Red Mage 04- Yea, deserts are cool. I thought that the first game was a little too simple; I mean, there was only a few kinds of environments. I'm trying to take every major environment and turn it into some kind of city, or dungeon. You know, it's the funniest thing. I kept telling myself in my head "Don't forget about Keira, don't forget about Keira" and what do I do? Forget about Keira. It takes a true absent minded person to do that. (bows). Thank you for the compliments and please continue to work on your story. As to the length, I'm definitely more than halfway done, but how far, I dunno. More than halfway, but not two-thirds, so somewhere in between.

Disclaimer- I actually remembered to start cranking these things out, and I'm seriously considering making only 1 super long chapter so I don't have 2 say I don't own Jak or Daxter repeatedly.

New Friends and New Trials

"Holy Crap!" Daxter breathed.

It was an expression that fitted Jak's thoughts perfectly. He hadn't been expecting to have to face a creature like this. It looked like something out of the books he had read as a child about pirates and sailors. The sea serpent was about thirty feet long, and had a dull grey skin. Its mouth -big enough to swallow Wartstal, the biggest member of the group, whole- was littered with razor sharp fangs. It caught sight of Jak and the others and let out a roar. Jak quickly put his hand on his Eco Boxes before grimacing- he was completely drained of all Eco, even Green.

Keira drew her bow and arrow as Wartstal and Hatu drew their trusty Eco Sabers.

Jak leapt onto the monster and began pummeling every inch he could reach with his hands. His efforts did not hurt the beast, nor did the anger it. In fact, Jak thought that it couldn't even feel him hanging there and hitting it. Hatu and Wartstal leapt into the fray as well, swing their Eco Sabers in elaborate patterns in an attempt to throw the monster off. The two Lurkers leapt into the air and brought their Sabers crashing down. They were hurled back as the Sabers were repelled by the odd skin that surrounded the serpent.

"What the?" Hatu breathed as his brain processed what had just happened. The skin of that creature had somehow blocked the power of their Eco Sabers.

Jak watched his two friends get sent back, only to reemerge. As they charged again, the serpent slapped them with its head and sent them flying into Tarea's hut. Jak lunged onto the sea creature's face and pulled his fist back to punch it in the eye. The beast let out a horrible shriek and thrashed around. Seconds later, Jak found himself going through a wall and seeing Hatu and Wartstal for a second before crashing through another wooden wall and hitting his head on Keira's bed. He stood up and shook his head, groaning. Jak noticed his old Eco Belt and examined it. To his delight, he found that all of its boxes were full to the brim.

Keira looked over at the hut and began running for it to make sure he was all right when a figure shot out of the house. She saw it was Jak and let out a whoop of glee. Jak threw a spear of Yellow Eco at the serpent and saw it break apart. Jak held out his hand and the wisps of the spear flew back to his hand. Jak summoned an Eco Blade and attacked ferociously. The skin of the beast, however, seemed to be impervious to Yellow Eco. Jak hammered away at the monster again and again, but all his sword did was bounce off. Jak gathered almost all of his remaining Eco and sent a gigantic beam of energy right into the monsters face. When the smoke cleared, the beast was relatively unharmed. Jak looked closer and saw that the skin was beginning to peel away where the center of his beam had hit.

"Oh great, that means I have to fire a beam bigger than all these Eco Boxes together could hold." Jak thought bitterly. He tried another tactic and front flipped so that he was behind the sea snake's head and unleashed a torrent of flames. Far from giving the creature third degree burns as the flames would have given to any other monster, they merely made the stone-like skin glow red for a second.

Jak got off the beast and racked his brains to come up with something he hadn't tried yet, he saw Keira fit an arrow into her bow and take aim. He wondered what she was hoping to achieve a second before she let the arrow fly: right into the center of the serpent's right eye. It shrieked as blood began gushing from the wound inflicted on its only vulnerable spot.

"Jak," Keira shouted, "throw an Eco Grenade into that eye!"

Jak nodded and summoned a Yellow Eco Grenade with the last of his power and launched it right at the beast's injured eye. The sea serpent turned its head and whacked the Grenade away. Jak followed it with his eyes to make sure it wouldn't harm anyone, but it looked like it would be okay. Jak turned back to the battle, and then spun around again. The Grenade was heading right for a woman, about seventeen or eighteen, by the looks of her. She was about Keira's size, if a little taller, and had long, flowing blonde hair and green eyes. Jak rushed for her, trying to get to her before the blast hit, but stopped at the look in her eyes. There was no fear, nor was there any curiosity, so he knew that she knew what was heading for her. She held out her hand and the ball of Yellow Eco was simply absorbed into her body. Jak and Keira stared as they realized they had discovered another Channeler. Jak watched as the girl's aura flared to life. His arms dropped disbelievingly to his side and his jaw dropped as her aura grew until it rivaled what Gol's had been when Jak had battled him on Misty Island two months ago. She shouted for Jak and Keira to get out of the way, and that was jus what they did. The girl shot a beam of Eco at the serpent so massive that it engulfed the entire beast and disintegrated it. Jak and Keira stood disbelievingly until the girl walked up to them and introduced herself as Margaret. After she had gotten over what she had seen, Keira familiarized herself and Jak, who nodded.

Later, at a ceremony, Jak, Keira, and Margaret sat in the back, trying not to be noticed. Their efforts were futile, as people kept turning around in their seats to get a good look at them. Jak raised his eyes to the skies, praying that this boring procedure would end soon.

"And to the citizens of this fair town, it is my great pleasure to introduce the heroes and heroines that saved us all from the group of that horrid sea serpent: Jak, Daxter, Keira, and our very own Margaret!" There was a polite amount of applause for the first three names, but when Margaret's name was called everyone went wild, clapping their hands, stomping their feet, and screaming at the top of their lungs. The mayor of the town, a man about Jak's width, but a mite shorter, and with balding red hair, raised his hands. Eventually the thunderous applause died down.

"It is my great pleasure and honor to award Jak with the Staff of Spirits!" There was a collective gasp from the civilians before they all went deadly quiet. Jak rose hesitatingly as the mayor beckoned him forward. The mayor presented Jak with a long golden staff of about six feet. It was very plain until the end. There was a golden ring with six smaller rings wrapped around the big one. The big ring was flattened at each of the two sides, which had been sharpened until they looked like they could go through a Troll's skin with very little trouble. There was also a unique design inside the hoop; three golden spheres going up from the bottom and down from the top. They did not meet in the middle, two boomerangs with the points facing away from each other were attached to the final ball and were welded together in the direct center. At the very top of the hoop on the outside there were two spikes curving outward with a triangle pointing straight up where the split between the curves was.

Jak smiled as the town once again broke out into applause. Daxter, Keira and Margaret joined him on the stage and together they bowed to the town and the mayor before leaving.

"We should head back to Wasteland Metropolis Jak," Keira said.

"Why are you guys going there?" Margaret asked, then immediately slapped herself mentally. It was absolutely none of her business what the affairs of these elves and Lurkers were.

"We're gonna go through the Gale Canyon." Keira told her. "We're trying to get to the City of the Sky and from there, Gol Akaron's Citadel."

"The Dark Eco Sage? What business do you have with him." The three travelers exchanged looks before inviting the kind Channeler to sit with them while they explained their predicament. Margaret looked horrified at the end of the tale, which had taken most of the day.

"I'll come with you. If he's really as strong as you guys say he is, then I'll come with you and help you defeat him." Jak and Keira looked at each other.

"I won't be a repeat of Benedict. I'll stay loyal to you guys. I swear." Jak looked at her eyes and nodded; he could detect no lies within her eyes, nor could he sense any turmoil within.

"So Margaret, how did you do what you did before?" Keira asked. Jak leaned forward- he was anxious to know as well.

"What? Oh you mean the one ball into that whole beam?" Jak nodded and covered Daxter's mouth to prevent her from hearing the sarcastic retort he no doubt had in mind.

"I'm an Amplifying Channeler." Margaret said proudly. "It means that if can increase an Eco's amount if its in my body. You saw before, I took a small ball of Eco and can convert it into a gigantic beam." She added, seeing the puzzled look on Jak and Keira's faces. The four of them then spent another hour or so discussing various topics, ranging from the weather to whether or not Daxter would ever get a girl. This last topic caused the aforementioned rodent to leave huffily, causing giggles to erupt from Keira and Margaret, who had become fast friends.

The six of them hopped through the Warp Gate and went back to Potentia's hut. They enjoyed a good nights sleep and the next day sat down to a family style breakfast.

"It's decided then?" Hatu asked after breakfast. The group nodded their agreement. "All right then, Jak, Daxter and Margaret will travel through the Gale Canyon alone, since the two of them are the best fighters we have and since there are only two of them, it will be hard for anyone to detect them out there. Wartstal and I will remain here to keep an eye on Keira, since the city is not safe at the moment." Jak nodded as Margaret stood up and walked outside. Jak followed her, pausing on the way to give Keira a hug goodbye.

As Jak caught up with Margaret halfway to Gale Canyon, she greeted him with enthusiasm. "Ready to go Jak?" she asked, and Jak grinned in response.

"Jak! Wait!" Keira shouted as they walked through Wasteland Metropolis. Jak turned around to see her running at him. She had something in her arms, but from the distance, he couldn't tell exactly what it was. When she reached him, she held the object out and he saw it was some kind of cloak. "This will help you to keep warm. The Gale Canyon has prevalent winds, and they will make it very cold sometimes." Keira explained as she handed another cloak to Margaret.

"Thanks Keira," Margaret said with a warm smile as she put it on.

"No problem. You take good care of Jak," Keira said as she pulled him into a mock headlock. "Or you'll have to deal with me," Keira said in a playful growl. Margaret giggled.

"Don't worry. I'd rather fight that sea serpent covered in gravy and put in a sack then fight you." Keira smiled back.

"I'll see you when you get back Jak," Keira whispered to Jak in his ear when Margaret turned her back on the pair. Jak shivered as her voice seemed to rattle his spine. He stood up, broke the grip, and looked down at her. "Bye Jak," Keira said softly as he smiled at her. Jak pulled his friend into one last hug before he let her go and followed Margaret into the Canyon, catching up to her about a hundred feet into the new area. He saw her standing still, trying to decide which way to go down a two-way path.

"So Jak, which way do we go?" Margaret asked. Jak shrugged and scratched his head. He pulled the map his uncle had given him and tried to make something out, but it appeared that there was not a sub detailed map. A particularly strong blast of wind blew it out of his hands and into the depths of the Canyon. Jak and Margaret looked at each other.

"Shall we just choose a Precursor be damned path and stick with it already?" Daxter yelled from the confines of Jak's backpack, struggling to make his voice heard above the sound of the wind. Jak pointed to the right and Margaret nodded. The two of them clutched their cloaks tighter around them in an attempt to keep their bodies warm.

Jak and Margaret trekked through the Gale Canyon. Admittedly, it wasn't as bad as it could have been, Jak thought. After a while, the even path began to get rocky and uneven. Jak looked over at Margaret and saw she was looking at a strange device. He walked closer to her and looked in over her shoulder. It was a circle with a needle in the center. There were four letters- an N at the top, an S on the bottom, a W on the left, and an R on the right.

"This is a compass Jak. It let's me know which way is north, and avoid getting lost." Jak took it from her as she handed it to him and turned it. He noticed how the needle always pointed the same way. Margaret explained how the needle always pointed north, and how all you had to do to find out which way was north was to line the red needle up with the red N.

"Since we need to go northwest, we need to take that path," she said, pointing. Jak was amazed at how much easier this simple little device could make life as he followed the Channeler down the second path to the left. Using the compass, they went down that tunnel and then turned right at the next fork. As they continued through the Gale Canyon, the two Channelers' path began to descend. At the bottom of the hill was a three-way fork. Using the nifty compass, Jak and Margaret determined that the correct way was to the left. They continued down the said path. Jak suddenly stopped short, causing Margaret to walk right into him. A muffled sound came from Jak's backpack as her body crushed it slightly. Jak paid no attention to Daxter's muffled protests. He closed his eyes, hi ears twitching. He heard something, but he couldn't discern what it was. All of a sudden, the noise became familiar to Jak and he grabbed Margaret and threw the two of them to the ground, spinning so he would take the brunt of the fall.

"Jak! What the hell are you doing?" Margaret asked as she struggled to get up. Jak kept his grip on her body as firm as ever and did not allow her to get up. Suddenly a loud crash made her body go limp. To the right of where they were now, right where they had been standing before, and exactly where Margaret had been trying to stand up to, was a boulder that could have easily squashed them. Jak let go of Margaret, who was flushed and breathing heavy. They looked at each other for a second during which she whispered "Thanks," weakly. Jak shrugged before his eyes widened and he pointed. Margaret turned around, a bubble of hot liquid in her stomach. She saw more boulders heading their way. Jak and she quickly began running, dodging the rocks as they fell and shattered, causing smaller rocks to roll down with her. They had to stop short continuously in order to avoid being killed. Jak once again grabbed Margaret and jumped off the edge of the precipice they were standing on. He activated his Blue Eco Box as they fell and they landed on a new path with a soft thump.

As they stood up and looked around, it was obvious they would need shelter soon. The sun was beginning to descend, and with night would only come more danger, since rock scrambling in the dark was hardly what one could consider "safe." Jak pulled his goggles down and switched them to night vision, since the light from the sun was already beginning to fail. At the next fork they encountered they turned left, then right, and finally arrived at a fork with a cave. As they entered, Jak found a boulder and picked it up with the aid of Red Eco. He carried it over to the cave's entrance and sealed it so they would not have to stay awake during the night and keep watch. He turned around and went into the cave. When he arrived at the main belly of the cavern, he found that Margaret was very swift; she had already lit a fire and began heating up some of that liquid she called coffee. As Jak drank to his warm and soothing drink, he suddenly felt more alert. After a while, his body was bristling with energy. He got up and paced as the power within him continued to grow he began to get a little frightened of the sheer amount of power his body was producing. Feeling he absolutely had to work it off or go crazy, Jak went over to the boulder and move it aside. He summoned two Eco Blades and began training with them in order to sharpen his skill. He moved his arms and wrists so fast that when Margaret peered outside the cave to see what he was doing. She saw nothing except whirling blades of Yellow Eco. She watched in awe as he moved so fluidly and past that he looked like he was wielding twenty Eco Sabers, not two.

After a while, Jak finally felt the inexplicable energy that had been burning inside his body begin to recede. He went back into the cave, remembering to seal it back up before he went all the way back in. When he sat down and smiled at Margaret, he suddenly collapsed, dead asleep. Margaret giggled at his form, his arms outstretched, legs tangled up, and his mouth open as he snored lightly. "I guess he's never had caffeine before." she thought as she dragged him over to a spot away from the fire and covered him with a blanket. She thought about the first time she had had coffee. It had been almost the same thing; she had burned off all the excess energy before the recession caught up with her and she passed out.

"Hey Keira. Something wrong?" Wartstal asked as he spotted the mechanic over her new invention. That wasn't very unusual, but her normally cheerful face was sad and worried. "Worried about Jak?" She nodded.

"Sort of," she said.

"What do you mean?"

"Do you think Jak likes me still?"

"Whatever do you mean?" Wartstal asked, curious as to why the girl didn't seem to want to accept the fact that Jak was very much interested in her.

"You don't think that maybe he might start to like Margaret more do you?"

"What?"

"I mean, she is a Channeler. And she's attractive. I want to know what you think; will Jak dump me for her?"

"What makes you think that Jak would do that to you, even if Margaret is a Channeler?"

"Because, she will be able to take care of herself. He won't have to look after her."

"Keira, I've seen the way Jak looks at you and the way he looks at her. He likes her as an acquaintance, maybe a friend. He looks at her the same way he does Daxter. You on the other hand. He looks at you as something more. Jak would never stop liking you. Not even all of Gol's black magic could take Jak's affection for you away." Keira gave a small smile at this statement; it relieved her of the fears that had been plaguing her lately. She thanked the Regenerator for reassuring her as she went bask to work, fiddling away with her invention.

In the morning, Jak woke up with the peculiar sensation he was floating. When his eyes had finally adjusted to the darkness, he realized he was right: he was being hung by his wrists in a dungeon. Creatures that were bright purple were milling around, covered in leather armor. Jak looked to his left and saw Margaret still passed out.

"What happened?" Jak thought as he struggled against his bonds. It was to no avail- strong he might be, but no elf had ever broken normal metal before without the aid of Eco. He looked over at the creatures again and finally recognized them as goblins. Samos had told them about them and he had forgotten completely the warning Samos had given him a couple of weeks ago about staying in caves in the Gale Canyon.

"Goblins know that canyon like the back of their hands," Samos had said. "They know the entrance to every cave, and trust me; they have a secret entrance to it. If you ever stay in a cave, don't fall asleep. In the middle of the night, the goblins will come out through the secret entrance and seize you."

"Thanks for the warning Samos, I can't believe I forgot it." Jak thought bitterly. A rustling behind him drew his attention and he craned his neck to see Daxter peering over his shoulder.

"Jak! What the hell are those things?" Daxter whispered. Jak moved around so Daxter wouldn't be visible and he motioned with his eyes to his Eco Belt. "Gotcha," Daxter whispered as he climbed down Jak's body. He flipped the switch on Jak's Yellow Eco Box and Jak quietly snapped the chains by producing an Eco Saber for a split second. He fell to the ground and anxiously looked over at his captors. They appeared oblivious that their prey had just managed to escape his bonds and was freeing the female elf. Goblins were not particularly cruel creatures; they were actually misunderstood. They were very primitive, and therefore, territorial. They saw the two elves as trespassers and captured them. They planned to eat them, not out of cruelty, but because it made the most sense to them. If they simply allowed them to die, it would be food gone to waste. However, since the two elves had not attacked the tribe or done anything to warrant aggression, they left the prisoners relatively unguarded. This made escaping very easy, but the reason they often didn't work was that most elves wanted revenge and decided to take out the one goblin guarding them. This in turn made the goblins enraged and eventually the aggressive elf fell from by the goblins' sheer numbers.

Jak remembered all of this from his studies in school and as he freed Margaret, he planned of a way out. Using his power of levitation, Jak flew over the guard without being noticed and up a tunnel. As he landed, he saw a glimmer of light coming out of a crack in the stone. He quickly summoned an Eco Saber and began cutting through the rock. As the circle he was carving out became completed, Jak kicked it and stepped into the morning light, squinting slightly as he did so. He put the circle back in and melted it back into place with his Red Eco Fire. He stepped back and looked at his handiwork, happy that the goblins would not be able to discover what had become of them. Jak felt glad as he reflected on the fact he had finally escaped from a trap without killing anything.

Jak looked around and saw that he had somehow managed to come out in a deep valley. The only ways were either flying, which Jak didn't want to do because it used Blue Eco, or climbing. Jak sighed and shook Margaret awake. She yawned and stretched looking mildly surprised to see her surroundings were nothing like the ones she had seen when she had gone to sleep. Daxter bragged about how he had killed fifty goblins before they had decided to turn tail, leaving the trio to do whatever they wanted. Jak pointed up and made a miming motion that clearly said "we have to climb." Fortunately, the rock was very rough and grabbing and keeping a grip was relatively simple. Jak stored Daxter in his backpack as he pulled his body up.

After an hour, Jak and Margaret were only halfway up the mountain. It wasn't very unexpected, they had been about two hundred feet down, and they weren't able to move very fast, due to the fact that they didn't have the proper equipment. Jak waited for Margaret to catch up with him (she was behind by about three feet) before grasping her hand. He Channeled a fair amount of Green Eco into them, getting rid of their fatigue and preparing them for the rest of the climb.

Finally, they pulled themselves over the top of the cliff. They looked down and saw just how far they had come. Jak reassessed the distance they had traveled; he put it now at about three hundred feet. Jak sat down and saw Margaret shrug off her backpack. She rubbed her right shoulder and Jak looked at the skin and was worried to see it was a reddish raw. He gathered a small amount of Green Eco into a ball and placed it directly on the agitated skin, healing it quickly. Margaret gave him a look of deep gratitude and relief as she opened her backpack and pulled out the sandwiches she had been carrying. Jak took two of the peanut butter and jelly, while Daxter gave into his body's cravings for meat and took the one with Croca and Yakow meat. Margaret leaned against a rock as she enjoyed her ham and cheese sandwich. Jak pulled a bottle of water out of his backpack and took a long draft. He handed it to Margaret, who gratefully accepted it and took a deep draught. As she took another drink, she thought of the boy that was sitting in front of her. He seemed so strong, and yet gentle. All the guys on her island who were physically fit felt the need to always be rough and forceful. Jak was also a killer; she had watched him kill the serpent attacking her village without a second thought, and without any pity. And yet the same boy played with his best friend, who happened to be an Ottsel, and she had woken up early the other morning to see him with a couple of birds in his hair as he watched the sun come up. He was a mystery, no doubt about it, she thought. He caught her looking at him and she just smiled, not sure of her intentions toward him or even if she would act on them. Keira might not be a Channeler, but Margaret could sense that if she angered Keira, them mechanic would give her a new definition of the word fear.

After ten minutes of rest, Jak stood up and stretched. He bent down and offered his hand to Margaret, who gratefully accepted it. As he helped her stand up, the winds began to pick up again, blowing the last of their relaxation away. Jak pulled his cloak closed and began down a new path. Margaret followed, walking right next to him.

As the two of them continued, they eventually arrived at another small mountain range. They weren't mountains per se, more like high bits of rocks sticking out of the ground, no more than fifteen or twenty feet high. Jak began climbing the nearest one and after reaching the top, he simply jumped from one to another. Margaret followed, taking a different path than he did. They both arrived at the same destination at roughly the same time anyway. Jak noticed another valley, only this one seemed easier to get to, as it wasn't more than twenty feet below. The two of them looked around for the easiest route down short of Eco.

"There Jak," Margaret said as she pointed to as vine. Jak walked over to it and inspected it. It was thick and looked like it would support their weight, as long as they went one at a time. He quickly back flipped over the edge just to scare Daxter and grabbed the vine. He climbed down and waited for Margaret. When she too had reached the bottom, they looked around and consulted the compass. To their relief, they had been heading north and now had to alter their course slightly so that they headed northwest. The next day they would start heading straight west. Doing so, according to Hatu, would allow them to exit the Gale Canyon more or less right where the entrance to The City of the Sky.

As they continued, Jak suddenly fell through a hidden hole. He looked up and immediately rolled to the right to avoid being crushed by a falling stone. After the dust cleared, Jak stood up and used a ball of Yellow Eco as a flashlight. He pulled his goggles down and switched them to night vision mode. To his dismay, whatever had caused him to be split up from Margaret had also sealed up the hole through which he had fallen. Jak's communicator began to beep and he opened it.

"Jak are you okay?" Margaret's concerned voice came through. Jak thought it was funny that when Margaret spoke, he felt nothing, yet whenever he heard Keira's voice through the communicator he felt lighter and happier.

"Yea, we're fine. We just landed in a cave and we have no idea where we are." Daxter practically shouted. The only thing that restrained him was the thought that the sound might awaken some unwanted guests.

"Look, just find a way out and send up a ball of Yellow Eco when you make it to the outside. I'll make my way toward it and we'll link up. In the meantime, I'll keep going northwest."

"And what if we wind up goin' in the completely wrong direction?" Daxter asked.

"Then I'll send up a ball of Yellow Eco and you guys will come to me." Daxter grumbled but muttered his assent. Jak switched the com-link off and looked around for a way to go.

Margaret looked around at her surroundings. She was a mite uneasy about the fact that she had just lost her partner, but she overcame the unease and continued on her way. Eventually she arrived at another plateau. She peered down and saw that this one would be easy to get down: all she had to do would be to slide down and let the sand take care of the rest. As she slid down, a cactus snared her arm and left a small cut on it. She hit the bottom and rolled along the stone and got up, she examined the wound and noticed an odd green slime on the edge. As she healed the wound, the green slime remained. When she brushed it off, she noticed the skin that it had touched was raw.

Jak looked around as he summoned a ball of Red Eco and turned it into fire, illuminating the way around him. A odd pattern of shadows drew his attention and he walked over to it. There appeared to be a elf-made ladder leading down. Jak exchanged a look with Daxter; it appeared they weren't alone, or at the very least someone had been here before. As he walked forward an odd rattling sound caught his attention. It was very hard to tell from all the echoes, but it appeared to be coming from above him. Jak looked up just as a gigantic spider dropped down. He shot at it with Yellow Eco without thinking and watched the legs curl up as it let out a shriek. Examining its fried corpse, Jak saw that it rivaled the ones he had fought in the Spider Caves in size, but it wasn't quite as big. It was pretty close though, Jak thought as he kicked it into a corner and continued on his way, Daxter still in shock over what had happened.

As Jak continued, he looked around and saw something that did not make him feel happy: a skeleton of something that walked on two legs. It was lying on its stomach and one of its arms outstretched. Jak looked around the rest of the room, but did not see anything that resembled a door or exit. He looked back at the skeleton and saw that its finger was pointing directly at a specific part of the wall. Jak examined the stone and part of it crumbled away into his hand. He rubbed the grime in his hand until it was reduced to powder. Jak cracked his knuckles before Channeling a bit of Red Eco into his body and punching as hard as he could at the wall. An explosion did not rock the place, but a giant hole big enough for Jak and Keira to walk through side by side with Samos flying above them. As Jak pulled himself into the new room, he saw that it was significantly more spooky. This effect was due mainly to the small stream of what at a glance appeared to be green slime. Jak decided that he was perfectly content to remain with the assumption and not delve any further into what the strange liquid was. He knew for sure it was not Green Eco, since he could see small skeletons of rats and such in the liquid, and Green Eco would preserve the corpse, making it appear as if were still alive.

Jak crossed the room to a golden symbol of six swirls intertwined. As he walked, the floor underneath him and Jak suddenly went falling down a hole. He quickly flew up and looked down. He was immensely grateful that he had kept his mind about him. The hole led to a pit of Dark Eco, which was swirling about below him. Jak quickly crossed the rest of the chamber and arrived at the symbol. Jak placed his hand on it and turned it. As the symbol was pun around a door hidden next to it was opened and Jak let go of the symbol. The emblem spun in the opposite direction and the door began to close. Jak dived underneath the closing entry and barely got across without becoming a two-dimensional entity. Jak looked up and saw white circles on the ground. Feeling that they could be nothing good, Jak walked across the chamber, careful to avoid them. Inevitably, his foot landed on one and a white hand attached to a milky arm shot out of the ground and grabbed him on the shoulder. Jak stepped back and his foot landed on another circle. More hands sprouted out of the ground like odd plants and soon Jak was fighting them off furiously as they grasped his legs, his feet, arms, and neck. As he struggled, Jak heard a scream and struggled to turn around. What he saw made his blood boil; Daxter had been seized and was being handed from one hand to another.

Margaret shot a beam of Yellow Eco at the wild animal that had attacked her. As it roared in pain as one of its legs were cut off, Margaret shot another massive beam and blew it away. As it died, the beast let out a horrible shriek, so loud that the female Channeler covered her ears and screwed up her eyes, as if that would make it more bearable. A small rumbling made her look around. Small stones rattled around on the floor as they bounced around. An echoing howl made her look up. Margaret's eyes widened in fear before she turned around and started sprinting away. An entire herd of buffalo identical to the one she had just killed was charging her. A backwards glance showed that her efforts were not working, and that they were quickly catching up to her. Thinking quickly, Margaret flipped on her Blue Eco Box and began running even faster.

As she turned around to look at her progress once again, Margaret became fearful. She had not pulled away from the rampaging buffalo, but at least they had not gained on her either. A twenty-foot leap forward, however, quickly changed that. Margaret looked back and saw that by leaping, she would be able to get a lead on the animals. Unfortunately, she landed wrong once and twisted her ankle. As her leg crumpled to the ground, the buffalo caught up to her. Margaret saw the situation she was in and quickly stood up.

Just in time to get hit in the chest by the head of the lead buffalo.

As the air rushed out of her chest, Margaret was basically carried by the head buffalo as it continued on its path. Her body went limp and she crumpled to the ground. The momentum of the speed she had been traveling in worked against her by making her roll along with the herd. Such a curse quickly turned into a blessing.

Since she was rolling downhill, her body was constantly moving, making it very difficult for the buffalo to actually step on her. As it was, when they lifted their feet they nudged her quite gently along. Getting hit in the same spot produced a nasty bruise, but it was much better than being trampled to death. As the herd passed her, Margaret lay in the dust of the Gale Canyon, gasping for breath and crying with the pain. As her body healed, she composed herself and weakly stood up. She looked around and saw that it was only noon, she had a long day as of yet ahead of her. She glanced at her compass and noticed that she had been heading straight north all the time. In order to compensate for it, she would have to travel directly west to come out where she wanted. Margaret sighed before shouldering her backpack again and continuing on her merry little way.

Jak fought feverishly to get to his Yellow Eco Box and he hit the switch. He spread his arms as Yellow Eco coursed over them and burned the flesh of the dead hands. He shot a scythe of Yellow Eco and cut the hand of the arm that currently had Daxter. The rat fell to the floor with an oomph. Jak flew into the air and dodged more of the hands. He summoned a large ball of Yellow Eco and flew down until he was about two feet above the ground. The ball expanded until it resembled a disk, cutting through the arms. As the severed limbs fell to the floor, Jak recalled the Eco and scooped up his friend. He flew them across the room and simply slammed his body through the next door, keen to get out of this horrible place.

Margaret sat under a giant boulder, eager to get some rest. As she took a long drink of water from her backpack she stood up, her hands ready to switch on her Eco Boxes. A sudden tremor had shaken the floor of the Canyon, and birds had taken off from their nests. Margaret watched this with a feeling of unease: animals were much more in tuned with nature than elves were.

Another tremor caused her to lose her balance and she stumbled. To her dismay, nature picked that point to have a particularly strong blast of wind blow across the plateau she was on and knock her off. Margaret screamed as she plummeted through the air, the ground getting closer and closer by the second. She wished she could fly like Jak, but her powers were limited due to the fact she was an Amplifier. As the floor got closer and closer, her life began flashing across her eyes. She saw herself first learning how to ride a bike, meeting her friend Meredith, graduating school, and meeting her boyfriend George. As the ground got so close that her shadow became sharpened around the edges, she prepared to kiss the dirt and end her existence…

Jak entered the next room and felt an odd chill in the air. He walked around the small room that was not more that eight feet in diameter. All the walls of the room were merely stone slabs that were blank. Jak turned around to go back into the other nightmarish room and see of he could find another way out of here, but the door had vanished. Jak spun around and summoned a small ball of flames, looking intently at the rock as though hoping words would suddenly appear on it. To his surprise, that was exactly what happened.

"You who wish to escape from the Pit of Nightmares. To escape with your life, you must offer part of it to pass." The inscription on the stone declared. Jak pondered on the possible meanings of this for a moment before the reality of what he had to do sank in.

"Jak? What are you doing?" Daxter asked as he watched his friend summon a small ball of Yellow Eco. He raised it to his hand and Daxter realized what Jak was going to do. "NO!" Jak jumped from the loud sound and the echoes that followed. He looked over at his friend and was surprised to see Daxter's eyes burning with emotion.

"You've sacrificed too much for me so far Jak. Let me sacrifice something for you." Jak smiled softly at his friend before he slashed downwards with the ball of Eco. A small slice of Yellow Eco went right for his hand, aiming to cut it and spill the blood inside on the wall. Daxter moved so quickly that he appeared as nothing more than a blur. Before the blast of Yellow Eco hit Jak, the rodent put his body in front of it and hissed as the Eco sliced through his chest and drew a small amount of blood. He stuck his hand over the wound in his torso and drew it back after it had become saturated with blood. He weakly turned around and smeared it on the stone, which melted away. Jak watched all of this unfold in a sort of trance. When his brain snapped back to reality, he realized his friend was lying on the floor, slowly bleeding to death. Jak hastily healed his friend. Daxter offered a weak smile even as he passed out from the blood loss. Jak blinked back tears as he positioned his friend safely on his shoulder.

Margaret landed with a muffled thump as her body hit something soft and feathery. She opened her eyes and saw she was on a gigantic eagle. The bird turned its head around and gazed at her with a fierce orange eye, but Margaret could sense that this creature meant no harm. As it turned around, Margaret could swear she saw a trace of a smile appear on the bird's beak.

As the eagle soared through the sky, Margaret sat up and spread her arms, reveling in the odd sensation of wind flying through her.

"This must be what Jak feels like when he flies," she thought. "No, it must be better, because he isn't being supported." As the eagle flapped its wings and went higher, Margaret gasped as she saw the Canyon in its entirety. It was truly a beautiful sight with the sun beginning to set. The only was she could describe it was a thousand masterworks of elves wrapped into one.

The gigantic bird set Margaret down and folded its wings. Margaret walked up to it slowly, afraid that any sudden movements would scare it off. She patted the bird's beak a few times and it closed its eyes lazily, as if it enjoyed the sensation. Margaret became bolder and began stroking the beast behind where she thought the ears would be on a normal beast. The eagle bowed its head to her and Margaret thanked the Precursors for making such a beautiful creature, and then sent an additional prayer thanking them for sending the bird along at exactly the right moment.

Theregal bird let out a cry before spreading its massive wings and taking off. Margaret smiled as she watched it fly off into the distance, her heart light and happy once more. A sudden blast of light caught her attention and she immediately summoned two balls of Yellow Eco, ready to attack something that could be potentially dangerous.

In the next room, Jak was standing on the edge of a great black lake, so vast that that he could not make out the distance banks, in a grotto so high that the ceiling was out of sight as well. A misty yellowish light shone far away in what looked like the middle of the lake. Said light seemed to be coming from a yellow beam in the center of the islet in the middle of the black lake.. Jak summoned two balls of flames to help illuminate the room, but it did not appear to help very much; this darkness seemed to be much denser than normal darkness for some reason. Jak looked around and saw a boat. He looked at it suspiciously before getting in it and shoving off. Almost as if it was drawn by a magnet positioned at the land in the middle, the boat shot off for it.

Daxter looked over the edge of the boat. He retched, grabbed Jak's shoulder, and shook. Jak looked over to his friend who could only make squeaky sounds as he pointed to the water. Jak peered in and his reaction was very similar to Daxter's.

Hovering just below the surface of the water were dead elves. Countless bodies littered the depths, their eyes misted over and staring. Their white skin was outstretched as they reached for the two crossing the lake. Suddenly the boat landed on the island in the middle and Jak and Daxter looked up. A hole with sunlight streaming through it was in the center of the ceiling. Jak looked over at the lake and was shocked to see that the zombies were heading for him. He hastily retreated into the circle of light, activated his Blue Eco Box, and took off. As he rose, one hand grabbed him and began to pull him back down with a deceptive amount of strength. Jak threw the two balls of fire he was still holding at the zombie and it released him at once.

Jak flew up and landed on the canyon floor. He looked up at a gasp and was surprised to see Margaret standing only a few feet away from him, two Yellow Eco balls summoned in her hands. They looked at each other for a second before Margaret put her weapons away and helped him up. They continued on their way as Daxter told her all of the nightmares they had been through. At last, at long last they arrived at the entrance to The City of the Sky. Jak sighed in amazement and heard Margaret and Daxter do the same as they looked at the city in all of its glory.

Wow, I actually updated on a Saturday again. Maybe I'll be able to go back to my old routine (crosses fingers and prays to nothing and everything in particular). Hey, sorry this is so short. Please forgive me by not hurting me, or sending me flames. Or at least not too many, since I can use one or two to roast marshmallows. Thanks to all who review, and for those who don't, I hope I haven't traumatized you too badly with this horrendous writing. So feel free to ask me a question, give me an idea (PLEASE!), or just tell me what you think of me adding a ninth Channeler into the mix. Well, technically, it's the eleventh, but those two haven't had their powers revealed yet. Well, actually, one of them won't discover his or her power for a couple of years. Anyway, just let me know what you think of this. Or at the very least, shake your heads and feel sorry for me because I will never be able to write anything good. See you next week. Oh, and if you want a visual picture of the staff (sorry about the really lame name I gave it), just let me know and I'll email you a picture.

My Top Five Favorite Fanfictions. (They are listed alphabetically, not by preference.)

1. Risen Demon by Red Mage 04

2. Surge by Amathist Fwirrel

3. The Jak and Daxter Prank War by animedragongirl

4. The Sage's Legacy by Light-Eco-Sage

5. War of the Ancients by Red Mage 04

Quote of the week- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Movie)

Ron Weasley: Why spiders? Why couldn't it be 'follow the butterflies'?