A stick snapped nearby, the sudden noise cutting through the intense silence making Ori nearly jump out of his fur. As he quickly followed the sound, he found nothing, not even a broken twig. He sighed and continued to wander. This mist was playing tricks on him.

     After a while, Ori heard another sound, this time a barely discernible whisper. He couldn't quite tell what it said, but was intrigued. He turned around to look for the source, but saw nothing except the glowing, taunting grins in the trees. He groaned. Nothing again.

     Then came the whisper again, from a completely different direction this time. This time, the voice was loud and clear enough to tell what it was saying.

     Ori...

     Ori's ears perked up at the sound of his name, and his head swiveled to point in the direction of the new whisper.

     Ori...

     Ori squinted his eyes to try and peer through the fog, in vain.

     Come, little child...

     The command caught Ori slightly off-guard, but he nonetheless felt a strong compulsion to obey the whispering. After a moment's hesitation, he began to creep towards the source of the whispering.

     Ori...

     Ori continued his slow approach, his eyes constantly squinted and searching for any sort of shape in the mists. As the whispering grew louder, Ori could slowly make out a large shape through the fog. As he continued to creep closer, he could hear Sein's voice suddenly speak up, though it was considerably muffled. "Ori, are you alright?" she asked, but Ori ignored her, his curiosity overtaking his caution.

     Ori slowly began to make out the shape before him. It was clearly some sort of creature, and was considerably wide and chubby, its back turned to the little spirit. As Ori got even closer, he slowly recognized the shape. Was it... Naru? His eyes widened. How? He had seen Naru die! How was Naru here?! Slowly, Naru began to turn around. Her movements were groggy and unnatural.

     Ori suddenly felt a massive surge of dread and fear as Naru turned around. He caught sight of torn, scarred flesh on her side, and he quickly turned away and shut his eyes tight, not wanting to see what Naru's face looked like.

     Look at me, Ori. Look at what you've done.

     The voice whispered once more, and Ori finally recognized it as his mother's voice. But something about the voice was just... wrong. Like something was trying to impersonate her, but failing to completely replicate her voice. This time, the voice had a commanding tone. Ori remained firmly in place, refusing to turn around and look.

     You left me behind, Ori. Look at me. Look at what you've done.

     Ori knew what she was talking about. "But, mom, it wasn't my fault! I'm sorry!" he shouted desperately at the twisted perversion of his mother, still refusing to turn around. The voice responded, this time in an angry, almost demonic shout.

     Sorry isn't enough, you brat! I should have left you to die. You're useless, and always have been. Look at what you did to me! LOOK AT ME!

     Ori held his paws over his ears, squeezing his eyes shut even harder to try and block out the voice that sounded so much like his mother, but also not quite his mother. "No! No! Go away! Go away!" he shouted, tears beginning to pour down his cheeks. He didn't want to look. He didn't want to see what he had done. The voice had risen to a demonic screech now, losing all resemblance it had to his mother's voice.

     LOOK AT ME!!!

     Ori felt a hand on his shoulder, which felt like Naru's, but bony and rotten. Ori immediately dashed off, running as fast and hard as he could. He didn't care where he was going, as long as it was as far away from that twisted illusion of Naru as possible. Naru's words had cut deep into Ori's heart, filling him with guilt and sadness.

     Suddenly, Ori felt Naru's rotten, bony hand grab him by the throat. How? How had Naru gotten ahead of him? Naru lifted Ori into the air, squeezing his throat. Ori gasped, but kept his eyes closed, still not wanting to see Naru's face. The voice had returned to resembling Naru, but had an air of anger to it.

     You think you can just run away? Like you do with all your problems? You could have saved me, you brat! And you just ran away! Cause that's all you're good at!

     Ori began to sob from Naru's twisted words, wriggling in her grasp and desperately protesting against her claims. Naru's grip only seemed to tighten. Finally, Ori decided to unleash a burst of energy, which singed Naru's arm, and Naru let out an animalistic screech that sounded nothing like her, before dropping Ori. Ori stumbled for a moment, before regaining his footing and running again.

     The woods seemed to loop and warp unnaturally as Ori ran through them, with more illusions of Naru appearing to torment Ori, and that horrible fake Naru voice harassing and insulting him. Finally, when Ori felt as though he would break, he tripped over a tree root and tumbled into a ditch. He tumbled for a moment, before rolling to a stop and laying still, panting and sobbing. However, as the overwhelming panic lessened slightly, Ori noticed something: the voices had gone quiet. Slowly, hesitantly, he opened his eyes, and lifted his head to look around while still crying. Additionally, he heard Sein's voice, gradually becoming clearer and clearer and with evident panic in it. "Ori! What happened?! Are you okay?!"

     Ori sobbed for a moment more, before responding in a scared, whimpering voice, sounding like a frightened child. "I-I heard voices, and I saw my m-mom but she was scary and she tried to hurt me, and I tried to r-run but she was everywhere and the v-voice kept saying I—" Ori then promptly broke down into sobs again, covering his head. Sein watched, feeling heartbroken at seeing the little spirit so scared. Slowly, she lowered down and set herself on Ori's back, and a wave of warmth and light washed over and through Ori's body, calming him down and reducing his sobbing to sniffling as the fear and trauma washed away.

     After a few more moments, Ori gently lifted his head to look at Sein, with a few tears still on his face but a grateful smile. "Thank you..." Ori said weakly. If Sein had a face, she'd be smiling. "Of course, my child," she replied. "Now, up! Up! We cannot waste any time."

     Ori nodded, wiping the tears from his eyes and sniffling a little. Sein was right; he didn't have time to cry. And yet, Ori could not shake the image of the rotten, twisted perversion of his mother out of his mind, and could hear that horrible voice echoing in his mind.

     Your fault...

     Ori shut his eyes tight, trying to forget what he saw and heard. Then, Sein's voice rang out several feet away. "Ori, look!"

     Ori's head snapped up and immediately turned to look at Sein. Below her, Ori saw a strange sphere, about the same size as the Water Vein, which glowed an ominous turquoise instead of the cool blue of the Water Vein. The light it emitted seemed to dispel the mist, allowing Ori to see the ground around it clearly. Was that why the voices had stopped?

     Sein spoke in an excited voice. "I remember! This is Atsu's Torch! It was lost in this place. If we take it back to the Shrouded Lantern, it may show us the way!"

     Ori's thoughts instantly turned hopeful and excited; he was more than ready to get out of these cursed woods. He jogged over to the torch, and picked it up in his hands, and found that it was even lighter than it looked. He held it in his arms as he looked around, and his hope diminished slightly. "So, uh... where exactly is the Lantern again?" he asked to Sein, who did the closest thing she could to a shrug. "I do not know. But with Atsu's Torch, the mist cannot make us lose our way."

     Ori slowly and weakly nodded. He felt the Torch slowly lift out of his hands. He released it and it floated up and hovered over Sein. Cool, he thought, now I don't have to carry it.

     He began to haul his body out of the ditch, shuddering a bit as he remembered the hallucinations. Though he knew now that they were just the Misty Woods trying to get to him, he couldn't help but feel guilty for simply abandoning his mother. But he had no choice! There was nothing he could have done! But was her death his fault? Was there something he could have done to help her?

     However, his thoughts were suddenly interrupted by him suddenly slipping on the steep ditch wall, tumbling back down to the bottom of the ditch. He got up, shaking the dirt off of his fur, before trying again. He fell back down again. And again. And again. He would have to find another way out of the ditch.