A huge shoutout to IHCFanfic and his "100 Themes of the Blind Forest" for inspiring the opening scene of this chapter!
. . .
...Sein...the egg remembered everything Sein...I...I was being cooked alive!...
Mint felt a sudden pang of unbelievable guilt. The memory as a whole was foggy, but the emotions were so strong that they felt like her own.
...Dad shouldn't have brought me back...
What?!...Ori, what do you mean?!
She softly choked out a sob.
Don't you get it?! No one would be dead, and everything would be fine, if I WASN'T BORN!
She shut her eyes, the pain was almost too much.
Ori, no!...No, please, this is is our fault...and it's ours alone. The Spirit Tree and I had no idea and...and we were irresponsible with out light...don't give up because of our mistake...I don't know how I'd live with myself...and unlike you, I can never stop living...please...if not for anyone else, keep going for me...for your father...and for yourself...
"Hey, you still with us?" said Fir.
She just looked at him, though unable to focus on him. The memory wasn't quite done; she felt the two beings in her memory pull in for a kind of hug.
...Alright...I won't give up...I won't...I'll do everything you ask...just keep pointing me in the right direction...
Mint shook herself from her trance, quickly wiping away her tears.
"The meadow is just ahead," she said. "I'm sorry I can't move any faster."
"Don't be sorry," said Fir in a gentle voice. "We won't move any faster than you need us to!"
"Thank you."
Mint walked with her arms crossed; she felt cold and prickly from all the blood loss. As a result, her entire body felt heavy and she couldn't bring herself to move with the same agility and finesse as before. Even her tail dragged lifelessly behind her instead of subconsciously wagging with its usual vitality. The blood on her fur had somewhat dried as well, leaving her looking about as distraught as she felt.
"I found it!" said Keo, having returned from scouting ahead. "It was a little difficult to see, but it's there!"
Dusk had fallen, and nothing in the meadow produced its own light like in Niwen; the fact that Keo was able to see it having never seen something like that before was almost a miracle!
"Guys, there's something else I should tell you," said Mint. "I would have told you earlier, except at the time I didn't know how to describe it."
"What is it?" asked Fir.
"When I was fighting through the thorns, up until I nearly bled out, I felt...lost...in grief."
"Lost in grief?" Keo repeated. "Why?"
"I don't know! But it felt so real..."
"Could it have been dad?" said Fir.
She stopped walking and wiped a tear from her eye.
"I don't know if it was another memory, or if I'm just going crazy from the bloodloss," said Mint.
"Trust me, if you were going crazy, you wouldn't be able to tell us you're going crazy," said Keo. "I think…"
"I dunno, what if we're all going crazy?" said Fir anxiously. "Are either of you feeling hungry, too?"
Keo reached behind his back.
"Come to think of it, yes," he said as he pulled out three peaches. "Lucky I brought some food, huh?"
"Oh my gosh!" said Fir, snatching one from his paw. "Keo, you're the best!"
Mint quietly grabbed hers as Fir gobbled his up, her expression still blank. Seeing this, Keo took a bite and waited.
"Mint? Is there something else?" asked Keo when she hadn't so much as nibbled on her meal.
She looked up at him with a solemn expression.
"Right before you two healed me," she said. "I felt him die."
The three of them stood in silence at this.
"I-I'm sorry. You two were enjoying your food, and then I just had to ruin it!"
"No! No, it's okay," said Fir. "You shouldn't go through that alone."
"Look, I don't know what you saw," Keo started. "And I can't claim to have experienced what you've just experienced."
He put a consoling paw on her shoulder.
"But what's more important is this," he said. "Are you going to be alright?"
"I don't know," said Mint, finally taking a bite. "I think so."
"Then that's good enough."
He then beckoned towards a distant clearing, illuminated by the fading sunlight.
"Now c'mon, there's a meadow to see!"
. . .
Eventually, they stood before the lake at the center of the meadow.
"Finally, I can clean up!" Mint exhaled.
"You do that," said Keo. "The two of us will see if we can find any spirit light powering this growth."
"You're not going to find anything."
"Hey, you brought us here so that we could confirm that for ourselves, right?"
Mint sighed in frustration.
"Right," she repeated back.
"I'll stay with Mint until she's finished," said Fir. "She's still recovering from all that blood loss; I'm not even sure if she should be swimming!"
Mint smiled at him briefly as Keo nodded in affirmation and walked off.
The bloodied spirit then took a deep breath and dived in, the water barely making a splash as her small form breached its surface.
She relaxed upon feeling its cool touch surround her head and ears, letting herself slowly sink into the dark blue stillness.
The dried blood would have to be rubbed off when she came out, but for now she was content to unwind having finally found some...quiet...calm...tranquility…
...silence…
...she was floating…
...floating...on a feather...an orb of spirit light gliding by her side...
...floating towards...a tree...a spirit tree!...
The tree had no leaves, and nothing but a forest fire surrounded it.
It was dying. The tree, the forest, everything!
One step more to take. she thought, though it strangely didn't feel like her own. One step more...I'm almost there-!
Suddenly, her vision was encumbered by large talons. She had been snatched out of the sky! The young guardian spirit burst awake, nearly inhaling water into her lungs! She frantically swam upwards. The talons of hate. They slammed her to the ground, then began to squeeze. Mint screamed into the water with what little breath she had left, feeling every bone in her body crack under the pressure!
The surface was just out of reach, and she could no longer swim!
Her eyes widened as she became convinced that she was about to drown, but at the last possible second, an arm shot into the water and pulled her out the rest of the way.
She surfaced, taking in the biggest gulp of air she'd ever taken in her life.
"Wow, you swam up fast! I'm surprised you were able to make it that far!" Fir chuckled. "I was ready to dive all the way down..."
Mint could pay no attention to his words; was there still water in her ears?
Her breathing was heavy. She felt her arms and ribcage, all still intact.
If none of it was broken, then what was she feeling? What was she seeing?!
It took a moment before she remembered: the thorn pit! It was the same thing as what had occurred in the thorn pit!
A vision...and it wasn't over.
She felt herself being unceremoniously tossed to the ground.
While in mid-air, she saw in full the creature responsible: a massive owl, its feathers purple and its eyes blinded by corruption!
Landing on her stomach, the breath was knocked out of her.
Unable to move, she felt the owl closing in from behind, eager to finish the job.
...Father...I'm sorry… came a very weak, internal voice. ...I couldn't do it...I'm sorry...
It-it's dad! Mint was hearing her father's final thoughts!
...Mom...it's okay…we'll be together again…it's alri-...
The sight and sound of the burning forest before her became enveloped in darkness as she felt him go unconscious.
. . .
"What happened?!" asked Keo.
"I don't know!" Fir replied. "I pulled her out of the water, and then she just doesn't respond to anything I say; I even waved a paw in front of her face! Nothing! No response!"
They looked back at her, on her paws and knees staring at the ground, entranced.
"She hasn't stopped sobbing," said Fir.
. . .
Suddenly, he woke up to rain.
There was no more fire, and the forest was regrowing.
"Ori!" Came a familiar voice. "You're awake!"
"Mom?!" said Ori, turning around to see Naru kneeling by his side. "MOM!"
He gave her his warmest hug.
"You're alive! You're...okay? No, no! This isn't real. I'm dead. I've failed and I've died for real-!"
"No, son. No! You're alive. The Gumon you saved brought me back to life!"
Ori's ears flopped and he looked back at her. His eyes began to flood with tears as he realized the truth.
"Gu-Gumo?" he stuttered. "He...he saved you?"
"Yes, Ori," said Naru. "You showed him kindness when he deserved none. He says it changed him. It was the least he could do."
"But then...how is the forest fixing itself?"
The baby spirit's ears instantly perked back up.
"Where's Sein?!"
"Who's...Sein?"
"This glowing...orb, thingy. The spirit tree's light! Where is it?!"
"Oh, that! Calm yourself. Kuro took it back, see?"
Ori spun around. He could barely see his father through the trees, but there it was: high atop his father's trunk, glowing bright and powerful once more.
"She realized the error of her ways, Ori," said Naru. "You're bones all fixed themselves as soon as she put it back!"
"She did it," he said quietly before raising his voice in triumph. "Sein did it! She's back! Yeah!"
Ori shot his fists up in victory.
"We did it!" he finished. "Together."
He turned back to Naru with a big smile on his face.
"Thank goodness, too," he said. "Kuro still had a child to take care of!"
"Oh," said Naru, her voice turning grave. "Did she?"
"Yeah, it was going to hatch any day now. I could feel it when I touched it!"
"...That's...great!...But also unfortunate…"
Ori's ears drooped yet again as he donned a grave expression himself.
"Why?"
"...Ori...the light vaporized Kuro…she's gone..."
. . .
Mint's heavy breaths turned into desperate, panicked sobs as the rest of the story flashed before her eyes.
She saw how he took in the orphaned owl.
How they raised her.
How they got her to fly.
How she and Ori irresponsibly flew to a new forest across the water.
How they were separated by the storm.
How she was injured.
...How Ori sacrificed himself to save her…
Mint saw him release Kuro's feather into the wind.
"No," she whimpered. "Don't let go."
The last image was of Mint's father embracing Seir and physically disappearing in a blinding flash of light. She snapped out of her trance with a loud sob. With tears streaming down her face, a high-pitched whine was all that started coming out of her mouth. No longer able to hold her emotions back, she collapsed into a ball and cried so hard that she was practically screaming.
Fir and Keo rushed to her side.
"Mint? Mint?! Can you hear me?" asked Keo. "Just nod if you can hear-"
"He did it for his friend!" she blurted out. "He didn't do it for us! He did it for his frieheheeend!"
The other two guardians just traded confused looks.
"What?" asked Fir.
"It all makes sense!" she bawled.
"Mint, what does that mean? What just happened?"
She held a paw up to both of them, which slowly closed to a fist except for her index finger.
"Right," said Keo. "We'll give you room. Back-up, brother."
Keo pushed his sibling backwards with him, and they both sat back to let Mint grieve.
"It must've been another vision," Keo explained after some time. "That's what it sounds like to me, anyways."
"*sniff*You're right," said Mint as she sat up.
"What did you see?" asked Fir.
She appeared to space out for a second, before looking them in the eye and saying, "Everything."