Yay for another chapter and honestly, I'm surprised that it came out as long as it did (at least compared to my 6-8 hundred average). Than again, I did combined him finding all three totems.
With a new task at hand, a reluctant Zeb was lead outside of the castle by Kanan. He eventually led the Lasat outside of the city gates.
"I wanted to thank you for doing this." Kanan stated. "I know this is all a lot to take in, and I can tell you're a bit skeptical."
"You're not wrong." Zeb admitted. "But it's worth looking into, I suppose."
"Understandable. He's foresight is quite unique. So, do you have an idea as to where you should look? "
"A few. I'll probably start with the emerald necklace."
"Good luck."
Kanan patted Zeb's shoulder then reentered the city.
Once Kanan was out of sight, Zeb glared out to the world around him. His sights narrowed on his home town, as he made the hike there.
The gates to Atollon welcomed him home. The first thing he noticed was Rex sitting outside of his and his brothers shared house. He was relaxing next to a recently lit fire.
"There's a sight for sore eyes." Rex greeted. "Back so soon?"
"In a way." Zeb replied. "His highness requested I find a few thing for him."
"Really? Anything in particular?"
"Odd little trinkets, for example an emerald necklace that is supposed be here in Atollon. Would you happen to know anything about it?"
"Emerald necklace? That kind of rings a bell. Hey, Wolffe, Gregor, would you know anything about it?"
Zeb's attention shifted as he noticed Wolffe and Gregor stepping out of the house. They promptly joined them to respond to their brother's question.
"I can't say I recall seeing one," Wolffe admitted poking the fire with a stick, "but you never know with all of the stuff we've found over the years. What about you?"
"Hmm," Gregor tried remembering, "I think I might have found something like that. Here, I'll g o get it."
Gregor got up and limped back into the house.
"Still a little sore?" Zeb asked.
"Yeah." Rex chuckled. "That's what you get for trying to wrestle with our strongest ram."
There was a moment of silence, while they waited.
"A mission, eh?" Rex inquired.
"Yeah, he's looking into a rumor and wants me to get him a few items."
"Sounds fun."
Zeb gave him a twitch in reluctant agreement. The door clicked open and closed as Gregor returned to the scene. In his hand, was a bunched up piece of jewelry.
"I found this in the spring a few summers ago." Gregor admitted. "It had such an unusual design that I just had to grab it."
Gregor gently unwound the necklace and showed it to them. The emerald was incased in a silver branch like pendant and hung from a silver chain. They looked at it curiously while Gregor just held it.
"Take it." Gregor offered, handing it over to Zeb.
"Are you sure?" Zeb asked.
"Yeah. I'm not going to get much use out of it, so I'm sure you'll get more purpose out of it."
Zeb put a hand out and grabbed it from the man. Not knowing where to place it, Zeb encased it around his neck.
"Thank you." Zeb spoke up with a smile. "I'll take good care of it"
Zeb got up, ready to leave for his next destination.
"Before you go, take this." Rex offered, pulling out a backpack. "I don't know what else you'll have to find, but I think this should help you carry them."
"Thank you." Zeb replied grabbing it from him.
He made his way back to the gate to Atollon.
"Good luck." Rex shouted. "Hope you have fun on your adventure."
Zeb gave them a wave in response.
With one totem gone, Zeb questioned which to find next. Both areas to find them were not too far from each other, but the warrior's orb required taking an unusual method to get to.
However, vouching that it would be more convenient, he decided to get the warrior's orb first. Zeb had made it to Lake Ashla, and found the floating house drifting out a ways. Walking across the walkway, he reached it and was welcomed by the owner, a young blue Twi'lek.
"Welcome." The Twi'lek greeted. "How may I help you?"
"I need to get to the outskirts of Coruscant." Zeb replied.
The Twi'lek gave him a gesture to follow him, to which Zeb followed.
"You're the first person to ask me to get to Coruscant in a long time." The Twi'lek stated. "Any particular reason, if you don't mind me asking."
"I'm just doing some investigating." Zeb replied. "I've never been there before so I thought I'd take a look."
The Twi'lek nodded. He stopped at their destination, showing Zeb his transportation. A large canon greeted them.
"This will be an unusual experience to say the least." The Twi'lek admitted patting the huge contraption. "However, it is fast and it will get you where you need to go."
"How am I to get back?" Zeb asked.
"You could always jump, the water would cushion fall."
Zeb gave him a glare.
"We have a pulley system down there." The Twi'lek pointed out. "I wind it back up to the edge every time it's used."
"Then why can't I use that?"
"You could, but for the sake of speed, I'd recommend this."
Zeb groaned, but seeing as he didn't have much choice at the moment, he climbed into the metal transportation. Once adjusted, he gave the Twi'lek a thumbs up signaling that he was ready. The Twi'lek lit the canon and without much waiting time, Zeb was launched through the air.
The sand was ready as Zeb landed on it. The warm particles cushioned his fall while covering him.
He forced himself up, brushing the sand off of him. Zeb began to make his way further into the desert area. He wasn't entirely sure where to look, but he knew that he didn't have to travel into Coruscant itself. However, there were plenty of armed guards who seemed to be scouting the area.
That did not however stop him from noticing a rugged pile of earth. Thinking that said area would be a good start he started to make his way over there.
By nightfall, Zeb reached it. But rather than sitting at its base, Zeb climbed his way to the top. That way, he would avoid being caught by any late night patrols. Upon reaching the top, Zeb was surprised to see a path leading inside. However, he decided to leave it for the morning, no matter how much his curiosity ate at him.
The sun roasted Zeb back into consciousness. The warmth showed him no mercy. Grumpily, Zeb got up. After having his morning rations, courtesy of Ezra, Zeb made the venture inside of the cave.
The cave was surprisingly vast, providing what Zeb could assume were a few floors. He hopped down from his ledge only to be ambushed by several creatures inhabiting the cave. He defeated them all and a door to the next floor opened.
This pattern continued on for nine more floors. Each floor provided more creatures with greater strength to fight.
When he got to the eleventh floor, there was a small pond of water. In the middle was a stone pedestal. A glowing ball rested on the pedestal, catching Zeb's eye. That must be the warrior's orb. Zeb deduced. Hopping into the water, Zeb swam over to it. Once close enough to it, Zeb got a better look at it. The orange ball glowed and it was almost as though there was a swirling motion moving within it.
Carefully, Zeb picked it up and placed it in his pack. He swam back to the other side and proceeded to leave the cave.
Just as the Twi'lek pointed out, Zeb rode down the pulley. It moved slowly as Zeb moved the seat down. Once it arrived back on to one of the little islands on the lake, Zeb hopped off and rolled the seat back to the ledge of the outskirts.
With the last totem being the fool's compass, Zeb started to investigate the shores. With every body of land he looked over, it was going unnoticed. He started to hop across a couple of flat stones when he tripped over something, causing him to stumble into the water.
Sitting back up, hissing from the slight pain, he saw what caused it. A metallic piece of something was popping up between two stones. Zeb grabbed it, and realized that what tripped him was a compass. Upon further inspection, he noticed a familiar Lasat symbol. The fool's compass. Zeb realized. Flabbergasted at the fact that he literally stumbled on it, he put with the warrior's orb.
With all of the totems now in Zeb's possession, he started to make the hike back to Lothal. Without even noticing, the child's necklace began to glow.
The totem lighting up has to do with having all of the totems together. I'm not going to go too much in depth with it outside of that ... for now.
