The sun shone upon the land once again and the power of the spirit tree rose Ori back to life. "I'm alive," he said. "I'm alive!" He gave himself a few more seconds to let everything set in before finding himself sprinting through the land.
He ran through the Sunken Glades, dropping beyond the floorboards that lay between the ground, and hopping from the logs which lay upon the poisoned water, finally making it to a cave underground. "That was amazing!" Ori looked at his hands and wore a big grin on his face, unable to believe his sudden boost of energy. "I don't think I've ever run that fast in my life. Wait, did I stretch first? OH, OH GOD!" A sharp pain went into Ori's leg, releasing from him a cry of agony. It took a few minutes, which felt like an eternity of torture, but eventually, the pain left.
"Alright," he said. "I think it's gone." CRACK! Ori looked behind himself to see a rammer surrounded by pieces of split stone and making a beeline for him.
"I'm comin' for that bootay, monkay!" he said.
"Oh, crap!" Ori ducked for cover when the charging beast missed him and hit the stone next to him.
"Oh, uh, I-I meant to do tha-" Instantly, he was crushed by the stone above him that was suspended by the broken bolder.
"Oooh…!" Ori recoiled at his enemy's sudden death. He stepped over his corpse with grossed out caution and went about his exploration.
He came across this huge log - possibly the trunk of a tree - going upwards. He walked up the log and discovered a small field of grass at the end. In it was this tiny little sphere of light… just sitting there. Ori couldn't take his eyes off it and had to hold it in his own hands. He reached towards it, growing closer to holding beauty within his palm, when suddenly...
"Finally!" it screamed out.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" Ori tumbled onto his back.
"My name's Sein, no time to explain, gotta save the forest before our efforts are in vain."
"Listen," Ori said. "That's some next-level poetry and all, but I don't know what you're talking about- oh, we gotta save Nibel, don't we?"
"Shut your mouth, now, before the stompers find us out." One by one, three stompers dropped from the trees, surrounding Ori and Sein. Speak of the devil...
"Oh, God!" Ori said. "What are those frogs doing here and why are they so ripped?" Sein zipped in front of him.
"Fear no pain, for I can light them ablaze."
"Oh, you're gonna set me on fire?" scoffed one of the stompers. "I'd like to see you try. I bet you can't even light a bonfire, you Navi looking mother-OH!" Sein bombarded the gorilla-looking amphibian with Spirit Flames left and right. By the end of the flurry, the stomper lay on the ground with his belly up like a fish. The other two didn't want to share his fate and made a run for it. When they were gone, Sein turned towards Ori, not that the latter could tell since he was just a ball.
"Thanks for all that," Ori said. "Who are you again?"
"Sein is the name of mine, I am the Spirit Tree's light and eyes." Ori felt compelled to speak like Sein, and so he tried.
"I'm Ori… seniori?" Seriously?
"Yes, whatever. Now, follow me, we've no free time."
"Hold on. Where are we going?"
"To the Spirit Tree! I'll tell you why when I need to."
To get to the Spirit Tree, Ori and Sein had to make it through the Spirit Caverns, where the light was the only thing preserving the caverns' beauty. Other than that, the place was lifeless (but of course, it was lifeless, the whole forest of Nibel was lifeless).
The lights within the Spirit Tree still glowed faintly, but he himself had mold all over his trunk. Since the second coming of Jesus that occurred when Ori still lived with Naru, he couldn't help but look upon him with slight terror. He turned his direction to the grass, which was pretty green for a dead forest. No matter how beautiful the land was despite the lack of life, he still had this feeling of unease. It didn't help that he would have to hear the Spirit Tree's voice.
"Ori," said the Spirit Tree, whose voice only reinforced Ori's uneasy feeling. It all came back to him like a Vietnam flashback. The voice; the second coming of Jesus; armageddon; run; hide. It was all there.
"Ori," Sein said. "Are you well?" Now Ori had to scream it to the heavens.
"IT'S YOU! YOU'RE HIM!"
"Woah, Ori, take it slow."
"THE VOICE, THE SECOND COMING OF JESUS, THE ARMAGEDDON, THE RUN, THE HIDE! YOU'RE THE TREE! YOU'RE THAT TREE!"
"Ori, calm yourself." said the Spirit Tree. He did not take delight in seeing his child panic.
"Alright, alright…" Ori said. His breathing began to slow down gradually, and within minutes, he was back to his normal self.
"Now that you are calm again," said the Spirit Tree, "I can now tell you the tale of how Nibe-" He was unlucky enough to be interrupted by Sein.
"Now this is a story all about how/your life got flipped turned upside down/and I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there/we'll tell you how the forest of Nibel freaking died."
…
"Um, yes, what he said." This was awkward.
"How the forest of Nibel died…" Ori needed to know what happened. It couldn't have been any Armageddon, for everyone was still alive. If anybody had the answer, it was Sein and the Spirit Tree. "Alright," he decided. "let's hear it!"
