Consciousness returning, Mint could feel the deep gash in her throat mend itself shut; she was on her knees now, with someone else's arms embracing her tightly. All the pain of her injuries hit at once like a boulder falling onto her, making her gasp the moment she could breathe again! But the intake of air was cut short when the pain made her throat lock-up.
"I'm here, Mint," a familiar voice said softly. "I'm right here."
A deep-rooted warmth filled her soul. The agony dissipated and she felt herself being healed; her dislocated arm painlessly popped back into place, her bones were fixed, all cuts and bruises were mended, and even though she couldn't feel it, her blood cells were replenished within her veins! Her arms had been hanging lifelessly by her side, but now she had the strength to hug him back. She hadn't just been healed: she had been restored!
Revived.
Even the blood and mud that was matting her fur to her skin had disappeared! The young spirit then pushed herself off of her healer, frantically grabbing at her neck and arms.
"Your body and mind are still convinced that you should be injured," the voice stated as a paw came to rest on her shoulder. "Don't worry...it's totally normal..."
Calming her movements, Mint gingerly placed her paw on his. This spirit, his voice was older, yet it was so familiar: he could only be one person.
"O-Ori?...Dad?" was all she could say as her eyes followed his arm all the way to his face.
As soon as they made eye-contact, he gave her a warm smile and nodded. Quiet murmurs could then be heard all around her, and she looked behind herself to see almost every spirit in Niwen hanging and sitting upon his branches, watching them intently. Turning back to her father, she saw Seir floating just behind him in the crotch of the tree, about as small as she was when Mint pulled her away a couple days ago.
"It's you," she breathed, reaching out and touching his face. "It's really you!"
Thinking about what he'd just told her, about why her brain still thought her body should be hurting, Mint then gave Ori a sad and knowing expression as she finally found her words.
"You would know all too well," she said as her voice cracked and her face contorted. "Wouldn't you?"
Slowly, she broke into tears, and through wheezing sobs she hugged him, pressing her forehead into his chest.
"...I-I finally see you...but now all I can think about is your pain...you...you were just a baby…"
She felt him return the embrace
"I'm so sorry, dad!" she cried. "You went through so much*sniff*and-and I didn't respect that-"
"It's okay, Mint," Ori interrupted. "Really, it is! If anyone is to blame for anything, it's me."
He then held her out at arm's-length, his expression more forlorn.
"I witnessed the entire ordeal," he said. "Everything from when you left underground, right up until you died on my branch...Your suffering reminded me too much of my own. I should've known: in trying to teach you, my trauma simply became yours."
Mint started shaking her head and put a paw on his chest.
"Dad-" she started, before a frighteningly familiar voice spoke up to her right.
"Why save her?"
Mint looked over to see her one-eyed killer sitting beside her. She immediately flinched in fear.
"It's alright!" said Ori, still holding her shoulders. "He won't hurt you again. Right, Zar?"
He gave him a fierce parental look, which was odd considering how young he looked. He didn't look any older than Keo, yet was talking authoritatively to a fully-grown spirit!
"Yes father," said Zar. "But I still don't understand! She betrayed you!"
"No, Zar...I betrayed you."
"...What?..."
"I made a mistake, son. Just like my father did."
"B-but...how?" asked Mint. "And...how are you not a tree anymore?"
Ori looked over his shoulder.
"Seir?" he asked. "How much did you show her?"
"Bits and pieces," Seir replied. "The important parts, mainly."
He nodded solemnly as he turned towards Zar.
"Pay attention, son," he said. "It's time you learned as well."
Ori then took a deep breath and looked his daughter in the eye.
"First and foremost," he started. "I'm still a tree. What you're seeing is my consciousness manifested by the light into a physical, and more recognizable, form. I cannot stray too far away from Seir, or the forest will start decaying again. Secondly, the story you've all been told...is only partially correct."
More murmurs from the crowd.
"I am not the hero you think I am. The truth is: I am a very flawed person."
Louder, confused murmurs.
"In Nibel, the blindness really did happen, but not for the reason you think. A great owl named Kuro did steal away my father's light and eyes, but only because his light killed three of her four children by accident."
The younger spirits present all gasped, but from the adults...silence. Every adult spirit knew they'd used their light in a similar way, except on purpose.
"I didn't know it at the time, but as I was starving to death during the decay, I was the last spirit alive...my father had to use the last of his strength to revive me, but in bringing me back, he too gave me 'soul link': the power to come back from death. I could have never done what I did without it!...I did recover the light, named Sein, and together we did restore the three elements, but when the time came, when there was just one step more to take, I couldn't save the forest. Kuro snatched me out of the air, crushed every bone in my body, and tossed me to the floor like the pathetic pest I was to her! My soul link had been swallowed by lava, and I hadn't bothered to put a new one down..."
"...But then...how did you-?" started Zar.
"I shouldn't have!" Ori snapped.
Everyone was instantly taken aback; the spirits listening in from the surrounding branches could be heard releasing audible gasps. It was the last thing they expected him to say.
"I could have easily died for real...right there!" he went on. "She was going to rip me apart just like all of my siblings...but in those final moments, my mother came and cradled my broken body...and the sight of that changed Kuro's heart...she flew the light back to my father, and the resounding power he and Sein used to bring the forest back from the brink burned her alive...no...vaporized her whole!"
Zar was silent, almost in shock at what he was hearing.
"Kuro saved Nibel in the end...not me! In the end, a creature of the dark sacrificed herself for the greater good...not me."
"...Who...who was your mother?" asked Zar.
"Her name was Naru, and she was also a creature of the dark."
"What?! You were raised by a lightless creature?!"
"Animals without the light within them are not a bad thing, Zar! Without the dark, light would have no reason to exist."
Ori paused to let that sink in, before continuing his story.
"Kuro sacrificed herself to save her last child. She was orphaned, like I was. We were obligated to take her in."
"What do you mean, 'you were orphaned'?" asked Mint.
"My leaf was blown away by a great storm. When I was born, I was born in front of Naru, not in front of my father or any other spirit. In an effort to find me, he lit the skies ablaze with his light...and because he called out to me, Kuro's children perished in his light."
Mint could only place a paw on her forehead in disbelief.
"I have died hundreds of times, and every time I got back to my hooves, but the guilt I felt when I witnessed that memory...was unbearable…"
"That's why you felt so guilty," said Mint. "But...but it wasn't your fault!"
"I know...but at the time it truly felt like the forest was dying, and everyone: the spirits, the Gumon, and my mother were all dead...all simply because I existed."
Mint's paws came to rest as fists on her mouth. She wouldn't exist if it wasn't for him, and now here he was, telling her that, at one point, he truly wished he was never born!
"The blindness happened because my father was irresponsible with the light," said Ori. "Not because Kuro was evil."
"...The very being I thought to be the villain," Zar started. "...Was the hero this whole time?..."
Ori nodded.
"And not only that but, in a way she was the reason I came to Niwen, too. Remember when I said we took in Kuro's last child?"
Mint and Zar both nodded, the one-eyed spirit holding a look of curiosity.
"She hatched only a few days later. We named her Ku, and she was my best friend. One of her wings was deformed during development because of what my father did. For years, all she wanted to do was fly...it was in her nature after all, as an owl. We had no clue what to do about it for the longest time, until I remembered her mother's feather. It was a bang-up job, but a Gumon that I'd befriended managed to tie it to her wing."
A smile came to his face as he momentarily broke eye-contact.
"To this day, I'm still not sure how Gumo got it to work, but she could finally fly! I rode with her because I promised Naru I'd keep her safe, and I didn't think she'd have the endurance to soar like she did, but boy did we...I got to see everything again, every place I'd struggled through during the blindness, all from up high; we even saw my father and his newborn spirits down below...if only I knew…"
"Knew what?" asked Zar.
"That it'd be the last time...the last time I'd ever see home…well, my original home...not that this isn't one."
Zar furrowed his brow, before obtaining the shocked look of realization.
"No," he said. "She-?...across the water-?...she flew you all the way?"
"...All the way...I'll be honest: I'm no boat-builder, and you can clearly see I don't have wings!"
"But...you said this was only meant to be a 'more recognizable form'?"
"No, not just: what you're seeing is how I looked right before merging with Seir."
He looked behind himself again.
"I'd say I got it pretty accurate," he said to the spirit light. "What do you think? Did I miss anything?"
"You've lived in that body longer than I've seen you," she replied. "You would know better than I."
Ori just gave an amused huff as he turned his head back around.
"She hates it when I do this," he said in a lower voice.
Seir's light flickered momentarily, suggesting that was her version of an eye-roll.
"Only because it means I need to pick up most of the slack!" she said.
"You've done it before?" asked Mint.
"Only once," Ori replied, his expression aloof. "When I said goodbye to Ku."
Any amusement Mint was feeling quickly faded when he said that: becoming a tree must have meant having to outlive his companion.
"I got to say goodbye to all of them, and for that I am forever grateful," he went on. "But only for Ku did I do this; it was only fitting, as none of this would've happened if it wasn't for her."
He took a brief moment of silence as he remembered their final moment together. Then he raised a finger, wordlessly indicating that he was ready to move on with his story.
"The Spirit Willow that used to preside over this land," he said. "You are all aware of what happened when she died of old age?"
"Yes, father," said Zar. "She...Seir...broke into exactly five pieces...wisps...and each was scattered throughout the forest."
"Indeed, but where the story goes wrong is...well, I didn't gather the wisps to save the forest...I gathered them to save Ku."
As disgruntled murmurs erupted from the crowd, the demeanor of both Mint and Zar became visibly dejected.
"Undoubtedly, that must be hard to hear-"
"Huh, yeah!" said Zar with mild anger. "Undoubtedly."
Ori sensed his indignance, replying accordingly.
"Believers are in groups, Zar," he started. "But seekers are alone...they walk the uncomfortable path in order to find the truth."
He shifted his weight in his sitting position to turn more towards the one-eyed spirit.
"So tell me, son...are you content to believe the same story, told hundreds of times removed from an observer of my deeds? Or do you seek the true story, told from the horse's mouth?"
Zar sighed in frustration and crossed his arms.
"I'm a seeker, father," he said a moment later. "Or else I wouldn't still be sitting here."
Ori just smiled and nodded, content with that answer.
"I collected all five wisps, with the help of some other lightless creatures," he continued. "Namely the moki and a grand toad named Kwolok, the latter of which gave his life to get me one in particular."
His expression became grave, as though unsure of whether to say what he was about to say.
"A foul presence, a monster of the decay, corrupted his mind and made him swallow it," he said. "To get to it...I was forced to kill him."
Again, his expression became distant as he grabbed his mouth with a paw.
"I wish there had been another way," was all he said after some time.
The more his father spoke, the more Zar understood just how much any life mattered to him, whether it be of the light or not. Mint however, was coming to a realization of her own: now was her time to confirm something she had been wondering ever since she'd witnessed Ori's transformation in memory.
"Dad?" she started. "Did you ever care about...us?"
"...No…"
She wasn't sure if she wanted to feel relieved or heartbroken.
"I warned you it might hurt," he said before continuing the story. "I did all of it for Ku...all of it. Again, I gathered the wisps to save her life. A deformed owl had nearly killed her in front of me, and I was told that bringing all five together would be enough to fully heal her!"
"Whoa, wait," said Zar. "Who was this, 'deformed owl'?"
Another pause from Ori.
"They called her, 'Shriek'," he started. "Because her scream would tear into your very soul...particularly mine."
He reached up and felt his projected antennae, the body-part of spirit guardians that could feel the auras of other creatures.
"Her aura emanated pain...so much so that her very presence could bring you to tears if she was around long enough. She nearly killed Ku the first time she attacked us; I'd finally reunited with my friend after being separated by the storm, and honestly, my plan from the beginning was to regroup with her and then leave. Just go back home and forget any of this had ever happened…but it wasn't meant to be...we were never gunna make it out of the Silent Woods without Shriek noticing...I encountered her a few more times on my journey, the last time being after I'd pieced Seir back together and brought her to the Spirit Willow. I'd just been told by the ghost of the old tree that...that I'd have to take her place...and..."
"And as I was floating back to him, Shriek snatched me away," Seir finished.
"Of course she struck then, you know? Of course she would!...Of course she would make an already painful process even more painful!...I don't know how I managed to fight her, with all the emotions...both from her aura and from me having to come to terms with never going home, but...there was no other way...no other way to save Ku's life…at first, I didn't understand why the darkness had consumed her in the way it had...why she hated Ku so much...but then I found out from Baur why...it was because she was an owl...a non-deformed owl..."
"...Baur?" said Mint. "As in-?"
"The Baur," Ori answered. "The great bear that Baur's Reach is named after? Yeah, I met him…"
Ori shifted his weight again with emotional discomfort.
"He told me...that Shriek was born to dead parents," he started. "And she was born deformed, an 'ugly duckling'. The other owls rejected her, and she grew up alone, unloved...hated...through no fault of her own. Just as I fought the forces of decay, she fought the forces of light. Her story almost paralleled mine, in that, through no fault of my own, I became helpless to save my mother from starvation and was thrust into a life of repeated deaths. Coming to Niwen was just more of the same: being helpless to protect my adopted sister, even though I'd promised Naru I would, and again dying over, and over, and over again in order to save her...I grew irritable, yelling at moki and other creatures in rage even though they did nothing to deserve my harsh words...Outwardly, our battle was the ultimate light versus the ultimate dark..."
For the first time since appearing, he shed a tear.
"...but on the inside...we were exactly the same...we were both...broken people...I hated having to kill her…"
He wiped his tears away.
"A real hero would've found a way to heal her," he lamented. "But how could I have ever done that...when I'd never really healed myself?"
When he finished, no one spoke. There were no other words to describe such a tragedy. The stillness from all spirits was oddly comforting though, as Ori again readjusted his posture.
"The reason I grew here, the reason I came here, was all thanks to creatures of the dark," he said, breaking the silence. "Kuro, Naru, Gumo, Ku, they were all lightless...and they're the reason we're here today. We need each other, Zar!"
"But then...what is our purpose, father?" Zar asked. "If it's not to protect you from them?"
Mint looked at her Elder in astonishment.
"That's the same question I've had this whole time!" she said. "Dad? Are we...are we aliens?"
"Huh?" said Zar. "Where did that come fro-?"
"It was something discussed with Motay's son not too long ago," Ori interrupted. "And...it's not entirely untrue."
Zar put his paws up to his temples.
"I have so many questions," was all he could say.
"Undoubtedly," Ori replied.
"Who...is Motay?"
"A chameleon I met shortly after arriving in Niwen. I'm still not sure how, but he could see and record everything I ever did since arriving."
Zar gained a quizzical look, while Ori just turned to Mint.
"Did his son ever tell you-?"
"No," said Mint, shaking her head.
Ori just gave a mildly frustrated snap of his fingers.
"Right, I remember," he said. "Trade secret, was it? That's what he said, right?"
Mint nodded.
"Yeah," said her father. "See? Not even I have all the answers, ok?"
"...Well, can you at least answer the whole...aliens thing?" Zar repeated, gesturing to Mint.
Ori just looked down at his own tree bark and started tracing shapes on it with a finger, deep in thought as to how to answer that question.
"The truth is...more complicated than that," he said finally. "But...I'll start by telling you...that Motay couldn't see everything."
. . .
In a flash of light, a floating ball of orange glow appeared on a hill of grass and flowers. Simultaneously, a lone guardian spirit fell out of the air next to her, landing on his paws and knees.
"Uhh...Seir?" said Ori. "Where are we?"
"In a meadow far beyond Niwen," Seir replied. "A place where nature grows on its own, without any spirit light."
"What?!"
"Yes, even after decades of decay, the planet will still figure out what to do on its own."
"Then...what's the point? Why do you and I exist?"
"Because, Ori, our purpose is far beyond preventing and fixing decay. Long ago, an intelligent animal species evolved on this world and nearly consumed it whole."
"Consumed? How do you mean?"
"They created weapons...weapons far more powerful than anything you could ever wield yourself...weapons capable of destruction beyond your comprehension...destruction worse than any decay you have ever witnessed!"
"...And...they used them...on each other?..."
"Yes, and even if they hadn't, they would have stripped this world of everything it had to offer until there was nothing left...until they starved themselves to extinction, leaving behind a barren world."
An air of sadness hung in Seir's voice when she said that, despair so extreme that Ori's antennae felt drowned in it. He knew in that moment that Seir had likely witnessed it herself at some point, being the immortal being that she was. He thought it best to not ask for details.
"When left to its own devices," she continued. "Nature grows, yes, but it grows unbalanced. We intervened only after the last of their kind had killed themselves off, saving the planet and beginning a new chapter in its life."
Ori looked up at the glowing, orange orb of light.
"Something you may have to do with Niwen, once we return," she finished.
"Me?" asked Ori.
"The Spirit Willow may be too old to carry my light, Ori, but if it comes to that, more will be explained. For now, we must return."
. . .
"The light is not native to this world," said Ori. "But we are. This is our home!"
He got to his knees and reached forward, placing a paw on both of their shoulders.
"The first spirit guardians were made from the light itself, since there were no trees," Ori explained. "They gave us the legs of deer, the paws and ears of bunnies, and the head and tail of wildcats. Animals that represented peace and warmth, we were made in their image."
Pulling his paws away, he noticed the look of realization and acceptance on Zar's face, and how it contrasted with Mint's continued look of sadness and confusion.
"How come you never said anything to us, dad?" Mint asked finally, meeting her father's eyes. "Why did you never tell us about any of this?"
Ori took in a long and arduous breath.
"Well, to be honest, I wasn't entirely present," he started. "Some years after I became a Spirit Tree, I discovered something: a kind of...oneness...with the universe. Any and all attachment I had with the world, past, present, and future, all just...fell away, like it never mattered."
Both Mint and Zar held confused looks.
"It's not that any of you didn't matter," Ori explained. "It's just...it's hard to put into words...imagine everything that exists, even down to the very thoughts in your head, was the same thing the entire time."
"What thing?" asked Zar.
"I don't know...some kind of inexplicable energy...an energy upon which things are allowed to exist, the substratum of the universe...existence itself...my true self...our true selves...for a time, I was one with it...come to think of it, I still am."
"Like, you were in some kind of trance?" asked Mint.
"...Almost…I learned something during that time: all my pain, all of my emotional turmoil, I was doing it to myself..."
"What do you mean?"
"Pain is a very normal thing to feel; it's your body's way of telling you that something's wrong, but suffering...is a choice. I was too young and naive to understand it during the blindness, and when I came to Niwen, but the whole time, the choice to feel happy, or sad, or angry...was always mine. Nothing outside of me was making me feel those emotions. I was doing it to myself!"
He paused to let that sink in.
"I thought to myself, I just wanted to be happy, but I never asked why," he went on. "When I became one with the substratum, what I realized was that I was simply in tune with my true nature...our true nature...joy. Our true nature is joy. It makes sense because any time you deviate from that feeling, don't you just wanna go back?"
Zar and Mint both nodded.
"Why go back if it isn't your true nature?" Ori finished with a smile. "So...I guess you could call it a trance...who would want to leave?"
"What shook you from it?" asked Mint.
"Well Mint, you did...when you pulled Seir away…"
Mint gasped at the realization.
"Did...did I hurt you?" she asked.
"No," Ori replied. "I was just a little shook, is all. But it did bring me back to the present, and what I woke up to was…"
Another pause. Another deep breath.
"...was, concerning, to say the least…although firstly, I have to mention how talented my children are: you all can regenerate wounds, double-jump, dash, bash, grapple, and use at least one weapon all before you're even six months old! Not even the spirits of Nibel before my time were that adept...I couldn't be more proud! But secondly, and more importantly, is what you were using your talents for: murdering the very creatures you all were meant to protect; living things that were never your enemy! That's why my light appeared faded to you yesterday."
Zar momentarily broke eye-contact in guilt as Ori shifted his weight again.
"I've blamed myself for many things, some of which you now understand was out of my control, but this time, I truly am to blame. Thousands of innocent lives could have been saved if I had just been present. I would've taught you, Zar, you and all the others!"
He stood up and addressed the entire gathering.
"I would've taught all of you!...That light and dark are meant to exist together, in harmony. Be proud of yourselves, but not so proud that others aren't meant to exist in Niwen!"
His voice softened.
"It was in my nature to forgive, be kind, and not want to kill, but I should have never assumed you would all be the same! Now the Moki, the shard merchants, the Gorlek, the chameleons, and all of the other forest's inhabitants fear us!...And rightfully so! In our paws is the most awesome power in the universe, and they all fear it because it can burn innocents! It has in the past...in my time...and now it's happening again because I never told you why...why you should be responsible with it!...Are we the most superior beings on the planet? Yes...but our purpose was never to dominate! Far from it...we are meant to guard the balance, not ourselves!"
He then looked down at himself, both at his bark and his projected paws.
"If only I knew my true importance in it all, I'd have forgiven my father long ago. Because of his mistake, because of his ignorance, and how he went about trying to make up for it afterwards, I couldn't even bring myself to be around him! Despite the fact that I'd saved the forest, just his presence only reminded me of our power to destroy life, how dangerous we can be...and it made me sick...but, upon becoming a Spirit Tree myself, I was able to communicate with my father from all the way across the sea...it was then that we finally made up our differences...and when he told me he loved me, I could finally say the same thing back."
Finally, he looked at Mint.
"And that wasn't all...he told me that, other than the guilt of indirectly causing my first death, there was another reason he saved me...a reason why he tried to call out to me so directly."
He placed both paws on Mint's shoulders.
"He saw something in me, Mint," he continued. "And it's the same thing I see in you."
Mint's eyes widened, realizing what he was going to say before he even said it.
"You are destined to be the next Spirit Willow," said Ori.
"Wha-?! I-I...me?!...Why?"
"Because, Mint: you were curious, steadfast, and most importantly you could sympathize. You listened to a creature of the dark, and through her you saw that something was wrong when no one else could. Then you took a risk, sought the truth, and nothing could stop you! These were qualities that my father saw in me, and why he so desperately wanted me to know who I was!"
He then smiled at both her and Zar.
"I suppose then," he started. "That all mistakes are just destiny at work!"
Zar could only sheepishly place a paw on his neck.
"I...I killed...a Spirit Willow?" he said nervously.
"You couldn't have known," said Ori. "Again, it's more my fault than any of yours."
Zar and Mint met each other's eyes, and for a moment neither of them could say anything. She could see it in his singular eye: the true weight of all his sins were finally crashing down upon him, all at once!
"Zar-" Mint started.
"I outcast you," he interrupted, briefly looking back at Ori. "And killed so many innocents in your name!"
He then looked at the bark under himself, refusing to look either spirit in the eye.
"I killed both you and the one you love," he said to Mint. "I could say I'm sorry, but...but I don't deserve your forgiveness!"
He then stood up to leave, but then stopped in his tracks upon turning around, for another Elder had landed on the branch behind them.
"Issen?!" said Zar.
"You killed hundreds...and made every creature in Niwen hate us," she said coldly. "All behind my back…"
"Wait, you-?" Mint started.
"No, Mint. I and the other Elders were never in on it. It was only ever Zar."
The one-eyed spirit, now in the middle of it all, had never looked or felt so guilty in his life.
"...Why?..." asked Issen, shedding a tear.
Zar dropped to his knees, practically shaking with emotion.
"...I messed up, okay?" he started. "I just wanted to lead like you...It wasn't fair that you were our leader just because you were born first and I second...and…"
He hadn't cried in a long time, partly because he was afraid of what his empty eye-socket would do if he did, but now not even that fear could hold him back. He let out a sob as tears came out of one eye, and soaked the leaf covering the other until it couldn't absorb any more.
"...and when I lost my eye to those howlers...and when I heard Ori's story for the first time all those years ago...you can't blame me for coming to the conclusion I came to…"
Issen came over and held his head in her paws as tears even began to leak from his nose.
"Please...please, you can't blame me-"
"No one blames you, Zar," said Ori. "And no one should ever have to go through what you went through...especially as a mere child...believe me, I would know."
Zar looked behind him at his father, head still pressed onto Issen's stomach.
"But I'm living proof that you can rise above!" he continued, physically standing and approaching him. "You are greater than your experiences, and you are more than just some crazed zealot! You can be better, Zar."
He reached out and placed a projected paw on his son's back.
"If anyone deserves a shot at redemption, it's you."
Zar reached over and placed his own paw atop Ori's, feeling his warmth, his forgiveness.
"You were never very good at apologizing," said Issen. "But I can also tell that you mean to. You are still an Elder...and just because you're second-born doesn't mean the spirits don't look up to you!"
The one-eyed spirit remained silent, and Mint knew exactly why. Without a word, she shuffled over to Zar and hugged him tightly.
"I forgive you," she said softly. "Fir isn't gone because of you...he's gone because our circumstances were just the worst that they could possibly be...so I forgive you..."
"I...I'm sorry!" Zar sobbed.
"...It's okay..."
A long silence passed as he let out all his emotions, until finally, a lone spirit on a nearby branch spoke up.
"Hey! If we could all fit on that branch, we'd hug you too!" shouted Keo.
"Agreed!" said another spirit. "We still respect you, brother!"
A cacophony of supportive murmurs from the crowd grew until every spirit around them was clapping, cheering for their Elder, helping him understand that he could turn a new leaf, and that they were all there for him.
For their eldest brother.
"I'm glad we're all in accordance!" Ori said softly as the cheering died down. "You wouldn't be a child of mine if you didn't have the capacity to improve!...Though, Mint? There is one more thing to mention."
"What?" she asked.
"When you absorbed Seir's light, you were inspirited."
"...What does that mean?"
"It means that in that moment, you not only gained my powers, but you also gained a power that only future Spirit Trees can wield."
He didn't have to say it, for Mint already knew exactly what he was talking about. There was no way to guarantee the continuation of their species without it!
"Face me," he said. "And hold out your paw."
All eyes once more fell onto the two of them. Mint stood and faced her kneeling father as he'd asked, before holding out her paw and spreading her fingers. The look on her face grew skeptical. She was unsure if she really could do it, but Ori held his own arms out in front of him, nodding encouragingly.
"Take a deep breath, and focus," he instructed. "Focus on where you want it to be. For now, just try putting it down right in-between the two of us."
Mint nodded and breathed in, concentrating on the spot on the branch just in front of her. At first, nothing happened. She knew what it was supposed to look like: a heatless, but reassuring blue flame, like a campfire, but nothing at all was appearing.
"Now breathe out to place it," Ori finished. "Gently."
Slowly, the young spirit exhaled, and the flame appeared before her. Though, when it did, everyone couldn't help but notice something...unique...about it.
"Pink," Ori said flatly before grinning. "It suits you."
Mint looked at her palm, then back at Ori.
"I-I could do it the whole time?" she asked.
Her father simply smiled and nodded.
"And yet, you never needed to," he told her. "You should be very proud of yourself."
Mint remained quiet as the implications of this revelation slowly crept into her mind.
"Seir tells me that normally, there'd be a grand and joyous celebration whenever it was announced who would be the next Spirit Tree," said Ori. "Unfortunately, such an event could never happen for me, since more importance was placed on rebuilding our society in Nibel than my coronation...not to mention that my father no doubt thought that I had plenty to worry about already, both with raising Ku and trying to recover from all the mental trauma. Though, for you, I think festivities can certainly be arranged!"
"Does...does this mean I have to replace you?" Mint asked tentatively.
"No, no! I've still got a few centuries left in me!" Ori chuckled. "The time will come when I'll need an heir, but that is not today...You must find your own light to merge with, Mint."
"In...in the Dark Forest?...and right now?!"
"It could be in the Dark Forest, or in someplace entirely unknown, and no, it doesn't need to happen right now, but knowing what I've told you, I believe you will understand when the time is right."
Mint's eyes welled-up with tears. She wasn't sure if it was because her life would never be the same, because she might not ever see her father's physical form ever again after this, or even because she still wasn't sure if Fir could ever come back, but all she knew was that her emotions just needed to go somewhere. She felt willed to do something, and she knew exactly what: without another word, the young spirit walked through the pink, heatless flames, knelt down, and gave her father's projection one last hug, warm and tight.
"You're still a hero to me, dad," said Mint. "You may not have saved everyone, but you still managed to save the forest and your family...and us...thank you…"
She felt him hug back as tears of joy began to trickle down his cheek.
"I missed you, dad," she said. "I know that doesn't really make sense, since I've never been in contact with you before, but...I missed you."
"Don't you worry," said Ori. "This time, for my new family, I won't be going anywhere. I'm not certain what the future holds for you...but if there's one thing I know...it's that I love you, Mint...with all my heart."
Then the two of them nuzzled each other, until finally Mint could bring herself to wipe a few tears away.
"...I love you too, dad," she said.
. . .
A/N: I should have clarified earlier on that Zar belongs to seasongray on deviantart, and I was using omegapainter's drawing of him for inspiration on my own version of his personality; the leaf eyepatch in omegapainter's version drove a visual narrative for me that I wanted to use for a kind of villain-redemption story arc.
I've been trying to connect with seasongray, but the last time he used deviantart was way back in 2016; he also didn't have any other contact info listed on his profile, so sending him a note and waiting is the best I can do, unfortunately.
In any case, I hope you all still enjoyed the chapter, and I hope that it's understood that Zar really isn't THAT big of a jerk: he was simply ignorant of the facts, doing what he thought was best for his father, the forest, and his own kind! ;)