Chapter 16: Misty Island

Daxter felt his heart begin beating wildly the moment the skull and bones that littered Misty Island's beaches were visible. Oh this is a bad idea. he thought as he swallowed the lump in his throat. Maria had a look on her face that Daxter recognized from having seen it many times on Jak's face. Sig looked like he was in awe of the place. Floating precursor platforms floated from one of the cliffs to the high rising stone structure that was off of the coast of the island.

As their boat came to a stop on at the docks, Daxter felt his body lock up just as the spooky mist began to fill the area. He was suddenly reminded as to when he'd been here with Jak the last time. He really wanted to go back to Sandover.

Sig on the other hand jumped from the boat and looked around the beach but found no enemies. Why the hell is chilipepper so scared of this place? he wondered as he turned back towards the dock. Upon seeing Daxter was still in the boat, the old wastelander couldn't help but shake his head at him. "Coast is clear!" he yelled out.

Daxter's ears perked up as the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. No it ain't. he thought as he timidly followed Maria off of the boat and onto the beach. With a hand on the pistol on his hip, Daxter followed Sig as they climbed the rocks to get further inland. Standing on the rigged up seesaw, Daxter jumped up onto it, the rock flew into the air, dropped on the other end and sent him up onto the top of the cliffs.

Sig whistled, a bit impressed. Maria ran, jumped into the rock wall and pushed herself off into the air and landed next to Daxter with a grin. "Kids, you'll have to wait for me." Sig mumbled as he climbed the rest of the way up.

Okay, so maybe I'm over-reacting. Daxter thought as he turned around and began to look around the area. If I go left, we'll come to the lurker boat. He looked at the fallen bone bridges that he and Jak had made the last time they were here. Above his head were the giant bones of an unknown animal that went around and over half of the cliffs in the front of the island. No evil lurkers this time. he sighed in relief. He suddenly saw something at the corner of his eye and frowned at the easily recognisable muse. "Be right back." he told Maria, who raised an eyebrow at him.

When Sig got to the top of the cliff, he saw that Daxter had vanished. "Where'd the kid go?" he asked the girl.

"He went that way." she stated as she pointed the way Daxter had gone. Hefting his peacemaker on his shoulder, the dark skinned elf began to follow the fresh footprints that Daxter had left behind. As he looked up onto the bone bridge, he saw Daxter holding a glowing, black spotted animal. "What the-" he raised an eyebrow.

"A muse." Maria gasp as she place a hand over her mouth. "They're nearly extinct." she said. "I've heard they bring good luck."

"Ha!" Daxter laughed. "Good luck my ass!" he climb down from the high bridge before thrusting the animal at Sig who took it. "That's our sculptor friend's pet. It escapes here one in a great while. Jak and I always had to go find it for him." he said as he opened his backpack, before stuffing the animal in it and zipping the bag back up. "Let's go." he told them as he led them the long way around the island. Small lurker creatures would jump out at them to hurt them, but they were easily defeated and killed by Sig or Daxter; Maria was having mixed feeling about this.

"You seem oddly brave for a guy who is terrified of this place." Maria mused as she followed Daxter upon the docks that led towards a ship. "Now that's a ship." she said with a grin.

"It doesn't move from here." Daxter told her. "I'm not brave. I'm cautious." he then jumped onto the ship's deck. Maria went over to a door, but found it was locked. "It's a death ship." Daxter explained. "It was built to be a trap. Jak and I kicked the asses of all of the dark eco infused lurkers that lived on this thing." he climb up to the log ramp and began jumping and dodging the logs that were rolling down it. Maria and Sig followed him until they all came to the platform above the colosseum. "Here's the thing," he pointed towards the round doors. "those doors will only open if somebody channels blue eco." he pointed towards the ball of blue eco in the center of the arena. "Only Jak, or Mar, can currently do that."

"I can too." Maria stated as she jumped from the platform and ran at the stuff.

Daxter slapped his hand over his face. "Damn it." he cursed. Of course she can. he groused. Why can't I do cool things like that? he began to pout as he watched her run towards the blue eco. As soon as Maria touched the blue orb, she suddenly vanished from sight as she ran towards the first of two doors. The blue eco activated the door, causing it to open.

"Color me impressed." Daxter stated with a wide grin. "I think I'm starting to like this chick." he told the older elf.

Sig chuckled at the younger boy. "What about Tess?" he inquired, his mechanical eye zooming in on Daxter who grinned.

"Tessy poo is my snookums." he said with a lovey dovey look on his face. "She's just a friend." he said pointing at Maria.

Maria then turned around, noticing the steps she went to follow them up. Just then both Daxter and Sig jumped from the platform. "Going somewhere Cherry?" Sig inquired as Daxter regained his balance from having held onto the larger man when they'd jumped.

"Just exploring." she told them before running up the steps and coming to a sudden stop as she saw Jak standing there with his arms crossed over his chest.

"JAK!" Daxter cried out in surprise.

"Never thought you'd come here again Dax." Jak said as he eyed his friend. "I know it's a bit of a temptation to come here, but it really is dangerous here." he told Maria before he moved out of the way to let her walk towards the pit of dark eco where Mar was looking over the edge of the vat. "Luckily, he wanted to come here too." he said as Daxter moved to stand next to him.

"How'd you know where we were?" Daxter inquired, having seen the two disappear into Forbidden Jungle.

"You've been gone for an hour or two by the time we returned from me having taught him how to use that gun." he told his friend. "I noticed the fisherman's boat was gone, but I knew he'd been fishing in the river earlier, so that left you having used it." he looked at Daxter. "Mar said something about wanting to explore the islands, so we brought his boat and I brought him directly here." he grinned. "You took them the long way, didn't you?"

Daxter grinned. "What can I say, I was the tour guide." he stated cheekily.

Jak laughed. "All the while shaking in your boots in fear." he teased Daxter who glared at him.

"Not really..." he mumbled quietly as his cheeks redened in embarrassment. Jak laughed even louder.

M-Angel: Sorry it took me a couple of months to update this story. Hopefully, I'll be finishing up this story in the next ten chapters.