Author's note: What I meant with being scared of the last chapter is that I'm frightened of the thought of creating a possible Mary Sue. People tell me that Elda is okay though, and I hope I can keep it that way. :)

Chapter 7, Memories

It was difficult at first, once they calmed down. How do you communicate with somebody you thought dead, one you dared not even think about? Especially for Jak, who never had regarded himself as good with words, it was a mountain to climb.

Elda, too, had problems after the tears ceased to fall and logic began its dirty work. They had to find a whole new set of rules for existence, since both of them were facing a living ghost.

Sitting in the shadow of the wall they attempted to figure out how to speak with each other, while Daxter produced tissue after tissue from nowhere and blew his nose over and over again while loudly proclaiming how touched he was. Nobody minded him.

They sought for words for several awkward moments, until finally Elda made the first attempt. Jak felt quite relieved about that.

"I understand that you grew up in the past," she said, "how was that?"

She demanded of him to talk, of course. He sent out the tip of his tongue to wet his lips, still feeling nervous. But at least now he had a mission. Grabbing hold of that familiar definition, he sought for a good way to begin.

"The world was different," he said, "a lot greener. There was even a jungle about where the center of Haven is now. And all we had to worry about were rampant lurkers."

"And dark eco!" Daxter pointed out.

"Yeah, yeah," Jak said, nodding, "that too."

"You're sure sounding nonchalant about it!"

Jak pulled his knees up against his chest, narrowing his eyes thoughtfully while ignoring Daxter.

"There were many different kinds of eco, too," he said, "not just light and dark."

"That so…"

Elda tilted her head, watching him with her only eye.

"Sounds like a pretty place," she said, "do you miss it?"

Jak realized that she could care less about the weather report from a few hundred years ago, but it felt so much easier to talk in general terms than to talk about the one he used to be. He had been innocent then, before Praxis, before Erol, before Krew, and before Kor. It was painful to think about how simple and pure things had been, now that they were long lost.

But he had to. He did not know the woman sitting beside him, and she did not know him. And he desperately needed to change that. Finally there was something that validated his existence, something he did not have to fight for or turn the world upside down searching for. Family… such a strange word, but he had always wondered what it would be like – a lifelong question severed and bleeding all over his soul when Damas uttered his final request.

Well, there had been his "uncle" in Sandover village, but they had of course never been family for real. The aging explorer had been the only grown elf in the village who understood the adventurous spirit in the blonde child, and they had shared a kind of bond. But it was weak; the man always planning for his next trip and leaving the small Jak longing for his stories about exploration.

'You're not going to leave me too, are you?' he thought, watching Elda from the corner of his eye.

It felt strange to look at her, she should have felt more familiar than she did. Huh.

Jak realized that the silence dragged on, and picked up the conversation again.

"I used to think it was boring, a lot of the time," he said, staring ahead, "it was a good place, but not for… somebody like me."

It still felt awkward, but he forced himself to turn his head and look straight at Elda. The corner of her lips tilted upwards, and she placed her left hand on his, resting on the ground between them.

"Damas would've been prouder than he already was," she said, rolling her eye with a soft sigh, "of course, you would've had an even harder time dragging it out of him. And, I am proud of you."

Though still unsure of what he could do, Jak turned his hand over and entwined his fingers with Elda's. Her smile widened a little more.

"To finally hear your voice, and to know what you have become – while short!"

She smirked as Jak snorted. Daxter interrupted her as she was about to continue.

"Our boy here didn't start to talk before coming back to Haven, though," the ottsel informed, "and his first words really set his new theme!"

"Really," Elda said, looking back at Jak, "what did you say?"

He struggled for a moment – that instance was far too close to the darkest time in his life. Thankfully, Daxter saved him. Now that was an almost disturbing experience, especially since the only other time that had ever happened was during the moment they were currently discussing.

The ottsel squared his shoulders, flexed his muscles – such as they were – and put on a haughty expression.

"I'm gonna kill Praxis!" he declared in a deep Jak-impression voice.

With a few bouts of hoarse chuckles, Elda squeezed Jak's hand.

"Atta boy…" she said, grinning.

Saved the unpleasant task of repeating what had gone through his pounding head that time, Jak managed to grin a little in return.

"Stop calling me short," he said, "it could be worse."

Holding up his free hand with only an inch between his thumb and pointing finger, he continued:
"I was this close to becoming a precursor."

"Oh holy flut-fluts no."

"Hey! Don't diss the godhood!" Daxter protested.

This earned him Elda's vague interest, and she pointed at the ottsel – ignoring his cringing at her crippled hand.

"And how did this blabbering young man earn his godship, then?" she asked.

No way out of it now. Jak steeled himself.

"That's really what started everything," he began, "Dax and I went to Misty island…"

Elda silently listened, only putting in a question when Jak mentioned Gol and Maia, forgetting to explain them. He tried to take it slowly, but the memories were dulled and it was much easier to gloss over things. Now he realized that he could not even remember how Sandover had looked like from Samos' hut. The visions in his mind from way back then muddled with the more recent memories of Dead Town. He stopped trying to make a mental map and focused on the events instead.

"… and when we got back, Samos gave us a lecture-"

"All we got from Green Wrinkles back then was verbal abuse!" Daxter declared and puffed up his chest, "but nowadays he has to give me and Jak the respect we deserve."

He fell under Elda's scrutinizing gaze for a moment, and finally she gave a vague shake of her head. It was quite obvious from the look on her face that she was thinking something along the lines of "For your sake I really hope you're wrong". Despite this she let the matter drop and instead looked expectantly at Jak again. He cleared his throat and picked up again.

"Normally we could've just warped to Gol's citadel," he said, "but the warp gates were closed. That was when Keira got involved…"

"Who?" Elda inquired.

During most of the past conversation, Keira had been lying beneath the Sand Shark and redoing what she had already done to it. She felt terrible for "spying" on the conversation between Jak and his newfound mother, but she dared not move away from her hiding place. Especially not now, when they had been talking with each other for so long. It would be a nightmare of embarrassment to be discovered after all of this. As long as she kept herself busy, at least she could pretend that she was not listening in.

However, her long ears twitched when she heard her own name mentioned and despite earlier resolutions she lowered the hand holding the wrench.

'Oh, don't do this to yourself woman…'

But it did not really matter, because she could not block out the words. The small group of three was not very close to her, but the winds kept bringing the voices even closer to Keira's sharp ears.

"Samos' daughter," Jak said, "she's-"

"A total babe!" Daxter chimed in, "though she didn't know empathy back then. Holy crap!"

He vigorously shook his head at the memories.

"- a great mechanic," Jak said, looking up at the sky, "the only girl our age back there, too."

The corners of Elda's lips curled upwards again in an amused smirk. She obviously understood perfectly what that meant.

Of course, Daxter had to make sure of it.

"She never wanted to date me after I got like this though," he said and sourly crossed his arms, "she should have just known that I'm a precursor, and she would have been all over me for sure."

Under the Sand Shark, Keira rolled her eyes.

Jak watched Daxter with mildly tired eyes, until the rodent reached dangerous territory.

"But Jak here, whoa!" the ottsel told Elda, waving at the blonde, "you should have seen him when we first saw Keira in Haven- ow! Whaat?"

Keira raised an eyebrow.

"Anyway," Jak said, "we had to travel over the Fire Canyon, and Keira proposed using her zoomer to pass it. But we needed power cells for that, precursor artifacts that were kind of common back there."

He continued to speak of Misty Island, the Forbidden Jungle and Sentinel Beach, leaving behind personal relationships.

In a way, Keira felt relieved being spared listening to Jak talking about her past with him. At the same time, she was disappointed. The only reason she could return to finishing off the bullet-turning of the Sand Shark, was that she knew that she definitely would get in trouble if it was not complete when Kleiver came back.

By the time Jak had finished recounting the events before the trip above the lava, his voice had begun to grow terribly hoarse because of all the abuse. He was not at all used to talking so much.

"… so we headed towards the Canyon to give Keira the power cells."

He rounded it off with a loud clearing of his sore throat. Reaching for her staff, Elda let go of his hand and stood up.

"Sorry to strain your voice like this," she said and smiled down at him, "come on, I'll buy you a drink. I'm thirsty too."

"Sounds like a deal to me," Jak said as he stood up, "you coming, Dax?"

The ottsel furrowed his brow, delving into dangerously deep thoughts for his easy-going mind. Free drinks or go back to Tess. Then again, if he went back to Tess, they would have the entire Naughty Ottsel to themselves. Oooh, nice…

As he looked at Jak standing beside Elda, Daxter also felt a sparkle deep down; an inclination that maybe it would be good to let the two of them be alone.

"Nah, I think I'll saunter back. The heat's getting under my fur," he finally said.

Not too surprised with his friend's decision – after all, Daxter had been whining about Tess for ages – Jak hunched down and gave the ottsel a very light, friendly punch on a scrawny shoulder.

"If you see any of 'em, tell the others the good news," the blonde said with a wry smile.

"Gotcha. Have fun!"

And with that, the junior precursor spun around and dashed towards the gates. Instead of caring about them opening, he clambered the wall and disappeared on the other side.

Jak turned back to Elda, and together they headed for the city. She supported herself on the staff once again, staggering every second step. He debated asking what had happened to her, but figured it might not be the best way trying to learn about her.

"I stay out of sight most of the time," she suddenly said, shaking her head while staring ahead, "otherwise, I would have come to you on your eve of victory. But, with my… 'disability'…"

She motioned at her bad leg.

"… it's better to not be seen too much. Sig sent for me as soon as he could after hearing your story, but when they finally found me you had already left."

Turning to meet his gaze, she tried to smile a little. It failed.

"But it doesn't matter now, really… anyway, it might have been better. I was… not quite stable right then."

Jak tried to think of something, anything to say. But what could anyone reply to such a thing? Elda watched him, and finally, after what seemed like ages, turned away while shaking her head.

"No, Mar," she said, "I believe you did what you could."

"I…"

He wet his lips briefly, narrowing his eyes at the gate ahead.

"I can heal wounds, with white eco… just- just only myself. Shit!"

His fist rammed into the wall, sand falling down from the dry surface.

Such a wondrous gift, to be able to send streams of power through his body, closing near fatal wounds as long as he had charged up on light eco. But it was an egoistical gift.

Her arms snaked around his shoulders, a whole hand reaching into his hair and brushing away the dry blobs of metal head blood that still remained there.

"I'm sorry, I tore it open again," she murmured.

Pulling back, she moved her hand from his hair and grabbed his chin, a lot more gentle this time. Looking him straight in the eye, she spoke again.

"It was not your fault, Mar," she firmly said.

'Mar didn't do anything,' he thought, 'it was Jak.'

But, this was a pain they shared, even if he was the cause of it. At least, it should be easier for her. Therefore he tried to relax and listen to what she said.

"Nobody here blames you," she said, "so please don't go around doing so yourself."

'What else can I do?'

Such were his thoughts, but in reality he wanted to do what she told him. She and Sig both. Maybe over time he would manage to follow their orders. For now, he just had to pretend.

He nodded, trying to summon a braver look.

"Better," Elda said.

But there was a flicker in her eyes as she turned away. She probably saw straight through him, but at least he had tried.

In silence, they continued towards the gate, and it opened for them.

Despite the early morning there were several people walking around on Spargus' only street, and a small group of tame leaper lizards stood in a shadowy corner to the right of the gate. They perked up as the elf-duo approached.

Something needed to break the silence. Jak felt terribly awkward, knowing that he had relied on both Daxter and Elda to keep the conversations going for too long. A gap had somehow opened, and now he sought for a way to start building a bridge again. Anything would do.

"Probably a good thing that Daxter left," he said, grabbing the reigns of a lizard, "he hates these things."

"Oh?"

There was an eager hint in Elda's voice, even during that short word. The desire to fix the situation was obviously in her as well.

"Yeah, he almost got eaten once, had it not been for Seem," Jak said.

He managed to smile as Elda gave a brief chuckle. It seemed a little forced, but she managed. Feeling a bit more relieved, he got onto the lizard.

"Seem, hm? I heard from her that you beat her monks in a race," Elda said as she hooked her staff onto her back and mounted the nearest lizard.

She exchanged glances with Jak. The tense air diminished.

Two seconds later the feet of two leaper lizards smacked against the sandy streets of Spargus. Neither one of the riders paid any heed to the curses following them, shouted by wastelanders who were forced to duck or found themselves leaped over with a margin of a few inches.