OatSW: Short Stories

Down in the Burrows

The Midnight Burrows are one of the more complex and peculiar places in Niwen. At a glance, one wouldn't find much weird about it. It's a collection of large tunnels filled with the roots of the massive trees above and some large rock formations surrounding them. On a closer inspection, however, traversing these caves would be challenging, as navigating this area would require using magical portals. That, along with the verticality of the place, makes these Burrows a tricky place to traverse without the athleticism and knowledge about it.

These complex caverns were on a particular blue spirit's mind today because after saying goodbye to his family, Ori made his way across the Inkwater Marsh towards the entrance to the Burrows.

Why was he going there today?

Yesterday, a moki had come to him and asked him for assistance in an intriguing discovery she had found in the Burrows. She, Orenna, explained to him that she discovered some large chasm deep in the area and that something was intriguing on the other side of it, what seemed to be a sparkly crystal of some kind. She wanted to get it, but the chasm was way too large to jump across. However, she noticed a cluster of those blue flowers along the sides of the chasm, precisely like the ones Ori could traverse. So, she felt the need to ask Ori for assistance.

Surprisingly, Ori was hesitant. It's not that he wasn't willing to help, far from it. Ori was always ready to aid friends in any endeavor deemed reasonable. The reason was that he thought his ability to navigate those flowery walls was removed when he got revived from the Spirit Willow. He quickly went to Seir to prove or deny his assumptions. Seir, hearing Ori's worries, assured him that even though his ability to grapple onto those sorts of walls was gone, it was still possible for him to maneuver across them. With that relief, he was more than willing to accept her task of investigating this odd crystal.

This brings him right to the entrance to the Midnight Burrows, a room with many elongated stone structures of varying heights and symbols. Ori remembered when he first discovered and investigated these caverns after helping Tokk with a musical puzzle to even enter the place. Ori wasn't the musical type, at least when it came to understanding it. He likes listening to music and watching people play, but if he was given an instrument to play with, he wouldn't know the first thing to do. And he can accept that. Art, though certainly a skill one can gain proficiency in, is not something anyone can do as good as those gifted with talent.

But he wasn't focused on that now, as his eyes locked onto a moki standing near the entrance to these caverns. She was not that tall, at least by moki standards, but she was a little taller than the spirit approaching her. Her ears had a bit more of a curve, looking more like soft crescents than triangles. He noticed her fur looking slightly brighter than the other moki, if only slightly, with a more bushy tail wagging behind her. Her hand was on her hip, tapping her foot in slight impatience. But once she glanced to her right, letting Ori see her yellow eyes, the moki's mood perked right back up...

"Hi, Ori!" Orenna greeted him.

"Hey, Orenna." Ori smiled back. "How are you doing?"

"I'm alright, just... I'm..." She let out a long yawn in the middle of her sentence. "I didn't get much sleep last night."

"How come?"

"I don't know. My mind gets restless sometimes, constantly thinking about things I shouldn't worry about."

"It's alright. I do that too sometimes." Ori shrugged. "By the way, I didn't ask this before, but why are you so interested in this gem anyway?"

"Oh! I collect crystals and rocks all the time!" She replied. "You could call it a hobby. I've got a huge collection back home if you want to see it."