Ori and the Outlander

Chapter 8: Cleansing the heart

After the devastating loss of Arron's precious cookies (with only a few left now), Aaron and Ori finally reached the front door of the Ginso tree.

'Can't believe I'm such a sucker for Ori.' Arron thought as Ori gave a burp as a salt in the wound.

'Least she enjoyed the cookies.'

Aaron then took out the water vein from out of his bag and hands it to Ori who then inserts it into the door that is carved into the tree. As if by magic, the door reacts by a shining blue as the lock turns as the door slides open.

"Oddly satisfying seeing these doors slide open." Aaron comments as they all stepped inside.

Inside the tree, the wood is rotten with spikes grown everywhere on the walls. There are even those purple spikes that Arron and Ori saw at the start of their journey. This should not come as a surprise considering they were everywhere in the forest. Sein wordlessly floated upwards as to examine the Ginso tree's condition, horrified by the sights.

"The waters of Nibel once flowed through this very tree... Now it's all rotten and dried up inside. We must restore the flow." Sein said.

"How can we do that?" Ori asks.

"To restore Nibel's waters, we must first find the heart to cleanse the waters." Sein said.

"Wait hold on a second..." Aaron said as Ori and Sein looks at him.

"You are saying we need to travel to the heart? Can't you just quickly float up there and see what the problem is?" he asked.

"I would if I could Aaron. You see, I can't use my powers without spirit energy. Since the Spirit tree used all of his remaining energy and I went into dormant, I heavily require Ori's energy to sustain myself otherwise I will fall dormant again." Sein explained.

"Well, that explains a lot." Aaron said.

Thankfully, there is a fleet of stairs that can be taken to reach the top of the Ginso tree.

"Sweet, there's some stairs that take to get up there!" Aaron said. "So where's the heart exactly?"

"Almost by the top of the Ginso tree, why ask Aaron?" Sein asks.

But Aaron just shuddered in response, he recalls how tall this bloody tree is. Way taller than the Spirit tree, they are in for a long haul.

"Oh god..." Aaron said, dreading the long journey ahead.

A few hours went by as Aaron climbs what feels like thousands of steps and more inside the Ginso tree.

"I better get some damn water after this, this is making me thirsty as hell." Aaron said.

"Why not use some water from your canteen?" Sein asked.

"Yeah, good idea." He said, checking his bag.

"Wait...where's Ori?" Aaron said, noticing the absence of the young spirit.

"You didn't know?" Sein said.

"Know what?" Aaron asks, as he then heard a snore. Looking in his bag, he discovered Ori is using Aaron's blanket to make padding in the cooking pot to make a comfortable bed as Ori curls up with a smile on her face.

...With some noticeable cookie crumbs evidence on her lips.

Aaron took a deep breath as he clenches his fist, but quietly sighs in acceptance.

'It wouldn't last forever anyway.' He thought as he carefully grabs his canteen from the other pocket of the bag and takes a long swing, leaving about a quarter of a bottle left. He packs it back as he carefully puts his bag on again.