Ori and the light of Nibel

Chapter 23: The return of Sein

Ori entered his home to see Kuro's last egg that they managed to bring back to the cave about two weeks ago. Naru saw Ori and welcomed him back "Welcome back, Ori. Did you find anything?" she greeted before hugging him. Ori returned the hug "Yeah actually. I went to a place called Black root burrows, it piqued my interest a few weeks ago after a dream I had which turned out to be a vision. My vision took place in Lost grove." Ori explained to Naru. "I've always wanted to tell you about my old home in the lost grove, Ori." Naru spoke to her son "Don't worry. I've already seen it. Sein told me how you used to live there with your father before his passing. I'm sorry for your loss, Mum..." Ori told her with sadness as his ears drooped. Naru embraced Ori into another hug "It's ok, Ori. What's in the past can stay in the past." she said with her motherly smile.

Gumo soon entered the cave with a confused yet worried expression "Ori, Naru. Something strange is happening with the Spirit tree." he spoke. Naru and Ori soon looked towards Gumo "What do you mean?" Ori said tilting his head to the side in confusion, though he had a feeling it was the Spirit tree's spirit link. "I don't know how to explain it. You'll just have to see for yourself." Gumo replied to Ori. Ori nodded and left the cave in a blink of an eye, leaving a trail of golden light behind him and shocking both Naru and Gumo. "Did you just see that?" Naru asked "I did. I've never seen him move that fast before." Gumo replied. They both walked out to where Ori was and looked at the Spirit tree.

Ori and Naru had the same confused and worried expression when they saw that the light in the mantle of the great tree was missing and yet the life still flourished.

"Has the spirit link worked?" Ori thought while looking at this strange phenomenon. "This is something strange indeed." Naru spoke with confusion "Yeah... I'm going to head there and find out what's going on." Ori told them. "Alright, Ori. Please tell us what happened when you return." Naru spoke with Gumo giving an agreed nod. "I will." Ori only said before heading to the spirit tree.

It was uneventful while heading to the Spirit tree, it was calm and the only thing that was heard were the spirits playing with one another. "Well, here goes nothing." Ori thought as he hasn't been to the Spirit tree ever since Nibel was revitalised, only sometimes looking at him from a distance. As he came into the open, he felt anxious though he didn't know why "I hope they don't know about the blindness that happened." Ori mentally said to himself as he began to approach the Spirit tree.

It was going quite well until Ori heard something that made him freeze in his tracks "Ori's here!!" a spirit yelled out causing all the spirits to turn to him. "Crap! They know!" Ori thought as he dashed to the tree using his speed ability and began to scale the tree, leaving all the other spirits wide eyed at Ori's speed. Once Ori was high enough, he sat down on the bark of the Spirit tree "Ok, ok. So, they know about the blindness." Ori spoke through pants as he felt his heart beating rapidly. "They've known for a while now." Ori heard the Spirit tree speak to him telepathically "Well, thanks for the warning!" Ori sarcastically replied as he was a little ticked off.

Once Ori had calmed down, he asked the Spirit tree something "Was the spirit link successful?" Ori asked "It was successful. You must not keep her waiting, Ori." the tree replied before his voice faded from Ori's mind.

Ori took a few deep breaths to try and calm his nerves since he was excited to see his lover, Sein again "Ok here we go." Ori said to himself and began climbing higher up the Spirit tree.

Ori soon reached where the mantle was, he was lightly gasping for air "I underestimated how tall the Spirit tree truly is." he said before getting up on his hooves. As soon Ori was back up, he was imminently tackle hugged back to the ground by a familiar white and blue coloured spirit "ORI!! I'VE MISSED YOU SO MUCH!!" Ori imminently knew who this voice belonged to "And I've missed you much more Sein." Ori said to Sein as they hugged each other. Ori and Sein were reunited once more.

They both shared a kiss that would last for several minutes before separating for air. Both Ori and Sein felt overwhelming amounts of happiness "Just wait until both Naru and Gumo hear about this." Ori said with the biggest smile on his face. "We can go to them right now, if you'd like." Sein said to Ori which he nodded "I'd like to. I want to see their reactions." he replied as they got up on their hooves.

Ori didn't really want to go back down there, and Sein imminently noticed this "Hey, are you ok?" she asked "Yeah, I'm fine. But the spirits know about the blindness, and they know that we saved the forest. Even though, it was Kuro who ultimately put you back onto the mantle." Ori told her. "I would suggest gliding but I lost the feather I had." Sein said to Ori "You mean this feather?" Ori asked while pulling out one of Kuro's feathers. Sein looked at the feather "Where did you find it?" Sein asked while grabbing the feather from Ori "That's kind of a funny story. After Kuro put you back on the mantle, I stayed at the tree for a while seeing the birth of new spirits before leaving. As I was heading back to Swallow's nest though, the feather landed on my face." Ori explained before laughing a little.

Sein missed hearing Ori's voice and now that she's back with him, they can now be with each other again. "Do you remember how to glide?" Ori asked with Sein giving a nod "Yes, I remember. Now, let's go see Naru and Gumo." Sein replied.

They both began gliding towards Swallow's nest. The spirits on the ground could see them and begun to question who the spirit was with the white and blue fur was since they didn't see Sein in her spirit form before. But some of them knew who Sein was, these were some of the spirits that were reborn by the Spirit tree "If only they knew." One of them spoke. The spirit that spoke was Fil, a male spirit that had long horn-like antennae and shorter ears, with white fur all around his body. Ori and Sein glided into the Sunken glades soon landing on the ground "The memories are coming back to me." Sein said while they were still heading to Swallow's nest "Yeah. The bittersweet memories." Ori spoke as he remembered getting his paw impaled like it was yesterday.

They soon made it to Swallow's nest, "Can't wait to see their reactions." Ori said with a smile and preceded to walk to his home with Sein following behind. Gumo was the first to see Ori's return "Welcome back, Ori. Did you find out what's hap-" he started before seeing Sein behind Ori. Gumo soon had a shocked expression "S-Sein?! But how?" he asked. "I got a little help from the tree." Sein replied referring to the Spirit tree "Well, it's good to see you again. I assume you're going to tell Naru next?" Gumo asked Ori. Ori nodded "Yeah, I am." he answered before bidding farewell to Gumo and walked to the cave.

Ori soon took a deep breath "Well, are you ready?" he asked Sein "Always." she replied and both spirits walked into the cave Ori called his home.

When they entered, they saw Naru she was checking on the egg like any mother would do with her children "I'm sure the egg is fine, Mum." Ori suddenly spoke causing Naru to slightly jump. "Welcome home, Ori. Did you find out why the light is go-" Naru turned to face Ori to also see Sein next to him. "O-Ori is that who I think it is?" Naru asked with Ori nodding "Yep, it's Sein. She's here because she had a little help from the Spirit tree, and I couldn't be happier." Ori told Naru while he pulled Sein close into another hug which Sein gladly returned. Naru felt happy for Ori that he could see her again "I'm glad you get to see her again, Ori." Naru said to him with her motherly smile. "I'm glad to be back with him." Sein told Naru.

It was now approaching night as the sky was getting dark "It seems that night is approaching. I was basically out for the entire day." Ori said as he looked at the darkening sky. "You were out for the day?" Sein asked as she looked at Ori "Yeah. I did come back before Gumo said that something strange was happening with the Spirit tree which was the light vanishing from the mantle." Ori explained.

Thesky was now dark with the stars shining the night sky. Ori and Sein were layingon a patch of grass as they were stargazing "Wow... I never got a chance to seethe stars during our journey. They're beautiful." Sein said, looking at the stars "Yeah, the starsare beautiful. But not as beautiful as the star next to me." Ori flirted which madeSein blush as her cheeks went deep blue. "Th-thank you, O-Ori." Sein stammered "You'rewelcome." Ori replied, still looking at the stars. Minutes pass as Ori feltsleep slowly claim him so, he sat up only to notice that Sein had already fellasleep "Guess I'll have to carry you." Ori said before picking her up. He thenwalked inside his home and placed Sein onto one side of his straw made bed whileOri took the other side "Good night, Sein." Ori said before placing a kiss onher forehead and drifting off to sleep.