for the spirits to bash off it, sending the Darkwing into the thorns. They soon reached the top which had another Darkwing, it was set ablaze but not by Sein's spirit flame, but by a golden flame that came from Ori's paw.

"Well, that's new!" Ori said out of surprise while looking at his paw "Ori, what was that?" Sein asked also quite surprised "I don't know. I think I might've learned your spirit flame ability from the Spirit tree's light." he explained "I believe that you may be gaining new abilities of your own. But we still need to get Kuro away from the entrance of the Misty woods." Sein replied making Ori nod before they continued.

They soon came up to a lantern and two Arachne's "It seems we'll need to bash off the lantern as well as the Arachne's and their projectiles." Sein told Ori "Yeah, seems like it." He replied. The spirits bashed the lantern as one Arachne shot three projectiles, which both spirits bashed to the next Arachne and repeated the process until they reached a wall.

The two lovers soon wall jumped to another lantern and bashed it "Phew... thank the light we got through that. Those thorns weren't helping." Ori spoke. He soon felt another dark presence above them so, he formed that same golden spirit flame in his paw and shot it upwards, hitting an Arachne and making Sein jump a little. "Why did you do that? It scared me a little." she said. Ori looked at her sheepishly "Sorry. I can somehow sense dark presences and one was above us." he told Sein "I guess the Spirit tree's light is giving me more abilities." Ori added. "It seems so. Let's continue. I think I can see the rocks." she replied.

They continued before coming to a ledge with lanterns attached to the rocks "Ok. Here goes nothing." Ori spoke and both him and Sein began to bash the lanterns, soon attracting four Darkwings "We can bash off them to aid us." Sein said "Understood." Ori replied and started bashing the four eyed owls with Sein following behind. The spirits got to the rocks soon after. "Ok. On my mark... 3... 2... 1... now!" Sein spoke and they both stomped the rocks, making them fall and landing on Kuro.

Kuro imminently began to fly but she flew into a wall causing two of her purple feathers to fly off her wing, before she flew off towards Mount Horu. Ori and Sein landed in front of the broken bridge that led to Misty woods "Maybe I didn't think that through." Sein spoke as she slowly got up "Yeah. Because that fall hurt." Ori said while slowly getting up as well. Soon, the two purple feathers landed in front of the spirits "Are these... Kuro's feathers?" Ori asked. Sein nodded "They are. We could use these to help us." she said as both her and Ori picked them up.

Ori and Sein have acquired two of Kuro's feathers! Ori and Sein can use these feathers to glide and ride wind currents!

"We can use these to glide over the broken bridge. But my body now hurts from that fall and I saw a spirit well that should be up that ledge." Ori told Sein. Sein felt the pain that her body acquired from the fall so she agreed "Ok. Let's head up there." Sein said. Ori bashed a lantern that was above them as Sein followed.

They soon reached the spirit well and used its light to ease the pain in their bodies and sat down with eachother in their arms and their tails intertwined "How about a few minutes of resting before heading into the Misty woods." Ori said. "That sounds like a great idea." Sein agreed and the two began to rest.