A Terrible Mistake

Chapter Seven:

Sheaira gazed out the window at the ancient ruins sunken into the beautiful crystal-clear late, she had zoned out of the conversation that the Light Eco sage was having with everyone about this place. It was interesting but she wanted to explore it herself, if this was indeed an old Light Eco silo than there may be Light Eco to use to turn her back into her human form. She watched curiously seeing wild Muses drinking from the other side of the lake, their fur sparkle in the sunlight and they lifted their head looking nervously at something, they suddenly bolted and before Sheaira could see what they are looking at she was distracted by a voice.

"I'm sorry are we boring you Sheaira?" Samos' voice broke her gaze from outside as she turned to the Sages. Her ears fell as all attention seemed to be on her.

"I, uh, was just looking at the ruins that the Light Eco Sage was talking about," Sheaira tried to defend herself.

"Speaking of which that ruined temple has a device that may be able to help us deactivate the Precursor Robot," Julayla approached Sheaira and pointed out the window towards the middle of the crystal-clear lake, "The lake has powerful dangerous currents though and I cannot go there myself, however I believe Jak and Daxter maybe able to get there with the boat I have."

"I want to go too," Sheaira abruptly stated. John looked at her seriously and Julayla paused a moment.

"That actually may be a good idea. There are a lot of tight spaces in the temple ruins, at least that was what my assistant once said," Julayla explained, "There are plenty of bobby traps and puzzles in this temple it won't be easy to traverse."

"Hehe…" Daxter snickered and Jak looked over at him curiously, "She said bobby." Jak rolled his eyes and covered his mouth to silence a snicker himself.

"If you two are done being immature, there's a job you two can get to, the world needs saving!" Samos said glaring at the two boys who he knew now were fully capable of the task given to them. The boys shrunk their shoulder and John looked at Jak and Daxter and then back at Sheaira.

"You want to go?" John asked nervously, "With those two?"

"I can take care of myself," Sheaira rolled her eyes, she had been trying to convince her brother that she would be fine adventuring without him, "Look you and Keira should stay behind to protect the Sages."

"That might be a good idea," Keira explained and looked around the Light Eco Sages lab, she had her own teleport Gate which could be useful in going back to their lab if needed.

"Alright I have a motor boat at the dock near the lake you can use to reach the temple, but be careful not to fall into the deeper waters, those powerful currents will suck you down," Julayla warned as Sheaira hopped onto Jak's free shoulder. Jak nodded he was ready but Daxter looked a little worried.

"This sounds really dangerous, maybe I should stay behind and…" He looked back at Jak and Sheaira who gave him a disapproving gaze.

"What happened to ottsels stick together?" Sheaira asked narrowing her eyes at him

"I uh, what I was going to say is I'll stay behind and gather supplies while you check on that boat," Daxter grinned sheepishly at the two of them. They both were not buying it as Jak and Sheaira looked at each other.

"No need, here," Julayla picked up a bag full of supplies, food, water, rope and other items were filled in this bag, "Bring this with you, it belonged to my assistant Jenniesa."

"I see that…" Daxter groaned as Jak took the bag and threw it over his shoulder, Sheaira moved over to let him do so as she smirked at Daxter knowing he wanted to delay the thought of going into that dangerous temple. She on the other hand was super excited about it. This was the adventure she craves so much as a kid.

"There no more excuses," Samos said, "Off you go."

"Alright already jeez," Daxter complained as Keira walked up to Jak.

"You need to be careful; I'll use the drones to follow and help you as much as I can," Keira said knowing her drones may be a useful tool to help them out. Jak nodded and headed out of the hut Kiera followed him to the docks. John following behind watching them walk onto the dock where the motor boat was tied up. Keira was examining the boat beforehand; she did not want them getting stranded out there. Sheaira looked out across the lake looking at the old ancient Precursor Temple that sat in the middle.

"Are you really excited about this?" Daxter asked her noticing her staring off at the Temple. Her ears twitched as she looked back at him.

"I've never really been outside of the Volcanic Crater, this is exciting for sure," she smiled as she looked down at Jak who seemed preoccupied with gazing down at Keira who was checking the engine of the boat. Her eyes narrowed and she looked back at Daxter who smiled sheepishly and shrugged.

"Look like everything is ready to go," Keira got back to her feet whipping her hands, "The gas is filled and engine is top notch," she turned to Jak who casually looked a way towards the temple.

"Great guess now is a better time than any," Daxter groaned again, he was obviously afraid of this temple. Jak looked up at him with a grin on his face.

"You'll be fine," Keira crossed her arms, "I'll send my drones after you guys, good luck."

Jak jumped into the boat the two ottsel jumped of his shoulders sitting down low in the boat. Sheaira had not intentions of falling into the lake. As beautiful as the water was the current sounded too strong to get out of. Jak sat down and turned on the motor boat as the boat headed to the ancient Precursor Temple. As they got closer, they could tell that this place had not been up kept as there were holes in the building and even a few tiny sprouts of red wood trees look like they had started to make homes.

"Wow," Sheaira peaked over the lip of the boat excitedly as the pulled up to the temple stairs. She jumped out of the boat onto the temple stairs and headed up looking around the area and old artifacts.

"Sheaira, be careful, there could be traps everywhere," Daxter climbed on Jak's shoulder as Jak stepped off the boat. Jak walked up the entrance of the temple. The door had been opened already as if someone had entered before them.

"On the plus side we don't have to figure out a way in," Sheaira pointed to the opened Precursor door.

"Isn't that a lil suspicious?" Daxter asked as he crossed his arms raising an eyebrow. Keira's drone came up from behind them.

"Hey guys I'll check up ahead as see what's in here," Keira's voice came as the drone flew ahead. Only a few minutes later there was a loud cracking and sparking sound. Daxter's ears fell.

"Uh Keira?" Sheaira called inside but there was no answer from the drone.

"Looks like these traps aren't drone proof…" Daxter whined.

"Looks like we're on our own, come on Jak," Sheaira climbed back up onto Jak's shoulder. He walked into the dark temple, the torches on either side began to light up as he walked down a flight of stairs. He stopped when he reached a long hallway with four doors two on each side. Each door looked sealed closed with symbols written on them. Looking on the floor in the middle of the hall way the drone lay completely destroyed by several darts. Jak gulped nervously looking towards the walls seeing small holes.

"How did her drone activate the trap? Usually, you'd find this kind of trap on the floors, kind of like a pressure plate," Sheaira pondered.

"Look," Daxter pointed up wards to a small hole on the ceiling, a small light came down and looked like it hit were Keira's drone lay, "That's what probably activated the trap.

"Wow, we really need to watch out steps…" Sheaira said as she gazed around and noticed a small entry point that looks like someone small could fit through. It was just about the first door on the right and she pointed up to it nudging Jak lightly. Jak looked at the small hole and then looked at Daxter who was still staring at the broken drone nervously.

"There Daxter, you can go through that entrance," Sheaira suggest and he blinked turning to the small entrance above the door.

"By myself?" he gulped nervously. Sheaira stood up fully onto Jak's shoulder and leaned over onto his hair smiling sweetly at Daxter.

"Come on, aren't you a brave strong hero?" she said sweetly. Daxter's fear seemed to leave him hearing this and her grinned.

"Of course, just watch me baby," Daxter hopped up towards the opening of the small vent like tunnel. Jak smirked at Sheaira and looked up as Daxter disappeared into the vent about the door.

"Be careful," Sheaira called, "What? I gotta use my charm sometimes," she noticed Jak looking up at her. She looked up at the vent where Daxter when into and waited, "Did you find anything?"

Daxter crawled through the vent and entered into a smaller control like room. There was a few buttons and Precursor writings engraved in the wall. He looked at the control panel that had a few buttons and a green medallion in the middle, "Alright, this looks important," he snatched out the green medallion.

A door slid close behind Sheaira and Jak and they looked back at their only exit, the hole that Daxter went into sealed closed too. There was a rumbling sound as the walls slowly began to close in on the two of them.

"DAXTER!? WHAT DID YOU DO?" Sheaira screamed hoping he could hear her and she clung tightly to Jak. He looked frantically around to see if there was any escaped but it was clear there were still other traps activated.

Daxter could hear the shriek of Sheaira and quickly put the green medallion back into its slot causing the trap to become disabled. The door to the exit slid back open and he listened carefully hoping Jak and Sheaira were alright.

Sheaira was trying to push the wall back as Jak was trying the other wall before it suddenly stopped and the exit door slid open. The two sighed in relief at the same time sliding down the walls. It was quite clear that this place was a lot more dangerous than Sheaira first thought. However, a part of her was super excited about the danger.

"Okay, let's not do that again," Sheaira shouted and wondered if she should try climbing into the vent to try and help Daxter. She looked down at her hip and gulped, she was scared of getting stuck though.

"Okay let's see, there's gotta be a trick to this," Daxter said mostly to himself as he looked closer at the control panel. He was starting to wish he paid more attention to Samos's lessons about Ancient Precursor writing as the words to him were very muddled. There was a switch the looked like it may be the one to deactivate traps but it seemed he needed to do something in order but he still wasn't sure what it was. After staring at the control panel for a few more moment he realized something, the setup in this switch panels looked like the entrance they had first come into. Each switch had two different color to switch to.

"Sheaira what colors are the doors!" He called back through the vents.

"Colors?" Sheaira looked at the door as they all seemed to be grey stoned color, "Grey why?" she called back. Jak stepped closer to the first door on the right and motioned to Sheaira to take a closer look. She came up behind him and examined the door closer.

"Wait this first door on the right has an indent and it's green," Sheaira turned to the second door across from them and ran over, "The left one has a blue circular indent too!"

"Great," Daxter grinned flicking the switches over to the corresponding colors of the doors. He looked at the two in the back curiously and then in clicked the last two were the corresponding eco colors. He flipped it over to red and yellow and with that the traps in the hallways were disabled and the lights coming from the ceiling closed.

"Way to go Dax! You managed to disable the traps," Sheaira called clapping her hands together as she rushed over and looked at the other two doors. Unfortunately, none of the doors had opened and Sheaira sighed in annoyance, "Well what more does it want from us…" she grumbled to herself.

Daxter grabbed the green medallion now and headed back through the vent squeezing his way on and falling flat onto the ground. Jak looked down at his best friend with concern but he jumped up and held up the green medallion with pride, "Got it!"

Jak examined the medallion that Daxter was holding up as Sheaira came back to the boys and looked at the medallion. "Oh hey, that seems to match the engraving on the first door on the right here," Sheaira pointed up to the door and the engraving.

Jak took the medallion from Daxter and gently and carefully inserted the medallion into the slot and it fit perfectly, the door shuddered and slowly opened for the three of them to enter. The room was very misty with the first few feet inside being clean enough to see though. On the left side seemed to be some sort of map, it looked like a guide on how to get through the mist. Sheaira examined the map carefully as the boys looked along the barrier of the mist, there was no ways to see through it. Daxter gulped nervously wondering if they would fall into another trap.

"Well, what's on the other side?" Daxter turned back to Sheaira curiously.

"It's another medallion, but you're going to need to follow this map in order to safely get to the other side," Sheaira explained and turned to Jak and Daxter. She pointed to the floor which had tiles, "There should be 10 tiles by 20 to get to the other side, it's traps are pit falls you won't be able to see with all this mist."

"Then you're gonna have to be our eyes," the orange ottsel said as Sheaira looked up at him and nodded.

"Yeah, if you trust me…" she said as her ears fell. Jak nodded to her and looked up at Daxter, "Alright Dax, you'll have to be Jak's voice, let's see you need to start here, the fifth tile in the entrance to the maze," Sheaira said pointing up the map and her ear perked up.

"Let's go Jak," Daxter said pointing over to the entrance of the maze. Jak breathed in and stepped forward entering the mist. The mist was so thick and Jak almost felt like he was falling but the tile beneath them was solids. He looked down and it was the only thing he could see. Daxter looked around and then back, it was solid white mist.

"Uh Sheaira…" Daxter called worried that he may not be able to hear her.

"Alright if you are still facing forward you need to take one step right and then forward," Sheaira called.

Jak nodded and cautiously took a step to the right feeling solid tiles under his feet. He smiled confidently up at Daxter who still looked really worried.

"A-Alright now which forward!?" Daxter called.

"Well, if you just stepped onto the second tile go to the right again," her voice called back through the mist.

Jak continued to follow her instructions until there was a huge rumble and Sheaira shouted for them to stop as the map maze changed. Jak paused nervously trying to balance himself as he was most likely in the middle of the maze and now that the map was changing meant things could be harder. Daxter was chewing on his nails nervously.

"Okay relax, you'll need to take things a lil slower, go to the left," Sheaira called to the boys hoping they were alright.

"Right, we're fine!" Daxter called back his voice a little higher due to the rumbling the closer they got to the other side.

The continued to move along the maze carefully every so often the maze would change but it was not too difficult to get across. Jak and Daxter reached the other side which was covered in vegetation and Green Eco seemed to be flowing through clear pipes in the walls. Jak noticed a small pillar where a blue medallion was sitting.

Sheaira waited nervously not hearing from the boys in a while she wondered if she had made a mistake. But with another rumble the mist began to clear and the floor became solid bridge leading back to the other side. Jak held up the blue medallion proudly and Daxter looked relieved.

"You did it!" Sheaira exclaimed excitedly. She hopped into the air proudly and Daxter smiled as Jak walked over the bridge to her. She looked at the medallion in his hand, "I see, so each room is themed around each color of eco."

"Look like it," Daxter nodded in agreement, "Let hurry up and finish these puzzles."

The three of them headed across to the next room and Jak placed the blue medallion into the slot on the door. It slid open revealing a beautiful blue room with several fountains and water pools with whirl pools. There didn't seem to be any sign of the red medallion as they looked around carefully. Sheaira was wondering if there were some sort of instructions. She found something on the wall but it was obstructed by a water fall.

"Don't sweat it baby, I got this," Daxter called to her hopping up to the top of one of the fountains and pulling down a lever that parted the waterfall so the instructions where now able to be read.

"Wow you really are on a roll," Sheaira smirked looking up at him. Jak looked concerned at Daxter even though he knows his best friend was more agile as an ottsel he was still worried about him tripping or falling into the whirl pools.

"What did I tell you baby, magic fingers," Daxter said wiggling his finger as he took a step forward, the wet stone was far slippery than he expected and suddenly slipped losing balance and falling into one of the whirlpool fountains.

"DAXTER!" Sheaira shouted as Jak quickly reached into the pool of water to try and pull Daxter out but it was far deeper that her thought and didn't feel Daxter anywhere. He pulled out his hand gazing into the pool, "Jak we have to drain the water, look we have to use these levers quickly!"

What the duo didn't know is that the was a drain that had sucked Daxter into a tight drain, he held his breath as long as he could before passing out.

Authors Note: Hehehe slight cliff hanger, stay tuned for Chapter 8. Please let me know what you think, I am trying to work on my grammar issues but feel free to let me know what I got wrong.