Chapter 3: Healing touch

Jak clapped his hands and Daxter jumped off his shoulder, Jak caught him and then threw his friend between his legs and then up into the air behind him, coming up in time for Daxter to land on his head in a single hand stand.
Beside the boys, the tin in little Mar's hands rattled hollowly as a single coin was dropped into it by someone passing by.

Daxter jumped back onto Jak's shoulder and Jak rubbed his neck to try and release some of the strain. The trick was one that he and Daxter had started doing when his friend had become an ottsel, a modification on the trick he and Daxter had done when Daxter was still elven, something only done occasionally to entertain themselves. But now Jak and Daxter had performed their little trick several times in the last few hours and having the weight of his friend, even in the small form of an ottsel, coming down in his head was taking its toll.

As the older boys attempted their next trick, Mar wandered over to a woman walking past and looked up at her with the biggest pleading eyes he could manage, holding out the tin and sticking out his lip. The woman looked down with an unimpressed look, then sighed and fished through her pocket, dropping coins and lint into the tin and then walking away.

Mar smiled at his accomplishment and walked over to Jak and Daxter to show off his earnings.

"Good job, kid." Daxter praised without much enthusiasm while Jak smiled and patted Mar's head.

Jak took the tin and spilled the contents out onto his palm, counting out how much money they had managed to get and casting away the pocket lint. A hard-boiled sweet that had made its way into the tin from someone's pocket was handed over to Mar, who happily popped it into his mouth.

"Enough?" Jak signed up at Daxter.
His friend was better with money then he was.

Daxter frowned at the lari, then perked up as he spotted a Krimzon Guard approaching.

"It'll have to do." Daxter told Jak. "I really don't want to be told to 'move along' again."

Jak nodded and pocketed the lari, taking hold of Mar's hand and leading them through the Slums.

"Ugh, this is so degrading." Daxter complained loudly. "I let myself be treated as a dumb sideshow pet and we barely get anything for it."

Jak nodded in agreement but they both knew that they didn't have much choice.

The boys had been in Haven city for a few weeks now and the money from trading the Precursor Orbs hadn't lasted long. After being forced to realise that they wouldn't be finding their way back to Sandover in only a few days, they couldn't just keep sleeping on the street with only the clothes on their backs.
First, they'd had to buy some new sets of clothes for Jak and Mar, as well as boots for Jak, which he wasn't very comfortable with but were something he needed in the city. Then they'd had to find a place to actually stay, which they'd thankfully found for free after sneaking their way through another security gate and finding themselves in a rundown part of the city called the Slums, but they'd still had to spend money on making the place liveable.
Almost all of the money they had had been used just making a place for themselves in Haven city, and they needed more of it if they wanted to continue living in the city.

With no citizenship and being as young as they were, just getting a job to earn more money wasn't an option, especially considering they were now trapped in the Slums, where job opportunities were low. Though they hadn't been called out on it, the Krimzon Guard had clearly noticed that they were sneaking through checkpoints and tightened patrols around them, giving no opportunity to sneak into the other sectors of the city.
And, unlike back home, there were very few people in Haven who were willing to trade favours for lari with an unknown teen. There had been the odd one-off job that the boys had managed to find, but it was nowhere near enough to support themselves.
So, the boys were reduced to street begging, doing little tricks to entice passers-by to give up what spare change they had in their pockets. And even that didn't produce much, many in the Slums already struggling to feed themselves, the area between the Bazaar and Industrial district being the only place where begging was in any way effective.

"A home, sweet hole." Daxter sighed sarcastically as the boys reached their dwelling.

Positioned on the boarder between the Water-Slums and regular Slums sat a dirty little hovel half obscured by weeds. Its walls were badly made and crooked, the roof was dented and leaking, and the door was little more than a sheet of metal badly positioned on hinges. When first built, it was likely someone's storage shed for their zoomer.
On moving in, Jak had done his best to clean and fix it up, using his experience patching up damage done to the huts in Sandover from seasonal storms. But it could still hardly be called a place to live, let alone a home.
Still, it was a roof over their heads and all they had.

Inside the hovel wasn't any warmer than outside as the boys walked in and sat down on the old mattress that Jak had managed to find and clean up.

From his bag, Jak pulled out the food he'd managed to buy with their earnings and handed it out.
Mar pulled a face at the food, pushing it back into Jak's hand and crossing his arms.

"Come on kid, you know it's all we can get." Daxter groaned.
It was something that he'd had to enforce many times since access to food had become so restricted. But, young as he was, Mar still couldn't quite grasp why they had to settle for such subpar food instead of the delicious meals they'd had in the Bazaar back when they'd first met, leading to many a pout and tantrum.

It took some more coaxing before Mar finally gave in to the rumbling in his belly and accepted the food, though he was clearly unhappy about it.

This had been their routine for a while now. Go out and look for jobs for a teen with no ID and an ottsel and kid tagging along to do, failing that go perform for pitiful coins and pocket lint, buy what food they could with their meagre earnings, then go back to their pathetic hovel. The occasional wandering around the Slums in hopes of spotting Keira or Samos was also included somewhere in there.

Once food was finished, Mar set about playing with the few toys Jak had used their dwindling funds to buy him, which included the carved statuette of Daxter, much to the ottsel's chagrin.

To entertain himself, Jak took out the pocket knife he had bought with the last of their Precursor Orb earnings and a bit of wood, carving at it with the knife. It had been a bit of a steep purchase, especially with how little money they had at the time, but with no easy access to Eco anymore, Jak had to have something to protect himself with, and the blasters he's seen the Guards and some others carrying around were definitely out of their price range. Plus, a knife was a handy thing to have.

"We can't keep living like this." Daxter complained. "We're getting no closer to find Keira or Loghead, I'm still and ottsel, we living in a horrible hovel, I'm not an elf, we still don't know how to get home, and I'm still stuck at two feet tall!"

Jak sighed and patted his friend on the back, offering silent support.

"Find eventually." Jak signed.

They'd find Keira and Samos eventually. They'd find their way back home eventually. And they'd find the way to return Daxter to elven form eventually.

"Eventually." Daxter scoffed, energy gone from him.

Jak couldn't help the guilt from boiling up inside him.
His own situation was already sucky, stuck in a new city where everything was different, there was no visible way home, their 'house' was a badly made little hovel, and food was on a day-by-day basis. But Daxter also had the fact what he was stuck in a smaller and physically weaker form, unable to do as much as he used to, and treated like an animal when he wasn't one.
And it had been Jak's idea to go out the Misty Island, and then throw a bomb at an attacking Lurker that resulted in Daxter getting knocked into the Dark Eco.

"Tough it out." Jak signed. "Find better opportunities. Get security passes. Earn more and make things better." He outlined a general plan.

"Yeah, I guess." Daxter nodded. "We should aim for Security passes first."

Jak nodded in agreement. One of their main obstacles was those Security Gates, which kept them locked in the Slums and away from better sources of money and job opportunities, as well as keeping them from searching everywhere for Keira and Samos.

After a while, the boys went to bed, all three curling up on the narrow mattress under some thin blankets.

"Use this to get through the Red Security Gates. Consider it your payment."

Jak grinned as the Red Security pass was handed to him by his temporary employer alongside the package he was being asked to deliver.

It was an admittedly shady sounding job and Jak was getting all sorts of negative vibes from the man, but access to more parts of the city was worth the risk

"And remember, if you get caught by the Guard, you never even met me. You say nothing." The man pointed a threatening finger at Jak.

Jak fought not to roll his eyes as he nodded.
If Daxter was here, no doubt his friends would have had some words for the man, but Jak had left him to look after Mar in their hovel, the potential risk of his new task higher than leaving the kid in the care of someone who couldn't physically protect or stop him in their poorly-secured hovel.

Jak's temporary employer smirked when he remembered that the teen couldn't speak, and so he would say nothing regardless. It was why he'd picked out the boy to deliver his package after all, it would be hard to make the boy squeal when he couldn't say a word, and he doubted that the Guard would be patient enough to realise he was mute and make the kid write things out before beating him up.

With the package in his bag, Jak set off towards the Red Security Gate to the Industrial District, doing his best to act casually so as to not arouse suspicion from the Krimzon Guard.

…

At the Security Gate, Jak flashed his new pass and smiled in triumph when the barrier deactivated to let him through.

"Stop right there!"

Jak froze at the voice, turning to see a Krimzon Guard approaching him.

"What are you doing in this area?" The Guard demanded.

Jak just stared, now wishing that he had brought Daxter after all so that his friend could come up with an excuse.

"Why aren't you in school?" The Guard continued to demand answers.

Jak brought his hands up to sign, hoping that the Guard would be able to understand. He stopped when the Guard raised his gun slightly.

"Say something!" The Guard demanded.

Jak shook his head and gestured to his throat.

The Guard gave an aggravated sigh.

He then flipped open the face of his helmet, revealing a tattooed face underneath.

"Why. Are. You. Here?" The Guard said each word slowly, as if Jak was deaf.
It wasn't an uncommon assumption from people on first learning that Jak didn't speak, but Jak still found it annoying.

Jak pointed towards his destination, not sure of what else to do without Daxter there to communicate for him and no writing tools.

The Guard followed his pointing and saw a trio of men transporting around some crates, one with blond hair. It was hard to see whether there was any family resemblance from this distance, but he guessed that there could be a relation.

"You seeing your dad for something?" The Guard guessed.

Jak nodded, jumping on the excuse.

"What?"

Jak mimed carrying something.

"You're working?" The Guard raised an eyebrow.

Jak nodded slowly, worried he went with a wrong answer.

The Guard sighed. "They're getting young and younger." He muttered. "Move along, kid."

Jak quickly hurried towards the trio of men, stopping to linger around them until the Guard stopped watching him.

"Hey, kid, you need something?" One of the men asked,

Checking to make sure the Guard was no longer looking, Jak shook his head and continued on his way to the drop-off point.

Eventually, Jak found himself at Haven's Port, wandering around a bit until he finally reached a place called the Hip Hog Haven Saloon.
The place had an unpleasant smell as he walked inside and the few patrons who were there didn't looked very pleasant either.

"We don't serve minors." The lady manning the counter said as Jak approached.

Jak pulled off his bag and moved to take out the package.

"Oh, a delivery." She said, realising why Jak was there.

She looked Jak up and down, a look of reluctance on her face.

"The boss is in the back. He'll want to be handed it personally." She said, sounding almost like she was sorry for something.

Following the woman's instructions, Jak entered into the back and came to a door marked 'office', knocking on it.

"Yes?" A wheezing voice responded.

When Jak entered with package in hand, he was greeted with the sight of an impossibly fat and ugly man that likes of which he didn't even know could exist. He was now glad that he hadn't brought Daxter along, there was no way that his friend would have kept his thoughts and insults to himself.

"Ah, the delivery boy." The boss, Krew, smiled as Jak entered.

When Jak placed the package on the desk, Krew pressed a button and there was a suddenly locking sound from the door. Trying the handle revealed that the door was now locked.

"Just a precaution you understand, ay." Krew said casually while Jak tried to escape. "New delivery boys can so rarely be trusted." He ended with a chuckle that turned into wheeze.

Krew began to open his package with meaty fingers that made it hard for him to do so.

"The last delivery boy thought it'd be smart to skim a little off his package. He thought I wouldn't notice." Krew said conversationally. "I made sure he wouldn't be doing that again. That he wouldn't be able to even try."

Krew grinned, leaving the actual fate of the last delivery boy to Jak's imagination.

Thankfully, the package was up to Krew's satisfaction and the door was unlocked.

"You're someone of very few words aren't you." Krew wheezed as Jak quickly opened the door.

Jak said nothing and nodded his head hesitantly, inching out the door.

"Hmm, I like that in a person." Krew said in a way that make Jak shiver. "Come back when you're older and maybe I'll have a job for you."

Krew then dismissed Jak with a wave of his pudgy hand and Jak was quick to leave.

Jak didn't go back to his hovel immediately. With access to the Industrial Zone and Port, he was able to look for new job opportunities, as well as scout out new locations for his and Daxter's street performance.
So, it wasn't until a while later that he finally began to head home.

As Jak crossed into the slums, his ears picked up a pained groan. The sound led him into an alley where he found a man slumped against the wall with his clothes badly burned.
Eyes widening, Jak quickly hurried over to check on the man.

"Oh, hey." The man slurred slightly from pain.

Jak pointed at the burns on his clothes and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, these. They're nothing to worry about, blondie." The man waved off.

Jak's face showed that he didn't believe the man and motioned whether he wanted some help.

"Nah, I'm fine. Nothing for you to concern your pretty head over." The man said.

"Sweep the area!" The voice of a Krimzon Guard came from the other end of the alley, causing the man's eyes to widen.

The man moved to get up, only to flop down with a hiss of pain.

"On second thought, I wouldn't mind some help getting away from here. You know how the Krimzon Guard like to accuse completely innocent people and then shoot first and ask questions later."

Jak helped to pull the man to his feet and then support him as they began walking away from the Krimzon Guard, walking towards Jak's hovel.

"Huh, you're stronger than you look." The man commented.

Jak ended up taking the man to his hovel, much to Daxter's chagrin when he saw that his friend had brought over unexpected company.

"Don't I get a say in this?" Daxter demanded as Jak set the man down on the ground.

Mar wandered over to the man and poked at his burned clothes in curiosity. He ended up poking something that caused the man to hiss in pain, so Jak picked the boy up and moved him to the mattress away from the man.

"I mean, we don't even know this guy's name but we're letting him inside?" Daxter continued.

"The name's Jinx." The man said.

"Hurt. Needs help." Jak signed to Daxter.

Daxter huffed and then let out a big sigh.

"How'd you even get hurt anyway? Lose a fight with a lava Lurker?" Daxter questioned Jinx.

"Eh, I fell. Work hazards and all-" Jinx cut off with a pained hiss as Jak peeled away the burned clothes from his injuries.

Jak and Daxter flinched when they saw just how bad the burn on Jinx's leg was, a large patch of red with bits of white. They had both seen and had burns before, but never something this bad.

"It's-it's looks worse than it is." Jinx said, sounding more like he was trying to convince himself than the boys.

Jinx dug through his own bag and produced a health pack, but then frowned at it.

"This isn't going to be anywhere near enough." He lamented.

Jak took the pack and opened it to reveal a roll of bandages and a jar that he could feel a small amount of Green Eco within. Just as Jinx had said, it wouldn't be enough for his injury, no better than putting a plaster over a stab wound.

Back home, all Jak would have needed to do was go out and find more Green Eco to help Jinx. Even if there weren't any vents nearby, there'd usually be some just floating around.
But in Haven, as the boys had learned, Eco was extremely scarce. Any vents were strictly controlled and not accessible to the public, and there certainly wasn't any Eco just floating around. In Haven, Eco had to be bought.

Jinx was silent for a while, contemplating his options until he came to a conclusion he clearly didn't like.

"Listen, you'll have to take me to this guy named Krew." He told Jak. "He'll have guys who can fix me up."

"You don't look too eager to be taken to this Krew guy." Daxter noted. "Something you want to share with the class?"

"I just never saw myself becoming one of Krew's debtors." Jinx groaned. "Maybe I should just risk letting the burn heal on its own." He muttered to himself.

Though Jak's meeting with Krew earlier that day had been brief, it had been enough for him to get a sense of just how dangerous that man was. So, it was easy to guess that being in debt to a man like Krew was not a good thing, especially if Jinx was considering letting his injury going untreated.

A tug on Jak's arm brought his attention to Mar, who indicated to the small jar of Green Eco and then to Jinx. The young boy clearly understood that Green Eco was used to heal, but not that such a small amount would not be enough to heal such a bad burn.
In such a small amount, it'd waste itself healing the burn on a surface level instead of the worst parts without direction.

Jak paused and regarded the Green Eco again, recalling his lessons with Samos.

Growing up with a Green Sage for a tutor, Green Eco was naturally the Eco he was most familiar with. Samos teaching him the various ways to channel Green Eco, as well as teaching him how to care for injuries outside of using Eco on them.
Some of these lessons included how to direct a small amount of Green Eco through the body without letting it be absorbed so that it could be applied to specific injuries. Jak had only been taught how to do this in the context of fixing a broken bone, specifically Daxter's arm after he fell out of a tree, but he could probably use the same method to apply the Green Eco to the deepest parts of Jinx's burn, lessening the severity of the injury.

Jak first cleaned out Jinx's wound while the man did an admirable effort not to scream.

"Don't worry, yah can trust Jak." Daxter moved to Jinx's other side. "He's good at healing. Well, he's better at it than me at any rate."

"That's comforting." Jinx said.
It was hard to tell whether he was being sarcastic or not with how much pain was in his voice.

"I'd be better at it too, if old Green Stuff bothered to teach me." Daxter continued. "But he always used me as the dummy instead. Said that Jak was the one that needed to learn, not me."

Jak smiled at Daxter, his friend doing a good job of keeping Jinx's focus away from his injury as it was tended to.

Mar watched Jak tend to Jinx's burn with interest, his little nose wrinkling up at the sight of the injury.

"Hurt." Mar gave one of the signs that Jak and Daxter had taught him in their time together.

Jak nodded and then opened the jar of Green Eco, which Mar looked at in wonder.

"Eco." Jak pointed at the Eco. "Better." He pointed at the burn.

Jak stuck his hand into the jar and he had to concentrate on not absorbing it as he usually would as it leapt into his hand. Then he placed his hand gently on the burn, doing his best to maintain control of the Eco and not let it be absorbed into the injury just yet, forcing it to travel deep into Jinx's wound.

It wasn't easy, like trying to keep water cupped in his hand. Jak cursed himself for not paying closer attention to Samos' lessons.

Samos had always tried hard to reinforce his healing lessons, both with and without Eco, valuing these lessons above all others even though caring for and communing with plants was more his expertise. The Sage had always acted as if the abundance of Eco would suddenly disappear without warning, with how he focused Jak's education on using as little Eco as possible.
But Jak had never really took Samos' lessons to heart. Afterall, with Green Eco vents just at the end of Sentinel Beach, all someone needed to do was jump through to be restored to full health, no need for fine-detail healing. His younger self hadn't really comprehended that there could be places in the world where Eco was not plentiful.

Eventually, Jak could feel the Green Eco reach the deepest parts of the burn and slowly let the Eco trickle out of his control and be absorbed into the injury.
Before Jak's eyes, the severity of the burn lessened. By the time all of the Green Eco had been used up, the burn was still a mess of red and ruined skin, but there were no longer any white bits and it wasn't as deep.

Jak let out a sigh, feeling slightly tired. Intentionally channelling Eco instead of instinctively letting it run through him until dissipated always left him feeling a bit tired.

Jinx turned his attention back to Jak just as the boy finished wrapping his burn.

"Heh, thanks, kid." Jinx said. "It feels better already. Anyway, I should get going."

Jak helped the man to stand, at which point Jinx's eyes widened.

"Hey, it does feel better." He said. "I mean, it still hurts but it's not as bad as before. Did you give me drugs or something?"

Jak shook his head, showing of the empty jar for the Eco.

"There is no way that the Eco did that." Jinx denied. "You must really be some healing wiz to work with just that."

Jak shrugged.

"Yeah, Jak has a way with Eco that not many others have." Daxter bragged. "It makes up for his lack of brains."

Jak scowled at Daxter's joke, reaching over to swat at his friend but the ottsel dodged out of the way at the last minute.

"Well, looks like I won't be needing to go to Krew after all." Jinx said happily. "What are you wanting for this anyway?"

Jak blinked in surprise and then shook his head.
Why would he charge someone for helping to heal them? This wasn't like when he did tasks for someone that they could do themselves or just needed help with like when he was gathering Power Cells.

"Nothing?" Jinx questioned. "You're really just doing this out of the kindness of your heart."

Jak gave a half shrug and nodded.

"Well, since you brought up the subject, we should be charging you." Daxter quickly jumped in. "There was the healing, then the room and board, and Jak did help get you here in the first place-" Jak cut Daxter off by covering his mouth.

Jinx laughed.

"You know what? Here." He reached into his pocket and threw Jak a small bag of lari. "Just so I don't owe any favours."

Jak opened the bag and smiled when he saw the amount. It was no big sum, but it would take away the worry of getting their next meal for a while.

Jinx limped towards the door but stopped just before he left to give some parting advice.

"You should really start charging the next time you help someone." Jinx advised. "Not everyone is as nice as me. And a kid like you, you're just going to get taken advantage of."

Jak contemplated the man's words as he lay in bed that night, looking at the empty Eco jar in his hand. Eventually, he disregarded it.
Even if he did charge people to help heal them, why would they come to a kid in a dirty hovel instead of a trained healer in a clean medical ward?
This would just be a one-off thing. Wouldn't it?

Author's note: Please comment