Chapter Three: Nightmares
"Tess!" she whined again, hoping that she would hear her. No one called back. Scrunching up tighter and tighter with every noise she heard that night, Jordan had no idea that one of the noises was actually Tess.
"Daxter, I have to go to her!"
"Not yet, Sweet Cheeks. I have to make sure that I can actually trust her."
"Yeah, Tess," said Jak, crouching down next to them. "Let's not be too careless."
"I don't believe you two!"
"Shhh!" They covered her mouth with their hands and looked onward. There lay Jordan, fast asleep. Occasionally she would twitch or groan. Finally, Tess couldn't take it anymore. Ignoring Jak and Daxter, she ran to her, gently pushing the teenager. "Jordan, don't worry. It's me."
"Tess!" Instead of drawing her sword like Jak and Daxter expected, she hugged the Ottsel warmly. "I didn't think I would ever see you again!"
"Hey, I said I would stay with you no matter how long it takes!" They hugged again and began a conversation. The two behind the rock listening to every word. "So, are you still going with me to Amorad?"
"Maybe. Jak, Daxter! Get out from behind there!" They sighed and stood up from their hiding space. Jordan leapt to her feet with fear. "I'm sorry!" she squeaked. "All I wanted was a friend!"
"Don't you have any friends where you live?" Jordan sat down and put her head on top of her knees. "No," she mumbled.
Tess put her hands on her hips and scolded Daxter with her eyes. She put a furry paw on her new friend's boney shoulder. "Jordan! You have to eat something!"
"No I don't. I've been trained not to eat for days." These words touched her heart. "Jordan, talking about what you went through will make you feel better. I want you to tell me exactly what happened and what they did to you at that camp." Jak and Daxter sat beside them.
"If you say so. As you may know, I was born out here in the Wasteland in that tribe, well, I think I was. That's what my foster family told me. When I turned six, they took me away from my parents to begin training. One day, there was an attack outside the tribe. Damas's army was penetrating our camp. My foster parents were killed by Damas himself." Jak winced at the thought of his own father killing and innocent girl's parents. "I swore to myself that I would get revenge on him one day. But he was killed before I got the chance.
"After that, they stopped training me and made me a slave. Day in and day out I would shove things around the camp and take orders from my mentors. It was horrible. They even had whips! Sometimes they would add blades…" She pointed at her lower torso which was covered in scars. Jak's mouth hung wide open.
"Jordan, I had no idea…"
"Yeah, I know. And to make it worse, I was hated all around the tribe."
"Why?"
"Well, one day I was minding my own business when all of a sudden there was an explosion on the other side of the camp. I rushed over to see what it was, leaving my work behind. Someone had lit a bomb inside the weaponry tent. When the dust cleared, I was the only one there. They found me standing in front of it and immediately blamed me for it."
"Sounds familiar," mumbled Jak, thinking of the previous war and Keira. "Mm hm, and the one person who told on me is none other than that low lying, slime sucking, yellow belly, blood thirsty, no good Christina!"
"Who's that?"
"A girl in my camp. She is the most preppy person I have ever met. She's like a goddess to the rest of the popular girls there. It's their job to make my life a living hell. Every day she would make up a lie about me and get me in trouble. I hate her!" She pounded the ground with her fist. "Well, at least you don't have to deal with her anymore!" said Daxter enthusiastically. "By the way, where did you get that dagger?
"My 'father' gave it to me before he died. He said if anything should happen to them, always have it by my side. I never leave it behind, even if they weren't my real parents."
They sat in silence for a while before Daxter broke the ice again. "Well, let's get some shut eye." The rest nodded in agreement. Only Jordan lay there sleepless, ready to make her escape…
"Daddy, I was so cruel to him. I thought he was a cheater and he wasn't. I guess it was just a kiss between friends…"
"Don't worry, Keira. He'll come around."
"No, he said that Ashlynn and Torn love each other! And I acted as if they did. I'm so confused, Daddy." He put her hand on hers and smiled. "Keira, you have to stop worrying! Jak will come around."
"Not unless I talk to him…" She stood and exited the Naughty Ottsel. "Not unless I talk with him…"
The next morning, Tess, Daxter, and Jak woke up at about four o'clock. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, Tess mumbled lazily. "How did you sleep, Jordan? Jordan? Jordan!" They looked around for her, but she was nowhere to be found. Neither was Jak. "Where could they be?"
"I dunno'. We should keep looking."
The she-Ottsel suddenly gasped and pointed over the hill. Daxter too gasped at the lovely sight. The sun was peeking over a nearby sand dune, coloring the sand red with its bright light. Although the sun was rising, the sky was still purple from the night before, giving the ground an even more impressive shade. Blue clouds hung overhead, gleaming with red from the sun. The couple stared at the beautiful sight before realizing the two humans standing on the hill. Jordan and Jak.
"Sure is beautiful," whispered Jordan, running her fingers through the sand. "Yeah," answered Jak. He leaned back and watched as the sun rose higher. "I used to come out here every day when I lived back at the Marauder camp. Of course, I would always get scolded." Jak sat up again and looked at her. "Jordan, where are you going again?"
"The Lost City of Amorad. Heh, I guess I never mentioned that she was a time traveler also!"
"Really? Why didn't you tell us all this stuff last night?"
"Cause I knew that Daxter would ask questions…"
"Oh, okay then. Well, when you said that Mar had married her, did they have a child?"
"Yes."
"Who?"
"Well, like Mar and Amorad, his daughter was a time traveler. She fell into a time rift when she was little baby. Nobody knows where she is. Some say that she exists in this time period."
"Do you know who I really am?"
"Of coarse, you're Mar himself. I think everyone knows about that. Why didn't you go into the past to marry Amorad?"
"I don't know. I guess I just wanted to stay here…with Keira."
"Is she that green haired girl?"
"Yeah," he said, closing his eyes to shut out the bad memory of his kiss with Ashlynn. "Keira means everything to me, although she doesn't know it…"
Jordan and Jak sat in silence for a while. "Well, I suppose you'd better be getting back to the city. After all, they are your people." There was a touch of sadness in her voice, as if she regretted ever meeting them, afraid to be heartbroken by losing more friends. "Yeah, I guess we should. See ya' round sometime…" He stood and went to meet Daxter and Tess, head hung all the way. "Let's go," said Daxter, grabbing Tess's hand. Again, she pulled away from him. "Daxter!"
"Tess…" She looked up at the tall elf. Jak winked at her sneakily. A kind and thanking smile spread across her face. "Well, let's go then, Daxxie. I guess she can make it on her own…"
"Why'd she have to go?" Jordan sat rubbing her hand in the sand while trying her best to remember where she was going. "If I go to see her, I'll die on the way. But I don't remember the way to Amorad." When the Marauders attacked the map was still on the leaper lizard's saddle. And where it ran away was at least a mile back. "Wow, I don't think I've ever been this screwed before," she mumbled in a joking voice.
She'd managed to save her pack before it ran away. It contained an extra change of clothes, a bottle of water that would no doubt last less than a day, and her compass. A lot of good that'll do at a time like this… When Jak and the others left, she changed into her extra clothes. She now wore a quarter sleeve shirt that came down almost to her knees, but hugged her tightly to make it fit. On the shirt were four slits resembling tiger strips cut out on the side, revealing the new bandages under it. Her pants were grey and torn at the ends from her many days of laboring. She no longer had on her grey boots and protective knee and elbow guards. Instead, she pitched them off to the side, running around in her bare feet.
Jordan began to wiggle her toes. I feel better, but I don't. I'm just a little walking oxymoron… Without a care in the world who saw her, she jumped to her feet and began to trudge onward while singing:
I open my eyes
I try to see by I'm blinded by the white light.
I can't remember how
I can't remember why
I'm lying here tonight…
And I can't stand the pain,
And I can't make it go away
No I can't stand the pain…
How could this happen to me?
I made my mistakes,
I've got nowhere to run.
The night goes on
As I'm fading away.
I'm sick of this life.
I just want to scream:
How could this happen to me?
Everybody's screaming,
I try to make a sound but no one hears me.
I'm slipping off the edge,
I'm hanging by a thread.
I wanna' start this over again…
So I try to hold on to a time that mattered
And I can't explain what happened,
And I can't erase the things that I've done,
No I can't…
How could this happen to me?
I've made my mistakes,
I've got nowhere to run.
The night goes on
As I'm fading away.
I'm sick of this life.
I just want to scream:
How could this happen to me?
I made my mistakes,
I've got nowhere to run.
The night goes on
As I'm fading away.
I'm sick of this life.
I just want to scream:
How could this happen to me?