Author's note: For ease of writing, I'm going to give Jak's uncle the name 'Carter', because he seems like a Carter to me.
Sandover was almost idyllic in the placement of the village, a beautiful beach with Precursor ruins to one side, a mysterious jungle with a Precursor temple to the other side, and facing out into the endless sea. There was a reason that Carter always returned to Sandover between his travels, despite its rather isolated location.
Well, the beauty and draw of Sandover used to be the reason. But in the last handful of years, he had gained a new reason to return, as well as for his explorations to be shorter that they used to be.
The Explorer's adopted nephew sat next to him just outside their hut, the boy's friend Daxter on Jak's other side, the three of them staring out at the sea as they waited for it to turn midnight.
Normally, Carter would not allow his wards to stay up so late when he was home, sleep schedules were important for growing children after all. But tonight was a special night.
Tonight, Jak and Daxter would turn ten. And Carter had decided that it was a special enough occasion for the boys to stay up and see their turn into double-digits.
Sort of.
For Daxter, it really was his tenth birthday once the clocks hit midnight.
But Jak's actual birthday, and age for that matter, were unknown. Despite arriving with the boy and initially caring for him before Carter took custody, Samos was as clueless as the rest of the village as to when Jak was born, and they could only guess Jak's age. When asked about these things himself, a young-Jak had only shrugged cluelessly.
The villagers had been debating when to place Jak's birthday, some suggesting the day Jak arrived in Sandover, when Daxter had piped up to offer that Jak share his birthday, stating that he didn't mind sharing since he and Jak were 'the bestest of friends'. This had earned Daxter a lot of praise from being so generous and caring for Jak, which the boy had ate up at the time.
However, Daxter had quickly changed his tune when he realised that sharing his birthday also meant sharing the attention, as well as the villagers taking advantage of the shared day to only give out one set of presents while saying it was for both of the boys. It had been too late for Daxter to change his mind by the time he realised the downsides, and while he would grumble each year about having to share, it thankfully hadn't impacted his strong bond with Jak.
Beside Carter, Jak yawned and stretched, the late hour making its impact. Beside him, Daxter followed a second later.
"If you boys are tired, you can go inside." Carter offered jokingly.
"No way!" Daxter proclaimed while Jak shook his head hard. "We're sayin' up til' we're ten."
Carter laughed at the childish resolution.
With how tired the boys looked, it was not likely they'd make it to midnight without some help.
"Can you tell me which star in the sky is the brightest?" He asked the boys.
Jak bit his lip as he began searching the sky, trying to find the brightest star.
"That one! No, that one!" Daxter pointed at several stars.
Eventually, Jak pointed confidently at one of the stars.
"That's right." Carter praised his nephew. "That is the star, Igniculous."
"Inigulous?" Daxter tried to say the name.
"Ig-nic-u-lous." Carter corrected. "Though, that's not its only name. During my travels, I came across a culture that referred to the star as Aurora, the Child of Light."
"Child of Light? They think a kid is up there?" Daxter scrunched up his face as he looked at the star.
"No, they see the star as a representation of an old Queen and her story. Do you see that trail of stars that follow behind Igniculous?"
Jak nodded.
"Together with Igniculous, or rather Aurora, they form the constellation of the Journeying Pilgrims, a legend from the Lemurian culture." Carter explained.
Jak clapped his hands excitedly and sighed at his uncle, asking to know more of the legend.
Carter smiled and recounted what he had learned of the legend. It was too long to recount the full tale, but he could give a summarised version and tell the story to the boys proper at later date.
"Well, once in Lemuria, long ago, a girl from an unknown land arrived, searching only for the way home. But as she travelled, she was given the destiny of recovering sacred artifacts that were stolen by the dark Queen Umbra, who had usurped the previous Queen and plunged Lemuria into a time of darkness and death. Along her journey, she made friends with several folk of the different tribes of Lemuria, who then decided to travel alongside her, becoming pilgrims who travelled the land. Together, they recovered the sacred artifacts, defeated Umbra and her daughters, and restored peace to Lemuria with Aurora and her friends ruling together."
"But what about Aurora returning home?" Daxter asked with a yawn.
"Well, Lemuria was Aurora's home." Carter explained. "She was the child of the usurped queen, who had travelled to the unknown land and was said to have fallen in love. But Aurora was then brought into our world through the failed machinations of Umbra."
Jak pointed up at the stars.
"The stars represent the long journey of the pilgrims." Carter turned to why the story was represented in the stars. "You see, the position of the stars in Lemuria is different to here because it's so far away. While to us, those stars are always in the sky no matter the time of year, in Lemuria they disappear below the horizon for a couple of weeks during the winter. Part of the story includes the pilgrims seeking out the 'lowest of the low' to find one of the artifacts, deep in the Lemurian sea just like how the stars seemingly disappear into the sea for those weeks. Aurora was said to have died recovering the final artifact but was resurrected through those artifacts and collective wishes of all those she had aided on her journey, and just like Aurora, the stars rise out of the sea again, seemingly even brighter."
The legend of the Journeying Pilgrims, as well as how many stars made up the constellation, varied depending on where one was in Lemuria. Some claimed that there were only eight Pilgrims with the inclusion of Aurora and some claimed that there were nine pilgrims, with one of the lesser stars near the cluster that made up the Pilgrims was also included in the constellation. The regions that claimed the ninth pilgrim would also conflict over the identity of who the ninth star represented in the Pilgrim's journey.
Carter had found it all fascinating, how one story could have so many different telling's over one land.
At the end of his tale, Daxter was already slipping into sleep, having lost the fight to stay up. But Jak was still wide awake, eager to hear more stories about the stars.
So, Carter told his nephew more about the stars, teaching him the different constellations and the stories behind them. Some of them had been taught to Carter by his own father, the Explorer now able to pass these tales on to his adopted nephew, and others were stories that he had learned on his travels.
"Do you see the star in the eye of the Storm Hawk?" Carter asked his nephew after many stories.
Jak nodded, looking worn down and almost ready to join Daxter in sleep.
"It is the most Northern Star. While the other stars move around the night sky through the year, that star will always remain where it is. And it is how, when I am far out in the world and exploring the furthest reaches of what the Precursors built, I know my way home." Carter explained.
He told Jak about how use used the constellations in relation to the Northern Star and what season it was as a guide and taught him how to read the sky, how holding up one's hand and aligning it with certain stars would point the way back to Sandover from far away.
"Touch your fingers to the end of the right arm of the Lombax Major, the yellow star, and the other to Igniculous. If you sailed in the direction of where your middle finger points, you would eventually end up in Lemuria." The Explorer showed.
Jak did as instructed and smiled, then pointed at the ground.
"Once you are old enough to join me on my travels, I will show you how to find your way back to Sandover." Carter promised.
Further conversation was interrupted by chiming coming from inside the hut. It had turned midnight.
It took a few seconds for Jak's sleep-deprived mind to understand what those chimes meant, but when he did, he began jumping up and down, swinging around to shake Daxter awake.
"Whu-wha-what." Daxter jerked awake.
Jak punched Daxter on the arm.
"What was that for?" Daxter demanded.
"Happy birthday, lad." Carter reminded the boy.
Daxter blinked before grinning widely, punching Jak back on his arm.
"It's our birthday! We're ten!" Daxter cheered.
Carter smiled at how excited the boys were, though also winced at Daxter's volume. While he and the boys had decided to stay up, the other villagers had decidedly not and were no doubt being awoken by the noise.
Still, the excitement of the boys for just turning ten was endearing and Carter knew to treasure these moments while he could. In just five years of knowing them, Jak and Daxter had grown into strong capable boys, able to look after themselves and each other while the Explorer went off to pursue new discoveries. And in another five years, they'd likely be capable of so much.
How much time did Carter have left with his nephew and ward, before they started going off on their own adventures?
The Green Sage was always tight-lipped and mysterious when it came to Jak's past and where they had come from, but he had warned that one day he and Jak would have to return to whence they came, not to return.
Carter didn't understand how Samos was so sure of this, but something told him that the Sage was speaking the truth. If that day came, where Jak had to leave, his nephew would at least know his way back to Sandover though the stars, know his way back to his dear old uncle.
Realising that the boy had gone silent, Carter looked over to see that Jak and Daxter had collapsed on the ground in sleep, no longer able to stave off their exhaustion now that the excitement of turning ten had waned.
Carter smiled at the boys and then huffed. As cute as it was that they had immediately fallen asleep, it left the old Explorer the task of carrying them inside.
(Time skip)
Carter felt as though he was not truly in his body as he surveyed the ruins of his home.
He knew to expect it. It had taken a while for the Metal Heads to be driven out of Sandover and he had seen the destruction that the Metal Heads were capable of elsewhere, but it was still a blow to the Explorer's gut to see the village reduced to ruins.
Walls were collapsed, roofs were caved in and bridges were broken. The only hut that seemed to have survived with minimal damage was the Green Sage's.
Around Carter, workers began picking through the remains of the village, clearing out the damage, deciding what to keep and what to tare down, planning where to put new structures, all to make way for the new city that was to be built there. A city that would serve as a haven from the growing forces and threat of the Metal Heads.
There were many locations across the land that could have served as the ground for the new city, locations that wouldn't have required that the newly emerged hero in the face of the invasion spend time driving back the Metal Heads from ground zero of the invasion, but the hero had valued Carter's advice. And while Sandover was a fine location for the new city, near many Precursor ruins and Eco vents that made it worth reclaiming from the Metal Heads, he'd be lying if his desire to see his home reclaimed hadn't played a heavy roll in his decision, to be able to safely return to his hut and recover what he could.
Out of all the huts in the village, Carters seemed to be the most damaged, almost everything that had been above ground beyond saving through a combination of the walls and roof being brought down and being left to the elements.
Though, there were thankfully a few belongings that could be recovered, lucky enough to be within a chest or protected from being crushed by a beam or bedframe.
From underneath a toppled set of shelves, Carter recovered a glass case containing a collection of different bugs, miraculously intact save for a thin crack at the edge. It was a relief, Jak had treasured his bug collection ever since Carter had started him off on his ninth birthday.
It was something of Jaks that Carter still had.
Carter forced himself to continue going even as his grief threatened to pull him down. He had done a good job at managing it since first hearing of the Metal Heads invading Sandover and learning that his nephew and ward were not among the survivors, but recovering Jak and Daxter's surviving belongings was causing his unresolved grief to push to the surface again.
When the Metal Heads first invaded, the Sandover villagers had been saved by the timely arrival of the Blue, Red and Yellow Sages, who managed to hold off the army long enough to get the villagers out through Samos' teleport gate. Though the villagers had not been without grievous injuries that some might never recover from.
Carter himself had already left on his latest Exploration and so was far away when word reached him about the invasion.
The only members of the village who were unaccounted for were Samos, his daughter Keira, and Carter's two wards. And that was completely unaccounted for, the other Sages and villagers seeing absolutely no sign of the four missing villagers, as bodies or otherwise, during the initial invasion, which was notably strange since Jak would have been seen fighting the Metal Heads at the very least.
According to the other villagers, the four of the missing villagers had been messing with unknown Precursor tech that they had brought back to the village. And according to the Blue Sage, that Precursor tech had been active with Metal Heads flooding out of the teleport gate it created when he and the other Sages arrived to help.
The Sages had, obviously, destroyed the Precursor gate as soon as they realised that it was what the Metal Heads were coming through, unable to take the time to shut it down manually. But while the Sages managed to stop the Metal Heads from coming through, it didn't get rid of the ones already here, and it didn't stop them from continuing the invasion through reproducing.
The fact that that Jak and the others had disappeared with a Precursor gate open gave Carter a twisted sense of hope that only served to hurt him. More Metal Heads were no doubt on the other side of the Precursor gate that they disappeared through, but the lack of bodies left open the possibility that they could still be alive, that they could still find their way back.
Sometimes, not having a clear answer hurt more than knowing for sure that a loved one was dead.
…
Carter sighed as he loaded Jak and Daxter's belongings into a single box, for that was all that survived, looking sadly at Daxter's slingshot. The boy had been very proud of himself when he'd been able to make it all on his own, and had become a menace to the village with it, Carter included.
Carter and Daxter never had he same relationship that he shared with Jak. While Jak was his adopted nephew, Daxter was just Carter's ward, even though the explorer had chosen to take the both of them in.
Carter and Daxter had just never connected, never bothered to try and forge a stronger bond to become family. And only now, after Daxter was gone and it was too late to do anything, did Carter regret not trying harder to be and uncle to both boys.
With the belongings gathered, Carter opened the way into his basement, which had thankfully been spared any damage thanks to being hidden underground. The Explorer had already moved most of his belongings down into the basement before he had left on his last trip, so most of his things had survived the invasion.
Carter would have to make sure that his basement was left alone as the new city was built, so that his and the boy's belongings would be kept safe during the construction and rebuilding of his own hut. It would probably result in his home being in a less-than-ideal location in the city, but he was not going to move, just in case his boys really were alive and found their way back home.
As Carter reorganised things in his basement, he came across the blankets and pillows used to construct a small den, which pulled him into another round of nostalgia.
When Jak had first came to live with Carter, the boy had been unable to sleep up in the hut, staring at the open door frame as if expecting something bad to come through it, and putting the storm covers over the doorway and windows only helped him so much. So, the boy had slept in the basement until having Daxter there had made Jak feel safe enough to sleep above ground.
Shaking himself from memories, Carter reluctantly left his basement and closed the hatch, preparing to do his duty in helping to build the new city.
"Are you alright?"
Carter looked over to see Mar, the hero who pushed back the Metal Heads and was leading the construction of the new city to protect against them.
"I…am struggling." Carter answered honestly. "But I will be fine in time."
"If you ever need to talk, I will be here. We have all lost that which we love to the growing forces of the Metal Heads, you are not alone." Mar assured, placing a hand on Carter's shoulder.
The two of them had become close friends since first meeting each other not long after the Metal Head invasion, the younger man helping to protect Rock Village where the refugees of Sandover had first been brought and where the Metal Heads had attacked next.
If it hadn't been for Mar talking sense into him, Carter would have likely attempted to return to Sandover on his own while the Metal Heads were still there to search for any sign of Jak and Daxter.
"Thank you." Carter nodded.
"I don't believe they are gone, in the traditional sense." Mar then said.
Carter looked at his friend in confusion.
"The Rift Gate." Mar motioned to the remains of the Precursor gate, which lay in pieces in the shallows of the sea beneath Samos' hut. "The Precursors were capable of a great many things, and were said to have use those gates to travel to places unknown. From what I've heard, your nephew and the others were likely taken far away for a reason, those gates don't open for just anyone."
Mar stated this knowingly and Carter found himself believing his friend. The hero seemed to know far more about the Precursors than anyone the Explorer had met. Rumours were even popping up that Mar had been blessed by the Precursors themselves to battle against the Metal Heads.
At Mar's words, the small light of hope in Carter's chest seemed just a little less painful.
"If they are alive," Cater began, looking up at the sky as the stars began to appear in the late hour. "Even if we never meet again. I hope they will find their way back home."
Back to the safe haven that Mar's city would become.
(Time skip)
Jak sat on the beach next to the turret in Spargus, looking up at the stars and mentally recalling all the constellations.
Holding up his hand, Jak spread his fingers to certain stars just like his uncle had taught him, his middle finger pointing the way towards Lemuria. When he was young the legend of the Journeying Pilgrims had been a favoured story of his, and he'd promised himself that Lemuria would be the first land he would visit with his uncle once he was old enough to join the explorer on his travels.
But that had been before, three hundred years in the past. If Jak travelled to Lemuria now, would there be anything or anyone left there to find?
"I see that you are familiar with reading the stars." Damas said as he approached.
"Yeah, my uncle taught me a lot about them." Jak said, dropping his hand. "We used to do it every night when he was home from his explorations."
"It sounds like he cared for you a lot." Damas slowly lowered himself to sit beside his son. "It is a shame I cannot meet him for myself, to thank him for raising you when I could not."
Damas still struggled to understand the time travel involved, his son who was born only five years ago being taken to the past before Damas could do anything to stop it and being raised in a village by people long gone, only to be returned to Damas as young-adult.
It was even stranger to realise that one of the men that helped found Haven city who Damas learned about in his history classes and saw in the museum, was the one who raised his son in the past. And that the original Mar and his Mar could have possibly met.
"He did." Jak agreed. "I'm glad that I can look up at the stars again and see the constellations, it's the one of the few things that have stayed the same."
Jak had lost so much since coming to the future, everything different including himself, so it was unexpected comfort when he'd been brought to Spargus and was able to see the stars again, no longer hidden by the light pollution of Haven. No matter what changed or how much time passed, Jak would still be able to look up at the night sky and see Igniculous, the Journeying Pilgrims, the Storm Hawk, the Lombax Major, and all the other constellations his uncle had taught him.
Damas nodded, looking out at the stars and picking a constellation.
"Were you taught about the story behind the Kandrakar constellation?" He asked.
Locating the constellation himself, Jak nodded. "Yeah, but I haven't heard it in a while. It'd be nice to hear it again." He prompted.
Damas smiled, fishing back through his own memory to recall the story behind the constellation.
"Once, in the time of the Precursors, there were five Guardians…"
Author's note: Please comment.
This story is set in the same continuity as 'The Explorer's Journal' but can also be stand alone.
I have been hit by many plot bunnies for this fandom, and this particular one came out of nowhere.
Child of Light is one of my favourite games and it has an interesting story, and I saw an opportunity to work it into the lore of this story when I needed story filler for the constellations. Hopefully, it's inclusion as a story-within-a-story wasn't too forced.
Other references for the constellations include Rachet and Clank and W.I.T.C.H.
