Jet: Don't hate me, I'm soooooo sorry this took soooooooooooo long; I was having a really hard time with this one and I was looking for a job, which I'm happy to say that after quitting my old job at Wendy's back in November I've found one. (It's June by the way) I now work at the grocery store that is somewhere between five and ten miles from my house. Also I'm working the night shift, which is not a problem because I'm a complete night owl. Anyways, I just wish my feet didn't kill me at the end of the day. But that's really the only thing I have to complain about with this new job; everyone is super nice, they took the time to teach me how to do my job and they get that there's no way I'm going to know everything after the first week. And if you've read how bad it was at for me at Wendy's you know how great this is for me. I've only been working there a few weeks and I love it. But anyways, enough of that, time to read the story which is what you're really here for, and not to hear what's going on in my life. Enjoy the story.

Story 8: A True Friend

Jak was dreaming, he was surrounded by darkness; scared and alone, he looked around, off in the distance he saw a small light. He started to run to it; as he got closer the light began to take the shape of a women's outline. He also heard singing but he couldn't understand the words. As he got closer the outline went from being just an outline to become an actual woman. She was standing next to a baby's crib and was holding something in her arms that Jak couldn't see; he just assumed it was a baby. She had been the one singing, even though he couldn't understand her, her voice calmed him and drove away his fear. It was soft and welcoming. He was only able to see her back- being that the dream wouldn't allow him to see her face. The thing that stood out besides the sound of her voice was her long blond hair. He had a strange feeling as he looked at her- like he knew her. She put the baby in the crib and turned to look at him, Jak looked away before he saw her face. He felt her soft hands touch his cheek. He looked up at her and was only able to see her ocean blue eyes staring back at him. Eyes just like his. He now knew who she was; he hugged her and was about to say something when he felt an invisible hand grab him and pull him away. Jak tried to struggle free from his unseen captor when he heard a loud bang and saw the woman fall to the floor, her blond-green hair hiding her face.

This jolted Jak awake, as he gasped for air he found that he was shaking. It took him a moment to come fully back to the real world. He looked out his window; the sun was just coming up, he hadn't been sleeping very long. Only a few hours earlier he and Daxter had snuck into the yakcow pen and scared them… which ended up destroying the fences that kept them in. It was only going to be another hour or two before he was woken up again and told to go fix it. He pulled the blankets over himself and went back to sleep, hoping not to have another nightmare before then.

The light of the morning sun crept onto Jak's face just two hours later. Not wanting to be up yet, he pulled his blanket more over himself in an attempt to block out the light and sleep a bit more. But that didn't do him much good as his uncle pulled the blanket off him. Jak groaned, stuffing his head under the pillow; his uncle laughed, "Now now, you can't sleep the day away." He said, pulling the pillow off the preteen's head. Jak sat up, looking at the older elf, rubbing the sleep out of one of his eyes and yawning. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't you and Daxter support to fix that fence?" Jak flopped back down on the mattress with a groan, laying there a few moments more before getting out of bed. He picked up his blue, sleeveless shirt from off the floor and looked at his uncle still with a sleepy look in his eyes. His uncle shook his head, "I know you're bored. There's not really much for you and Daxter to do in this village, is there?" He asked, putting a hand on Jak's back. Jak nodded. "I know you were just having a bit of fun, but you know it was wrong." Jak sighed and his uncle ruffled his hair. The preteen looked at the older elf who was now smiling, "Go get your ugly friend, he's probably still sleeping, the sooner you get to work the sooner you'll get done." Jak nodded and headed out the door.

Jak walked to the farmer's house and saw the old man working on fixing the damage that he and Daxter had caused. Even though the mess was mostly his fault, farmer Zeb still smiled and waved at Jak, "Going to get Daxter?" Jak nodded as he headed for the cliff that led up to the fire canyon, "Good, then I can go get some sleep." Jak just smiled and began to climb.

He could remember when climbing this was something hard, but now that he was not only older but taller and stronger it was nothing to him. He reached the top and began to walk down the path that led to the fire canyon. As he walked he thought about something, Samos had on more than one occasion tried to get Daxter to move in with one of the adults in the village, to which he always refused saying that Samos just wanted someone who could tell him what to do. That wasn't the case, the fact was that the canyon's volcanic soil was hot enough that it could melt precursor metal- something that was next to indestructible to began with, so clearly the canyon was not the best place to live. But being that Daxter was happy, Jak didn't see any reason for him to move in with anyone else.

He found Daxter curled up on the ground still sleeping. Jak nudged Daxter with his foot, "Go away Jak." Daxter moaned. Jak rolled his eyes and just nudged him again, Daxter lazily waving an arm at him, "I know we need to fix the fence but we can do that later." His arm flopped over his eyes, "I wanna sleep some more." Jak shook his head and looked around; he saw a small rock sitting not too far way. He grabbed it and then quickly let go, the rock was too hot for him to pick up with his hands. Instead he used the bottom of his shirt to pick it up, this did very little but it would work for what he needed it to do. He walked back over to Daxter, crouched down and dropped the hot rock on his friend's head. "OWWWWW!" Daxter yelled, quickly sitting up and patting the spot of his head where the rock had hit him as if he was trying to put out a fire. Jak began laugh as he watched his friend. Once he had calmed down, Daxter glared at Jak who was laughing so hard he couldn't keep his eyes open. Daxter jumped at Jak sending him to the ground. Jak stopped laughing and smiled as he cracked his knuckles. The two preteens began to playfully wrestle with each other and it only ended when Jak had Daxter in a choke hold, "Okay, okay." Daxter said, "You win, I give."

Jak let him go and then they started to head down the path. They climbed down the cliff and found farmer Zeb sleeping on a pile of hay. Neither of the boys bothered him as they got to work. It took them a good part of the day to fix the broken fence but they did and once they were done they went and woke Zeb up, "Huh? What! Who's there?" He asked, pushing his hat more onto his head.

"It's just us." Daxter said, "We fixed your fence, can we go now?" He asked.

The farmer looked at the work the boys had done. Some of the poles were a bit thinner than the others and some weren't even put in straight, but overall it was nice work. He looked at the boys and nodded. With a smile they both ran off, heading for the beach.

Before they could reach it however the Sculptor stopped them, "Hey little dudes, where you heading?" he asked, sticking his head out the window.

"The beach." Daxter said.

"Shouldn't you be heading for the sage's hut?" He asked.

"No!" Daxter yelled, "And don't tell him were we're heading." Daxter turned to make a run for the beach but Jak grabbed him and started to drag him towards the hut. "Come on Jak. I don't wanna go to those stupid lessons. There's no way you want to either." Jak rolled his eyes as Daxter continued to protest; No, he didn't want to sit through Samos' lessons anymore than Daxter did, he was bored of them. But it was better they just went and sat through it. At least this way Samos wasn't yelling at them. "Besides, he's probably going to just come up with some reason for me to clean his floor again after he's done with his so-called lesson just so he can chew me out for not listening to him in the first place." Jak shook his head.

They walked into the hut to find Samos meditating, "Come on," Daxter whispered, "Let's make a run for it."

"Don't even try." Samos said, looking at them. Jak chuckled as Daxter sighed, defeated. They both sat on the floor, "And Daxter, seeing as you think you can skip these lessons, you can spend the afternoon mopping my floor."

"No!" Daxter yelled angrily. Jak looked at his friend a little shocked.

"What did you just say?" Samos asked, as if he wasn't sure he had heard Daxter.

"I said no." Daxter repeated, "I'm done with these stupid lessons." He started to head out the door, "And you can clean your own floor!" The preteen walked out.

"Daxter, come back here!" Samos yelled. Jak got up and stood at the door, watching Daxter leave.

"What are you going to do if I don't?" Daxter asked angrily, turning to look at him. He waited to for an answer and when Samos didn't give him one, said, "See? There's nothing you can do. There's no reason for me to stay here and listen to your so-called lessons."

Samos glared at Daxter, "The reason is I told you to."

Daxter just looked at him, "You can't tell me what to do! You're not my dad!" And with that he took off running. Jak ran after him before Samos could stop him; not bothering to run down the ramp, Jak jumped down to the grass below.

Although Jak could have caught him easy he just followed as Daxter ran into the jungle. He slowed down after he ran across the bridge. Daxter looked back to see Jak chasing after him, "Go away." He said, heading deeper into the jungle. Jak, not knowing where his friend was going and worrying about his safety, followed at a bit of a farther distance. Daxter ran to the place where just a year ago he and Jak had buried his mother. They had come back not long after and found a stone that they could use as a grave marker. He sat down in front of the stone and pulled his knees to his chest, "Hi mom." He said, Jak staying farther back so Daxter wouldn't know he was there. "I know I've haven't been here in a while and I'm sorry. Old log head is kinda being a jerk. I remember you and dad telling me that I need to always respect my elders but… I've put up with him for years now and I'm really starting to think he just doesn't like me." He laughed a little, "I remember when I would come home to you and dad, crying because someone was picking on me and you would hold me and tell me that someday they would regret what they said and dad would go yell at them." He sighed, "I miss you two, and I wish you were here."

As Jak stood there listening. He couldn't help but feel a bit envious of Daxter; yes, they had both grown up as orphans but there was one thing that Daxter had that Jak just didn't… real memories with his parents. Daxter had been lucky enough to know them, even if was only until he was five. Jak didn't have a single memory of his; for all he knew, Samos had found him all alone, for all he knew they had abandoned him. Even if that was true he still wished he could have known them, he still wished he could have had memories of them, just so he could know what they had looked like. But sadly the closest thing he had was the dream he had that morning. Daxter was lucky if only for the fact that he had real memories.

Daxter looked around and saw Jak there, "I told you not to follow me." he said angrily. However his anger didn't last long, he saw the sad look on Jak's face, and he was almost in tears. "Hey," Daxter said, "I'm not that mad." Daxter said. Jak couldn't help himself; silent tears ran down his face. This both worried and confused Daxter; in the seven years that they had known each other, Jak had never once cried. "Jak?" Daxter asked, "What's wrong?" Jak, realizing he was crying, quickly looked away and wiped away his tears. He looked at Daxter, forcing a smile, one that Daxter could see though, "Come on Jak, what's wrong?" He asked. The forced smile fell and Jak sadly looked at the grave before looking at Daxter and sighing. Daxter just stood there quietly, waiting for Jak to give him some clue as to what was wrong. Jak looked back at the grave as he started to cry again. But before Daxter could ask him again, he started to run back to the village. Daxter chased after him but now that Jak didn't want Daxter to catch him, he easily out-ran him.

Jak got back to the village and saw his uncle talking to the farmer. The preteen ran up to the closest thing to family that he had and hugged him as fresh tears streamed down his cheeks. His uncle, who had been taken by surprise, could tell that Jak was upset, at what- he didn't know, but regardless he hugged him and started to lead him home. Daxter had caught up at least a little and saw what was going on. Now Daxter might not have been the smartest person in the village but he also was not a complete idiot. And he knew Jak well enough that he was able to start putting the pieces together. But if he wanted to completely understand what Jak was upset about, he was going to need help. He looked at the sage's hut; this was not going to be fun.

He walked into the sage's hut and saw him meditating. "Hey, old greeny!" Daxter yelled. Samos just ignored him. "Log noggin." He called, still Samos didn't look at him, "Would you look at me!?" Daxter yelled, "This is kinda important!"

Finally Samos looked at him, "Why should I listen, you never listen to me. Why shouldn't I treat you with the respect you show me?"

"Because this isn't about me… it's about Jak."

Samos just looked at the preteen, "What about him?"

"What happened to his family?" Daxter asked before he could hesitate.

That was an interesting question, one that Samos had never thought Daxter would ask. In truth, Samos didn't really know what happened to Jak's parents. "I don't know."

"You have to know something, and I'm not leaving till you tell me what it is."

"You don't need to know."

"Yes I do, Jak's my best friend I have to know what happened. And besides, you're always complaining that I never listen to you, well I'm listening now, so tell me."

Samos sighed, "Very well, I'll tell you what I know." And he did in a sense. He told Daxter that Jak's parents were very well respected people. Who, through events that Samos didn't fully know, had been forced out of their home when Jak was a small toddler, and Samos had found him wandering around all alone. He left out some information; like the fact that Jak was really a prince of a city that wouldn't exist for another five hundred years or the fact that Jak, Keira and him were not from this time at all.

"But what happed to his parents, where are they?" Daxter asked.

"They're dead."

Daxter looked at him, confused, "How do you know all this?" He asked.

"Like I said, Jak's parents were very well respected people in the… village we used to live in."

"He doesn't know anything about them does he?"

Samos sighed, "No."

"But you know about them, why haven't you told him anything?" Daxter asked, now getting a little angry.

"What good would it do?" The older elf asked.

Daxter looked at him, confused, shaking his head a bit, "What good would it do?" he repeated, "I might not remember my parents completely, but at least I have some memories of them, Jak doesn't even have that."

Samos just looked at the angry preteen, "What brought this on anyways?" He asked.

Daxter went quiet and looked at his feet, "I… after I ran off I… went to my mom's grave and I started talking about how I missed her and my dad and how they used to protect me. And then I realized Jak was there; he looked so upset. Then he took off for the village and I followed…"

"You were trying to be a good friend." Samos said. Daxter looked at him, "Daxter, I don't think it's a secret that I find you to be a lazy, egotistical, rude and sometimes self-centered young man," Daxter glared at him as he continued, "but I also always knew one very important thing about you; you are a good and loyal friend and you don't know it yet. But Jak is going need someone like that." He put a hand on Daxter's shoulder, "even if you don't fully understand what the problem is, I know you will stand by him and do what you can to make everything alright because that's the kind of person you truly are." Daxter smiled, Samos had never really gave him a compliment before; he never realized how much that would really mean to him. Samos also smiled, "So being that, I trust you to make the right decisions. I'm leaving it up to you; you can tell Jak what I've told you about his parents, or you can keep it to yourself. Whatever you think is best. Now get out of here and go find your friend." Daxter didn't say anything and ran out of the hut.

He ran to Jak's hut but didn't find him, instead he just found Jak's uncle who told him Jak had gone to the beach, and so Daxter took off again. He found him sitting near the shore, drawing something in the sand, it never sat there long because the water would just wash it away. Daxter came up behind him, "Jak… you okay buddy?" Jak looked at him with a sad look and slowly nodded. Daxter sat down next to him and the two just looked at the horizon as the sun set, not saying anything for a long while before Daxter spoke, "So… I did some asking and I… found out a bit about your parents." Jak looked at him shocked. "Don't bother asking old log-in-the-head about them, he won't tell you squat. But if you want I'll tell ya." Jak stared at him, he wanted to know; he had every right to know, but at the same time, he didn't. Him knowing wouldn't change anything, it wouldn't change the fact that Jak would still never meet them and he was also worried that knowing about them would make him feel worse than he already did. So he just looked back out at the water and slowly shook his head, he wanted to know, he truly did, but he didn't want Daxter to tell him. "Well… okay." Daxter said, getting up and stretching, "Well, it's getting late, and I got up waaaay too early this morning. I'm going to bed." Jak nodded as he walked away. Once Daxter was gone he just went back to drawing in the sand. Really he just wanted to be alone for a little while.

Jet: Again sorry this took me so long but sadly even if I got this done faster I can't say it would have gotten posted too much quicker. Being that I moved last year (well… I moved in December of 2012 so make of that what you will) my BFF does not live right down the street from my house anymore and although yes every once in a while I will e-mail her a chapter when I'm done, it's even harder for her to edit it without me there- being that sometimes my spelling is so bad that she's not fully sure what I'm trying to say (in person makes the process easier) on top of that she has a hard time getting to a computer- she doesn't have a personal one. Again, I apologize for how long this had taking but that's just the way it's going to be. Onto better news, I'm still working on The Lost Frontier. Which is another reason why this chapter took me so long; I was working on that, instead of this at some points. But being that I've been working on that for so long now my BFF had been able to read the chapters for that as I've been writing them and with some form of luck I should have it done either later this year or early next year and once I start posting chapters of that I will be able to post a chapter every week. But that's way in the future, right now I'm working on the part where they're trying to fix the eco seeker and are heading back to Far Drop. But now I'm really rambling so I'll see everyone for the next chapter which hopefully I'll get done much quicker.