Ori and the decayed land

Chapter 21: The return to Nibel

Ori entered the dream realm as he opened his eyes and saw the darkness around him before he heard the voice of the Spirit tree speak to him "Both you and Sein have done it. The light has returned to Niwen." The Spirit tree spoke. "Yeah. But I didn't know spirits had to merge with the light to create new spirits trees..." Ori replied with visible sadness.

The Spirit tree heard the sadness in Ori's voice "I can hear the sadness in your voice... Did something happen?" the great tree asked. Without saying a word, Ori thought of Orin's final moments back near the fallen Spirit willow as both his and the tree's surroundings changed to that moment, showing the Spirit tree Orin's final moments and last words as a spirit "'Oh, one more thing, if Lora ever gets reborn, can you tell her that I love her too?'" the Spirit tree heard Orin say before he was engulfed in Seir's light and everything went dark again "I was able to bring Orin back in physical form. Once we learned that spirits need to merge with the light for new spirit trees, he... he merged with Seir for Niwen..." Ori explained as he felt tears falling down his face.

The Spirit tree took in the information that Ori had given him "Niwen will thrive thanks to Orin... He will be remembered dearly." He spoke "Yeah, he will. He was a great friend once I brought him back..." Ori said.

Ori soon felt himself wake up "I can sense that you're waking up, Ori." the Spirit tree said to the spirit "I noticed." Ori replied. "I will be ready for your return with a surprise for your and Sein's return." the Spirit tree told Ori as he faded from the dream realm.

Sun light entered Ori and Sein's hut as Ori opened his eyes and stretched before getting up "What did he mean by a surprise for our return?" Ori asked himself while thinking as he went and sat on one of the chairs and got one of the fruits from the basket on the table and began to eat it while looking out the window next to the table.

Sein would soon wake up as she stretched and opened her eyes and saw Ori looking out the window "Good morning, Ori." She greeted her partner as she walked up to the table "Morning, Sein." Ori greeted back, still looking out the window. Sein got a piece of fruit from the basket and began to eat it.

"Today's the day we return to Nibel. We both learnt so much, not just about Niwen, but about me as well. Knowing that I once resided here as Orin makes me want to stay here, but I can't." Ori said, reflecting on everything as both spirits finished eating.

Ori finally looked away from the window and at his lover "But we can use the knowledge we learnt to prevent the same thing from happening in Nibel." he told Sein, who nodded. "Agreed. We should go talk to Grom about that boat." Sein replied as Ori nodded and the two spirits left their hut and went to look for grom.

After a few minutes, they found Grom next to the spirit well. They approached the golek, who saw them approaching "Ahh if it isn't the heroes of Niwen. What can I do for you two?" he asked "Well, we need a boat. We came from Nibel and our boat got destroyed on the way here from a storm that we got caught in. We now have to return back to Nibel." Ori explained to Grom. "I'm aware that you two are from Nibel. Mokk told me about it when he told me about you two. So, I figured you two would want to return to Nibel." Grom explained before motioning Ori and Sein to follow him.

The two spirits followed Grom to Inkwater marsh "Inkwater marsh. How long has it been since we've been here?" Ori asked. "We haven't been here since the start of our journey here." Sein answered.

The three would come across the ancestral tree that the two spirits came across during their first night in Niwen "The ancestral tree! We forgot about it." Ori said as both spirits looked at it "You two can go absorb it. I'll wait." Grom politely told them. Both spirits went to the blue tree and placed a paw on the tree and stone as the blue light entered their bodies.