Chapter 9: Warrior and Sage

"On your left, Cherry!"

Sig kept Jak within the corner of his good eye while firing at the big Metal Head charging him.

Jak gave a sharp whistle of acknowledgement, one of the calls the two had agreed on for communication with the mostly-mute teen.

Sig dodged to the side at the last second, peppering the side of the big Metal Head with holes until it finally stopped moving. He looked over at Jak in time to see the teen delivering a knockout kick to one of the smaller Metal Head the Wastelander had left to him, then descending on the creature with his knife to finish it off. Nearby were the other small Metal Heads already taken out.

"Good job, kid." Sig nodded in approval.

Jak grinned and then crouched down to remove the Skull Gems from the corpses, leaving Sig and Daxter to watch his back.

"You know…" Daxter drawled from Jak's shoulder. "We'd do a lot better if we had a gun of our own."

Sig chuckled.

Both Jak and Daxter had brought up the subject more than once since joining him on excursions outside the walls, yet Sig's answer would always remain the same.

"Sorry, Chilli Pepper, you've got a couple more years before you'll be allowed to use a gun outside of the course." He replied.

As good as Jak had proven to be at using his borrowed blaster at the range and course, there was a stark difference between a controlled environment and outside the walls, and Sig didn't want to risk getting shot because he gave an inexperienced kid a gun. That, and the Krimzon Guard would definitely take notice of an underaged teen walking around with a gun that it was illegal for him to own.

"Ugh." Daxter groaned at the response he'd heard many times before by that point.

"Alright, I think we've wiped out enough in this sector." Sig said, doing a mental tally of their kills for the day. "Let's rendezvous with the others."

"Rrr…rite." Jak responded with a thumbs-up.

Keeping their guards up, the three of them made their way back to the rendezvous point that Sig and the other warriors who had been hired for this job had agreed on. It was a standard pest control job from the city, taking out Metal Heads and their minor nests outside of the walls to stop their population from getting too high in important areas. While not exactly safe, it was routine enough that Sig felt reasonably confident that he could keep Jak safe, though it did force him to take the less populated areas, which meant less pay. And, obviously, none of the other hunters were willing to help Sig babysit the teen and his ottsel, leaving them by themselves.

"How many Gems have you got now, Cherry?" Sig asked.

This wasn't their first hunt together. It wasn't very frequent, but Jak had managed to join Sig outside the walls a few times by this point, collecting his Skull Gems each time. Even without a gun, Jak had shown himself to be a strong fighter, especially after getting to practice his skills more often.

"Alll-most enuff." Jak replied.

His voice was raspy and hoarse. It almost reminded Sig of Damas' voice. Though, Sig was sure that the teen's voice would eventually become smoother as he got more used to speaking and continued to exercise his vocal cords. Meanwhile, the Spargun king would always sound like that.

"Hu-in' msh moor?" Jak then asked, wincing when his voice suddenly cracked.

"We'll have to see when we get back to the meeting point." Sig said.

A couple of their fellow hunters were already at the meeting point below and old watch tower when they arrived.

"Sig." One of them, Faro, greeted. "And I see the kid is still in one piece."

Jak got a sour look on his face and Sig couldn't help but grin. Clearly the kid didn't like being reminded that he was, in fact, a kid. He probably wasn't even glowing facial hair yet.

"M'names Jak." Jak crossed his arms.

"Sorry. Jak." Faro said, as if he were humouring the teen.

The other hunters eventually arrived and they began to compare notes.

"JJ never showed up for her sector." Faro frowned. "So, someone else is going to have to take over for her."

Sig frowned. That was slightly concerning. JJ, as some people had taken to calling her, never missed out on a chance to cause destruction outside the walls.

"It'll have to be a team." Sig said. "JJ usually gets given one of the toughest sectors."

"I'll have to bow out. My ammo's low." One of the hunters said.

A few others echoed his report.

Sig checked his own ammo reserves and decided that he would have enough for one more hunt, as long as he had others with him. With Jak there to take out the small fry, he hadn't expended as much ammo as usual.

"I'll go." Sig said. "I could use the extra pay bump."

"I should have enough too." Faro said.

"Yeah, me too." Chase, another of the hunters, said.

"A team of three should be good." Sig nodded. "Sorry, boys, but you'll need to-"

Sig turned to address Jak and Daxter, only to find them gone.

"Jak? Daxter?" He looked around.

"How does a kid just disappear like that?" Chase questioned, also looking around.

There was the sound of falling dust and Sig looked over at the tower to see some trickling down the wall.
Then he looked up.

"Jak! What in the abyss are you doing?!"

The teen was currently in the process of scaling the outside of the watch tower, using crumbling ledges and wooden posts to climb his way up.

At the shout, Jak looked down and even gave a cheeky wave before he continued to climb, completely unconcerned by the danger he was putting himself in.

Faro whistled in amazement.

"He's either really brave or really stupid." He said.

"Both, definitely both." Sig frowned. "Boy's, get down from there!"

He went ignored.

"He's good." One of the other hunters complimented as Jak swung from one wooden post to the next.

Sig had to begrudgingly admit that Jak was good. He had acrobatic grace and moved with confidence. Even Daxter, who mostly clung to Jak's shoulder, seemed to know exactly how to move so as to remain attached to Jak and not impede his friend's movements.

Eventually, Jak and Daxter reached the top of the tower. From below, Sig saw Jak put his hands on his hips and gaze out over the land from his vantage point, and the Wastelander swore that he could see the boy grinning in triumph.

Sig shook his head.

"Alright, Cherries, you're up there! Now how are you going to get down?!" He called up.

Jak didn't seem perturbed, continuing to look out at something in the distance. Daxter, however, only just seemed to realise how up they were and how precarious the way down was going to be, and began to freak out.
After a moment, Jak finally looked down and started circling around the top of the tower for a way down.

"Think he might be stuck?" Chase asked.

"Well, he's not coming down the same way he got up." Sig commented.

He had seen how some of the handholds and wooden beams had fallen away as Jak climbed.

Just as Sig was thinking that he'd have to go back into Haven to fetch a Zoomer, Jak decided to give him a heart attack. He jumped off the bloody tower.

"Ahh!" Daxter screamed on the way down.

"Bloody hell!" One of the hunters exclaimed in shock.

The adults watched, frozen, as Jak grabbed onto the fabric of what had once been a banner on the side of the tower. It obviously tore, but it still slowed the teen's decent enough for him to grab onto a wooden beam, which also broke under the sudden weight, but not before Jak managed to use it to swing over to another wooden beam, which also broke. Jak quickly made it to the ground, ending his descent in a flip and then a roll to absorb the impact of his landing.

All was silent as Jak got to his feet, the boy dusting himself off while grinning.

"Tell me the next time you decide to do that!" Daxter pulled at Jak's ear in anger.

Jak laughed.

"Sorry." He apologised to his friend, not looking sorry at all.

The hunter's exploded.

"That was amazing!"

"You're mad, kid."

"Certifiably insane."

"Where'd you learn how to do that?"

Sig approached the boys slowly.

Jak didn't see him coming but Daxter did. And one look at the older elf had Daxter jumping off of Jak's shoulder as fast as he could manage.

"Ack!" Jak choked as a heavily muscled arm seized him around the neck and pulled him sharply to the side.

"Just what in the name of the Precursors were you thinking, Cherry?!" Sig glared down at Jak, who was futilely trying to escape his grasp. "Do you have a death wish? Huh?" He shook Jak.

"Wss fan." Jak's already struggled speech was further hampered by Sig's hold.

"Fine?" Sig got even madder.

Jak cried out and struggled even harder when Sig dug his free hand into the teen's head and ground hard.

"You jumped off a tower! What if you had gotten hurt?"

Nearby, the hunters, plus Daxter, watched the two with varying expressions on their faces.

"I don't think I've ever seen Sig so worked up before." Faro noted.

"Usually, he's all for dangerous stunts." Chase nodded.

"Should I be worried?" Daxter asked, torn between concern and amusement.

"Nah, he'll be fine. Probably."

Eventually, Sig decided that he had punished Jak enough and let the teen go. Jak quickly scrambled away from the older elf as quickly as possible and then glared at him. Sig glared right back.

"Now, as I was saying before your little stunt." Sig said. "This final sector will be too dangerous to bring you boys along with. So, you'll have to go with the others back to Haven."

"Mmm na a babie." Jak scowled and crossed his arms.

"You're not. But you agreed to follow my rules when outside the walls. And one of those rules is to not put yourself in unnecessary danger." Sig said pointedly.

Jak huffed and turned away, not responding.

Sig just rolled his good eye.
Teenagers.

As the group split up to either hunt or return to Haven, Sig could hear Daxter making fun of Jak for the scolding that he'd been given.

"Achoo!"

Jak winced at the sneeze that went right off in his ear.

"Ugh! I hate the rain." Daxter sniffed.

The cold weather had well and truly moved in. And with it, the rain.

Jak had never minded the rain back home, even loved it at times. Even during the cold months, when he couldn't just play out in the rain for hours on end without any issue, the pattering of the rain on his hut's roof while he curled in front of the fire pit provided a sense of coziness. Rain meant fresh water for both the villagers and the crops. Plus, he loved the smell that came after the rain.
But in Haven, the rain was heavy and unpleasant, made the streets slippery and smelly, and there was no cozy fire pit to curl up in front of. Instead, there was a damp and increasingly-cold hovel.

Still, the hovel was an improvement to being out in the rain. And if it wasn't for Jak's important task, that would have been where he, Daxter and Mar would be instead of making their way through the Water Slums in the pouring rain.

"Ah! Finally!" Daxter gasped dramatically in relief when they entered the Oracle's hut.

The ottsel leapt off of Jak's shoulder and then gave himself a thorough shake to rid himself of excess water.
Jak didn't know why his friend was complaining so much, other than it being in his nature to complain. As an ottsel, Daxter's fur was waterproof.

"The Young Warriors return." The Oracle said as Jak approached it. "Present your offerings, then receive my teachings.

Jak pulled out his pouch of Skull Gems and placed it in front of the Oracle. The last few Gems had taken an annoyingly long time to collect, as Sig hadn't let Jak tag along with him outside the walls for a while as punishment for climbing the tower. The teen still didn't understand what the big deal was, he had been bored and he was a great climber, and he'd been perfectly fine getting down, save for a couple of bruises from landing on some stones during his roll.
The eyes of the statue glowed and the boys flinched back as purple lighting appeared around the pouch. On its own, the string of the pouch came undone and the Gems floated out of it, then burst into purple Eco that was sucked into the trunk-like mouth of the Oracle. Then, everything was still.

"Great Warrior." The Oracle spoke. "You have proven yourself ready for the next step in your journey. In order for you to be ready for the oncoming threat, you must first walk the path of the Sage."

"A Sage?" Daxter questioned. "You want Jak to become one of those crazy old coots?

The Oracle ignored him.

"The first step on this path is to learn how to take Eco within yourself. To be a vessel instead of just a conduit for the Eco you channel." The Oracle stated.

"What?" Jak signed in confusion, not fully understanding.

The Oracle's eye's flashed and a cloud of Eco emerged from its mouth. Images formed within the cloud, the figure of a man with darker clouds around him that looked kind of like Eco clusters. The figure of the man then held out his hand to one of the darker clouds that was drawn into him, the figure of the man became darker for a moment and he gained and aura, but then it faded away and the man was back to being lighter. Then the figure of the man held his hand out to another darker cloud and it was also absorbed into him, but that dark cloud became compressed within the figure of the man and no aura appeared, and unlike before the darker cloud in the man did not disappear.

"Eco runs through you and dissipates, even when not fully used. You have learned how to hold onto that Eco. But now you must learn to take it within yourself, to keep it within your body instead of letting it flow through and then out of you." The Oracle explained as the images played out.

Jak blinked and tried to understand what he was being shown, which was not just because he had never seen an Oracle do this before. He abruptly recalled Samos and the other Sages, how they could use their chosen Eco at will without a vent or cluster anywhere close. Was that what they had done, channelled Eco into themselves but not letting it out again until they wanted to use it? Was that why their skin was the colour of their Eco, because they had so much of it within them that it stained their skin? Would that happen to him?

Interested by the display, Mar walked over to the cloud of Eco and reached out to touch it, silently giggling when the images wavered around his little hand.
But then, there was a sucking sound and the cloud of Eco disappeared back into the mouth of the Precursor.

"Great Warrior. This task set to you will be harder than for any other Sage that has come before you. The Eco you once had in abundance is limited and hard to reach, there will little room for mistakes. Return to me once you have achieved this task."

The Oracle then went dormant.

"What!?" Daxter exclaimed. "That's it? That's your lesson? Even Loghead had more useful information than that!"

Mar made waving motions and tugged on Jak's trouser leg, wanting the Eco display back. He pouted when Jak shrugged in response.

Jak hummed as he mulled over what the Oracle had told him.

He needed to learn how to store Eco within himself? To become a vessel?
That would certainly be easier than storing it in jars.
But the Oracle hadn't told him how exactly he was meant to do that, just given a visual display. He already knew how to hold Eco without using it, but it had taken a lot of time and a lot of Eco to get to that point. Eco he hardly had any of, just as the Oracle warned.

Jak sighed heavily, really wishing he had something he could punch to let out his frustration.

"Let's go." He signed tiredly, casting and annoyed look at the rain that was still pouring outside.

Daxter let out a loud groan that spoke for all three of them.

Jak furrowed his eyes in concentration, staring at the Blue Eco held in his hands while visualising it going inside of him.

There was a brief zap of energy and Jak suddenly felt much more energetic than before, like he could run a thousand miles without tiring. And then it was gone, and the Blue Eco with it.

"Agh!" Jak vocalised his frustration, slamming his fist into the ground.

"Well, there goes the last of it." Daxter commented unhelpfully.

Jak scowled at his friend and tossed the jar that used to contain the Blue Eco into the corner.

The boys had spent ages gathering up what Eco they could from abandoned and forgotten ammo. And within only an hour it was all gone.
Becoming a vessel for Eco was much harder than Jak expected. Every time he tried to store it within himself, it would just channel itself through his body and quickly get used up due to how little of it there was. For the first time in his life, Jak actually longed for Samos to be there to teach him, the man was at least willing to explain things better than the Oracle did, and being a Sage meant that he already knew how to do everything on the path of the Sage.
Jak wondered why Samos hadn't taught him to be a vessel for Eco before.

Jak sniffed and tried to keep the tears of frustration from coming. He rarely cried and didn't want to do it now.

Why did he and Daxter have to land in a part of the world where there was so little Eco?
He wanted to be able to channel Eco just for the fun of it again. To not be limited to just using Green Eco to heal others.
He wanted the proper rush of Blue Eco flowing through him, to be able to run and jump at high speed, not just a brief jolt. He wanted to feel the power of Red Eco, the cackle of Yellow Eco, which he barely got to experience channelling in the time between setting out from Sandover for the first time and bringing the Warp Ring back.
He wanted to be able to channel openly. To not hide it away, for risk of being taken by whatever took all of the other Channelers in Haven.
He wanted to not be in the city. To run across the coast, the sands, the green, the clear water. He wanted his hut, with its wide-open space full of his things and his proper bed.
He wanted to go back to how things were.

"Hey, there, big guy. It's okay." Daxter's gentle voice brought Jak out of his spiralling thoughts.

The ottsel put a hand on Jak's arm to comfort him.

Abruptly, Jak realised that he had failed in not crying. Tears were falling it he couldn't stop them.

"Wanna go hmm." He said without thinking, cringing at how much he sounded like a child.

The tears only started coming harder.
Why was this happening? He'd been fine only a moment ago. Up until now, despite everything, he'd been doing just fine. Hadn't he?

"I know, bud. I do too." Daxter said.

Daxter left his side briefly and came back with a blanket, pulling it over Jak's shoulders before climbing up and draping himself over Jak's shoulders as well. It was a comforting weight.

"Just let it all out." Daxter encouraged.

The ottsel didn't say anything or move as Jak's shoulders began to judder and his breathing became sharp, the tears turning to full on sobbing.

With a whine, Chomp came over from where he had been cuddling with Mar, nudging Jak's leg and looking up at him with big eyes. Jak put a hand over the dog's back and rubbed the scales.

"Oka…oka…" His throat tightened too much for him to speak.

Mar toddled over and Jak saw that the younger boy also looked upset, even though he'd been fine when Jak had last checked. The boy put one hand on Jak's leg and the other reached up towards his face.
Jak tried to speak to offer reassurance but nothing came out this time.

"He's fine, pup." Daxter spoke for him. "He's just a little…overwhelmed. Like you get sometimes."

Mar frowned. Then he clambered in Jak's lap and gave him as big of a hug as his little arms could manage.
Jak smiled through the tears and hugged the boy back.

"We'll get back, eventually." Daxter echoed the words that Jak had told him months ago.

Jak nodded half-heartedly.

"We'll have a great tale to tell too." Daxter proclaimed, pushing himself up slightly. "That old Explorer will be so jealous. We've gone to a place that wasn't on any of his maps."

Jak nodded in agreement. Uncle Carter loved to chart into the unknown. He had been going further and further afield lately, with Jak old enough to take care of himself long-term.

"And we've survived all on our own. No adult around to protect us. I mean, we're practically adults already, no ceremony needed." Daxter continued. "When we get back, we should be able to leave the village as we like, no supervision needed. Though, I think I'll stick around Sandover for a while, spend some quality time at home before going out to be a hero again. What about you?"

"Like your plan." Jak signed, feeling calmer now. The tears were beginning to stop.

He longed for the familiarity of home, and the safety of it. But he knew he'd eventually want to go out into the world again. He'd gotten a taste of it on the journey to stop Gol and Maia, and he knew he'd never be content to a simple village life again.
Though, he'd have to continue taking care of Mar before that.

Jak was not going to leave the young boy behind when they, eventually, found their way back home. He couldn't wait to show Mar the wide-open spaces with the clean air, grass, beaches, sea and animals. And he wanted Mar to meet the other villagers, those he grew up with, those who knew what it meant to live in a community, those who took care of each other. Mar deserved to grow up safe in Sandover, not in Haven.

…

Eventually, Jak calmed down completely and stopped crying.

Mar and Chomp were asleep in his lap. And from the soft snores in his ear, Daxter was similarly napping.
He felt nice and snug under the blanket. Though, his back was hurting from sitting upright without any support and his legs had gone completely numb from the weight of Mar and Chomp.

As carefully as he could, Jak transferred Mar and Chomp over to the mattress, then lifted Daxter off his neck to set him down too. The ottsel grumped loudly and opened his eyes to look at him.

"Go out for air." Jak signed.

Daxter huffed but closed his eyes again.

Thankfully, it had stopped raining when Jak stepped outside. Though, the smell the rain had left behind was far from pleasant, he didn't go back in.
Jak shivered and pulled his blanket tighter around himself at the cold. After buying the tablet from the library so that they could bring texts back to the hovel with them, there hadn't been much left over for the heavier clothes and blankets that the boys needed as the colder months moved in. And the hovel was not very well insulated, despite Jak's best efforts.

"Hey, healer guy. How ya' doing'."

Jak turned to see Jinx approaching him. He still didn't feel like speaking, so instead just waved.

"Ah, right." Jinx said, remembering Jak's muteness.

Jinx looked around and then came closer.

"Look, I'm lookin' for a friend of mine. JJ, yah might know her. Short, hacked up black hair, not completely in touch with reality." He said.

That was a familiar description. It sounded like the woman he treated for damaged hands.
He nodded, then held up his fingers to show how many days ago he'd seen her.

"You…saw her a few days ago?" Jinx guessed.

Jak nodded.

Jinx hissed in frustration. "Still nothin'. Word on the street is that the Guard grabbed someone recently. That crazy loon probably got herself noticed and taken." He said to himself.

"W…why." Jak managed to vocalise.

He could go back inside to get Daxter to play translator, but he didn't want to disturb his friend.

Jinx scoffed. "The guard never need a reason." Then his gaze turned thoughtful. "But…they might have grabbed her for what she's capable of. Things that people like me can't do."

He fixed Jak with a meaningful look with had the teen feeling uneasy.
Did he…know what Jak was?

"Stay safe, kid." Jinx told him, turning and walking away.

Jak watched him go and shivered for reasons other than the cold.

Author's note: Please comment