A.N. Hey, guys! I've recently just finished the Uncharted series and loved it! I'm super pumped for "A Theif's End" (and totally wish it would come out for PS3 soon after its release since I don't own a PS4), and decided to write a short fanfiction to celebrate!
But this is kind of a pointless one-shot I wrote for fun. It's set somewhere in the middle of "Drake's Fortune" that is about Drake finding one of the artifacts you can collect in the game (although this one is completely made up by myself for story purposes), and Elena dealing with his cheesy (and AWESOME; I loved his dialogue in the games! Drake is one of my all time favorite characters!) humor. I hope that it's funny and entertaining for you guys, and I tried to keep the dialogue as close to in character as I could with both of them.
It's rated T for minor inappropriate comments.
I really hope you guys enjoy it, and happy reading!
The Chibcha Lion
Nathan Drake and Elena Fisher trudged up the mountain trail, climbing higher and higher with each passing minute. At least there was a trail. Scaling up this jagged mountain without the convenience of the ancient lost highway, the one which they were currently taking, would have probably done Nate in on this escapade. Not that he would ever admit it. I mean, sure, the pathway wasn't completely perfect; the highway had been a minor road back before Sir Francis's time, and it wasn't paved or cleared of all debris. But it sure beat any extreme climbing. Plus, since it wasn't one of the major historic highways, and, to Drake's knowledge, hadn't yet been charted, Eddy Raja and his men should have no way of knowing it even existed. And a break from the constant gunfire and running Nate and Elena had dropped into (literally) since arriving on this island was a very welcome break indeed.
The sun was falling farther into the west as they continued their ascent. Drake estimated that they had about three hours of sunlight left at the most. He scanned the road ahead, spotting a jutting rock before he tripped on it. He already had one bruised knee from a fall at the beginning of the trail, plus an equally bruised ego from Elena's teasing afterwards, and he didn't want it to happen again. But, as he looked up after he swerved to miss it, in a chance sighting, his grey eyes locked onto a small reflective light up ahead. He squinted at it, his curiosity piquing instantly. It was glinting in the sunlight adjacent to them, wedged under a pile of old stones close to the cliff's edge. And, ignoring the time-sensitive mission they were on, he made a beeline towards the object.
"Wait," He called to Elena, "I think I see something."
"What?" Elena asked from ahead, impatience and curiosity laced in her tone. "Nate, what is it?"
He made sure that she came to a stop from where she stood a few paces up the trail from him before he turned back to his target. "Just hold on a moment," he ordered. Drake thought it would be best to not say something along the lines of "I see something shiny" and have Elena tease him about being an easily-distracted cat for the rest of their journey.
On closer inspection of the stone pile, he noticed a dirty golden metal object was held between a few large rocks. He idly rubbed the metal surface that was peaking out, noting how the neglected gold color became more prominent the more he cleaned it.
Elena walked over and peeked over his shoulder. "An artifact?"
Drake nodded. "I think so. Let's have a look-see." After a few moments of straining his arm muscles to their full capabilities, Drake was able to shove the rocks off and free the object beneath. Weighing it in his hands, he felt how heavy it was. His heart leapt with excitement as his hope proved to be true. "Solid gold, baby!"
"What? No way!" He grinned at her excited expression, rubbing the statue with his shirt. After it was relatively clean, and his shirt was relatively full of ancient caked-on dirt, he held it out at arm's length so she could see it.
"Is that a lion? Some kind of deity figure?"
"Uh-huh. Or some kind of offering piece." Drake bounced it up and down in his hands, pleased with his companion's correct guess. "It's a Chibcha statue!"
"Impressive," Elena admitted, letting out a small laugh while returning his smile. "Hey, are those jewels in its mane?" The Chibcha's were really into the arts, and the statue was no exception; faded green emeralds surrounded the non-traditional lion head, further proving its origin and ramping up its value. Not that Drake was in it for the money… but it was a nice perk.
"Yeah. Emeralds, by the looks of it. See how they're inlaid around its head? That's to emphasize its mane, which they've made into a sun symbol. The Muisca's made sacrifices and offerings to the sun to gain favor for their harvests, and this statue might have been one of them."
"Well, Professor Drake," Elena quipped, "how old do you think it is?" Her reporter side was getting the best of her.
He thought for a second, delving into his extensive historical knowledge that was stored in his mind on South American tribes. "From the carvings and placement of the jewels, I'd say around the 16th century. Maybe mid 1500's."
"Incredible." Elena shook her head in wonderment, tracing her hands along its surface when Drake handed it to her. "I wish I had my camera for this," She began regretfully. "We've found real undiscovered artifacts like this one over the past few days, and there's no way we can document it. So much for unmasking history, right?" Drake personally hated the camera, but patted her shoulder sympathetically anyway, knowing how important her lost technology was to her. Elena shrugged as if it was no big deal and shot him a thankful smile. But Drake could tell that she was upset even though she was pretty good at hiding it. He knew what she was feeling all too well: the chance of getting your big break presenting itself and the thrill of knowing that everything is going to go perfectly, just before it gets cast away by one detail or another. The prospect of fame and glory, there one minute and then just… gone… the next.
For some weird reason other than the fact that she was his sort-of friend, it bothered him to see her upset. Not that their situation was a great one with them constantly running all over the booby-trapped jungle from baddies whilst attempting to stop said bad guys from finding his ancestor's treasure. But she had always stayed positive in the midst of it all, and he didn't like seeing her so downcast.
He decided that he wanted to cheer her up.
"You know, this kind of reminds me of something..." He trailed off. Elena raised her eyebrow at him. He took the statue from her hands, holding it up. "This statue…" He pretended to think. Elena shook her head, amused with his terrible acting skills. "Wasn't there some kind of… AH-HA!" He exclaimed. Drake stepped up to the edge of the cliff in front of her before holding the lion statue up towards the sun as if he was presenting a magnificent spectacle. The artifact was held away from him as if he was showing the world his most prized possession. Or if he was holding a baby that needed a diaper change. "Guess what it's from!"
She immediately guessed it, but didn't feel like playing games. "Nate-"
"C'mon!" He prompted enthusiastically, "Use those deducing skills of yours."
Elena sighed, barely able to contain the laugh that was reflected in her eyes. "Fine. Well... You're standing on a cliff, holding the Chebala-"
"Chibcha-"
"Oh, I'm sorry. The Chibcha," she enunciated each syllable mockingly, "lion statue up to the horizon... Wow, you even have a dramatic face! You look just like a... Oh, don't give me that look-"
"Elena." He deadpanned at the humored sarcasm in her voice.
"Okay, okay!" She chuckled, "Don't blame me! You're doing a terrible impression-"
"Hey! It's a good impression!."
"No, it's pretty terrible," she admitted. Adding under her breath jokingly, "I really really wish I had my camera for this-"
He rolled hs eyes and lowered the statue, walking closer to her as he defended himself with, "It's better than you could do, Miss New York Times."
"What? I'm a champion at charades, thank you very much."
He cocked his head to the side. "Is that so?" he drawled. He vaguely observed how the fading light caught her blonde hair, turning it a bright golden red. And her eyes…
She observed him as he continued to come closer. "Trust me. You should see me on game night."
A smirk lined his lips. "I knew there was a reason I've always thought you were a wild one."
"Ha-ha." She jested, ignoring the implications of his words. It was weird how easily the banter flew between the two of them, and Elena wondered why she was able to feel so comfortable and significant when she was in his company.
For a reporter, she's not so bad, Drake thought as he looked at her. But he knew he was kidding himself, belittling what he truly thought of her so that he wouldn't get distracted. The truth was that he thought she was downright gorgeous, even though she wore no makeup or overly-emphasizing clothes. She was different. A good different. And Elena and him... they had some connection, didn't they? She wasn't afraid to get down and dirty, wasn't afraid of confrontations or gunfights. She shared his same sense of adventure, of rediscovering history and uncovering the lost. Of sarcastic quips and quirky humor. But once this was over...
She looked out to the horizon, unaware of Drake mulling over the admiration and confusion he felt towards her. Watching the sun and the increasingly pink sky rising over the earth miles below them, she noticed again how little daylight they had left. Drake, now standing a few feet from her profile, reluctantly tore his gaze away from her and up to the sky too. He began to realize the same thing.
"We should probably keep moving," Elena admitted first, her blue eyes flicking back up to him. He nodded in agreement, training his own eyes back on her. They stared at each other for a few seconds, lost in companionable silence. But both Elena and Drake refused to let themselves grow comfortable under their connected gaze, even though it would have been easy to do so. Elena was the first to turn away and Drake watched as she began to head back up the overgrown path of grasses, roots, and hidden stones. Elena knew that Nate would follow.
"Hey, wait." Nate suddenly called from behind her. Plastering a guarded look onto her face to hide the tiny moment – if you could even call it a moment – that had just transpired between them, she turned to see that he hadn't moved from the spot they'd been standing. Their eyes met again, holding each others', and Elena began to feel slightly hyper-aware at the attentiveness in his own.
Then suddenly, without warning, Drake held the statue back up. Raising his head high to the sky, he shouted:
"BAAASOWENYAAAAA! MAMABEATS-E-BAH-BA!"
And with that being so eloquently said, all the tension disappeared between them, and their maybe-more-than-friend relationship was left to be thought about for another day.
Elena laughed incredulously. "You are so immature." She admitted in a light voice, shaking her head.
He couldn't help but grin cheekily. "What?" He placed the statue in his satchel, making sure it was tucked in tight enough so that it wouldn't fall out.
"I just can't believe that an ancient gold statue, lost to time, reminds you of The Lion King. I mean, really?"
Nate shrugged, trudging back towards her with a smirk. "Yep."
He joined her and they continued walking side by side up the mountain. "Somehow it doesn't surprise me that you've seen that movie."
He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Who hasn't seen that movie?"
"It's a kid's movie!"
"So? You've never watched it when you were a kid?"
"Well, yeah. But I was a kid!"
"C'mon! It's a classic! Classics never get old!"
She nudged his shoulder with her own. "Tell that to your sense of humor."
Looking slyly at her, he sang, "...You've got a lovely bunch of coconuts-"
She gaped at him. "Nate!" she scolded.
He laughed, shrugging away when she hit him. "What? The bird sings it!"
"That was completely out of context!"
"How would you know?" He bantered. "You haven't seen it since you were a kid, right?"
"Oh geez..." She muttered, rolling her eyes. "This is going to be a long trip."
Elena had no idea how true that statement would be until he, with an incredibly off-pitch tune, I might add, started singing "Can You Feel the Love Tonight".
A.N. Let me know what you think! Feel free to leave a review or PM me with critiques/ideas/comments/anything! It'd be much appreciated! :D
Also, on a random note, if you look at the story picture you'll find Drake taking a selfie and Elena looking like "Drake, this is lame". xD