"Hi, dear readers. The following chapter originally should be way longer, but the author didn´t want to torture you with the knives of time. So, he decided to split it into two parts. I´m very curious, what I may find in that temple. But I have a strange feeling."

The Core I

Another wide corner angled around a room that may or may not have been there, stretching further down into the temple's heart. While Ori could appreciate the artisans who had built the stunning pieces throughout the temple, the architects didn't quite get the same respect in his mind. They must have been insane, many of the hallways and rooms were laid out in positions that just seemed… wrong, somehow. He almost pitied the head architect, what must he have felt after looking at the layout for this thing? Arcane building codes aside, the temple's artwork had really taken a beating down this hallway. Even had Ori been trained in how to appreciate the meaning behind these paintings, the cracks and dust would have prevented him from identifying even the most basic of their intentions. Not like that was his desire anyway, he wasn't even halfway around the infernal corner when his legs gave out and he collapsed to the floor, letting his backside drop to the ground. After so long in the cave systems without food or water, he really needed a break. His strength was fading, and he let his breath slow while he let his muscles shut down for a short moment. Tonight had surprised him with all sorts of situations, be they terrifying, exhilarating, and above all, exhausting. Never before had he felt so challenged by fate. Almost every second he spent down here required his full attention and strength, lest he be punished for even a slight lapse in judgment. It was if he had signed up for a tough exam that he needed to pass; that test being one on how long such a little spirit as him could endure the constant pressure, anxiety, and pain until he were to finally give up.

He recalled the engravings he'd seen earlier in the main room of the temple. Most importantly, the engraving was one of his father, growing in the middle and watching over the land as he always did. However, it was the second figure he was concerned about. A smaller figure resembling a spirit stood in the middle. It had hooves, long ears, hand-like paws, the whole package. Perhaps it was the break he was taking, but while he sat there, he racked his brain for everything he could relate to that picture, any connections he could find to make sense of it. He couldn't put his finger on it, but something about that picture really called to him, and he felt like he should know what it was doing there. There was one small detail that seemed more important than its size would suggest, its possible meanings crawling like a snake through his mind: what was the small bauble it was holding in its paws?

"Ugh… I'm so thirsty…" Ori sighed, his throat screaming for fresh water. It felt like someone had replaced the walls of his throat with sandpaper, the whole thing scratched like freshly-sawn wood. His body's needs superimposed themselves over any of the intellectual questions from earlier; the engravings wouldn't matter if he were dead. He reluctantly finished with his break and got up again, sitting here would do him no good. He knew that if he gave in to sleep here, it wasn't likely that he would ever wake up again. Besides, looking back at the left side of the corner he had come by as he had entered by, there was still only one path forward. Because of the temple's damaged state, certain paths were blocked off with boulders or various kinds of plant tendrils; other paths, like the one he had just come through, had sharp cliffs that made for one-way travel. To really hammer home how desolate the temple was, he couldn't even feel the light presence of his father he always felt when he was alone on the surface down here. It was like a pitch-black cloud had covered the sun, and he knew that he was on his own down here.

Continuing along the path with his achingly slow steps, his mind began to wander with various ways he might find water at the end of the tunnel. Even if his chances of survival were low, it was never a bad idea to keep the optimistic side of himself ready to give him encouragement. By now, it was really the only incentive he had to continue walking. Yet, even as he walked down the halls, a small part of himself, a tiny fiber deep within his body wanted nothing more than to turn around and explore the temple's secrets further, like he had left something undiscovered back there. What force could possibly have been strong enough to decimate such a large and durable structure? Why would the owner of such force ever want to destroy the temple in the first place? That thread of himself simply had to know.

Finally, with legs shivering from exhaustion and every step taking more effort than the last, he finally approached the end of the corridor. A decorated door with golden trim blocked the way forward, and his weak arms weren't able to push it even the width of his own fur, but some kind of button carved into a cube of stone almost as big as himself stood right next to the door. He'd never seen anything like this before, but something in his head clicked, and he knew he had to push it into the wall. With both his arms braced on the button's blank surface, he closed his eyes and prepared for the force he needed to exert. One push later with what little strength he could offer, the door indeed began to raise from the tile and revealed a golden light shining from underneath.

That would be too easy for his luck today. A loud rumble came from above the door, becoming louder and louder until, suddenly, the ceiling caved in with an ear-numbing crash and a cloud of dust. The frightened spirit jumped back just in time, one of the boulders barely missing him.

"Hahh… Hahh…" Ori huffed through the haze of dust. The chaos raised by the destruction of the door spiked his breath and began to drain through the last of his reserves. The doorway itself was now barely recognizable underneath the hundreds of pounds of debris that had crushed it. Ori stood in a deep stance, expecting the damage to spread throughout the ceiling any second now. His eyes widened, his breath quieted to a shallow hum, his blood raced… but nothing happened. Not a single rumble disturbed the structure, no boulders smashed into the ground, the silence resumed. He almost turned around, expecting the way to the room to be closed entirely now, but a soft golden ray coming from a tiny gap at the top of the pile struck him in the eye as he was turning. It was just barely wide enough for him to fit through.

Squeezing his head through the rocks was difficult, but the sight beyond was worth it. Before him stood a monumental hall with walls made of the finest polished marble and adorned with pristine examples of art, golden mosaics and pictures depicting all sorts of situations. There were so many intertwining with each other that it was hard to tell where one picture started and ended, they just flowed into each other despite obviously showing different scenes. Most impressive though were the statues of various spirits paving the sides of the straight path like buildings along an avenue. Each spirit looked as if it were custom-made, none of them sharing even mild signs of lazy construction. One had long ears hanging past his neck supporting a head wider than his shoulders, while another had a thick coiled tail and smaller paws. Yet another had a very serious expression, as if he were lecturing the beholder on the secrets of the universe, while his counterpart had a happy visage that was hard not to mimic upon seeing it. Every one of them without exception was covered head to tail in golden patterns winding over their bodies and giving them a very regal appearance. Ori had to blink several times just to confirm some of the finer details, moved to reverence and fascination as he humbly observed the statues from every angle.

One of the statues was striking, however. The center-most spirit towered above the others, demanding attention. It had even more distinct golden patterns that were unique to it, but most impressive was the enormous sphere made of pure crystal it held in its outstretched paws. Ori couldn't even imagine how much mineral wealth someone would need to build that, the rest of the temple's treasures combined probably wouldn't match it in cost. He approached the statue, locking eyes with it. It was almost frightening, but simultaneously awe-inspiring enough to fill his heart with hope and joy. He reached out with his little paw for the statue's right leg, as it was the only surface he could reach. Just as his paw made contact, a magical sound rang out from the crystal sphere with a bright flash, the sphere getting brighter and brighter as it shone in a warm, comforting orange tone. The light expanded in a perfectly regular sphere until it enshrouded the little spirit, who knelt in a show of complete reverence.

Warmth and relief filled his body in a magnitude he had never felt before. It was like the light healed his soul from within, gifting him hope and letting his worldly problems and tensions melt away. A tear of pure joy rolled down his cheek; his smile beamed like the happiest being to have ever existed. He felt calmer, stronger, alive. The light continued to get stronger, his body glowing brighter and harder than ever before, until an it all coalesced into a small orange sphere sitting in his paws. Before he could get a good look at it, it dissolved through his skin like an ice cube, and the light it carried was absorbed into his belly with a soft orange flash. It must have been the key to something, because right as the process finished, a gigantic wall began to slide upwards to reveal a large pool of water, glowing in the same orange tone.

He jumped right in; the water attracted him like a magnet. "Finally, water!" he shouted excitedly. While he was no longer thirsty after the strange ordeal with the light, a source of water down here was a very welcome discovery. The water itself was salty and clung to his fur, but it was crystal clear, and he could see the water stretching off into darkness beyond. Despite the fun activity and all the warmth he was allowed to experience earlier, he felt an altogether different feeling making its way through his brain. A looming presence, terrible and indefinably huge crawled at the edges of his perception, sneaking through the blackness nearby. Ori could have described the feeling all day and not have gotten out what he meant, but a short version would start with that all too familiar tingle in his belly, and followed up with some sort of nausea combined with a heart attack while hanging upside-down.

Whatever the feeling, he quickly lost his interest in swimming. In fact, he felt as though discovering the rest of the temple's secrets could wait, the overwhelming flood of terror was the most important emotion to consider right now. The edges of his vision turning red, he flew down the shortest path as designated by panic to turn as quickly as possible and make his way to the surface. The ever-present gasp of air upon breaching the waves became the normal pace of his breathing as he flung himself out of the giant pool and began running before he was even fully standing. The hall of statues was a fairly straight line, and Ori took full advantage of that, bolting around the statues as his wet hooves slid on the tile. An onlooker now would see the first piece of his until now unfounded fear, but there was indeed something in the water he had just fled, something so big that it was unlikely that anything Ori's size would be able to fully comprehend its own. Ori stole a glance behind him, making sure that something wasn't about to attack him, and his face contorted in horror at the sight.

It was probably just the smallest part of the creature, the very forefront of its massive body, but an incredibly large round, monstrous head with serrated teeth sticking every which way, seen not just because they would stick out, but because the maw of the beast was wide open and ready to bite at its prey. Running even faster was not hard to do with such a galvanizing appearance behind him, so much so that he almost stumbled over his own leg in the resulting hurry. Luckily, he managed to keep his balance, or it would have been the end of him. The giant monster had no qualms with balance and plowed right through the statues, carrying them away with its massive body. Ear-numbing crashes vibrated through the hall as the stonework tumbled to the ground, far too loudly for Ori's sensitive hearing to really appreciate. All he knew was that the sound was loud enough to shake his whole body with its force alone, causing his ears to convulse and fold in on themselves to block the sound.

Arriving at the boulders he had so carefully squeezed through earlier, doubt began to build on his ability to do so again before the creature were to reach his position. Sheer panic was more than enough to get him to try, however, and he cleared the distance to the hole in a single bound, slipping through the crack in an adrenaline-fueled rush he would never be able to repeat. The forced crawl was still slower than he would have liked, however, and the massive creature was only a matter of seconds away from crashing through the wall and crushing him. As it was, he managed to get far enough away that when that happened, the easy demolition of the obstruction shot him across the temple with a forceful kick. He didn't know whether it was the adrenaline or the fact that his mind hadn't the time to become overcome with panic, and was still capable of thinking clearly, but whatever it was, he was able to angle himself into a roll and soften his landing. He did so well that the roll ended with him standing, so he never actually stopped moving forward. Clearing the temple's entrance was easy from there, and he ran down the path he had taken to get there as the gate crumbled behind him. It had only taken seconds for the building so recently recognizable as a temple to be rendered to nothing more than a pile of rubble; the giant beast hastening its decay into ruin with an effortless wriggling, moving as though it were a serpent. The chase went on through the dark, winding corners of the cave, Ori choosing directions at random as he sprinted through the disintegrating cavern.

Eventually, he arrived at the water pool he had dove into earlier to hide from the bat monsters, and no evident path forward. Fortunately, as he swam underneath a ledge overhanging the water, he discovered a small opening in the ceiling that he had missed the first time he was here, and he shoved himself through it, his tail just slipping through as the hunter behind him got there. The opening may have been just big enough for the spirit, but the monster behind him had a new problem. It had to ram its head against the rock, giving Ori valuable time to escape. He knew that he was way slower than the predator, but his instinctual self-preservation wasn't going to let him stop now. Even as the walls began to look as though they might cave in with him still in the water tunnel, even as his legs threatened to cramp with the strenuous movement they were being forced through, even as the roars and growls of his chaser rose to new heights, he stayed moving forward. He wouldn't die here, he simply couldn't!

Despite the challenges, the tunnel began to widen out, eventually forming into a clear exit. The darkness of the unforgiving cave receded from the edges of his vision, and the hope of finally returning to home was enough to cause him to struggle faster and faster as he ignored the cramping pain as well as he could. That was when the creature finally broke through, a muffled and very deep crash sending rumbles through the water and putting even more stress on his ears. Stones fell around through the water, and as he dodged them, he realized that he had no chance against the monster's speed. He whimpered in terror as he tried to go even faster, but this was already as fast as he could go! No! It couldn't reach him, it must not! He was almost at the surface now, and with a final push he pierced its surface, shooting out of it like an arrow of light.

Time slowed as he hovered there in the air. He was in the middle of an enormous lake, stretching over the horizon in most of the directions he could look in. The moon was nowhere to be seen in the darkened sky, signifying the oncoming rise of the sun. One direction did hold a parcel of land, the coast of Niwen, and that warm orange light of his father shining through the deep woods. Safety was so close! He stretched out his paw in the direction of hope and his future, longing to return, when suddenly, the cool air of the night disappeared. A thick and hot air enveloped him, and within a second the light from outside dissipated completely. Soon after, the rest of the world did too.

II
What was that noise? The rumble of liquid in his ears was the first sign he wasn't dead. A very soft tingling covering his whole body came second, followed by feeling returning to his limbs. Kinesthetic sense told him that he hovered in an awkward fetal position, like he was an underdeveloped mammalian baby soaking in some kind of odd, soupy substance. The tingling was similar to the feeling he got when he meditated, the whole perception of his body, but also different somehow. More aggressive, more distinct, coming from outside rather than from within. Another sensation came along shortly thereafter, a burning aching that reminded him of his wounds from the encounter before with the creatures of darkness back in the temple. The sense danced along his sensitive nerves as it began to pulsate along with the rhythm of his heartbeats. A fourth feeling permeated his cognition as he realized the air he was breathing was… acidic, and tickled the walls of his respiratory tract.

"Did Kwolok swallow me?" he asked himself. "I thought that fight was over…" He shook his head violently, trying to jog his memory like he was awakening from a nightmare. "Wait… who's Kwolok? Better yet, where am I? What happened?" His mind spun up like the huge wheel of the mill back in the village, only moving much faster than any waterwheel could hope to move. The grey reality of it all came rushing back to him now. First and foremost, however, he knew that he needed to get out of whatever unknown liquid this was, and he swam to the surface. A very dark and empty room awaited him there, his bluish light highlighting the walls of the new place he found himself in. Far worse than any dark room, however, was the deep and muffled rumble of heartbeats that ruffled his sopping ears just as they freed themselves from the "water." The heart was obviously very large, the sounds it was making dug through his acoustics with an even deeper bass. Just to complete the experience, the air around him was incredibly thick, hot, and humid, almost like his head had never breached the liquid.

All those together would have been strange on their own, but together they lead to only one terrible conclusion. The tingling sensation got worse, erupting into a burning pain that seared his flesh with enough of a kick to cause him to hold his breath in shock. "No…" Only now did he put the pieces together as to where he was at. Just before he could say it aloud, he heard a distinct rumble echo through the cavernous room, very reminiscent of the gurgles his own stomach made when it was working, but far louder. "No, no, no, no, noo!" Fear gripped him with whimpers and shivers cast from pure horror while his eyes frantically searched the space for a way out. Meanwhile, his tirade of words hadn't ceased. "No, no, there has to be a way!" he panicked. Yet as he looked further with tears in his eyes and his lungs pumping shallow breaths of the sour air in and out, he knew that the cry amounted to nothing more than panic before the end. There was no way he would escape his fate by himself, and his struggles in the liquid would amount to nothing more than a smattering of noise before they too would end.

That's when they came, those hallucinations of a false hope. The voice of a person down here with him mumbling various unintelligible things that wouldn't mean anything. It almost sounded like the ghosts that had hounded his mind earlier, only clearer, more… alive.

"Wait, what was that noise? It's normally pretty quiet in here, I guess it must've caught something." Ah, yes, his mind had really lost it. Now it was making a perfect falsehood of some person who lived here. Or was it really all in his head? "What would shine so bright, and yet… struggles, and… whimpers?" the voice whispered to itself audibly, like there was someone else around to listen to it. A chill ran down his spine, reminding him of the rapidly depleting time he had left. Even if the voice was clearly a delusion, Ori couldn't help but follow it. It was the only source of hope left for him, even if it's source was the thick air he was constantly being forced to breathe.

"Wait… it's coming closer? In my direction? Am I finally losing it?" Great, now hallucinations were hallucinating, it couldn't get any worse. The voice wasn't finished yet, and it became louder. "Who's down there? You aren't a figment of my imagination, are you? If you're real, then quick, grab that rope over there if you want to live!"

That was enough reason for Ori. Something inside him awoke again, and he toiled with renewed frantic strength, harder than he already had been. It didn't matter if the voice wasn't real, or even if it was something bad, he needed to follow it. "So indeed it is real. Over here! You've almost got it!"

That rope hung in front of him like a beacon of life and hope. Was it even real? Could he really have gone insane that quickly, could a mind like his own ever go that far? Whatever the case, he clung to the rope with his still-cramped paws and crawled up while the unknown person above pulled him up. "And there… you are," grunted the voice with a final push of effort. It took a few seconds before it spoke again, taking that long to realize what type of being he had just fished out of the acid lake below. "Wait, you're a…" He had been completely focused on saving the poor little thing, entirely forgetting how it glowed with a soft bluish tone. "You're a spirit…" he finished, astonished. Ori, still soaked in putrid fluids, widened his eyes in disbelief. He felt the stony floor beneath his backside, confirming the reality of the situation. There really was a person down here with him, and that person had rescued him!

"You're… real," he said, finding it hard to think straight after the harrowing ordeal with the acid. His blurry vision began to clear, until he could make out a silhouette of a person in front of him, the contour of a moki. He wore a light brown and very pretty scarf twirled around his neck; the scarf hanging down past his waist as he bent down to better observe his unusual catch. "Of course I'm real! I'm perfectly as real as you, my friend." The moki noticed his new little companion's eyes drooping in exhaustion. He was just about to ask when Ori croaked, "I… I'm so thirsty…" At that, the moki instantly got up. "Hold on, I'll go get you something. But while I do that, you should clean yourself up. That terrible gunk will scar something fierce if you let it." And with that, he freed his neck from that handsome scarf and handed it over to Ori. Instantly, the little spirit protested at his kindness. "But, this is your scarf. Won't it be damaged?"

"Don't worry about that, little one. That scarf is tougher than I am, and I'd like to think I'm pretty brave." Protesting further would have been rude, and Ori really did need to clean himself. As he was tensing the scarf into a towel to clean himself, he saw another picture appear in his mind, but was far too tired and exhausted to question anything anymore. Conversational starter it was, though, and he simply told his rescuer about it. "You know, you remind me of someone. He called himself 'Mokk the Brave.'" He had to chuckle very slightly before he continued, "He was a funny person." The moki was puzzled for a second, but chalked it the spirit's weariness confusing his mental state. "Oh, interesting. Did he also investigate dangerous places like these?" Ori chuckled again, louder this time. "No, not this kind of place, but others. Like the cave of a giant wolf." His cute, high-pitched voice got increasingly weaker with every breath he took. "I see," said the moki, growing somewhat concerned about his new friend, began to rummage through a handmade bag that was barely visible in the darkness. After a short few moments, he pulled out a strange case that was obviously intended to storing water. An audible "plop" sound could be heard as he set it on the ground in front of Ori, the sound echoing through the massive and fleshy room. "Here you are. Drink up." Ori looked at the moki as if he was some kind of furry angel while he gratefully took his gift. He raised the canteen to his lips, and began to drink the water inside. After starting, he just couldn't stop, and he continued until the water was completely gone. He was satisfied for a moment until he realized that he had just drank all the water the moki had; the satisfaction instead being replaced by a feeling of immense guilt. "I'm… I'm so sorry, I drank all of your—" The moki cut him off. "Don't worry! Please don't worry, I've got enough for both of us, trust me." Ori's face softened; his light shining in pure happiness. "Thank you," was all he could say, a sigh of sweet relief washed the rest of the message away.

The little spirit's eyes rolled around to all the odd corners of the fleshy cave. Although he already knew the answer, he needed to confirm where he was. "Where are we?" he asked. "Why, in the belly of the beast, of course. I'm still not quite sure why we're able to breathe down here," replied the moki, letting his more inquisitive side show. "Indeed, that's a good question," Ori pondered, "but what I'm more curious about is how that building made it into its stomach, especially as so intact as it is." The moki sighed, deep in thought. "You're right. That's still thoroughly a mystery to us both, then. I'll tell you more about what I've found down here later, but first, you need to rest for a bit. You must be exhausted. Here, you can use my bag as a pillow. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but it's all I have anymore." Ori shook his head in denial. "No, you really don't have to apologize. You saved me, after all." The moki calmed a little at that. "I'm glad you're fine with such meager accommodations. Make yourself comfortable, and if you need to use the bathroom, there's a small spot between me and that wall over there. We are going to be here for a while." Ori had already rolled himself into a proper sleeping position, but he sat up again at that sentence. "You've been… living here? For how long?" The moki scratched his head in confusion, lost in his own thoughts. "I don't know, to be honest. Days? Weeks? …Months? I can't really tell anymore. I already looked for a way out, but there doesn't seem to be any such thing. The revelation was disappointing to the spirit, but fatigue was more important right now, and his arms sank down into the bag while his eyes slowly closed. For now, he would accept that there was no way to change their situation. For now. The moki, on the other hand, was very talkative. Now that he finally had someone to talk with, he found it difficult to stop. "You know, you had quite the weight for a spirit. I always assumed that you spirits were massless beings of pure energy and without any feelings, but you… you need to drink and eat just like any other being. You cried and struggled in fear down in the lake of acid, you've still got tears in your eyes… That's fascinating. Spirits have a similar organic anatomy to normal mammals. I'll need to inspect you more later. But first, I'll let you sleep." He played with his fingers while he talked in the restless way most moki did, and turned to the glowing little being he was so intrigued by. Ori's light slowly pulsated along with the rhythm of his breath pushing through his tiny nose. It was a bit blocked from the effort of escaping the giant monster and made slight noises as the air rushed in and out, but it didn't really matter to Ori. He had already entered the world of dreams as he willfully fell into a deep slumber.