Disclaimer: See previous chapters...

Chapter the Tenth: The Crippling

I had left Rose back at the hot spring, she could easily find the way back herself I figured. When I got back to the hut I tried to walk normally, I had to be healed by now. When I nearly broke my face again, I found I was wrong. At least I caught myself this time.

I must have made a bit of noise because Jak and Keira came outside.

/Are you okay?/ Jak asked as he helped me stand.

"Yeah, geez I'm really starting to hate this leg."

The two exchanged sad expressions before turning to me again. I arched an eyebrow in confusion. It was probably about something else I thought so I shrugged it off and limped inside. The floor was now covered in mats that I assumed were for sleeping on. It didn't take me long to claim one for myself. These must have been set up soon after me and Rose left for the hot spring. Another feature that was new to the interior of the one room house was a wooden cane leaning on the wall next to my mat.

It wasn't anything fancy, but it was definitely recently carved. I knew it wasn't there before I left so it couldn't belong to the Blue Sage or Rose. Samos already had a staff and none of the others would need it...

Samos started speaking in a sad tone.

"Jen, while I was patching you up from your trip to Misty Island...well, you're leg had taken severe damage."

"Uh, I think I figured that out when I almost shattered my nose."

Despite my smart response, Samos remained calm. I became worried. This was a sure sign something was wrong.

"It's really very serious." The sage continued. Everyone else was silent, adding to the suspense that layered the air like gravy on homemade mashed potatoes. But I don't really care for mashed potatoes, nor am I a fan of suspense. "As you predicted, the tendon in your leg has broken. And...while Green Eco can heal cuts and create new tissue, it can't stretch the tendon to reattach it."

In the back of my mind, I knew where this was going. I knew why the cane was there. But the front refused to listen.

"What are you saying Samos?"

The sage tightened his grip on his staff.

"Jen...you've been crippled. You won't ever walk normally again."

Keira looked like she was going to cry. Charlie just turned to the window. Jak stared at the floor so hardly it should have burned. I just sat staring at the room and those in it, not looking at anything, but seeing everything and nothing.

Everything was wrong. Nothing was working. I silently begged something to tell me it wasn't true.

I felt my tears, but no sobs came with them. I didn't know how I should react to news like that, so I just curled up on my mat and cried myself to sleep.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

My eyes felt like raisins. They usually do after crying so much. My mind still being in the wake up stage was stupid enough to ask why I was crying in the first place. I opened my now reddish raisins as if the answer would be something that I could see.

It was.

The first thing my tired gaze landed on was the cane. Unable to shed more tears, I just buried my face in the fur next to me. Huh, fur? Was my dream real...

No. The fur was orange.

And the owner looked mighty comfortable. Apparently he had taken advantage of the fact I was asleep. I plucked him up by the scruff of his neck, waking him up, and tossed him out the door. Had he no shame?! And I was already depressed!

His scream woke up everyone else. The majority looked really pissed at me. I ignored them and lay back down. Glancing out the window, I saw it was a little past dawn. This was the time people usually started waking up anyway, so the others decided to wake up. I didn't move. How could I help them now?

I just lay there, listening to the going ons behind me, glaring at the cane. I gathered we had plenty of Power Cells to fuel the machine that would lift the boulder off the path. Jak, Keira, Rose and the shameless dolt left to turn it on. Samos tried to console me; he might as well have been talking to a wall.

A little over ten minutes later, the comm came to life and Rose's voice came through.

"The boulder's gone. Jak just started climbing; he should be facing the monster Lurker soon."

Keira voiced her own concern. "I hope he makes it all right..."

The sage's attention shifted to the small hovering device. Charlie was dozing in the corner. I must have gone insane right then and there. My hand snatched up the cane and used it to help me get to my feet. I felt like the star of my favorite medical drama limping out the door, something I would have to get used to I guess. Samos heard me rise and forsook the comm to chase after me.

"Jen! Where do you think you're going?" he called.

"Just because I can't run a marathon doesn't make me a worthless extra mouth." I replied, my voice layered with ice. Even with my limp, I was going faster than the old man could and he was lagging behind quickly. When I reached the pontoons that made a bridge across the delta I realized I had a problem. Jumping.

It took me a moment, but after a bit of pacing and chewing my bottom lip, I decided 'what the hell' and used my good leg to give me the thrust to jump onto the floating logs. I just kept jumping, and running at the same time.

Rose and Keira both had incredibly shocked looks on their faces when they saw me coming. On the last jump, I slipped and fell in the water. Fortunately I could still swim and came up sputtering. I refused any help they offered to pull me up.

"Jen what are you doing here? You should be back at the hut!"

"Don't go all sappy on me Rose, I don't need it."

It was probably better that I had gotten wet. If I recalled correctly my destination was pretty hot. I started the rather short climb to the crater where Jak should have been fighting the Lurker, gripping my cane in my mouth.

"What are you doing?!" Keira shouted at me trying to pull me back down. "You can't fight, and I know Jak can handle it."

I didn't have time for this, I took the cane and rapped her lightly on the head, causing her to back away.

"I will fight if I must."

Ignoring any further protests, I resumed my task of climbing up. As the distance between me and the ground grew, the temperature increased as well. Getting wet beforehand was a good idea after all.

At the top, I found the massive beast standing on its last legs, and Jak firing yellow eco like a maniac. With the knowledge it was already half dead, I leapt down onto the cooler stones. I could almost feel my hair getting drier.

One more blast from the hero sent the beast rolling in the molten rock. I watched with much disgust as the flesh and organs burned away revealing now burnt bones. After much more jumping, and almost falling, I caught up to Jak and the pervy fuzz, both of which were wearing faces fit for a blackmail picture.

I only acknowledged them enough to push them out of my way and continued to limp/run. Jak tried to stop me, grabbing my arm that held the cane.

/What do you think you're doing?/

He was dripping in sweat, his bangs plastered to his forehead which looked like it was coated in oil. His clothes had darkened, damp patches in the extremities. You would look like that too if you had just killed something several times your size while trying not to fall in a pit of lava.

"Is that all anyone can say to me anymore?" I replied shoving his arm away. The rat had to chime in.

"Seriously, you can't be here! You'll become a crispy critter if you slip!"

I grabbed his ears and dragged him off of Jak's shoulder. "The same thing applies to you if you piss me off. Which might I point out you've already done twice already."

"You got it all wrong!" he cried struggling in my grip. "I wasn't trying to snoop!"

I grunted and threw him back to Jak who caught the rodent with one hand. He seemed more dumbfounded than usual as I stalked to the other side of the crater. Upon reaching the other side, I found another transpad with the Zoomer hovering over it. That rotten machine is what ruined my leg in the first place, but my body refused to listen to my mind and climbed on.

I pulled down my goggles and stuck my cane through a small ring on the front meant for tethering before turning it on and flying off.

(Dax: Wow, you've gone insane! Why would you steal the Zoomer? Why would you torture me? Okay the answer to that is obvious...but most of all, WHY DID YOU HIT KEIRA?!

FFO: Why...you wanna know why...you REALLY wanna know WHY?! I'll tell ya why...IN THE NEXT CHAPTER!!! Despite what you think, I DO read the reviews AND I reply to them!

Dax: She does. Really. Aw, do I have to say this?

FFO: Yes, because it's 10:30 at night and I wanna sleep. Not to mention that essay...I hate the number 5...especially when referring to paragraphs...

Dax: Ok, ok...constructive criticism is appreciated. Remember, it takes 170000000 compliments to negate one negative remark.)