A/N: Contains spoilers for Blind Forest and Will of the Wisps, inclusive of the ending and one sidequest in the second Ori game.
Chapter 1: Marsh, Pt. 1
Chance.
The first time that Lupo met the unusual wanderer, it had entirely been due to chance.
It was only in hindsight, when Lupo later decided to map out the full chain of events that had transpired that fateful night, did he realize that the stars must have aligned for things to turn out the way that they did.
Why, by all accounts, he shouldn't even have been in Inkwater that day in the first place! And quite ironically, the sole reason that Lupo had trekked all the way west to the marshlands from his humble abode within the Glades could be attributed to one nagging avian who went by Tokk.
Though Tokk had a reputation as a wanderer, the grumpy bird never really had much of a purpose or real reason for his travels whenever he left the sanctuary of the glades. It tended to be mostly on impulse for him, as compared to Lupo, who always had a deliberate reason for doing so when he left the Wellspring Glades.
Rather amusingly, that was also why the underlying reason behind Tokk trying to make his way over to Inkwater Marsh was so bizarre this time round. Unlike the norm for the wandering avian, on this specific occasion he actually did have a purpose for heading out, and it was the same reason that he'd tried to secure Lupo's services for the task ahead.
The resident wanderlust had managed to secure himself a keystone relic and wanted to test its legitimacy by trying to see if it could fit the notches of a Spirit Gate. Tokk had all but peer pressured Lupo to come along, persistently refuting with his trademark "bah" to anything Lupo said. He couldn't so much as get a word in edgewise, eventually giving up and resigning himself to his fate.
Winning this war of words was futile. It was a battle of attrition that Lupo knew he couldn't win. It just was not worth the effort to argue.
All that said, he did muster up one final protest, asking why Tokk couldn't have ventured down to Inkwater on his own, and Tokk's mildly sardonic response did get him thinking.
"Bah! Spare me the prattling! You know this place better than anyone else, Lupo! Besides, don't you want to head out of the Wellspring Glades and go get some fresh air yourself?"
Despite the derisive tone, Lupo couldn't deny the smidge of truth behind Tokk's nonchalant accusation. While the Wellspring Glades was considered by many of the settlers within to be a safe paradise as compared to the hostile wilderness, it was out here—venturing out into the expense of Niwen—where Lupo felt truly alive.
And this was why despite being pressured, Lupo didn't let being pushed into a trip which he hadn't asked for damper his spirit all too much. Besides, if Tokk was going to drag him along, he might as well make the most of the impromptu trek to the marsh by surveying the area along the way so he could make some final touch-ups on his map charts.
The journey overall was uneventful, but there was an unforeseen consequence with Lupo's plan that he did not foresee. The duo had left for Inkwater relatively late, and thus by the time they finally trekked their way past the Wellspring watermill and arrived at their destination, the last rays of sunlight had all but vanished, the hues of the sky shifting from a light crimson to twilight as the sun disappeared from beyond the horizon.
After leading Tokk to the general area of Inkwater that was purported to hold another keystone relic, the two then went their separate ways.
…choosing to phrase that events had played out this way was nicer than the actual reality — which was that Tokk had pretty much ditched him as soon as he arrived at his destination.
Not that Lupo really minded of course, as he wasn't quite as interested to delve into the rabbit hole that was the culture and history behind their land as Tokk was, but nevertheless it still irked the cartographer.
Only a smidge, though.
Sure, it would give him more reassurance to have company along with him, but Lupo had made enough trips on his own personage to be comfortable with walking around Niwen by his lonesome.
At least, Lupo thought to himself, I can now perform those Inkwater quality checks in peace.
While he would have preferred for the sun to still be up, he could still work with the moon, using the dim white glow that illuminated the night sky for visibility.
And then, almost as if fate could read his mind, that little reprieve was summarily robbed from him.
The intensity of the wind picking up from a breeze into a strong gale was the only warning he got before it started to rain.
Very torrentially.
Lupo squealed in panic when he felt the first drops of rain dripping onto his horns, hastily shoving the map in his hands into his clothes and wasting no time in darting for cover.
The precipitation soon increased in intensity until it became a torrential downpour, and Lupo bit back a curse as he felt himself getting soaked from both the rain above and the rapidly forming puddles beneath. With an undignified shriek, he ran through the rain as the raindrops pelted him with greater vigor, the movement of his strides creating bigger splashes of water onto his legs from the ever-accumulating puddles as he tried in vain to find shelter.
Lupo couldn't even seek solace by hiding under a tree or something — with the strong crosswinds and this much rain pouring down on him, the normally leaf-dense canopy of the trees in the marshlands were essentially useless in shielding him from a good portion of the horrendous weather.
Just as Lupo was about to cut his losses and make a lengthy sprint in the general direction of Kwolok's Hollow, his eyes spied salvation, in the form of an outcropping that lay almost invisible under all the rain.
Darting in and finding refuge at last, Lupo heaved a huge sigh of relief, panting out of exertion as he collapsed onto the ground. Observing his surroundings, he could see that his temporary haunt was small and cramped, but given the alternative of staying out in the open, that wasn't really a concern.
He certainly wasn't going to complain about this reprieve after the maelstrom of misfortune, lest this bout of slight fortune ended up being reversed later. The cavern was spacious enough to provide him shelter from the storm until the bad weather subsided, even if the bellowing winds still sprayed in some rainwater from time to time.
Still, it didn't take all too long for the sensation of relief to slowly give way to a sense of despair. Now that he'd found shelter and his focus was less on avoiding getting drenched, Lupo couldn't help but feel his mood dampen. He breathed in the musky air, the tangy scent of rainwater still lingering as he reached for the now drenched map of Inkwater that he'd hastily shoved under his clothes.
His face fell the very moment he felt that the texture of the map between his fingertips was moist. Even before he pulled it out, he already knew what fate had befallen his maps.
What dastardly bad luck! As they were still a work-in-progress and not final, he hadn't applied the waxy waterproof sealant to the current batch with him yet. Soggy and smudged, he could only hope that the waterlogged maps could be salvaged, else he'd have to go through the effort of recopying everything onto a fresh new parchment.
So much for his original plan of making notes, eh?
The maps he had on hand were pretty much ruined, and any additional notes that he could have made on them before everything got sidetracked was now of the lowest priority given the state of the originals.
All in all, it had been a horrible night, through and through. Not only was the whole expedition a complete waste of time as there was no chance for him to possibly capitalize on his trip down to Inkwater Marsh with such extreme weather, but he was also stranded out here in the middle of a storm and in a worse position than before.
Lupo hoped Tokk was happy, wherever he was. It was his fault that he was even dragged out here in this wilderness. He could have been safe and dry back in the glades, but nooooooo.
A loud crack of thunder snapped Lupo out of his moody ruminations, the howling winds billowing outside only serving to drive the point home — like it or not, he was stuck here, with numerous stalks of fungi and a few ferns his only company for the foreseeable future.
"Just my luck," Lupo lamented as he got to his feet, "I should never have agreed to come here."
Little did he know that he would soon take those words back, for it would be during the long and arduous process of drying his soaked map parchments that Lupo would first meet the unusual visitor.
As the night raged on, he had decided that there was no point in bemoaning his fate. Over an indeterminate period of time, the downpour slowly subsided to more manageable levels, and eventually Lupo began to pass the time by laying out some of his maps against the caps of the mushrooms, hoping that by the time the dreadful storm diminished, he could get a headstart on drying the soaked pieces of papers that were once legible maps.
The sounds of encroaching steps abruptly broke that mundane rhythm.
Lupo whipped his head around to the entrance of his makeshift cave, thinking that he must have been mistaken until his ears picked up the unmistaken sound of a twig being broken.
No, he wasn't hearing things. There truly was someone else out there in the marsh.
Immediately Lupo was on guard, concerned that the one responsible for the noise outside was one of the many monsters which prowled the land. It was highly unlikely to be Tokk, as he'd hear one of his gruff vocalizations by now if it was. The moki were just as unlikely, as Lupo was sure he'd have heard them make their distinctly shrill cry should one of them be stranded out here alongside him.
That didn't leave many options left. Well, the pleasant ones, anyway.
Realizing just how exposed he was with there being only one exit, Lupo wasted no time and hastily hid his body behind a large mushroom.
I'm just a simple mapmaker… just leave me in peace!
Maybe with any luck, whoever it was would go away and leave him be.
Nervously fidgeting as the suspense ate away at him, Lupo decided to chance a peek, eyeing the mouth of the cavern with trepidation. Much to his surprise, he could make out a dim white glow coming from outside.
That wasn't there earlier! The light must be coming from the source of the footsteps!
While the rain masked their general features, the sight put his mind at ease. Mindless beasts couldn't really use a torch, so it was highly likely that he was indeed safe.
And yet, something still nagged at him.
White? Weren't torches and firefly lanterns supposed to emit orange light?
He would soon get his answer.
The nimble creature finally seemed to have spotted the cave, and they swiftly bounded forward, charging towards salvation just as Lupo had prior.
"Gahhh!" Lupo yelped, forced to shield his eyes as they entered. No longer masked by the rain outside, the light briefly increased to searing intensities for a split second, temporarily blinding his vision.
After rubbing his eyes and taking his first good look at the one responsible for the visual assault, it soon became clear that the mysterious light source wasn't a dinky torch at all.
The creature standing before him was the source of light, their body shining a bright iridescent white against the rainy night.
Author's Note:
Yep, it's a Lupo story! I quite like him, haha. As the one with the role of providing the player maps of the various areas of Niwen, he has a fair amount of dialogue interspersed throughout the game, and I thought that it's worth fleshing those interactions out.
Anywho, I spent way too long putting off this story because the time skip from the storm to the daytime scene in Inkwater kept messing with my head. Eventually I decided, "to heck with it", and have this meeting be during the storm instead.