Don't I Deserve a Happy Ending?
A destroyed Jak ends up in a strange, yet wonderful place where he must learn to leave the past behind him and move on, to heal and to forgive himself. And in doing so, he meets quite the assortment of people, and learns quite a few things about himself, the Precursors, and life in general.
Whee! Long chapter!
"Get back here right now! Did you hear me!" Baro laughed as cracked the reins, making the two yakows hooked up to the small wagon trot faster. "BARROOOO!" Melo screamed after them as she stood on the doorstep of the tall, narrow house with tan siding and a dark brown roof. "HE'S ONLY BEEN AWAKE FOR FOUR DAYS, YOU ARE NOT TAKING HIM TO TOWN YET! GET BACK HEEEERE!"
Jak grinned widely as he sat next to Baro, completely and totally absorbed in the landscape around him. After so many years of either the barren desert wastelands or the grimy city of Haven, he was shocked to see lush forests and wide fields of green and gold. A creature he recognized as a lightning mole poked it's head out of a hole alongside the stone road for a second before disappearing.
Birds chirped and flitted from branch to branch, along with other small animals. A squirabbit (Squirel/Rabbit) scampered across the road and up a tree, narrowly dodging the wheels of the cart. As a few houses began to dot the roadsides people grinned and shouted to Baro, who wave and called back. He could even swear he saw a few glimpses of Flut-Fluts and Leapers alike in fields, or being ridden through pastures.
"All right, here's our first stop before we get to town!" Baro said as the yakows slowed to a halt and jumping out, going around to the back of the cart and grabbing a bucket of small, dark red berries. "This here's also where you can get the best clothes around, Crazy Cazey lives here." He explained as Jak eased himself out of his seat, the borrowed clothing from Baro he was wearing hanging loosely and awkwardly on him.
"Crazy Cazey? Who's that?"
"AAAGH!" A voice inside the small, baby-blue house suddenly screamed and the door was flung open, tiny kangarats running out with a Muse and two snakats (Snake/Cat) close behind. A girl stormed out after them, brandishing a broom and sweeping a few slower, straggling kangarats off the porch. "GOD-DAMN-FREAKING-KANG-oh, hey Baro! Is that a fresh batch of raspberries?"
"It sure is!" Jak stared at the girl. She was thin and angular, not at all like the curvaceous women of Haven and the tough girls of Spargus. Her loose, pajama-like paint-spattered clothing hanging loosely on her small frame, only serving to make her look smaller.
"Sweet! So…whaddya need?" She asked with a toothy grin that displayed overly sharp teeth and drew attention to her angled, black eyes and pain-splattered black hair pulled up in a messy bun with several drawing utensils stuck through it. Baro jabbed a thumb at Jak, who blinked.
"We need some fresh clothes for him. And preferably something that fits, you think if you talk with him a bit you can whip something up." Cazey nodded and grabbed Jak's hand dragging him inside with surprising strength and speed. Baro followed, sitting down on a couch that was, like everything inside the hut, including the Muse and two snakats that dashed back in, each carrying a dead kangarat in it's mouth.
"I'm thinking something in…blue and white! Maybe with a touch a red…" She said to herself as she circled Jak, poking his stomach and arms. "And tan, we've gotta get some tan in there. But no orange or brown, and we'll wanna show off those arms." She rattled off as she kept circling him. Jak raised an eyebrow at Baro, who shrugged, scratching the Muse behind its ears.
"Cazey, you know that we've got errands to run."
"So run them! I've got measurements, I'll whip up a few things and we can squeeze him into them on your way back." She dashed about the room, grabbing various supplies and materials. Baro cautiously led Jak too the door as the two snakats rubbed themselves up against Jak's legs, begging for attention, and the Muse purred as it followed Cazey about.
"Just remember, Crazy Cazey's actually fairly safe to be around, but she can get a little…loopy at times."
"I noticed." Jak muttered, looking over his shoulder as another scream emanated from the house. "So…she just gets measurements and makes clothing?"
"She also paints, sculpts, writes, if you need something done, all she wants in return is a bushel of raspberries. Or strawberries. Really, anything'll do."
"I'll keep that in mind…" Jak said absently as he watched two smaller children racing a Flut-Flut and a Leaper across a field while their parent's watched. There was an abrupt change as they were suddenly in the center of a small town with a very active marketplace. Jak could see everything from cherries being sold, to dark eco crystals in jars and packets of green eco being sold. "Wow…" He breathed, eyes wide.
"Welcome to Runeberg villa! Of course, we like to think of it as a town, but it's actually a lot smaller than it looks." Baro said, spreading his arms wide. Without warning, a young man took and flying leap and landed in a crouch directly between Baro and Jak. "Tam!"
"Hey, Baro! Lemmie guess, this is the kid you found? He certainly looks good for having been near-dead!" Tam said with a chattering, high voice that reminded Jak of Daxter. He had shaggy, but short orange hair and brilliant golden eyes with his long ears painted with rings of yellow and orange. He was dressed rather oddly, wearing a jester's bodysuit-style outfit of orange and yellow and carrying a staff topped with a spike of light eco.
"Yeah. Tam, meet Jak. Jak, meet Tam." Tam grabbed Jak's arm and shook it vigorously, giving him a wide smile.
"Uh…hi."
"Hiya!" Tam launched himself off the cart with a flip and landed nimbly on a nearby awning. "I've gotta run, but I'll check Jak out later! For now, I've gotta get back to the house before Mum notices that I've disappeared. You know how I can only entertain for so long."
"Good luck on not getting caught, then." Baro chuckled. "See ya, village idiot!"
"That's me!" With an odd puff of orangeish-red smoke, Tam disappeared.
"Tam's a powerful Mage, one of the few remaining descendants of the original Daxter, actually. He shaves it, but he's usually got some orange fur about his ears and face." Jak blinked, taken aback.
"A descendant of Daxter! But he's…not exactly…"
"A Precursor? No…but then again, neither was Daxter. I hardly even remember the old legends myself, but apparently over generations, the family bred out." Jak shuddered. "Yeah, it's not all that great of a mental picture, ain't it?"
"Ick." Was Jak's only reply as Baro parked the cart, tying the two Yakows to a post and looking over the booths.
"Come along then, I'll show you around a bit, though if you get tired I'm dragging you back by your heels, son." Jak nodded and followed as Baro stopped at the closest booth, where a diminutive, elderly woman hugged both of them warmly and handed Jak a jar of candied fruits, and slipped him small caramels the entire time while Baro talked and picked out apples from her tray of produce. "All right, Mrs. Camera, we've got a few stops to make on the way…" Baro quickly explained as he dragged a semi-wired Jak with a mouthful of caramels and a jar of candied apples away.
"Shfeef's nish…"
"Yeah, she is very nice, but she'll spoil you, kid…how many caramels did she give you?"
"Fihfeensh." Jak struggled out around a mouthful of the sticky sweetness.
"…Yikes." Baro chuckled. "Swallow those before you choke on them, willya?" Jak nodded and obeyed, wincing as he swallowed the candies and they continued on, the day became a blur as he was introduced to face after face. A tall girl with freckles and red hair in pigtails who sold Leaper-skin pouches and clothing, two dirt-covered men who sold jars of eco crystals and various metals, a half-dozen middle-aged women with glasses and granny dresses who sold little novelties (Baro bought a tiny wooden replica of a racing zoomer for Jak) and several tall, strong farmers with their tall, strong wives who sold all sorts of produce.
"Heh! So this is the kid who ya were so worried aboot, eh?" A grimy, skeletal man with bloodstained clothing and white hair said with a chuckle as he absently butchered a fish. "Ah've seen you look weaker den' him at times, Baro."
"Well, three days of Ize and farmer's stew helped him up and out." Baro said, eyeing a few Yakow steaks in the butcher house. Jak winced and stepped over a small pool of blood as he felt a familiar, but faint, feeling bubble up in his stomach.
Mmmm…blood.
Hush.
"Jak, this is Eziki, the town butcher. He lives close to our place." Baro explained and Jak tried not to look at the thin man's bloody hand as he shook it. "He might look like a ghoul, but he's too much of a coward to be one."
"Oh, come off it, you great loon." Eziki mumbled, going back to the basket of fish he was going through. "By the way, zat aou'd Yakow bull you bought in fer me is in da back. Second freezer from the right, labled." Baro nodded and slipped around the counter, leaving Jak to stand still and look about the place that seemed out of a nightmare.
"Brrr…"
"Say, kid." Jak looked up. "Yah, you. You see another kiddo in heah?" Eziki asked, Jak shook his head. "You might wanna button up yer' shirt a bit. Some of da' village mothers, they don't take kindly to der' kids seeing scars like dat." Jak looked down and tightened the straps on his shirt, self consciously hiding what could be seen of the Dark Eco scarring. "How you get a scar like dat anyways? You look like ya' fell into a pit o' tha stuff with that great mark." Jak winced.
"Play nice, Eziki." Baro said as he returned, carrying a leather bag full of something that smelled like, well, raw meat. "Eziki here got bad eco poisoning as a kid, I remember, I used to go play at his house, but yeah…" Baro chuckled. "His poor mum, strong woman, widowed, I've gotta say, walked all the way to New Haven to ask the Sage for help, and he came back with her!"
"Sage?" Jak asked.
"Yeah, what are ye? Daft? Tha' Sage of Dark Eco. Creepy feller, but his heart's in the right place, but I think dat's because of his wife, the Sage o' Light Eco." Eziki laughed as another customer came in. "Now you two be off before those steaks thaw, yah?"
"Yeah, yeah, 'Ziki." Baro said, leading Jak out the door with a hand on the shoulder. "Eziki is kinda crazy, though."
"What was that about the Sage of Dark Eco?" Jak asked, Baro blinked at him.
"…You musta' been hit on the head something fierce, I mean, you don't seem to know a lot about the world."
"I-I just don't remember…I think." Jak said, but he knew the past. He remembered Sandover and Haven and Spargus, he remembered Gol and Maia, Praxis, Errol, Vegar and everything else. He probably knew more about history than anybody here, he had lived through it.
"Well, Melo used to be a teacher before she started to work on the farm with me. I'm sure she can teach you anything." Baro said with a smile, steering him over to more carts and people. Most noticeable of all being a group of young kids, possibly the cutest little things Jak had ever seen, all dressed up in playing jumpers and coveralls, all playing with a few crocadog and lurker-dog puppies in a pen while their parents brushed snakats and other pets under a small awning.
"Baro! Hey, he's up and about!" One of the women shouted, holding two crocadogs in either hand, trying to keep the two from fighting. Baro nodded as the woman fought her way closer before two older boys dashed forward, each grabbing a crocadog and taking them to separate sides of the pen. "Hey, kiddo! I'm Suzi." She grabbed his hand and shook it with a grin. She was build like a crocadog, small, but powerful with messy, green-brown hair held up in a messy bun and sharp, black eyes.
"Suzi here plays to the animal house, she specializes in taking in stray animals and fixing them up for good homes. She's also a pretty good doctor, she was the one who came to check up on you when we first found 'ya." Baro grimaced as behind her, a lurker-dog tackled a man to the ground and proceeded to lick his face raw.
"Hi, thanks." Jak said, but couldn't help staring as a crocadog puppy whined and leaned against the fence. Suzi wasted no time in noticing and scooping up the small animal, placing it in Jak's arms, where it happily barked once and licked his face. "Hey!" He laughed as the tiny beast continued to lap at his face. "Ha-HA!"
"They're gonna become attached, Suzi…"
"I know, Baro. How do you think I sell all these animals?" She said with a chuckle. "Oh, don't worry, kiddo. I was pretty sure that you weren't gonna make it, so consider it a hey-you're-not-dead gift, plus, you can repay me someday by coming down and workin' here for a while."
"That's also how she get's all those helpers, they pay her in time, and she pays them in pets." Jak didn't reply, he was trying to keep the overly affectionate puppy from jumping out of his arms. Suzi clicked a small leash and collar together and handed it to him, letting the crocapuppy run about his feat with the leaper-leather keeping it from going too far.
"She's a nice one, house-trained and everything." Suzi chuckled before she heard loud, parrot-like sound. "Oh, dammination…"
"SUZI! ZERE IS A SNAKAT ATTACHED TO ZIS LEG OF MINE!" A bright green-purple monkaw (A/N: Is it Monkay or Monkeet?) shouted as it limped out of a small shack, a snakitten firmly attached to it's leg.
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Suzi gave Baron a quick peck on the cheek and winked at Jak before dashing off to save the monkaw from being chewed to death…by the tiny, teething animal.
"And that there is Enrique, rumor has it that he only hangs with Suzi because he's really in love with her, but who can tell? Suzi also has one daughter, Cazey."
"Suzi is Cazey's mother?" Jak exclaimed, the two women seemed far too different. Granted, they both had rather short stature and the same eyes, and that strange speed and strength, but they didn't look all that similar.
"Yup, never woulda' guessed it if Melo hadn't been one of the midwives herself. Nobody knows who Cazey's father is, though." Baro smiled as the crocadog yipped impatiently before they started walking again. "So, what're you gonna name this li'l pup?" He asked, motioning to the small crocapuppy.
"I don't know…" Jak said, picking it up again and looking it in the face. It cocked its head to the side in a cute, and utterly clueless expression, with its tongue hanging out the side of its mouth. "You got any good names?"
"Not really." Baro shrugged.
"Uhm…how about…" Jak grinned as he eyed the crocapuppy, who licked him on the forehead, leaving a cowlick of green hair sticking straight up. "How does Cherry sound?"
"Sound's good to me!" Baro said, clapping Jak on the back. Cherry barked in agreement. "Come on, it's starting to get dark, and we've still gotta pick up your clothing before we get home. And it's not dangerous to be out at night, but it is creepy…" Baro shuddered a bit as he tossed his sack of wares into the back of the cart and Jak climbed into his seat, holding Cherry on his lap, where she quickly curled up and fell asleep.
"What do you mean, creepy?"
"Well, there's some…creepy things that come out when the sun goes down." Baro shrugged.
"Trust me, I can take it." Jak said with an old, familiar grin that made Baro blink with confusion. He had never Jak with that look on his face yet, that almost frightening grin that radiated power and command.
"You've only been walking for three says, and awake for four, so don't go around kicking off villains yet, son." Baro said, shaking his head as he cracked the reins, steering the Yakows out of the small town as the sky painted itself shades of orange, red, and violet in a brilliant sunset.
"Oh, bring it on!" Jak laughed, and Baro rolled his eyes.
"Teenagers…"
For information on Baro's "Teenagers" comment, here's how I figure it; Jak in the first game had to be somewhere from 14-15, due to his lack of facial hair, but still having the voice of an adult. (Fling him off a cliff, he screams!) Second game, well, two years would make him about 16 or 17, as shown by THE GOETEE! ((Cheer!)) and in Jak3, he's probably only 18 or so. He's still not that old. .
So, remember, kids, Jak from Jak2 is legally underage: D
