THEMAKEROFLIGHT:let me first assure you that i will be making this chapter a lot longer, i hope i didn't lose any readers in the last chapter bacause of its length, so here goes nothing.

CHAPTER 4:THE SWORD OF FREEDOM

Jak strode into Haven library and found Samos straddled over a ladder, he didn't seem to notice that they had arrived, naturally Daxter saw this as an opportunity to piss the old man off, so he dropped off Jak's shoulder and went mission-impossible-style, slinking, around and jumping behind bookstands and shelves towards the section where the old sage was working, humming the MI tune under his breath as he went. He skinned up the ladder to just behind the green eco lover, reared up his arms and put onhis scariest face and...

And then Samos spun round and flew off the ladder and floated just a few metres away, this caused Daxter to fall off the step in fright and land flat on his back in front of Jak, then Samos zoomed down horizontally and shouted in Daxters face.

"YOU CAN'T SNEAK UP ON A SAGE YOU LUMP OF FUR, MY BIRD SAW YOU COMING AGES AGON, AND I SMELT YOU COMING LONG BEFORE THAT, AND YOU'RE NOT EXACTLY QUIET ARE YOU, I CAN HEAR THE FLEAS RUSTLING IN YOU FUR MILES AWAY!"

"FLEAS! Idon't have fleas," protested Daxter before scratching his neck with his foot.

"Now Jak," I've been meaning to talk to you about something dreadfully important, in allthe statues I've seen of Mar, he's always shown holding a sword, a particular sword, so I came here to delve into it a bit more, records say that the blade was forged by Mar himself, and named The Sword Of Freedom by the people, this book, The Memoirs Of A Hero, tells us that when Mar rode out on his last journey, that he never returned from, he left the sword in the care of the three remaining sages, who were still alive at the time, and told them to place it in the depths of the forbidden temple, and to gaurd it until his heir came to claim it, and thats you Jak."

"So what do I need to know, I imagine the way to get to it is death-defying at best." Said Jak, with a sly smile at Daxter, who gave a nervous gulp and gnerally looked terrified.

"Well the Archive Of The Temple says that each sage placed his or her own test to guard it, and these tests would have to be so hard that only the true heir could beat them. The red sage placed a test of strength, no problem, the yellow placed a test of aim, again you can do it, the blue sage placed a test of guile, may be a bit of a problem, the light sage, who you have never met, placed a test of flying skills, which you can do with your light powers, and finally, of course i imagine that they had to replace Gol, so I think the dark eco sage will have placed something too, but I'm not sure what that one could be, and I have no doubt that it will be the hardest. And one more thing, the sages never returned from the temple, so theres a high chance that even they couldn't beat their own tests, so watch out, AND HOP TO IT."

2 hours later

Jak arrived at the entrance to the lower levels of the temple in relative health, despit a short run in with a metal-head at the exit to the city, but his fun was spoiled by a show off turret manner who foolishly tried to impress Jak by attempting to hit the metal-head from over a kilometer away, instead all he did was give Daxter a hole in his new trousers and get a nasty glare from Jak before being sacked by commander Kun, who just happened to be passing when he saw the incident, aafter that little slip-up Daxter decided it would be better if he just slept through this escapade, and slid into Jak's backpack and set up position with his foot jammed into the hero's spine, and got a sharp prod in return. The young boy made his way through Haven forest to the particular rock that Samos had told him to look for and recited the motto of the house of Mar, find balance and you shall be a hero, and cut his arm with a sharp stick, letting the blood drip onto the stone, after a few seconds the stone began to hum, then precursor marks appeared on it, they read, welcome heir of Mar, the ecos await you, "The ecos await you, what could that mean?" Asked Jak, but got nothing but snores in return."Aaahhhh well, off we go into the deep dark dangerous pit then."

1hour later

Jak had been walking for ages down endless corridors, and had still not seen anything significant, he was walking down a staight passage, having left the large junctions behind long ago, he couldn't see any more than a few feet in front of him, the days when the precursor metal around him shimmered and shone were long gone. He had become light Jak for a short time, but had decided to preserve his enery for the light sages test, he came very abruptly to a dead end, he looked back, but was sure he had followed the old mans instructions to the letter, it was then that he noticed the large hole in the door, it was just large enough to fit his hand through, he saw sign of red eco above it, a larg muscly arm, and realised that this must be the red sages test, he could think of nothing else to do, so he put his arm gingerly inside the opening, and braced himself. He started to feel a touch from the other side, fingers, a hand, and then it transfered toa strange machine of some sort, he felt mechanical claws clamp him, and then searing pain, the thing on the other side was attempting to yank him through the hole, he knew he wouldn't survive it, so he began to pull back, not too hard, for he knew that the test would get harder and he would have to increase the effort, he tugged at it without rythym, trying to throw the ...whatever it was, off balance, it seemed to work, but only for a second, the claw tightened its grip, and started to drag Jak closer, his shoulder was almost touching the door, he knew that if he went in too far then he wouldn't be able to gain back the ground, so he exerted all his strength into one last pull. He tugged harder, harder, he could just see out of his clenched eyes that the door was beggining to show faint lines, like the segments of an orange, he figured out that at some point the door would split open and he would be able to continue, so he went for the last assault, he could feel the claw loosening its grip, just a little further. CRACK! The metal shattered and light flooded the halway, and Jak stared in awe at who was on the other side.

It was the red sage, Hukken, "Wh-wh-ho-wha-HOW!" spluttered Jak, Everyone thought the old sages had died down here, and even if they hadn't, no one could have lived that long.

The sage chuckled,"Well done, but we've no time for questions now, Bockshut is expecting you, and we've been waiting for two hundred years, he doesn't like waiting, he'll be in a terrible mood, off you go my boy."

half an hour later( you may notice I'm cutting out all the walking Jak does, its just common sense.)

Jak was expecting another door, what he got was quite different, he got a tall part of the corridor, it went from about seven feet tall, then abruptly to fifty. He could see holes on either wall that were obviously for his targets to come out of, he looked up to a small booth at the other end that contained Bockshut, the yellow sage, he leant down to a microphone and said in his hillbilly voice, "Alright then boy, get ready to shoot, here come your targets, nnnnnnnow!"

Strange creatures that seemed to be made of yellow eco shot out of the holes and whizzed through the air, shooting fireballs left right and centre, Jak dodged two particularly nasty ones and whipped out the beam reflexor, he aimed at the wall just in front of him and clipped off five shots in sucsession, letting the beams of light bounce arond the walls destroying sixteen different creatures and transforming them into pools of eco, he shot of another ten at the corner of the chamber and the first five sped off towards a large cluster of monsters standing on the ground, a chain recation happened when the first one hit the leader, its explosion causing the rest of the group to shatter as well, leaving the remaining four shots to bounce away and go straight through another six yellow ecos. Jak looked up to see a score board with 5000, as the target, and 3265 as his current points total, he was clocking up five points for each creature destroyed, but it wasn't enough, he needed more points to beat the clock, time was ticking. He pulled out an upgrade and strapped it to the front of his morph gun, and fired one shot, a small spinning disc erupted from his barrel into the air, after a milisecond it beagan shooting out small pellet wrapped in yellow eco, it took a few minutes for the turret to run out of ammo, and by that time Jak had 4500 points, but only ten seconds left. He spotted a tiny yellow pack just below the roof, he recognised it at once as an eco bomb, he only had one shot, he pulled out the peace makewr and whipped it up, aimed carefully, and fired. It was a dead hit, a mushroom cloud spread out to fill the whole room, engulfing Jak just seconds after he turned on his light sheild. As the cloud began to clear, Jak lowered his sheild, and looked tentativly up at his score, it was over 10 000.

The yellow sage stepped out of his booth and called to Jak, "Well done m'boy, took me three shots to master that, you're a great aim," he sniffed,"Say where's that little muskrat, I never did get a chance to say goodbye to him."

"He's asleep in his bag," answered Jak, though he could feel the ottsel shivering at the sound of the sound of the voice of the man who had wanted to turn him into muskrat stew.

"Shame, well go on ahead boy, Mosen's waitin' for ya."

another half hour later

Jak ws entering another chamber, after they had left the yellow sages test Daxter had figured that there was no point in pretending to be asleep anymore if that racket was going to be going on more than ever, so he had hopped up to Jak's shoulder again and had been nattering about how much he hated the yellow sage for the last fifteen minute of the leg. Jak looked to the centre of the room where there was a challenge awaiting him, it was a fairly simple looking challenge, there were ten circles with stars and handles on them and ten holes of different sizes, Jak was just about to put one in before he heard the blue sages high pitched voice.

"Hold on there Jak, you've gotta push the big, red, shiny button first."

Jak did and the circles began to expand and contract in and out, he realised that ift wasn't going to be as easy as he thought,if he put the circle in at the wrong time, then his hand could be trapped, and he doubted that the blue sage would help him out, he first got the rythym of the opening and closing, making sure he knew when it would be wider or smaller, he got the first one in with considerable difficulty, he almost put it in too far and let himself get stuck, but he remained calm and simply let the hole contract again, when it held the circle firm it stopped moving. The second one was bigger, so he had less time to get it in, and more chance of getting caught, he let it open as wide as possible, then shoved the peice in viciously, he just managed it. The next seven followed in a similar fashion, and he slowly became aware that the holes were speeding up with each one he got in, so the last one was the hardest of all, the hole was moving so fast Jak could barely keep track, he decided to slowly edge it in, he began to lower the peic, closer and closer to the speedy opening, three inches, two inches, one inch , he closed hiseyes, seeing it wouldn't make a difference anyway, he eased it gently in, it could hit any moment. SHUNK! Heopened his eyes slightly. Both he and Daxter sighed, the last peice of the puzzle was wedged safely in the hole, he had done it.

A large circly opened in the roof and the blue sage sped down on an eco lifter, and said,"You have done brilliantly Jak, my expectations of you have greatly improved since our last meeting, by defeating this carniverous machine, you have proven yourself worthy to weild the shining blade of Mar."

"HEY! What about me." Shouted Daxter.

"You were asleep on this great hero's shoulder, so you get zip." Said a fourth voice.

A great being of light not unlike light Jak floated down to meet them. "Greetings Jak, I am Shorine, the light eco sage, I shall take you to your next task. Follow me. Your pet may come with you if he wishes, but tell him, in whatever language he speaks, that there will be many dangers in both mine and Karena's tests."

"PET! And wait a minute, the dark eco sage is a GIRL?"

"Yes, now please take on your lighter form and follow me, so your task may begin."

"What is my task.?"

"To beat me in a sky race to the next task."

So Jak turned into L.Jak, the blue sage counted down, and they were off. There was a bridge across the walls, Jak ducked under it, the entire course was filled with obstacles by the looks of it. He swerved to avoid pillars and other things. He was a few metres behind the sage, but not for long, he dropped low to the ground. He could see a ramp coming up with lightning signs on it, he flew just inches from the ground and dragged his fingers in the thigk layer of blue eco coating the ground, and sped off at double speed. The light sage lokked down and saw Jak come flying past her, he was several yards ahead now, and was coming up to another obstacle course, the falling rocks. Boulders dropped from the ceiling, he ducked and weaved and zig-zagged to avoid them, he could see the finish line, if he could only stay in the lead for one more second. But then he heard a screambehind him. He spun round and saw the light sage fall to the floor, she had been clipped by a rock and her old form wasn't able to withstand the force. He looked back to the finish, it was no contest, he whirled round and cartwheeled to her body, the rocks were still falling, and eventually one would fall on her. His arm grabbed her under the arms, and hoisted her onto his back, he reverted back to normal, because he couldn't flap his wings with a body on his back, and ran for safety, he had to roll and drag the body the last few feet, as a peice of rock had spun off when a boulder hit the ground and knocked her off, he managed to get her across the line, and pressed the button for the rocks to stop.

"Uhuuuhh...what happened, did I fall, AAHH the rocks," she sat up, thinking she was still in the falling range, but then saw that the rocks had stopped, and noticed Jak kneeling a little away.

"You almost didn't make it, I had to go Back for you, meaning I failed the challenge." Whispered Jak..

"Oh do you really think I'm going to let the man who saved me lose the challenge just because he was decent enough to save my life instead, not likely, you have completed your challenge, and you may progress in your own time."

"Good I need to rest after using up so much light eco, have to let it replenish itself."

"Good." Said the red sage, who had just arrived with the blue and yellow."You can fill us in on what we've missed.

"Well the metal-head leader was killed by me, the dark planet biulder that the dark makers sent to destroy the planet was destroyed, by me, and the Krew and Mizo crime families were brought out of power by, guess who, and the precursors payed us a visit a bout a year and a half ago."

"WHAT!" All the sages chorused. "The great precursors have returned, the dark makers defeated, THE METAL-HEAD LEADER KILLED BY A BOY AND HIS MUSKRAT?" sAID THE YELLOW SAGE.

"Yep, thats about the size of it, you can get the story in more detail when you get out, now I'm gonna go on, I'm feeling better, see you on the other side."

you know the drill by know

Jak entered a grand room covered in blues and yellows and reds and purples and light eco blues, and in the centre was a tall pedestal, and placed in the middle, sword in the stone style, was The Sword Of Freedom. He walked towards it and climbed the steps to the great blade before a young and beautiful girl fell down from the roof and stopped him.

"So I take it you're Karena." Jak said respectfully.

"Yess, and you are the revered hero Jak. The other sages have called me through the power of eco and told me what you have done. It is a great honor to meet the man who destroyed the dark ones, I am in your service, but first you must prove yourself once more.You have shown us that you are indeed worthy to weild the blade of Mar, but now we must see that you can.

So she pulled the sword out of its hold and handed it to him, before drawing her own sword and shouting, "EN GARDE."

Jak drew into a fighters stance, the two circled each other first, points forward, eyes fixed on the others weapon, waiting for any sign of movement. Jak knew he must be careful, she had had centuries to practice for his arrival, and he was a novice with a sword, but strangely, the handle felt at home in his hands, as if he had been a swordsman all his life.

The first blood(figuratively)went to Jak, he ran in to the centre and jabbed hard at Karena's stomach. She was so surprised by such a vicious attack so early in the match that she didn't have time to block, her armour held, but she was winded. She staggered for a moment, then regained herself, and pirroeted around, spinning her sword above her head,. But her onslaught was block by Jak, he then followed up with a thrusy, but she parried, the armoured sage then swung low at his feet, trying to trip him, Jak jumped to avoid the blow and slammed the flat of his blade down on her back and knocked her limply to the floor, and that was all it took, ahe held up her hand in the precursor universal sign for surrender.

"I think I need more practice to beat a hero, the blade is yours to keep, do with it what you will, but use it only for the goodof the people."

Jak looked at the sword properly for the first time, it was a work of art, there was precursor metal woven into the blade, making it lighter, the blade itself was pure first grade steel, it had etchings in the hilt that from what Jak could make out, meant that the sword would channel whatever eco the holder was channeling, but in the centre were the words that meant the most to Jak, balance will awaken the power, so Jak, knowing what it meant, summoned both the dark and light powers inside him, and let the powers of the two most powerful ecos engulf him. He could see the etchings on the blade begin to glow with dark fire, and then the sword burst into life, both dark and light exploding from the metal, the the colours pouring out of the windows of the temple, the people of Haven woke up in their beds, and smiled.