Disclaimer: I don't own Jak 2 or 3 or any of the characters except for Trista. Naughty dog does.

Chapter Thirteen

It took about an hour for the airlift to get to Spargus, but it didn't feel like that long. I guess it was because I had too much time to think about everything. The fact that I had left my washer running made me laugh at first, but soon thoughts of leaving my friends behind and having to start over somewhere else, was almost too much to bear. I wiped away some tears for what seemed like the hundredth time and glanced back out the window. Nothing but sand, and the occasional cactus as far as I could see. Haven had disappeared a while ago, but I didn't stop looking back. The guy who was flying the airlift had glanced back at me a couple of times, but soon he just focused back on where he was flying.

I guess this is what people mean by you don't know what you have until it's gone. Of course, I would see them again sometime, but that thought didn't help the pain any. I guess somewhere along the way I dozed off because before I knew it, the landing jolted me out of my sleep. I thanked the guy and grabbed my bag and looked up at the tall wall, I guess the city wall.

"Trista?" Damas, I'm guessing, because he looks kind of royal, you know. Anyway, Damas walked up to me, with an almost curios look on his face walked up and I bowed slightly.

"None of that. Errol told me what happened, why you had to leave the city, and he asked me to let you live here." I nodded and Damas motioned for me to follow him. The huge gate door slid open, revealing a whole lot of vehicles, but not like the ones in Haven, these were huge, and standing next to one was an even larger elf than I had seen. We walked past him without saying anything, and he just stared as I walked past.

"Here in Spargus we value strength over everything else. Anyone else is just dead weight. You should have no problem here. Errol tells me that you are quite good at defending yourself and others. That's good." I nodded and looked around. It was so different from Haven. There weren't any downtrodden people here. In fact, it looked like you'd get shot if you accidentally bumped into someone here. Everyone walking around was carrying around weapons.

"I'll be fine." I said, pulling my bag a little closer to me and feeling grateful that I had my weapon strapped onto my back as well.

"I'm sure." Damas said and stopped in front of a house, a rather nice one too. He opened the door and tilted his head slightly, and I walked in.

"Errol said you needed to be close to the palace, but not in the palace. He wouldn't really explain why, but I think you'll find this home to your liking. I walked up the staircase and drew in a breath. It had a lot of room, and it looked a lot like my old apartment in some ways. I turned and smiled at Damas, which seemed to knock him off guard a little, but, reluctantly, he returned it.

"Well then, when you're settled, I'd like you to come see me at my palace. Here's a map to help you get there." He tossed me an old map and turned and left and I dropped my bag in a chair. Oh well, guess these people aren't all emotional half the time. I sighed and walked over to a window and opened it. I didn't care that I should be putting my stuff away, I leaned against the window frame and closed my eyes for a minute.

Jinx, I wonder how you're taking this? Hope you aren't blowing too many things up because you are thinking about this too much. Torn's probably figuring out ways to annoy the baron, and of course Jak has to go out and actually do most of the fighting. Tess would probably be working at the bar by now.

I turned away from the window and looked around my new home. It was a house, and had an upstairs too, but I would look up there later. I grabbed my bag and opened a door to my right, which was the bedroom.

I looked at the rather large bed and smiled, it looked really soft, so I would love sleeping in it when I got the chance. I smiled to myself and pulled a folded blanket out of my bag, and spread it over the bed. My mother had taught me how to make blankets, and this one had a star design on it, but sparkled because of the glitter I had added a while back.

Next, I pulled out my cloths and hung them in the closet. I had a few dresses that I didn't wear in Haven because of living in the slums, and because they weren't good for fighting in. I pulled out my sketch book and other books and put them on the bookshelf, and finally laid the photo album on my bed and sighed. I wanted nothing more than to have all my stuff from home here, but Errol had to send it slowly. I flopped down on the bed and started to cry. This place was nice, but it just wasn't home.

A knock jolted me upright from the bed and I rubbed my eyes, and looked around, I didn't expect anyone to be visiting this place. I sighed and walked over to the front door and opened it. Standing there was a tall, pretty, elf girl.

"Hi! I'm Mel, and I saw our ruler bring you here. I thought you might need some stuff so some of my friends and I gathered some cash, and I'm wondering if you would like to go to the market." Wow, this girl didn't take a breath. I smiled, because she was a little like Tess.

"Sure." I closed the door behind me and followed Mel down the dusty path to the market.

"So you're from Haven. I've never been there." She said, and I nodded. I saw a stall with clothes and weapons set out, and I wandered over to it, pulling out my bag with money in it and buying a few more outfits.

"Does anyone sell sketch pads and notebooks?" I asked awkwardly. She nodded and led me over to a stall, which had all types of art supplies and writing materials, along with books. I grabbed three notebooks, two sketch pads, a good stack of books and some pens, I wanted to record a lot of stuff while I was here.

"Ok, we should probably get you some food so you'll have something to eat tonight. Max!" Mel waved to a pretty good looking elf with sandy blond hair and he waved us over to his stall.

"Trista, this is Max. Max, this is Trista. She needs some food supplies that'll last the next couple of weeks. I'll pay." Mel said. I opened my mouth to protest but she held up her hand and I gave up. Nothing stopped this girl.

"Sure. I'll fill out the order and drop it by later. Nice to meet you Trista." He said. I nodded and Mel followed me back to my house.

Waving, I watched Mel walk away and I went inside. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad here after all.

Me: Read and Review please. Next chapter Jak comes to Spargus.