//------------------------------//
// Prelude: Start of an Adventure 
// Story: Jak and Daxter: Heirs of Mar 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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Twilight yawned for a moment as she stretched her arms and walked out of the makeshift workshop that she and Keira had been working in since the sun rose, where she stood by part of the wooden railing that prevented one from falling over the edge and taking a dip in the water that surrounded the wide pillar of earth that the house she, Keira, and the others lived in, and stared at the sun for a time, even though her focus was less on whatever might be inside the water and more on the project that was inside the room she had just emerged from, as she was sure that, with a few more tweaks, they could finally finish it and move onto something else. The house in question belonged to Samos the Sage, or the Green Sage as some of the residents of Sandover Village, the small village that she and the others called home, called him, and he was a master of understanding and channeling Green Eco, one of the five types of Eco that existed and flowed throughout the entire world, and most of the residents of this place were Humans, bipedal creatures who walked on two legs, had two arms, and had a pair of pointed ears, though Twilight was one of three individuals who were different from the rest of the villagers, even if she had no idea why. The reason for that thought was because her legs ended in hooves, instead of feet like what Keira and the others had, her skin was a light grayish orchid color, while the others were fair-skinned and didn't have any odd colors, even though she was sure that her skin was also like fur in some cases, she had a horse tail coming out of her spine, which a friend of hers teased her about and said it was more like a pony's tail than what she was thinking, which shared the same colors as her hair, or mane as her friend said, which was a deep sapphire blue with moderate purple and raspberry stripes, and her head was different from Keira's as well, as her face was pushed out a little, like a muzzle, and she had pony ears, instead of pointed ears. Daxter just loved to tease her and her sisters, Starlight Glimmer and Cozy Glow, about their strange appearances, as they, according to him, looked like a cross between a Human and a pony, and all three of them had last names that didn't match up, as hers was Sparkle, but for the most part she didn't let that get to her as she stared out at the water she had been staring at and turned her focus back to the project she and Keira had been working on, despite the fact that she knew something was going to distract her at some point in the very near future.

She was, of course, wearing a light blue shirt that had no sleeves and was rather short, as it showed off her midriff, and a purple pair of cargo pants that stopped at her knees, though given the shape of her hooves it was hard for them to come up with some shoes or footwear for her to wear, so she and her sisters went without shoes for the time being, and she had white wrappings around her wrists, mostly because she and Keira worked with machines and these allowed her to make sure her arms weren't harmed in the process, and she had a modified pair of aviator goggles around her neck, as it didn't fit with her ears all that well and she had to modify the strap to fit much better. She, Starlight, Cozy, and Keira all had slim builds, which went with their more beach-like attire, minimalist attire to be exact due to the climate of the area they called home, as Sandover Village was located near a nice beach, with an eerie forest nearby, a dark island not too far from where their houses rested, and a smaller island that was some distance from the village and was used for training, even if the last one could only be accessed by a special teleportation device that rested in Samos' hut, but even as she thought about it she wasn't all that bothered by her attire. Starlight and Cozy wore similar clothing to what she had, even though Starlight's shirt was more of a cyan color and her cargo pants happened to be a light gray, with both cut the same as what Twilight was wearing, while Cozy's shirt was light green and the cargo pants being more of a pale color, and they were just fine with their attire as well, so for the most part the three of them focused on whatever they spent their days doing, even though she had this odd desire to read books and there weren't a whole lot of them in Sandover Village, as while Samos had one or two the only other individual who had some was their Uncle, an explorer who wanted to see the world that was beyond the village and either make a map of everything or write a book about everything he saw. The thing was that she, Starlight, and Cozy knew that there was no way they were related to the man in question, as he was pure Human and he had nothing odd about him, like hooves or a tail, but there was the chance that he was related to Jak, the fourth and final member of their little family, as Keira was a friend to all four of them, just like Daxter was a friend as well, but that didn't stop the four of them from seeing each other as family, even if it was possible that they weren't actually related to each other in the grand scheme of things.

As she thought about that, however, she thought about the earliest thing she remembered and that was a time when she, Starlight, Cozy, and Jak, with her and her sisters being four while Jak was five at the time, were in an odd city, surrounded by a tall wall that was either made out of stone or metal, and that they were wandering around with a small odd creature that followed Jak, before meeting an elderly man who helped keep them safe and there was another old man who had a wooden cane who became their protector, even though one of her weirder memories happened to be of the four of them seeing double, as there was a time where she was sure that she had seen a more mature and adult version of herself, Jak, Starlight, and Cozy, though that was around the time Twilight heard a voice speak.

"Are you thinking about that city again?" a voice asked, something that caused Twilight to pause for a second, and only a second, because she had heard her own voice behind her and it was followed by her turning around to see Keira standing in the doorway that Twilight had walked through a few moments ago, who was wearing a whitish lavender shirt, which also showed off her midriff, that had a red trim, her cargo pants were part purple and part pink, bandages on her arms and legs that were covered by her brown gloves and her sandals, with a purple choker around her neck and blue goggles that were in front of that, while her hair was half blue and half green.

That was the other thing that Twilight and Keira shared, besides their love of inventing new things to help the rest of the residents of Sandover Village, and the other villages that rested across the continent, as both of them had the same voice and it had shocked and surprised everyone that they knew when they realized that the pair had the same voice, so much so that Daxter loved to mention that they could have been sisters, though after about ten years of living with it, making Twilight and her sisters fourteen, the same as Keira, with Jak being fifteen, everyone had gotten used to the weirdness of the situation and didn't bat an eye when they heard either Twilight or Keira speak, though they made sure to announce themselves, just so everyone else knew who was talking.

"Sort of... its hard not to, given that it seems to be important with how many times I've seen it over the years," Twilight replied, as that was the truth of the matter, she, Jak, Starlight, and even Cozy had recurring dreams about the city and an event that none of them could really explain in great detail, as in odd creatures eventually attacking it at one point and the odd energy ring that the, as in her and the rest of her family, disappeared through at one point in time, before she sighed for a moment as she focused on something else, because there was something else for them to talk about and it was far more exciting for the two of them, "So, is there anything else we need to do on the A-Grav Zoomer, or do you think we're ready to show Jak and the others what we've been working on?"

"The heat shield still needs some work, but I'm sure that it'll be done by the end of the day," Keira said, though she smiled as she said that, because she and Twilight enjoyed working on machines and studying things that they discovered, and it was even true for some of the various Precursor statues and structures they could see, with the Precursors supposedly being an ancient race that created their world, not to mention created the types of Eco that everyone knew about, and so many other things which were scattered throughout the continent and the rest of the world, but before they could say anything else they heard the sound of either Starlight or Cozy walking down the ramp that let someone walk up from the area they were standing in and head to the upper part of the house.

As the pair expected two individuals walked down the ramp in question, one having a light grayish heliotrope color to her skin or fur, while her tail and hair colors were a mix of moderate and light purple colors with light grayish aquamarine strips, though she had moderate sapphire blue colored eyes, as opposed to Twilight's moderate violet eyes or the green eyes Keira had, while the other girl had a pinkish gray color to her body and her hair, which had been cut short to match the styles that her sisters, Jak, and even Keira had, was a light grayish arctic blue that had some lighter bits mixed into it, while her eyes were more of a moderate scarlet.

"I thought I heard you two talking, since it was the same voice asking itself questions," the first girl, Starlight Glimmer, said, referring once more to the fact that Twilight and Keira shared the same voice, though like the pair she and Cozy Glow, who was standing behind her at the moment and seemed to be staring out at the rest of the village as they came to a stop, had gotten used to this and were no longer shocked whenever they heard the pair talk to each other, just like Jak and Daxter were the same way as well, not to mention the rest of their rather small village, before she thought of something that she wanted to tell Twilight and Keira, "Samos actually gave us the day off for once, so we can rest and recover from all of the training that we've been going through lately, as in practicing our punches and kicks while tapping into our magic for some additional defenses, so we were thinking of finding Jak and Daxter so we could tell them the news, before they bothered Samos and possibly make him change his mind... or, to be more exact, stop Daxter from annoying him."

What Starlight was talking about was the fact that she, Twilight, and Cozy had access to another type of power that Daxter loved to refer to as 'magic', since it wasn't like what someone could do with the types of Eco that were in their world, and for the most part they had discovered how to create personal shields, lift items into the air and move them accordingly, and a few other things that were rather interesting when they thought about it, though they could also tap into the power of the types of Eco, hence why Samos insisted that the three of them join Jak in his combat training on Geyser Rock and gave them a low amount of breaks, hence why Starlight was eager to tell their brother the news.

"Really? He must have been impressed with what we've done recently," Twilight commented, as she was surprised by this piece of news as well, since everyone knew that Samos was strict with nearly everyone he talked to or taught, even if the latter was very little since he was only focused on their little group, despite the fact that the only individual who he wasn't strict with was his daughter, Keira, as he usually let her do whatever she wanted with her tinkering and it had lead to some crazy things in the past, like a 'mech' warrior that should have allowed her to fight and just fell apart, without blowing up in the process, when she tried to use it, though while he let her work with Keira, as their experiments and machines were all interesting and exciting when one worked, Twilight was usually split between training with Jak and her sisters or working with Keira in her workshop.

"Twilight, I know what you're thinking, and I can handle the work on my own," Keira said, as she knew that Twilight had to be thinking about their work on the A-Grav Zoomer, since it was the first thing she asked her when she emerged from her room, which contained their workshop, since she considered it hers and Twilight's, and the work that needed to be done so it would be completed at long last, so it could get someone from Sandover Village and let them get to Rock Village, the next settlement that rested on this continent, before she rested a hand on Twilight's shoulder for a moment, "so go, have some fun with your siblings before my father either changes his mind or calls you back early for whatever training he might have in mind for all of you."

Twilight nodded and it wasn't long before she, Starlight, and Cozy left the area that Samos' hut was located on and headed into the village, which involved walking over a short bridge that was connected to a small pillar of earth that had a second bridge that was connected to the village itself, where they glanced at the buildings for a moment and recalled who called which one home, as there was a tall building that had an inactive windmill and was the home of their Mayor, there was a house that had a bunch of fishing supplies inside and around it, meaning it was the Fisherman's house, and next to that one rested a house with maps and other exploration gear, meaning it was their Uncle's place, not to mention a house which had a slightly larger opening and a massive stone inside it, making it the Sculptor's house, and another that had a number of bird cages inside it, which was the Birdwatcher's place. They didn't get too far into the village before noticing that there were two individuals standing on the dock that was near the Fisherman's place, where both of them were boys and the sisters focused on them as they walked around the house to reach where they were standing, where the first one they noticed was their brother, who was wearing a blue tunic, off-white colored pants, and had a metal plate that rested on his left shoulder, why they never really figured out and he only said it 'felt right', with a steel ring resting in front of his chest that was held in place by three leather strips, one of which was thick enough to keep the plate in place, and while he also had a bracer on his left arm and nothing on his right, save for bandages, he also wore sandals, though his hair was a mix of yellow and green and looked similar to flames. That was Jak, their brother, though standing near him, wearing a red tunic and a off-white pair of pants, was Daxter, who had short orange colored hair that ended in red tips, like it was flames for some odd reason, even though the sisters suspected that he was just replicating Jak, and he stood just as tall as the rest of the group, or thereabouts anyway, and he had buck teeth, which he really didn't like, even though there was next to nothing he could do to get over them or fix them, not that anyone teased him about his teeth. Resting near the pair was a vessel that the sisters were sort of familiar with, a wooden boat that had part of the front covered in metal, to protect it from being damaged, which was connected to three metallic feet so it could skid over water and came equipped with a fan that was just as tall as one of them, as this was a speedboat and it was designed to move over fast distances fast, or as fast as Keira and Twilight could get it with the technology they had access to, making the three of them wonder what the pair was planning, even if they had an idea of what the pair might be thinking of doing.

"Hey brother, hey Daxter, you'll never guess what Samos told us earlier," Cozy said, where she and her sisters stopped in front of the pair after walking down the wooden dock and the steps that lead to the area that the pair had been standing in, for who knew how long, and her statement caused the pair to glance at each other for a moment as they considered all of the things that the old Sage could have said and why all three of them would have been a little happy right now, before they shrugged for a second and it caused her to inform them of what was going on, "He told us that we could take the day off and we decided to come tell you guys the good news... oh, and he repeated his warning to us, that we weren't allowed to go to Misty Island, not until he said we were ready to face its dangers."

"Oh, we're going to Misty Island, and I managed to convince the Fisherman to let us take his boat out for a while, as long as we return it in one piece," Jak stated, as he was feeling adventurous right now and he had the feeling this would be more exciting than running around the beach, or studying the Precursor structures, or doing whatever else his sisters might be thinking of at the moment, before he noticed that Daxter seemed worried about something, no doubt thinking about the dangers that rested on the island in question, which was when he smiled for a moment, "Come on Daxter, we've got three magic users who will be coming with us, as there's no way any of them would just let us head to the island on our own, so we won't have to worry about Lurkers or whatever Samos said is on the island."

"Yeah, you're right Jak." Daxter said, where at first he seemed nervous about what they were thinking of doing, even if the sisters hadn't even agreed with what their brother had said and were still coming to terms with the fact that he had said that in the first place, before he nodded his head and stopped shaking in his shoes, as while he was normally worried and could be a little cowardly at times, which was understandable given some of the dangers that existed outside the village, he felt much better with the thought that one or all of the sisters would likely jump aboard the boat and join them, just to make sure they weren't harmed during their possibly short visit to Misty Island.

Twilight, Starlight, and Cozy barely had time to register what Jak and Daxter had said before the pair climbed onto the boat and started up the large fan, to which they jumped onto the vessel before it could move away from the dock and sat down for a moment, where they mostly sighed for a moment, as they thought that Jak was smarter than this and would have understood Samos' warnings, before Twilight glanced over to the house she and the majority of the group lived in, as she knew that either Keira would see them leaving the village and understood that they were heading to Misty Island, against her father's wishes, or Samos himself would be staring out one of his window openings and would see them as the boat traveled over the water. It felt wrong, going against the wishes of the wisest person in the village, who was possibly one of the smartest individuals in the world as well, but Twilight and her sisters were hoping that he'd be willing to listen to them when they returned and said that they mostly went along to keep Jak and Daxter safe, even though they really hadn't had a chance to test any of their magical powers against the Lurkers and any other enemies that threatened the village, so she really had no idea how useful the three of them would be. As the boat moved, however, Daxter was the only one who wasn't sitting down at the moment and seemed to be stumbling around the area that Jak and his sisters were sitting in for a few moments, before eventually coming to rest near the side of the boat and heaved up his breakfast over the side, as he was one of the few people in Sandover Village who got seasick easily, as they weren't even going that fast and the boat wasn't rocking as much as it would have been if the Fisherman had been the one steering the vessel, though what they heard next was just a surprise, as Daxter fell over the edge of the boat and fell into the water. That caused the siblings to take a moment and sigh, or three of them did and Jak just rolled his eyes for a few seconds, before Jak reached out for a few seconds and pulled their friend back onto the boat, though since none of them had thought about the possibility of someone falling into the water none of them had a towel to offer Daxter, so all he could do was sit near the fan and hope to dry off before they reached Misty Island, since shivering and sneezing might alert potential enemies of their presence, but even as that happened Twilight was hopeful that they would find or hear something interesting so they could return to Samos and not be scolded as badly for going against his wishes like this.

It took a few moments for the boat to reach the small wooden dock that had been built on the edge of the island, a basic one based on what they had seen in the past, though as they approached it Jak powered down the fan and they silently came to a stop near the dock, where he and his sisters made sure that everything was fine and that no one had noticed them approach the island in the first place, before they climbed out of the boat and started to explore the area that was around the dock, even though something that helped Daxter's nerves was the fact that it didn't appear that there were any enemies for them to worry about. Misty Island was a place of scattered rock formations, with skeletons of a number of creatures and animals that no one really knew about or could explain the existence of, despite the fact that Twilight and Keira believed that they were ancient and revealed clues of the past, possibly during the time that the Precursors walked their world, and it also had a few places where the water was more relevant than the rocks and stones and there were a few wooden bridges that allowed someone to access the higher points of the island or cross over the watery area, as the latter was what the group had done when they reached the wooden section in question. Their exploration brought them to a Precursor Door, a circular gate make out of a bronze-like metal that went into pretty much every Precursor object and relic that the ancient and mysterious race had made, though they instantly hid themselves behind some large rocks as they found something interesting, a decent sized group of primitave bipedal creatures with magenta fur, a darker version of the same color for their manes, with spurs with their jawlines, metallic bracers near their wrists, and thick metal collars around their necks, like they were slaves or something, while standing near them were another set of creatures who were like the first set, only each of the second set had blue fur and were wearing bone armor over their bodies, with the former being Babaks, according to what Twilight and the others knew from their Uncle's books, with the latter set being called Bone Armor Lurkers. Before they could come to terms with what they were seeing right now, as it appeared that there had to be at least ten to fifteen enemies between them and the Precursor Door, that was when a surge of energy happened in the area that was in front of the door and two figures appeared before the group, one being a blue robed figure who had a grayish blue coloration to his skin, as they were positive it was a male, who had three stone weights that might keep him from flying too high, while he possessed the same yellow eyes of the Lurkers and Babaks, with a red glove over his right hand, while the other figure was female who had a slender and youthful body, like she was slightly older than the sisters were, and she was wearing a bunch of Precursor gear on her head, arms, legs, and body, even though her chest was cut to show off her midriff, though her hair was similar to the other figure's hair and she didn't seem to need the weights that he was held down by, but she did seem just as dark as her partner was.

"Continue your search for artifacts and Eco." the male said, though it was in that moment that the group discovered that he had a heavily distorted voice, nearly raspy based on what the group was hearing right now, making them wonder what could have happened to have caused such a thing, even though he had raised his right hand and held it out while he took a moment to address the Lurkers and Babaks that were in front of him and his partner, but it also looked like he had to take a few seconds to recover his breath before he continued speaking to his force, "If the locals possess Precursor items, you know what to do to them."

"Deal harshly with anybody who strays from the village, as we will attack it in due time," the female added, who seemed to have more of a sadistic personality than the male, even though the group suspected that she was someone that calculated everything and anything that could happen, though even as she said that she flexed her right hand for a moment and a bit of dark mist surrounded her hand as she did that, creating what appeared to be a ball of shadows for a few seconds, but that just told the group that she had to be tampering with Dark Eco, something that Samos told them to stay away from, least something terrible happen to them, before she dismissed it and turned towards her forces again, "oh, and if anyone from that family crosses your path, either eradicate them on the spot, or capture them so I can do it myself!"

The siblings and Daxter glanced at each other for a moment, not liking the way the lady said that, since it seemed that she was familiar with a particular family and wanted to crush them at some point in time, before they pulled back as silently as they could and retraced their steps back to where the dock was located, as no not alert the force of their presence, even though Jak headed over some of the stone platforms that happened to lead to another Precursor Door, one that just so happened to be connected to a large arena of sorts, which the other door was connected to, and there were some small platforms resting between the area they were in, which had a closed area in the center of the arena, and a platform that was slightly above the first area, only to discover that there was a massive hole in the floor that had a bunch of darkness inside it and a small artifact resting nearby.

"Oh come on, can we please get out of here? This place gives me the creeps!" Daxter stated, as he really didn't like the look of this place, especially after seeing the Lurkers that were resting on the other side of the first Precursor Door and the pair that commanded them to assault the village, even though he honestly didn't care enough to call each type of foe by what Twilight and Starlight called them, as it was far easier for him to refer to them as Lurkers and nothing else, though that was around the time that he tripped on the bronze canister, as he hadn't been paying attention to where he was going, and it brought a frown to his face in the process, "Stupid Precursor junk! I'm always tripping over everything they left behind, not that any of it is useful to us."

"Don't let Keira catch you saying that, as you'll get a lecture from her," Jak commented, as while he could see that Twilight was slightly offended by that statement, since she didn't view the Precursor artifacts and metal as 'junk', mentioning Keira kept his sister from saying anything about what Daxter had said, especially since she could get a little loud whenever she got excited about something, but in that moment he glanced at the hole that was right in front of them and stared at it for a few moments, as he was curious as to what it might be, even though he had a fairly good idea what it might be, "Hey, do any of you know what this dark ooze might be?"

"I'm fairly sure this is a vat of Dark Eco... I mean, it has the same overall consistency of the other Eco types," Cozy said, due to the fact that she had studied the tomes that Samos had given her and her sisters, even though the three of them were the only ones that could accurately talk about what was inside those books, since Jak didn't have their level of knowledge on the subject, though for a moment she frowned as she stared down at the Eco that was below them, which was when Daxter, for some reason, just tossed the canister he was holding over to Jak as he approached the vat and frowned at the mass she was staring at, "only, I've never seen this much Eco in the same place, especially Dark Eco for that matter, so we might have figured out a reason why those two and their forces have set up a base on Misty Island."

In that moment, before someone could say anything else, Jak made a noise that suggested that he was interested in what he was holding and they glanced towards him for a moment, finding that the canister was glowing red right now, though it was also in that moment that they found that one of the Bone Armor Lurkers had followed them over to this area, which either meant they had made some noise and it followed them, something that was plausible given the hooves that three of them had, or it was out on patrol and it happened to come across them, but as it raised its bone club, to strike one or more of them to the group, Jak hurled the canister at it and blew it up, revealing that the canister was a bomb, though it also packed enough force to knock all of them onto their backs and send Daxter flying into the vat. The siblings wanted to shout out Daxter's name when that happened, since they were concerned for their friend due to the fact that there was no telling what Dark Eco would do to him, but they remained silent since they had no idea if the two mystery people were in the area or not, not to mention their forces for that matter, so all each of them could do was stare at the bottom of the vat and wonder how they were going to explain this to Samos when they got back to Sandover Village, since he was bound to notice Daxter's sudden disappearance, even if they didn't see eye to eye all the time. A few moments later something burst out of the vat of Dark Eco and bounced off the ground once, before coming to a stop so they could figure out what was going on at the moment, which was when they found that it was a two foot ten inch tall creature, which came up to their knees roughly, which had orange fur and a yellow underbelly, even though it looked more like a cross between a weasel and an otter based on what the siblings were seeing, but what was interesting was that it seemed to be wearing Daxter's gloves on its hands and his goggles on its head, scaled down to fit it perfectly. It was in that moment that Twilight wished she had thought to bring her sketchbook with her, as this would have been interesting to sketch and she could have had a decent image of the two mystery figures for when they were lectured by Samos, since at this point she was sure that their teacher was going to have words for them when Jak finally decided to head back to the village, though after what they had just seen she, Starlight, and Cozy was sure that he would do the right thing and leave Misty Island, before something else happened to one of them.

"Man that stung." a voice said, where the group paused for a moment when they heard Daxter's voice again and it seemed to be coming from the odd creature that was in front of them, who picked itself up and appeared to be annoyed about something, as it turned around and walked over to where the siblings were standing, showing that it had what looked like an annoyed look on its face, before it stopped for a moment as it noticed that all of them were staring at it with a variety of expressions on their faces, surprise on Jak's, interest on Twilight's, a mix of interest and amusement on Starlight's, and a bit of concern on Cozy's face, 'What? Why are you guys looking at me like that?"

"Daxter... you're an Ottsel!" Twilight replied, as that was the name that she was going to come up for this race, due to the fact that his new form was a mix of an otter and a weasel and it only made sense for the names to be combined to make a brand new name as well, even though the rest of her siblings glanced at each other for a moment, mostly because each of them felt that there might be a better name for what they were seeing right now, before deciding that now wasn't the time to argue with her about what she had just said, especially since they had no idea how many more dangers rested around the area that they were in.

Daxter, for the most part, took one moment to glance down at himself, finding that he had new fuzzy ears, fur in place of skin, and a tail which rendered pants unwearable for the most part, before he took the only reasonable route for one to take when life did something like this to them, he started to throw himself at the ground and scream, like he was throwing a fit or something, which was when Starlight caught him with her magic and sealed him inside a sphere of energy that she placed a specific spell on for a time, to keep all sound inside the sphere while letting none out, since the screaming would attract all sorts of creatures to their location, before the siblings left the area and brought Daxter with them, as it was time for them to face the music and see if Samos could help them, or figure out what they needed to do to fix what had just happened to one of their best friends.