Some hours later, Jak awoke to a refreshing stillness and an odd, leafy smell in the air. There was no more crashing thunder or hammering rain or raging wind. His friends lay asleep and exhausted inside the shelter around him. Very carefully so as not to disturb any of them, he crawled his way to the door and poked his head outside.
It was eerily silent in the fallout of the storm, so peaceful and tranquil, and the whole island looked and felt very different now it was not bathed in bright sunlight. Everything seemed dull and de-saturated. The sand was dark and soaked, the campsite and the beach were strewn with branches and leaves, and the sky was a featureless blanket of grey cloud. It was no longer raining, but residual droplets fell from the canopies onto his head, and there were marks on the beach where the tide had risen in the storm, right up to the edge of the trees. Jak realised how lucky they had been; just a few metres closer, and their whole camp might have been flooded. The waters were now receded further out than he had ever seen them before, as if sucked back by some plughole somewhere in the ocean, exposing new sand and rock formations and wide forests of coral. Amazingly though, their shelter had somehow withstood the storm; it looked battered and a few pieces had come loose, but it still stood. Their half-made boat was also safe and sound.
Jak walked out into the open air, feeling the change in atmosphere. A light, chill wind washed over the treetops, and it made him quiver, but there was no way he could light a fire, as the branches were now too damp to burn. He wished he had a coat, or at least a warmer shirt. With no other way of keeping warm, he walked out onto the beach at a brisk pace, the cold, wet sand clinging to his feet.
As he walked, he was reminded of the storms that sometimes struck his old village in his childhood. They had been rare back then, and usually only reliably occurred during certain months of the year, but he remembered the devastating effects they often had on their small coastal community. Buildings would be damaged by the wind and the huge waves, and one time, the old farmer's livestock had nearly all been swept out to sea. The following day, much work would have to be done repairing the damage and restoring the village to normal life again. But since most of the villagers were quite old, most of the work usually fell upon the fisherman, who was the strongest, and the sculptor, who had the greatest understanding of construction, while the others directed. As they had grown up, Jak, Daxter and Keira were usually roped into helping out too, which always resulted in much complaining from lazy old Daxter.
The memory of the look on his face made Jak smile nostalgically. He still missed his lifelong friend, and though he had come to accept his loss over the long, slow days he had spent on this island, the pain still lingered, and it was something he was unsure he would ever be able to get over completely. His shoulder still felt very empty and unbalanced now its familiar weight was gone.
As for Keira, he missed her too, but in a very different way. He had never been quite as close to her as he had with Daxter of course (even though he wished he was), but she had always been there, a great help to them both on their adventures. Furthermore, she was still out there, safe and sound at home in Haven City, and probably very worried about him. If only there was some way he could speak to her again, some way of letting her know that he was still alive too, sending a message...
He stopped for a moment as he came close to the shoreline's old boundary, and looked out to the distant sea, grey and disturbed, and to his home lying far away out there, out of sight. Standing here, Jak felt a great longing to leave the island and see it from afar, wondering what others would see if they passed by. How noticeable was it from a distance?
Then he was drawn out from his memories and his musings by soft footsteps approaching from behind. He turned around, and it was Ashelin, walking towards him looking weary and tired.
"Quite a storm, wasn't it?" she said as she came to stand next to him.
"Yeah, it was," said Jak. "Did you get much sleep in the end?"
"Only a little, I think," said Ashelin, rubbing her eyes. "I was lying awake most of the time. You?"
"I think I got some, but I feel OK actually."
"I don't know how you do it, Jak," said Ashelin with a smile and a shake of her head. "You never seem to get tired."
She was more right than she knew. Jak considered himself lucky in that regard; he seemed to be one of those people who could somehow go quite comfortably for long periods of time without sleep. Come to think of it, even he wasn't sure how he did it either.
"Can't believe the shelter held up though," said Ashelin, casting an eye back towards the camp.
"Yeah, Torn really did a hell of a job on it," said Jak, looking as well.
"Let's make sure he knows it," said Ashelin knowingly. "Hopefully it'll cheer him up a bit. He's been kind of low these last few days, and it might do him some good to know he's succeeded at something."
Jak nodded. "Yeah, good idea. All that sunburn can't help. But none of that's going to happen today," he said, looking up into the thick clouds.
"You're right there," said Ashelin. "But… brrr, it's chilly." She shivered and buttoned up her jacket, and held her arms around herself. Then she offered one to Jak. "Can we?"
"Oh, right, sure," said Jak, and they stood closer together to share body warmth, an arm around each other.
It was an odd but rather pleasant feeling.
They stood there a moment longer together, trying to keep warm in each other's presence while looking out over the open water, but Ashelin still shivered.
"You want to walk?" suggested Jak.
"Yeah, good idea," said Ashelin, brushing hair out her eyes. "Might warm us up better."
They broke apart and headed off down the beach, side by side. Under normal conditions, Ashelin would usually start her day off with a few brisk exercises, but out here on this island where every ounce of energy was precious, she didn't feel like she had the necessary motivation. The walk did help a little, however, and they made a full lap of the island together, taking in the cloudy stillness of the storm's aftermath. Pieces of broken foliage were scattered across the sands, and at least one tree had even been uprooted completely and now lay halfway between the sea and the forest's edge. Others stood crooked and precariously leaning, their roots visible.
However, on the last side of the island they came to, they sighted something they did not expect to see. At first they thought it might be another fallen tree, or even another piece of long-lost wreckage tossed ashore by the storm's violence, but as they drew closer, they saw that it was nothing of the sort. Lying beached upon the newly exposed sand around the island was the large, intact carcass of a deep-ocean fish, dark-scaled, and about the same size as Jak was.
"Whoa!" said Ashelin, walking around it fully when they were close enough. "This is the biggest fish I've ever seen."
"Oh, this is nothing," said Jak, crouching down at its head for a better look. "There used to be bigger things than this living in the waters around my village, big enough to sink boats. One of them nearly swallowed me whole once. Man, I hated those things."
With a stick that was lying close by, he lifted open the creature's mouth, and thankfully, saw no sharp teeth within. It bore only a passing resemblance to the Lurker sharks he had spent a good part of his youth swimming away from, but the sight of it was still enough to stir up unpleasant memories.
"It must have been washed up here by the storm," he said, standing up again and eyeing it thoughtfully. "Hmm, still looks quite fresh too. Come on, let's get it back to the camp."
"What? Are you serious?" Ashelin asked, her face askew.
"Yeah," said Jak. "This'll last us a good long while, and it seems a pity just to leave it going to waste."
It took Ashelin a few seconds to work out what he meant by this. "Wait, you think we should eat it?"
She did not look very taken in by the sight of it, lying here dead and fat and coated in sand… and it smelled too.
"We can't afford to be picky out here," Jak argued. "We should take whatever we can get their hands on in order to survive."
Ashelin still did not look convinced about the idea of dining on some strange, unknown fish right off the beach. "What if it's poisonous or something?"
"If it is, I should be able to tell," said Jak with a confident smile. "I practically grew up on seafood, and the village fisherman taught me a thing or two about preparing fish. All we've got to do is clean it, get a fire going and cut it into smaller pieces so we can cook it."
"OK, I'll trust you on this, Jak," said Ashelin, unsurely but acceptingly, "But aren't you missing the bigger problem here? How are we going to get this thing back to the camp? It's huge!"
"Hmm," said Jak, sizing up the fish. "I think we could carry it. Come on, let's give it a try. You grab the tail."
Ashelin reluctantly moved around to the opposite end of the fish, and together, they tried to heave it up. The lift was a struggle, but still within their strengths to achieve. However, even with the layer of sand on it, it was still slippery to get a firm hold on, and its size and shape made it awkward to carry.
"Eugh, this thing stinks," moaned Ashelin, who now had her arms clasped uncomfortably around the fish's tail.
"Come on," said Jak. "Camp's not too far away. We can make it."
The two of them lumbered difficultly back across the beach to their campsite, Ashelin not feeling pleasant in the slightest. The smell was starting to make her feel weird, and not only that, but her already dirtied and ragged clothes were now accumulating an extra layer of fishy slime.
When they arrived back at camp, heaving and grunting, they found that Torn and Olto were now up too, and their eyes shot open when they saw what their companions were carrying.
"Holy crap! Now that's what I call a fish!" said Olto.
"Where in the hell did you get that? And how?" asked Torn.
"Found it on the beach," Jak explained simply.
"You mean to tell us you didn't yank that thing out of the sea with your bare hands, master fisherman?" Olto joked.
Jak smirked. "Lay out some leaves so we can put it down."
Torn and Olto both quickly cleared the mat of large leaves in front of the fire pit, and Jak and Ashelin were finally able to drop the huge fish onto them. It landed with a heavy splat, but while Jak was dusting the sand off it, Ashelin stood there with a disgusted look on her face as she examined herself.
"Oh man, this sucks," she said, looking down her front. "This uniform's never going to be the same again."
Jak smiled to himself, both with the contentment of finding such a plentiful source of food, and at Ashelin's naivety. Clearly she had never had to handle raw fish or prepare her own food herself from absolute scratch. But he felt right at home doing this.
"OK," he said proudly, rubbing his hands together. "Today we're all going to have a proper breakfast. Torn, can I use your knife?"
"Go nuts. This one's all you, Jak."
Torn handed over his trusty weapon gladly, and Jak did a very good job of de-scaling the fish and cutting it into manageable pieces. At the same time, Ashelin was able to distract herself from her own state long enough to get a fire going with some of the dryer wood and kindling they'd bundled into the shelter.
Before long, they were all roasting fish slices over a warm fire, and there was plenty of it to go around. There was so much of it, in fact, that there was more than they could eat, despite how hungry they had all been for the past many days. This was the first time in a long while that their appetites had been effectively satiated, and even Torn felt like he could move more easily again, despite the lingering sunburn. Ashelin now understood how wrong she was to doubt the quality of the fish, or Jak's judgement. Together they all sat back around the fire and took in the feeling of wellness.
At last, they tried to decide on what to do with the rest of the day and their newly gained energy.
"We should get back to work on the boat," said Torn straight away.
"Yeah," agreed Jak. "We saw a tree on the beach that's been blown over. That could definitely come in handy."
"Good idea," said Ashelin, remembering it. "But before I do anything else, I need another wash."
Jak smiled at her again, still amused by her reaction. "Come on, Ashelin. A little bit of this is good for you," he said, wiping his hand across the stains on his own clothes. Ashelin did not believe him, however, and she left for the bathing lake soon after.
Olto, meanwhile, was looking curiously out to the sea. "I wonder if anything else washed up last night," he said. "We should go and take a look later."
"We didn't see much else," Jak explained. "But we didn't look out far into those rocks out there."
"But what do we do with this?" asked Torn, gesturing to the gutted remains of the fish. "It'll spoil if we don't store it right."
"We'll have to do what we can and take the risk," said Jak. "Wrap it up in leaves and let's hope it holds out on us. Wish we had some salt."
"Couldn't we smoke it?" Torn suggested.
"If we can build a smoker," Jak said with a shrug. "Might be time."
After they had done what they could, all three of them went out onto the sand again to find the fallen tree that Jak had mentioned. They all attempted to drag it back to the camp, and though it was very hard work and took a long time, the new strength they had gained from their meal made it more bearable. By the time they got it back to camp again, Ashelin had returned from the lake. Her teeth were chattering and her jacket was dark and wet.
"You look cold," Olto observed. "You didn't really jump in that lake, did you?"
Ashelin shook her head. "I c-c-couldn't manage it. I just plunged the jacket in instead. M-m-man, this sucks…"
"Take mine," said Torn generously. "Until yours dries out."
"You s-s-sure?" she shivered. "You won't have anything."
"I'm fine," said Torn. "I'm still burning up on the surface."
Ashelin wasn't sure she quite believed him. "Well, thanks, Torn. But there's something else. The water lake's overflowed and the hill's turned into mud. It looks impossible to climb now."
"Well, guess we'll have to go without any of those berries for a while then," said Jak, but having just eaten a healthy portion of fish, that was the last worry on their minds.
A little later, Olto expressed a wish to explore the beaches in search of more interesting things, and Ashelin accompanied him while Jak remained at the camp to help Torn with the boat, taking apart the dead tree and working out how best to transform it into a durable floatation. Ashelin soon wished she'd stayed with them to help. She was still horribly cold as she stood out among the rocks, half-heartedly helping Olto as he waded around in the water, poked around in every rock pool and examined every stone. She had only really accompanied him out here for the sake of safety, in case he encountered any sudden trouble, but so far they had only found seashells and a number of stranded jellyfish, neither of which were much use to anybody.
"What exactly do you hope to find out here anyway?" she asked from a dry patch atop a stone.
"Anything really," said Olto, who was up to his knees in the sea. "You guys found that fish, didn't you? Maybe there's more of them."
Ashelin folded her arms patiently. She was not looking forward to having to haul yet another huge sea creature up the beach, not after the mess the first one had caused and the very chilly attempt at a bathe she had just taken in the lake. She still smelled disgusting. But Olto was clearly enjoying this a lot more than she was, and he reminded her right now of a small, curious child, which was kind of endearing. He seemed especially fascinated by the shells he was picking up, and already his pockets were full of them.
"Aren't they intricate?" he said, examining one closely between his fingers.
"I guess," agreed Ashelin indifferently. "They don't really help us with anything though."
"I don't know," said Olto thoughtfully. "They'd make good decorations around the camp."
Regardless of Ashelin's opinions, he continued to gather up as many as he could find. But then, he came upon one that not even he had expected. He could just see its tip poking through the sand under the water, and when he bent down to pick it up, he found it stuck. Pulling harder, more and more of it became exposed, and before he knew it, he had pulled up a long, spiralling shell that was longer than his own arm.
"Whoa!" he said, holding it proudly above his head. "Look at this one!"
Even Ashelin had to admit that this was quite an impressive find, as Olto held it reverently in his arms. He felt as if he had just uncovered some kind of buried treasure, and that he now had in his possession something elusive and valuable.
"We could definitely use that for something, right?" asked Ashelin.
"Perhaps," said Olto, "But look at it! This feels too special to put to use. Let's take it back to camp and see what Jak and Torn think."
When they arrived there, they found that Jak and Torn had already laid out a number of sturdy-looking logs to serve as a new deck for the boat, and were attempting to tie them together with vines.
"Look what we found!" said Olto proudly, holding the long shell up high. "Beats your fish, huh Jak?"
Torn definitely looked impressed, but Jak's reaction was minimal. "Not the biggest shell I've ever seen," he said, "But good find."
"What?" said Olto incredulously. "You've seen bigger ones that this?"
"Yeah, round my old village," Jak explained. "Most of them had big crabs living inside though."
Olto suddenly looked apprehensive, and tentatively turned the shell around in his arms to look up inside it. It was empty.
"Nothing ever fazes you, does it Jak?" said Ashelin with a wry smile. "No matter what we find, you've always seen something bigger."
Jak shrugged honestly. "Anyway, what're you thinking of doing with that shell?"
"Well, I wanted to see what you guys think," said Olto. "I've got one idea. I thought maybe we might be able to use it as some kind of water storage tank, for example, so we don't have to keep going over to the lake so often. Or maybe we could even..."
His voice stopped unexpectedly, and his face became blank. For a moment, everyone wondered why he had paused, and thought that maybe this was another one of his jokes. But all humour evaporated immediately, as without warning, he collapsed sideways, and both he and the shell fell to the ground. At once, everyone else rushed to him and gathered around to help.
"Olto, are you alright?" Ashelin asked worriedly, lifting him up by his shoulders.
Olto took a moment to respond, but then he looked back up at them, and seemed to be lucid once again.
"What... what just happened?" he murmured with confusion.
"You just passed out on us," said Jak. "You feeling OK?"
"I don't know," said Olto, creasing his face. "A really weird feeling just came over me."
Ashelin and Jak both helped him up to his feet, but he was shaky and wobbly, and they were supporting most of his weight for him. They led him carefully over to the Hellcat seat by the fireside so he could sit down somewhere comfortable and they could try and assess what had caused him to faint like that.
"You should sit still and take it easy for a moment," Ashelin advised. "Torn, can you get that first aid kit? There's some all-purpose medicine in there."
Torn at once went into the shelter to search for it, while Olto looked around with eyes half-focussed, trying to come to terms with what had happened to him. He was now seeing strange blank patches in his vision, and something in his mind felt like it had slipped out of place somehow. It was a curious feeling to experience, but despite the discomfort that came with it, he was able to hold on to his rational thoughts, and observe its effects subjectively.
"This is weird," he said, blinking unevenly and looking at his hand. "I've never fainted before."
Ashelin touched the back of her hand to his forehead. "You're feeling quite hot," she said. "It could be a fever. You might be in for a couple of rough days, Olto."
Olto reacted to this news in the best way he could think of, and that was to throw all seriousness out the window and try to make light of it. "Oh great, just what I always wanted," he said. "I had a feeling things were going a little too smoothly for us here."
It was then when Torn came back with the medicine, and they fed Olto a little bit. "Here, this should help," said Ashelin.
"Thanks, nurse," said Olto with a crooked, cheeky smile.
Ashelin smiled sadly back at him. They all felt sorry that he had to get sick when they were miles away from any professional healthcare, but even when he was facing impending illness, Olto somehow still maintained his cheerful and delightful character.
"I sure hope it wasn't that fish that caused this," said Torn ominously, "Or we could all be next."
This made them feel apprehensive, knowing that they too might collapse at any moment, but especially Jak. He was sure that there had been nothing wrong with the fish, and they had all trusted in his confidence and expertise, but if he had made a mistake, then they could all be in trouble because of him.
"Let's hope not," he said. "Let's just do our best to keep things under control and look after each other."
As Olto lay in his seat and the others warily got up around him, he drew one of the shells he had collected out from his pocket and looked at it again with deliberately sustained interest. He observed the colours twisting their way around its spiral shape, delicate pinks and whites, and the numerous little ridges that seemed so beautifully chiselled that they just could not be natural. Focussing on it seemed to make him feel more comfortable and at peace, and he smiled dozily to himself, knowing that he could get through this somehow.