Great news: I now have a beta reader! Since english is not my native language, the text I wrote until now was maybe hard to read in some parts. That will change in the future.

The Core II

"Something is wrong with Kwolok!" That sentence consumed his mind, though not to the same extent that the swampland's guardian had been taken in his corrupted state. Ori ran from his disturbed former friend in a desperate attempt to prevent a fight, his focus too determined on what he was doing to mull over anything past the moki's words. Kick! Jump! Twirl! The air howled though his ears as he zoomed past the obstacles with practiced finesse; the wild waters hardly slowing him down. Behind him, the tainted toad crashed though yet another wall. He may have been less agile than his quarry, but destroying everything in his path made for a much shorter route than was fair as he tried to catch the much smaller and more nimble ball of light. "Kwolok, this isn't you! Can you hear me? Kwolok!" Sorrow and desperation overtook his face, yet the skillful dodges still came. None of his actions were his own doing anymore, the words came out without him even thinking about it. He may as well have been watching the scene through a different set of eyes entirely.

Serrated teeth belonging to a large black creature smiled in his face, though not in a friendly way. The malice the smile held for him was emphasized when its owner's tongue smashed the ground right next to him as claws raked the stone with a splitting hiss. No mercy was to be shown today.

That was why it was surprising when the scenery changed. A rip in the fabric of reality sent him flying into a new one; the giant toad looking deep into his widened eyes. They widened further when the toad's eyes shone in a way even the spirit's didn't, like a fire had been lit just behind his eyelids. Despite the otherworldly and threatening description that would usually imply, the view was pleasant, so much so that it even kind of calmed the little spirit.

"Wake up, Ori."

"Kwolok?" The scared and now fully awake voice of a child reverberated along the walls of a blackened cave alongside the echoes of rumbling gurgles and a muffled heartbeat. There was only one source for the voice: a young spirit's mouth that had just opened in shock of its bearer's own dreams. He frantically looked around, not quite able to discern what had been a dream and what was real. As his vision cleared, he noticed something wasn't quite right. Something was missing. Someone.

That was unacceptable. Vertigo made his head swim after he kipped up, but that wasn't important right now. "Where…?" he asked the room, audibly but carefully. The waving world made it difficult to extend the sentence further. When no answer came, new worries began to replace the old. "It can't be," he thought, "the moki was right here just recently." Beneath him, the stony floor clapped against his hooves as they clattered along its surface during his search. It was the only irregular sound present, nothing but the constant ambiance of the environment made noise otherwise. "Scarf?" he called again, choosing the first thing that popped into his head about the moki. He should really have asked his rescuer's name. "S-scarf?" Loneliness and fear crept into his voice at the second cry, this should have all been over. He should have been rescued from the terrible nightmare of yesterday, and his savior should be nearby, at most a couple steps away. And yet no matter how much he spoke to the darkness, no answers came in return. Could it have all been a trick, a delusion to replace how he'd really gotten here?

Finally, he heard something, and immediately regretted wanting to hear anything at all. "Help… me… little spirit…" Rough and weak, the voice of the moki came from over the ledge, deep in the fluids below; the location a clear indication of the danger he was in if the tone hadn't revealed it already. Ori peered over the edge, careful not to fall off as he looked for the moki. He wished his rescuer glowed like him, as his search was agonizingly slow, even if it only took a few seconds.

There he was! Ori's eyes widened in horror; his rescuer, helpless and all out of strength, was struggling in the acidic water beneath the stony building. Where was that rope? It had to be somewhere. The search tore at his nerves, but again proved successful. He threw the rope right down the stony wall with a perfect toss, the end splashing in the corrosive liquid only inches from the moki. "Here! Take the rope and climb up!" Ori shouted. It should have been easy, but fate had different ideas for the spirit and moki duo. The moki's arms remained locked to his sides as his eyes told a different, more desperate story. "I… I can't feel my arms!" he grunted, even the act of speaking taking herculean efforts from him. Purely appalled, the spirit's face twisted into disturbed forms as he held his breath. His imagination ran through more and only more horrible ways his friend could have been struck with immobility so recently. The feelings almost distracted him from the situation at hand, but Ori's will was strong. "Hold on! I'm coming down!" Throwing caution to the wind, he rappelled down the rope to a point just above the swirling liquid. Upon arriving there, he outstretched his right arm to the moki in an attempt to grab him. "Grab my paw!"That was when it happened. The moki's face shifted from a suffering look of desperation to a sad and serious expression befitting a statue. His last sentence echoed forever in the depth's of Ori's mind.

"It´s over Ori… you can´t help me anymore."

…

A high-pitched shout rang out through the fleshy cave, indicating only one thing: a small, scared spirit had sat up in a cold sweat after being terrified by his own mind.

"Are you alright, little one?" asked the moki nearby, concern prominent on his face and kindness evident in his voice. To Ori, the difference between the sight now and the nightmare was like night and day. He slowly turned his head towards his now twice savior, the moki's eyes symbolizing all that was good in the world to him. "You seem… scared, dare I say. Did a dream bother you?" The little spirit gave only a slight nod in response, his humble face saying all that needed to be said. "Don't worry. I will never leave your side. I promise," ensured the moki, seemingly more relaxed now that he knew his new friend was safe. "Actually, I do have a little question for you," he continued. "You haven't told me your name yet." Ori turned to face the invisible ceiling far above, his thoughts restlessly bothering him with a ceaseless ruckus. "Ori…," he whispered, the sound barely leaving his soft glowing lips. At that, the moki let loose a small chuckle into his paw. "What's so funny about that?" defended Ori, visibly confused. The moki's paw fell from his mouth as he turned to face the spirit, taking on a more serious attitude as he did so. "Oh, sorry. It's funny because my name is Mori."

"Ah…" Now Ori had to smile a little himself. "That's… a pretty name," he said. Mori gave a brief bark of amusement at the spirit's words and pulled his scarf a little tighter. "Thank you," he responded. "Who knows, maybe my parents named me after you. Could be that it's our destiny to meet each other."

"Maybe…," said Ori after a short pause, his sentence falling off as his head once again confronted him with the dream from before. Not the nightmarish one, but the dream before that one. The one with that kind toad named… Kwolok.

It hadn't been a normal dream. At least, it certainly hadn't felt like a normal dream, this one was different somehow. Ori didn't know why exactly, but it felt as though it were one piece of a picture he hadn't found all the parts to yet. A memory of some event that had happened ages ago, far before his own lifetime, that he was sure of. Perhaps it was just a passing attempt of making sense of it all, and it didn't actually have any meaning. Then again, the possibility of connecting his dreams and somehow interpreting them in hopes of finding out anything about their purpose was very alluring. So alluring was the prospect, in fact, that he couldn't wait to sleep again and dive further into the mystery in spite of the nightmarish qualities that the dreams held, but for now he couldn't do anything other than tell his new companion about his experiences. He didn't really want to bombard the moki with his own fragmented memories and the most likely incommunicable story that hid behind them, but telling him a few parts wouldn't hurt. Besides, Mori seemed very interested in anything he had to say relating to spirits anyway.

A voice drew him back to the present. "You slept very nervously, Ori," Mori said, the worry sneaking back into his voice as if he could already smell the enigma hiding behind his dream. "You kept whispering the name "Kwolok" while you were sleeping, did you want to elaborate on that?" Eyes widened, Ori's mouth curved into a frown, the tiny wrinkles too minute to see. "I… talked in my sleep?" he asked humbly, embarrassed. Mori needed no further prodding. "Hah! Yes, yes you did! I was kinda glad I didn't sleep, actually." The frown grew and its bearer's gaze dropped to the floor. He was moderately ashamed of his unconscious performances, and made a mental note to avoid learning what else he may have been doing while he was sleeping. "Sorry about that," he mumbled indistinctly. "Ah, no worries, it didn't bother me at all. Quite the contrary, I must add! Now back to the why, could you tell me what happened in your dream?"

His gaze rose to the ceiling once more as he scratched at his chin in a deliberate dramatization. "You know, I think there might just be a few pieces left I can tie together."

IV

"So Kwolok was the big guardian of the mokis?" asked Ori with an intrigued tone. Sharing his dreams with Mori had been a good idea, the moki knew a lot more about past affairs than he did. The ancient toad in particular was of interest to him, both because he showed up in his dream as well as seemed to be one of the most important historical figures anywhere. "Yes, he was the one who pledged protection to our kind. He saved our families when the decay destroyed our former home by bringing us to the village we still inhabit today, the Wellspring Glades. Unfortunately, the gleaming hero was forced to take his life when a dark creature corrupted his mind and turned him against us. At least, that's what my parents told me when I was younger. That's exactly what you dreamt, right? If you've really experienced these visions of the past, then there is no doubt that you're witnessing his memories firsthand. Your own memories."

The little spirit's emotions switched into overdrive. The moki had just confirmed his theories on him being somehow connected to the gleaming hero.

"So you mean I was the gleaming hero?" he asked incredulously.

The moki tilted his head. "Maybe. At the very least, I'm sure that you share certain memories with him, but we don't have any sizable evidence to point one way or the other yet. You said that the dream felt like a small piece of a broken picture, yes?" Ori nodded in response. "So you'll have to find the other pieces and put them together. If you also take the toad's life in self-defense in your next dream, then there's no doubt that you dreamt the gleaming hero's memories."

That was enough for Ori. "Well, I'm not going to pass up on learning more from them, then. Fortunately, I did find something back in that cave. I could use it to write down my dreams, that way we won't forget them." He brought his paws forward to summon the book. Meanwhile, Mori was ferociously studying his every action, completely unsure of what the spirit was doing. He was just about to ask why the spirit's paws were glowing brighter and brighter when something in the shape of a book began to materialize in Ori's paws, causing Mori to flinch in surprise. The whole process barely took four seconds, and by the end the full shape of a journal had manifested itself in the middle of the spirit's paws. Mori immediately recognized the book and exclaimed, "You… you found my journal! Where did you find that? Are you some kind of wizard, Ori? I can't imagine what else your kind might be capable of." Excitement radiated off of him as he shook with raw astonishment. Ori didn't want to drown in questions, so he interrupted before Mori could start asking them. "Yeah, I'd already assumed that you were the author of this book. You should know that you really helped me find a way into that temple! Personally, I have a few questions to ask on some of your notes, though." Great, now he could control the questions, plus he really did want to find out more about the secrets of the temple. Mori let out another one of his signature brief laughs before putting on a genuinely kind face.

"Go ahead, little friend. Time is not our enemy here."

Oh, right. The muffled beats of a large heart and the whooshing air of a mostly living cave brushed his long, shiny ears, reminding the spirit of the environment where he and his new companion were situated. "You're right…," he said, a soft smile forming on his face. "Down to it then, there are a few pages that were ripped off and—"

"What?!" interrupted the now slightly upset moki, "Those silly creatures… They must have thought it to be food and made off with them." Ori sighed and started again. "Well, they must've thought me to be food too. They hunted me across the whole cave system until I dove into a dark pool of water. Anyways, back to the book, I was curious on how the pages looked before they were torn out. Do you think you remember them well enough to make them anew?" asked Ori. Mori frowned and scratched behind his right ear, thinking over the pages' contents.

"I think I may remember a few of the pages, but I'll need more light than these dank caverns provide if I'm going to have any chance at an accurate reproduction." No sooner than the last word leave his mouth did Ori shout, "I can be your light!" as he enthusiastically flung himself behind the moki and laid his head on the moki's left shoulder. At first he thought the arrangement to be a good idea, but soon the building pressure on his neck from his own weight became a problem. Mori was a whole head taller than he was, and he was almost hanging off the shoulder with his chin supporting most of his weight. "No"—Ori's breath wheezed—"you're"—he let out another cough—"you're too tall for me." As he said this, he was still hanging on Mori's shoulder and had to squirm to fall off of it, hitting the floor and immediately losing his balance. Mori was forced into mirthful laughter at the scene of the spirit gasping for air on the ground, very little had passed for entertainment in the weeks he had spent here. Struggling for words himself through the laughter, he said, "You know, I think I have a better solution."

The moki returned to his bag and rummaged through whatever else he had in there, making a surprising amount of noise while he did so. A warm, yellowish light illuminated his face after he finally stopped digging, and he reached down to bring out whatever the source of the light was. "I have something here that might make it a little brighter in here." Ori's eyes widened, he couldn't believe what the moki was holding. An orb that emitted such a pleasing warmth and glowed with that exact orange tone could only be from one place. As Mori set it down and backed away, the orb expanded further and further outward, reaching almost Ori's size before stopping. Even though Ori had never seen anything of the sort, he knew what it was. "That's an orb of light essence! You hauled that around in your bag? Where did you even get it from?" he demanded.

"Hey, I didn't get this myself. It was a gift from Grom. He said that it warms your heart whenever you feel lonely and that he found it in a nearby cave he used to take resources from back when he was excavating land around our village. Besides, how did you know what this was anyway? I always thought it was the last one." With that deft spin, Ori was left scratching his head. "I… I guess spirits just know these things…," he said, more confused than he was anything else. The moki laughed, surprised his deflection had worked so well. "You're probably right, but my personal intuition says that your knowledge may have something to do with your memories, Ori." All Ori could do in response was to merely look deeply into the moki's eyes and blink a few times while his tail played its own games behind his back. The silence became somewhat uncomfortable until Mori realized why he'd brought out the orb in the first place. "Oh, yeah, let's see if I can rewrite those pages," he said quickly, scrolling through the papers filling his journal.

…

"Yes… just one line… and… done!" Mori muttered indistinctly into his scarf, now stuffed over his mouth in the usual position it was in while he did research. "That part's probably important to him…," he continued. "Hey Ori! I've got something for you to see!" He held the book up to the spirit lounging casually on the floor next to him, presenting the pages with ecstatic glee. "Can you identify what the drawing displays?" Ori reached for the journal, bringing it closer with a careful touch as to not smudge the delicate charcoal line work. He had to stare at it for several seconds before his eyes adjusted enough to tell what he was looking at, but eventually he got an answer. "This… is meant to be the backside of some creature, right?" he said, a little disappointed in the content Mori had chosen to show him. Mori wasn't one to notice in his fervor, though, and excitedly stated, "Exactly right! Now, try to imagine a big, gigantic maw going along the left page before that was ripped off." The spirit's boredom faded as he realized the significance of what he was being shown. "You mean… that's…" The moki just had to interrupt him, not able to contain his excitement any longer. "Correct! It's the creature we're currently inside. I copied it off a wall I found in the temple. My thoughts say that since they drew it in such a majestic way, they must have honored it somehow." Ori's head lilted to the side as he narrowed his eyes to the universal thinking squint. "What's your point, Mori?"

"The creature that swallowed us is not evil."

Of course! The moki had gone insane sitting down here in the darkness for who knows how long; it was the only logical explanation for the senseless drivel that he was spewing. At least, that's what Ori thought. He thought about voicing his opinions on the matter to the madman next to him, but he opted for a more subtle approach. "I… don't really follow you. This creature hunted both of us down, tore it's horrible big maw wide open, and fed on us like the hungry predator it is. The acids almost corroded though my skin, and they would have if you hadn't been there. How in Niwen would you ever think it would be friendly?" Mori sighed briefly, preparing for another long-winded explanation.

"Alright, alright, I get it sounds crazy. But do you know what I think, Ori? This place was meant to be some kind of shelter. I'm certain about that part at least, because there is an inexhaustible water source deeper inside the building. Unfortunately, we can't reach it because there are critters waiting for me on the path to it. I blocked their way out for safety, but my own water sources are starting to fade away." Lightning shot through Ori's nerves, and he got up in almost no time at all. "What? Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go find this water source." But before the spirit could bolt around the nearest corner, Mori grabbed his wrist with a concerned look on his face. "Ori, wait. It's dangerous in there. Don't you think we should at least come up with a plan before diving headfirst into danger?" Ori finally had something useful to go do, and nothing was going to stop him. He slowly shook his head without ever turning away from his destination. "No, no matter what waits for us in there, I will protect you."

…

"It… just… won't… budge…" they both grunted. They had been trying to push the boulders that were blocking the entrance to the building, but it had been a laughably futile effort. Ori made a connection to what Mori had said earlier, and asked it now. "Seriously, how did you manage to move these boulders here and block the door in the first place? Even both of us together are too weak to move them at all." Mori blushed, realizing he had forgotten part of his story. "I… actually didn't do that part myself. I opened the massive door with a button and it slid up slightly, just barely enough for me to squeeze under. After that, it collapsed." Ori sighed, then panted out, "I see… that makes sense." He would have talked further, but his breath had been too taken by the effort of pushing the rocks for anything extra.

Luckily, Mori was there to voice his concerns for him. "Sooo… how are we supposed to get in?" he asked, a touch of desperation entering his voice at the end. No sooner than he had finished his sentence did Ori dash back. "I've got an idea!" he shouted, the words taking longer than his run back to the ball of light essence hovering millimeters above the stony floor. "May I?" he asked, turning to Mori. Mori gave a short sigh, disappointed in the prospects of losing his nicest possession. He could already imagine what the spirit planned to do with it, but he also couldn't come up with any other way to move through the door. After a tense pause, he nodded. Ori returned the nod and carefully grabbed the sphere of light. When his paws touched the glow ball, his whole body began to shine with flashes of yellow and orange that only grew brighter as the sphere shrank in his paws. "Ori… what happened to you?" dropped the moki, he had never heard of anything like this before. An overwhelmingly pleasant warmth filled the spirit with a hope and strength he normally only felt in his deepest, most powerful dreams. The essence absorbed, Ori wordlessly walked back towards the blocked off entrance and put his still orange glowing paws against the boulders. Without showing even the slightest degree of exertion, the boulders crashed to the side with a single push from the now indescribable strength the spirit wielded. Indeed, the whole building seemed to rumble when he removed the biggest rock and the entire blocked doorway collapsed in on itself, revealing a massive pathway forward. Both the spirit and the moki had to jump backwards in unison to avoid their paws and hooves from being crushed underneath the hail of stones hitting the ground with a deafening roar before the room returned to silence.

"That… was… incredible." Mori couldn't bring himself to do anything other than simply watch the scene unfold in front of him. The spirit may have had the voice of an innocent child and may have even acted like one, but he was as strong as a being at least three times taller than him.

Darkness and a surprisingly cool rush of air met them at the core of the stony building. "Let's see where they hide now," Ori said confidently, his sharp blade of light tightly grasped in his right paw. "What? You… you plan to fight them?" the even more concerned moki asked, his fear infecting every movement he made. "I don't plan to fight them. I plan to take them down." Ori's eyes narrowed, his focus sharpening into a deadly point. His ears scanned the room for any semblance of noise. His heart raced with enough power to escape his chest, shooting his blood into every part of his system. He could feel it rushing through his veins like a rushing torrent, blasting laziness aside without mercy. Obviously, he was nervous. On the edge of dread, even. He was more than familiar with the previously unbearable fear of death that had stuck with him the whole time he'd been on this adventure, but now he had to protect a friend as well. Nothing, not one claw was going to get through him tonight. He desperately tried to suppress the unbecoming shivering of his whole body, anything to prevent Mori from getting even the slightest idea of how scared his guardian really was. More than ever did the moki need someone who was strong and confident. Someone who could protect him from the evils of the underworld. "I really hope that works…" he mentally whispered to himself, pointing the sharp peak of his blade at the darkness before him.

He halted his breath, the sound it made was too much for now. Nothing remained but the omnipresent thick dismay and his own heartbeat filling his ears. And, of course, the weird sensation of something terrible edging closer.