Ori and the Spirits Within: Revitalized

Chapter 11: False Light

The night passed into the morning, a dim sun brightening up a mostly cloudy sky over Nibel. It was still rather warm for the morning, but a hint of chilly air blew throughout the land. The two siblings, Ori and Ku, had slept peacefully through the night in their warm embraces. To Ori, it felt nice to have Ku by his side through the night, her feathers enveloping his body. But to Ku, sleeping with her beloved brother in their old home, she felt like she had never slept better.

It wasn't long until the owl awakened to the new day, glancing out of the cave to see the sunlight peeking inside. Giving a quiet yawn, Ku looked down at her brother sleeping beside her, his body gently curled up. She smiled at him, the light she'd always have at her side, and gently pet his head with her wing. He made a small mumbling noise, but his sleep lingered on. Ku let out a quiet laugh before deciding to hop out of their nest and find something nice to eat...

Her diet was unlike the rest of her family's, though she ate a few things similar to what they did. She usually avoided fruits like apples and oranges, as their tastes were a bit too powerful for her taste buds. Her preferred meals consisted of assortments of small critters and insects, which her family was more than willing to provide and fetch every now and again. However, she knew that a few bugs she enjoyed eating had a habit of creeping Ori out.

Ku went out into the forest, noticed a fallen tree stump, and looked inside to find some worms and beetles for her. She clawed inside and got her fill of bugs for breakfast before trotting back home, her brother still sleeping inside their comfy nest. Now that she was more awake, she did notice that there were some bugs in the nest as well. It was mostly tiny ants, which she decided to crush without a thought, but she did find a small spider by the table. She wasn't an expert on insects, but Naru did tell her about which spiders were dangerous and which ones weren't, and she could tell that this one wasn't.

And there was another thing she knew: Ori was afraid of some crawly bugs, and spiders were very high on that list...

...

Well, he's got to get up sooner or later...

Ku leaned forward and held her wing out to the spider, hoping that it would crawl up it. Thankfully, her wish was granted as the dark gray arachnid skittered up the edge of her purple wing. She carefully kept her wing still to not startle the critter as she snuck over to the drowsy Ori, still sound asleep. Then, with a rather large grin, she lowered her wing onto the spirit's shoulder and watched the spider crawl down towards the spirit.

It scuttled around Ori's body for a good minute before the sensations were enough to arouse the sleeping spirit from his slumber. With a quiet moan, the spirit opened his eyes to the outside world... and the first thing he noticed was a somewhat large spider near his wrist, its legs trilling across his fur.

...

He panicked...

"G-GAH!! GYAA!" Ori squealed and swatted at the arachnid with his other hand, sending it flying into a nearby wall. He kept moving his hands over his whole body, trying to squash any other insects that dared to touch him. His breathing had definitely accelerated as he tried to find more runts, but there weren't any other disturbances. It didn't take him long to hear a muffled laughter from nearby, and he turned to see the young owl in the distance, holding her beak shut with her wings. It didn't take Ori long to put the pieces together...

"K-Kuuuuuu!" he whined at the giggly owl, obviously annoyed at the girl's antics.

"Heehee! Sorry, sorry!" Ku apologized before sitting down next to him and leaning her head against his. "Your reaction was priceless, though..."

"Rrrg...!" he growled at the cheery owl, quickly lunging over and giving her a flick on the center of her forehead. "Wh-What was that for, exactly?"

"To get you up," she replied with a cheeky grin.