Day 6: Day of the Golden Temple
Jak sat on the steps talking with everyone, “It’s a risk but I think we can handle it, right guys?”
Daxter carried the stubborn Para on his fuzzy back, while Para insisted on riding him as a horse “Kid, calm down I’m not your horse!”
Para chuckled “Keep going, my loyal steed.”
Daxter groaned as he watched Jak chuckle at his misfortune. Oh he’d get Jak back one day for this big time.
Daxter looked “What next, Jak…”
Para groaned “ARE WE THERE YET?!”
Damas gave a “look” to Daxter meaning he better shut up or you know what.
Daxter groaned “Fine, for now.”
Jak and the rest gathered around the map, apprentently the symbols seemed to end with a golden symbol built like gold bars on each other.
Daxter moved forward with Para on his back, being stubborn as he snubbed Jak of the map “Let Daxter Jones look at this…”
“Holy shit, look at this! This place is all gold, I mean the symbol.”
Jak grumbled “Give me back the map, Daxter.”
Daxter muttered “You owe me, Jak for letting me drag around Para who thinks I’m his horse.”
Jak said “Come on Dax, it’s for a short time, and he doesn’t have shoes!”
Jak’s puppy eyes came into view as Daxter groaned “Don’t do that, Jak.”
Ashelin pulled the two apart “Let’s… GET … Moving…”
Sig and Damas followed behind “What do you see, Cherries? The map looks like it could be a long distance to where it’s tellin’ us to go.”
The eco warrior and crew pushed the jungle trees aside being awful careful, apparently there were mysterious people who didn’t want the group around the general area as they seemed quite protective of what was on the top.
Sig turned “Come on guys, we got a lon-"
The ex governess turned at Sig to confirm what was bothering the spy and fellow friend of Jak.
Sig frowned as he yelled "GET DOWN" as Jak pulled Daxter down, Sig pulled Damas down, Ashelin got down while Para threw himself to the ground as darts flew threw the air over their heads.
Daxter cursed "Damn, I knew this was too easy, all the way here we faced little trouble until n- he pushed himself down as another dart flew over his head.
Every step the group made, got harder and harder to walk, but with everyone sharing the responsibility, Sig and Jak was able to take on the grunt of the work.
Jak turned back "Everyone alright?"
Ashelin sighed "Well, how far we have from here, Jak? We've been on this quest for a week or more now."
The eco warrior eyed the map "Almost there, I swear it, Ashelin."
Sig stared at him "You said that days ago."
Jak grumbled at his lie exposed. "Let's just move... I smell something wet..
Turns out the scenery was as wet as Jak predicted but the dirt near the final location was muddy and dirty for every step they took.
Para rode on Sig's back so Daxter wouldn't have to complain about his paws getting dirty this time. Orange Lighting got the premium ride on Jak's padded shoulder.
"Ah, that's better.. Don't ya think, sidekicks?"
Sig stopped and pointed at a large golden temple as he stopped to take a breath and wanted to take a closer look at it. "Holy shit, my liege. You should take a look at this. I think we found the mysterious temple on this map thing Jak found."
Jak stared up and then back at the map "Wha-what?! This is it? No gold, no artifa-
Daxter Jones hopped off the eco warriors shoulder with literal dollar signs in the ottsel's eyes "It's MINE! It's all mine"
Jak cleared his throat "DAX!" "CAREFUL!!!"
Daxter Jones adjusted his brown coat, his floppy adventurer hat and his light whip "Come on Jak, I'm Daxter Jones, what could go wrong?"
Ashelin gritted her teeth "Every time you say that, something goes wrong."
Para looked up in wonder, he's never seen such a wondrous statue. Damas looked cautious as Para looked him in the eyes "Dad, can I go with Uncle Daxter and Jak and his friends and go get that artifact? Please? I've never had a adventure like this one and it was fun. I never get to do something like this...
Damas frowned "Fine, go... Just go with the others, Sig... Jak I'm trusting you to protect the little one. Jak stared at his adopted brother as he placed a hand on his shoulder "Come on.."
The Wastelander King decided to watch for trouble, but Sig refused to leave Damas alone "What's bothering you, my liege?"
Damas kept quiet and bent down "There always seems to be trouble when everyone's around, either Jak or Daxter. They spell trouble for all of us if things go wrong."
Sig sighed "Damas, stop being so harsh on the man and his friend. They earned your trust, don't you think?
Ashelin went with Para, Daxter and Jak as the woman didn't trust the area not to be filled with traps if they walked up the steps.
Jak looked up "Hey, I'll go Ashelin, Keep Daxter with you so far. I'll check for traps before we go for the artifact."
Daxter looked up "Just be careful, Jak."
Jak stared up the 120 steps on the golden temple as he stepped one step at a time, taking time to observe to make sure there were no traps around the golden beauty temple.
"Dax, it's safe." Daxter Jones didn't hesitate as he followed the eco warrior up the stairs, Jak yelled out to Ashelin "Come on!" Ashelin frowned a little more weary, is it ok?
The eco warrior kept moving up the steps as Daxter joined him up the stairs, Ashelin lagging somewhere behind. Daxter was on his feet faster and could run up stairs faster than Jak could. For every 20 steps they went up, they stopped and let the others catch up. Daxter and Ashelin took a breath on the 40th step and Jak nodded. Once everyone had a light break, they began walking up another 40 steps. Everyone seemed to be worn from wear except for Daxter who was taking things in stride with every step. "Man, this journey was interesting."
Jak frowned "Shut up Dax, we still got a long way to go as he pointed up at the 120th step "Want to get up there? Stop the talking, please. Jak sighed as he shook his head, following Ashelin as he lagged behind the group. "Come on, it has to be almost there. These steps are really annoying me. Ashelin finally passed even Jak up the stairs. Ashelin and Daxter stopped about the 80th stair and took a breath, sitting on the steps and looking down. Daxter glumped and looked down, that was a long way down for one ottsel.
Damas and Sig looked for trouble as it seemed way too quiet for now. Did they grab the legendary artifact yet? What was taking everyone so long?"
After about the 120th step, they noticed some sort of temple underneath and they popped inside. Daxter blinked, this place was seriously a temple dedicated to Omni of all people.." Jak stared around inside, taking a view and gander almost impressed Omni actually had a temple in his name. But Ashelin cleared her throat and tapped Jak on the shoulder. "The artifact."
Jak and Daxter nodded and rushed out followed by the Governess as they ran up the final steps, taking one more break before staring at the Artifact of Salvation. Jak blinked, bending down at the legendary artifact. "So this was worth all the trouble, huh? I don't even know what it does.."
Daxter blinked "Huh? Is it a precursor artifact Jak? What does it do? Ashelin gritted her teeth, they had to protect the artifact with caution now. Jak pulled the artifact out of the center as a platform lifted up and Jak grabbed Daxter and the artifact in his arms. Light Jak held the ottsel, the artifact and Ashelin in his arms and flew down to the group of unlikely adventurers as Sig and Damas stared at the wondrous artifact in their hands.
Para stared at it with wondrous eyes, never before seeing something like it in his life.
Jak sighed as he dropped from his Light form and held the gift in his hands as he gritted his teeth.
Would Ashelin ever get her apology from Jak? That's for another story.
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