Oh gosh I'm terrible at updating XD
Mostly because I have only the vaguest idea of what I'm doing here. I want to jump ahead to when the first game would start, but the entire point of this was to explore how Jak and Dax would grow up with Gol and Maia. Gonna try hard.
Also just to be absolutely clear the village they go to is not one of the ones from the game. It's in an area that was spared from dark eco flooding so is more densely populated.
Thanks to Arenhai, DarkEcoFreak3, Emeraldpichu, Elder, OrangeSkye2772, ShadowNic94 and one guest for reviewing. 3
The home of the dark eco sages was secluded out of necessity. Surrounded by jungle on all sides, the nearest settlement being a full days walk to the north. South of the mesh of Precursor ruins and elven wood work the two sages lived in you could just see, if the sun hit it right, the gleaming orange of a tall dark eco silo. Not far from there were the lava tubes and Precursor citadel the yellow sage called home. Far, far to the south was Sandover. Pressed up against the ocean and the only populated place left south of the mountains.
Said home had been the living quarters of generations of dark eco sages and apprentices. The permanent pyre near by, thankfully unlit for years now, a testament to how dangerous simply being around their chosen eco was. Once, long ago, the spacious metal and wood abode was home to dozens of researchers and sags alike. As time wore on and the deep violet liquid claimed more and more lives, the thriving halls grew quieter and quieter. Now only Gol and Maia remained, their last apprentice having succumbed to eco poisoning two years ago.
It would be nice, Maia thought as she watch the two young children carefully explore the room she had picked out for them, to have voices and laughter in the halls again.
It was three weeks before the new family encountered their first real problem. On the contrary things had been going much better than expected as the two boys settled in with ease. Gol gradually lost the brooding look he had carried since returning from Sandover as the duo of noise and energy got used to their new surroundings. Daxter providing all of the noise of course.
Jak wasn't fazed at all by the sudden change of surroundings. They had been able to decipher through body language and Daxter (who seemed to actually hear words from the other boy somehow. Gol suspected it was through eco somehow, but then that was his answer to everything) that Jak had never really stayed in one place, with one set of people, for very long anyway.
Some of the things Jak told them, through Daxter or through crude drawings, seemed impossible. They couldn't even begin to decipher where he had come from, the stories and descriptions seeming just too fantastic to believe. Maia wondered if the tales were made up to help the young boy deal with the things he had seen. It would fit with his refusal to talk (the siblings had heard him make noise and after an examination there didn't seem to be anything wrong with his vocal cords. They had witnessed however, people who became mute by choice before after being exposed to terrible trauma.) After all, how could things like talking animals and monsters with glowing skulls and dark eco flowing through their veins exist? The machines that fired eco at the monsters were of interest to the two sages, but Jak was unclear on how they worked.
No, despite being in a new place with new people neither boy seemed to have much of a problem. Daxter missed his parents, certainly, but they were both so young that he seemed to forget they were even missing when wrapped up in a game. Both boys were also ridiculously independent for their ages. Jak more so than Daxter, but the red head was determined to do everything the other boys could. Certainly the past three weeks had been a breeze, until tonight...
"But it's gross! I don't WANNA eat that nasty green stuff!" Daxter whined when Maia tried to push more collards onto his plate. Jak had a bit of a sour face at the thought of the vegetable as well, but was resolutely eating them anyway. Thank the Precursors.
"You need to eat them. They're good for you and will help you grow up big and strong." Maia tried patiently. Certainly they weren't the best tasting thing in the world, but young bodies needed a balanced diet to be healthy.
"GOL don't have ta eat 'em!" Pointed the red head. Said eco sage blinked like a gazelle-deer in torch light. Sure enough his plate was suspiciously empty of the boiled vegetable.
"Well they er...that is..." The elder sage shifted uncomfortably at his sister's accusing stare. "I mean...they really arn't that great..." He trailed off quietly. With that revelation even Jak was starting to look at his dinner with mutiny in his eyes.
"They are high in vitamins that young elves AND stubborn channelers need to stay healthy and strong and you WILL eat them. ALL of you." Maia said slowly with narrowed eyes.
"Until you can find something else that will suit our nutritional needs," The female sage said to her brother in a tone the brokered no argument. "It will have to be collards. You know how dangerous it can be to be anything less than perfect health. Which is why NO ONE is leaving this table until everything on their plates is eaten. Am I understood?" She pressed when it looked like Daxter was going to start whinging again.
The young elf had obviously seen the same look Maia was wearing on his own mother enough times to know the only rational course of action was to utter a 'yes ma'am' and sourly stab the offending greens.
The next day, late in the afternoon, found Maia staring at a two filthy little boys grinning from ear to ear. The two of them had a small bag, of which the female sage had no idea where they had gotten, filled to the bursting with some kind of plant.
"This stuff is green AND super healthy AND don't taste so nasty!" Daxter proclaimed proudly. "It grew alllll over the place where we lived be'fore and mama..." He trailed off with a sad look, as if he were just remembering that his mother wasn't around anymore. Maybe he was.
"Mama picked it all th' time fer dinner." He finished quietly, lapsing further into his strange accent. Jak frowned at his friend's sudden sadness and patted him on the head. That seemed to be his go to response to the red head missing his family or feeling down. Maia smiled gently at the sight, wondering who he had learned it from.
"I hope it is better than what we had last night. To be honest I'm getting tired of collard greens too." Daxter smiled at her from under Jak's hand.
"S'at mean we never have ta have them again?" He asked brightly.
"Don't get your hopes up." She cautioned with a laugh.
Daxter might have been the loudest of the two boys, but Jak was certainly the trouble maker. If it could be climbed in, on or under it was. He took to eco lessons eagerly but was always trying to go one step farther. Worst of all, half living in a Precursor ruin, was that Precursor objects just seemed to react to Jak. Gol and Maia could both feel grey hairs coming on as the months went by and more and more parts of their lab had to be blocked off and forbidden. Perhaps when he was older they would take delight in exploring the ruins together, but a three to four year old (they weren't really sure, and neither was Jak) just walking up to a door that had been sealed for centuries and opening it with a touch only to keep on exploring was frightening to his caretakers. Unexplored Precursor ruins were dangerous!
Speaking of grey hair and Precursor objects, the two sages nearly had heart attacks when Jak came back from playing (the two boys had to stay within sight of the hut when they went outside, but they often disobeyed.) alone and with tears in his eyes. When questioned about where his companion was the most coherent thing the siblings could decipher was 'they're trying to take him'.
With chills running down their spines the two sages flew as quickly as they could to where Jak said he had left Daxter. They found the red head siting in front of a Precursor idol with a blank look on his face. The normally dormant idol was humming faintly and no amount of shaking or shouting seemed to break the young boy out of his trance. In a fit of desperation Gol blasted the idol with a torrent of dark energy. The Precursor metal crackled and fizzed before going dark and silent once more. Daxter snapped out of what ever hold the thing had had on him with no memory of what had happened.
The boys were confined inside the lab for the next several weeks and the two sages found went out and found every Precursor idol they could, and destroyed it.
Since between the four of them none had any idea what so ever of when the boys were born, the two sages decided they would celebrate their birthday on the day Gol and Maia had adopted them. It was always a happy occasion, despite there being only the four of them to celebrate it. Gol would usually make the long journey to the nearest village to trade for toys of some sort, the only kind the two boys had that weren't homemade. Maia would cook something sweet especially for them. Sometimes a sweet bread or even a small cake, sometimes a pie with just a bit more sugar than she would usually use.
As the two got older and began to wonder about the outside world however, the two sages knew that the time was fast approaching when such things would no longer be suitable.
"We get to go to the village tomorrow!" Daxter gushed as he bounced around excitedly. "Other people! REAL other people! Not jus' pictures an stuff!" Arn't ya excited Jak?" The green-blonde boy nodded happily, though was content to sit on the bed rather than jump on it. Tomorrow they would be eight years old and Gol had promised to bring them with him to trade with the villagers tomorrow.
'He also said that we have to be quiet and do everything he says exactly or he'll send us straight back. Think you can handle that?' Jak teased silently. Over the years Gol and Maia had coaxed him into speaking out loud like everyone else, but when they were alone Jak much preferred to talk in his own way to his friend. It was hard to find words to say what he wanted sometimes. It was much easier to just think what he wanted to say. Daxter always understood. He could even talk back if he wanted, but the red head loved the sound of his own voice too much to do it often as Gol had once said. Or rather sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Same thing.
"Shhhhh yeah I can! I will be the MASTER of silence! Th' PICTURE of obedience! All the adults 're gonna look at me and be like 'wow! What a well behaved child I wish MY kids were like that.' Jak..." Grinned the red head with wide eyes. "There's gonna be other kids! Other kids!" He flopped down on the bed and hugged a pillow, rolling back and forth with barely contained excitement. "Think they'll wanna play with us?"
'I don't know...' Jak said seriously. 'your weird teeth might scare them away.' The green-blonde laughed as his friend smacked him with a pillow.
"Leave my teeth out of this. Yer just jealous an' we both know it. I'm special." Daxter humphed. At least that's what Maia had said when he asked why his teeth were flat instead of sharp like hers and Gol's, and how Jak's were becoming. She hadn't had such a pleasing answer when he asked why he couldn't channel eco like them.
'Some people...just can't.' She had said with a faraway look. 'Most people can't even touch it without being burned or worse.' Dark eco used to burn, kinda, when he was younger. Now it was just slimy. Daxter had to admit he was kinda jealous that Jak got all sorts of cool powers from the stuff and all the red head got was wet.
What ever. Jak might have been a prodigy with eco, but Daxter was better than him at other things. For one he was faster and had better aim. Maia had been teaching them how to fight since they were little. 'Just in case' she had said. It was certainly useful against Lurkers when he and Jak wandered deep into the jungle that surrounded their home. Gol sometimes joined their practices but Maia was the hand-to-hand expert. It was only in the past month when she had found the two of them swinging some sticks around that she had decided if they were going to play with weapons they were going to learn how to use them.
Gol had a sword, but was reluctant to use it. Jak was eager to learn though and practiced with his wooden one dutifully. Daxer thought the lump of wood just felt awkward and quickly gave up in frustration. Maia had frowned and tried them on bows next. She admitted she hadn't used a bow since her girl hood years and was more than a little rusty, but she got the theory across well enough. The proud look the dark sage had given Daxter as he hit his targets with more precision was more than enough for him to keep going. It wasn't every day he was so much better at something so quickly than Jak.
None the less Gol forced Daxter to keep up the sword practice as well, stating he'd get the hang of it eventually.
Daxter certainly got more practice in than Jak, who had eco lessons with Gol most days. The two sages were also more lenient about the blonde boy learning a weapon because of his channeling ability. Sometimes life just wasn't fair.
"What ever." Daxter grumbled at the train of thought, snuggling under the covers. "Tomorrow is going to be th' best day EVER." Jak chuckled and blew out the small candle that was keeping the room lit, settling down as well. Maia and Gol had long since given up trying to get the boys to sleep in separate beds. They figured once the two got old enough to start wanting privacy the problem would sort it'self out.
'Night.' Daxter whispered silently.
'Good night.' Jak thought back.
The four of them didn't actually get to the village until late at night the next day, having to walk from early morning until dusk to even be withing sight of it. The settlement didn't have it's own teleporter ring so when Gol or Maia made their trips they usually flew there, cutting hours off the trip. However the two boys with them were too big now to carry so walking it was. As soon as they shuffled into the small inn and paid for the night sleep was the only thing on the boy's minds.
The next morning dawned bright and early for the two excited children. An excitement that gradually dimmed through breakfast at the Inn as they noticed the tense looks between their caretakers and the innkeepers. By the time they went out to do the shopping both boys were quiet and wary as they moved through the village. People stared unkindly as they walked by and whispered when they were gone. Any children that had been playing ran away quickly or else were pulled to the side by hard faced adults.
The market area was better, bustling with noise and trade. Still people gave them a wide berth as they moved through the crowd. Jak noticed how reluctant the vendors were to trade with the two sages, even though the Precursor orbs that changed hands were in a far larger amount than what the boy saw other people giving.
'People are staring at us, an' not in a nice way.' Daxter's mental voice sounded strained. He'd been unnaturally quiet the entire time, practically clinging to Maia's side. Jak wasn't doing much better to be honest. He REALLY didn't like some of the looks people were giving the two sages, and to he and Daxter as well. Though the looks the two boys got were of a different sort than the dark sages. He wasn't so sure this trip was a good idea anymore.
"GOL! MAIA! HAHAHAHAHA!" A booming voice suddenly cut through the crowd like a razor sharp knife. Daxter yelped and Jak jumped, both startled out of their wits. Gol and Maia didn't look much better. Not so much pushing through the crowd as parting it with his sheer bulk was the BIGGEST man either boy had ever seen. And he was red!
The large man was laughing and talking more than Daxter when he'd had too many pecha fruits. Gol and Maia looked strained, but somehow more relaxed at the same time as they answered the man's questions. When they could.
'He must be one of the other sages. The Red Eco one, I'd bet.' Jak realized with a start.
"Noooo, ya think?" Daxter muttered back sarcastically, speaking out loud for the first time since that morning. The small noise was enough to divert the giant man's attention.
"And who do we have here? Don't tell me these are new apprentices, Gol! They're so young!" Laughed the Red Sage. He was certainly a jolly fellow.
"It has been good to see you, old friend, but we still have the journey back to our lab to make and our shopping isn't nearly done." Gol dodged the question with a wave at their carried goods. "The walk is quite far, as I'm sure you well know."
"It is, it is!" Boomed the sage in agreement. "I do have my own errands to attend to, but Gol! Maia! Turn on your end of the teleporter ring sometime and drop in for tea! It has been ages since I have seen any of the other sages. All too busy with their various works I'm sure, but certainly not too busy to drop in on an old friend now and then!"
"Perhaps." Gol nodded as Maia began herding them away.
"Feel free to bring the boys too! They'd get along swimmingly with my own apprentices I'm sure!" Called the red sage before the disappeared into the crowd.
They hurried through the rest of the shopping and were out of the village well before noon. It had to be about that time when Jak ventured his question.
"There are...other apprentices?" He asked, not willing to get into the topic of how hostile the villagers had seemed towards them.
"There are." Gol nodded after some time.
"How come we never heard of em?" Daxter asked, kicking a rock. "Is it 'cause they're mean like all them villagers?"
"Oh little one." Maia sighed. "The villagers weren't mean. They were...scared."
"Of us?" Said Jak quietly.
"Of the eco we are known to wield. As we have told you many times over the years, Dark eco is very dangerous. Even more so to those not gifted with it's use." Gol stated in his teacher voice.
"But I can't channel it and it don't hurt me at all!" Protested Daxter.
"Your eco immunity is a rare, rare gift. Even rarer than being a dark channeler." This settled the group into silence again as they own pondered their own inner musings.
"Gol..." Maia began after a great time of silence. "It...would be good for the boys to be around other children." She said quietly.
"Atmos' apprentices would all be so much older than them though." Gol protested.
"Not so much older. Ten is the usual age for other eco affinities to begin their training, and the boys are eight." Dark eco, being so much more dangerous naturally didn't start training until much older. Usually.
"But what if...the...other sages...?" Said Gol very, very quietly. Maia looked conflicted.
"We can't keep them isolated forever. Can we?" She asked.
"...No. No of course not." Gol replied after an uneasy pause. "We...we will have to discuss this more later. For now, let is just focus on getting home."