//------------------------------//
// Interlude: Progress 
// Story: Sons of Damas 
// by Tatsurou 
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	Jak lay back in the new rivers of Spargus, floating on his back in the cold water as he stared up at the night sky, counting the stars.  It was his favorite relaxing activity these days, and it helped him to detox from the intense excitement of the Combat Racing circuit.  The last thing he wanted was to start actively seeking out some new thrill to excite him.

Training with Damas and Elder was going well, and he'd found several ways to deal with his battle junkie tendencies.  Elder had reassured him that it was something that indeed ran in the family rather than a side effect of the use of Dark Eco.  Elder had shared many of Mar's own techniques, while Damas shared ones he himself had used.

As much as Jak wanted to bond with his father over this, Damas' preferred method of dealing with a combat addiction was observation of or participation in blood sport, and that seemed counter intuitive to wanting to purge such urges.  The last thing Jak wanted was to become so addicted to combat thrills he didn't enjoy anything else.  Thankfully, Elder's suggested meditation and relaxation techniques proved to be quite effective.

As he counted the stars, he heard something scampering towards him.  He quickly recognized the sound of four hooves, closely followed by the sound of four paws scampering on the sands.  At first he thought it was Shining and Daxter, but the sound of a thump following each fourth paw step told him otherwise.  "Still haven't figured out how to run with your staff, Dad?" he called out softly.  "How come you didn't ask Shining to give you a lift."

"The entire point of this transformation was so that I wouldn't be an elderly, infirm invalid, thank you very much," Damas growled, his tone somewhere between playful and irritated.  "The day I can't carry my own weight is the day I take up needlepoint!"

"And what about riding around on the Baron's shoulder?" Shining asked teasingly.

"Payback for him taking my city from me," Damas countered loftily.

Jak chuckled softly as he slowly floated over towards where Shining and Damas had come to the water's edge.  "So how are things going over in Kras City?" he asked curiously.

"As far as we can tell, rather well," Damas replied.  "We've already received the first few discreet messages from Rayn's organization, and things are going quite smoothly.  At Shining's suggestion, it's now the job of her organization to police the criminal elements to ensure they don't exceed certain reasonable limits, so as to keep things under control.  Not only does this free up our forces for other areas, it encourages them to set up business in areas where we don't control yet...which opens the doors for us to gain control."

Jak chuckled softly.  "That's more or less what I had in mind.  Nicely done, Shining."

Shining shrugged.  "It wasn't hard to figure out what you were going for.  It also helps that apparently Rayn knows what you're working towards, too.  She seems to think it a good idea as well."

Jak lay back in the water again, feeling it flow over his body.  "That's good," he murmured softly.  "What else?  There's more going on out there than just Kras City."

"Elder's been detecting some odd fluctuations in the planet's Eco fields," Damas explained.  "Nothing serious yet, but he's keeping an eye on it.  He'll let us know if it needs investigation.  He does say that in the meantime you should start practicing with your physical colors of Eco, whatever that means."

"Green, Blue, Red, and Yellow," Jak explained.  "They draw more from physical aspects for power, while Light and Dark Eco draw from emotional and spiritual states.  Thus Green, Blue, Red, and Yellow are physical colors, and Dark and Light are spiritual colors."

"Sounds like Elder thinks this might have something to do with why there's so much Dark Eco in the world these days," Shining offered speculatively.  "That's the only reason I can think of why he'd want you used to not using Dark Eco."

"Could be," Jak admitted.  "For tonight, though, I'd rather just relax.  I doubt I'll be getting much sleep..."

"Why not?" Damas asked surprised.  "Insomnia?  Is it an Eco imbalance inside of you?"

"No, nothing like that," Jak hastened to assure him.  "It's...interpersonal."

Shining chuckled.  "Oh?  Trouble with Keira?"

"Something like that," he admitted ruefully.  "She...found out about Plan C."

Shining winced.  "Oh...is...is everything okay?  I mean, she's probably-"

"Pissed I didn't let her work on the giant, city-destroying laser," Jak explained, stifling a chuckle.

Damas blinked, stunned.  "Well...she is quite the machinist.  But I would have thought her awakening nature as a Green Sage would have made her more averse to something that could so easily destroy so much life-"

"She compared it to forest fires," Jak interrupted.  "It causes a great deal of destruction, killing many creatures and plants...but the forest grows back stronger for it.  If I ever have to fire that laser to destroy a city, it'll kill a lot of people...but the continent will be the better for negating the circumstance that forced it."

"So she's just angry at you for not letting her work on it, then?" Damas asked.  "Well, I can see why that would anger her, if that's her attitude.  So what punishment is she giving you?  She making you sleep on the sofa?"  He chuckled knowingly.

"I wish," Jak groaned to himself.  "No, she insists we chastely share a bed...while she sleeps in bedroom garb Ashelin and Tess helped her pick out that leaves exactly the right amount to the imagination.  And she has a nightstick in bed with her if I lose control in my sleep."

Damas shivered violently.  "She is evil."