THE LIZARD CAVE

_{artwork by me}
_{excerpt from the previous episode}

"We spotted some party of Topats roaming about the southern border of the caves, maybe they are the brethren you speak of" One of the lieutenants voiced out from amongst the reptiles.
"Did you see my brother in their midst... He has short hair, much shorter than mine he's also taller than I am" I said enthusiastically.

Abin stroked his grey beards calmly as he place his hands on my shoulder again.

"These men are armed, Thorak... It would be unwise to arouse more rift between our peoples, we, Orktargs seek peace first above all other measures"

"But I still need to see my brother, I need to speak to him" I rebutted hastily.

"And you shall Thorak... We are having an expenditure about the southern border actually, we might just encounter your brethren..."

Abin squeezed my shoulders a tad bit more before leaning closer towards me.

"Remember, Thorak, We are counting on you... keep yourself open to the surroundings, let THE EYE guide you"

I nodded in response to his gestures, Abin closed his eyes and took in a whiff of air with his large nostrils followed by a brief smile.

"Alright then, It is done, come now Thorak, we have a long journey ahead of us..."

I followed the beings out of the familiar room I had gotten accustomed to, we took a strange route around the caves, I did not know which direction we were headed, I lingered in the midst of these giant figures as they took long strides which appeared to be slow but I struggled to keep up with their pace.

I wondered if they were taking me in the direction of where my brother might be or perhaps, Abin is deceiving me and is only concerned with the discovery of these mystical Orbs.

"Keep up, Topat" One of the reptile lieutenants brushed passed me.

This might be the third or fourth time I'm hearing that word Topat, I didn't know what it meant, but I could sense some jest in the tone as this particular alien spoke to me now.

"Hey... what is a Topat?" I questioned the group in a rather serious tone.

I could hear some muffled laughter which piqued my curiosity and annoyance.

"Ah... don't worry about that, Thorak, It is just a word we call the Land-Dwellers" Abin replied dismissively.

I smiled forcefully through my frown, suspecting there might be another meaning to this term.

"You know, Thorak... just like you, the Orb also showed me a vision, a long time ago" Abin said.

I presumed he was trying to redirect my mood but I also wanted to hear what he had to say, I subconsciously moved closer towards him as we marched deep within the caves.

"There is a blank space that covers the history of our people, Thorak, like a missing timeline, I call it the black-shroud, It was a great-war that devolved our collective consciousness, we think we are separate races but we are actually branches from the same old tree, lost and forgotten in time, The Orbs will uncover this black shroud, It will unite us" Abin spoke with conviction as he marched forward ahead of the group.

I pondered on his words for a bit before I suddenly caught glimpse of something similar in the surroundings - a part of my earlier visions I couldn't quite grasp but now, all of a sudden, I remembered as soon as I laid my eyes on the familiar patterns at the corner of a suspicious-looking rock.

"Wait... wait... I see something" I blurted out as I ran toward this discovery.

"What do you see Thorak" Abin responded as he hurriedly followed me.

I soon approached the interesting object and removed the debris around it. It was metallic with an engraving on it that spelled "Synthetic Transduction mini-computer" I had no idea what these words meant, the lettering and grammar were unfamiliar to me.

I looked up at Abin who also appeared to be clueless at this discovery.

"Stand back, Thorak" Abin spoke authoritatively as he led his lieutenants to observe this object.

We discovered that the metallic object was buried within the rocky caves, after a while of digging with hand-tools, The object was exposed, It looked like a metallic chest that radiated some sort of heat.

"Now this... This is something special..." Abin spoke loudly with cheer as he observed more closely at the object.

Abin signaled his lieutenants to pick up the object which was actually heavier than it looked.

"Ha-ha Thorak, This must be it" Abin spoke enthusiastically as he tapped my shoulder which felt more like a punch that made me wince.

Shortly afterwards, as we gradually made our way around another path, we heard some strange shuffling sounds.

"Halt..." One of the reptile lieutenants motioned and shushed the group.

The rest of the troop momentarily stopped at the order, all of them made defensive gestures except me that was left standing, I had no reason to fear because I could recognize the persons standing just ahead of us.

"Brother!" I shouted as my eyes widened with excitement.