Sitting down in her tent, make that Sofia's tent, Lara lies back on her thin mattress and breathes a sigh of relief. Sofia's people have Ana locked up and bound to be sure she can't get away. It had been a long and tiring day for Lara with taking the Deathless Path to get to the Divine Source, fighting, climbing and running over and over again. The adrenaline fading away as Sofia steps into the tent and smiles at her.
"You look like a weight has lifted from your shoulders, no longer so tense," Sofia comments and Lara manages a small smile.
"That'll ware off soon," Lara says and Sofia gives her a quizzical look. "The scrapes and bruises will soon come into affect letting me know how much I abused my body these last few days," Lara gives off a light chuckle at the thought. The memories of Yamati and what she learned there to adapt quickly to survive, she didn't recognize herself in the mirror anymore.
"I've got a balm that will help with that, let me see your back," Sofia says as she goes into a tin under the table and next to the extra sleeping furs.
Lara closes her eyes, feeling the tiredness seeping in, "it's alright, a couple of good night's sleep and acetaminophen should do the trick in the end."
To that Lara got a cotton pillow landing on her face, lifting it off she sees Sofia kneeling down with her arms crossed. "Let me see you, come on," in a stern voice.
Giving a small sigh, Lara sits up while feeling the aches already starting to set in and moves onto her knees. Turning her back to Sofia as she knows that her back is far worse she pulls her long sleeved shirt off, the muscles protesting to the movement, but she ignores it.
Hearing no gasp, no 'you took a beating'. Instead she feels gentle fingers rubbing a cool ointment onto the scrapes first.
"Maybe you should stay for a little longer," Sofia suggests and Lara looks over her shoulder at her, a mild blush coming to her cheeks as she remembers she did want to explore the outskirts of the village. "I can teach you how to land when you've fallen so you won't get hurt so badly."
Lara gives a light laugh to the comment, "maybe I'll take you up on that," she closes her eyes and feels Sofia's gentle fingers put an even cooler ointment onto her bruises. "Ooooh… that feels good," letting out a small moan and sigh. For having such rough looking hands for working it in the wilderness all her life, she has a surprisingly tender touch.
Sofia has seen many of her people with scratches, scrapes, cuts, bruises and broken bones. But never has she seen so much on someone, usually just the odd bit here and there every few days, especially with the training kids. At the same time her eyes go over Lara's muscle tone, the curve of her body just as she'd given her a look over when her father stopped her from shooting. Lara had proven herself time and again to be able to hold her own. Biting her lower lip as she moves her fingers along her waist from landing on her left side so much, the ointment again eliciting a gasp and moan from Lara.
For some strange reason, Sofia cannot figure out why, but she enjoys hearing those sounds coming from Lara. The one who helped their people fight off Trinity, went up against the Deathless and did so much to help her people. The young brunette has captured her curiosity, but she is hesitant to pursue.
Lara can feel that something is off, Sofia's hand hasn't left her side and is holding her there, almost caressing her. She turns herself around part way to see a different look in Sofia's eyes, the normally hard soldier girl is showing vulnerability. The way Sofia's eyes travel up to lock onto Lara's, she feels a blush come to her cheeks again, the fire in the girls eyes are a calming ember that draws Lara to turn to Sofia more and lightly touch her shoulder.
Seeing the uncertainty, but also a curiosity like her own Sofia feels a small chill when Lara touches her shoulder and keeps her eyes locked on hers. Without another moment to chose to back off, Sofia moves in and kisses Lara, lightly touching her face with her finger tips. Her eyes closed so she cannot tell if Lara's are wide in alarm, however Lara not pulling away assures her not to back off.
Watching Sofia move in to kiss her, seeing her close her eyes, she feels her heart flutter, her smooth lips pressed against her own and her gentle finger tips touching her cheek. Any notion of being tired slips away as she closes her own eyes and returns the soft kiss.
Pulling away a little, Sofia opens her eyes to look at Lara and see her beautiful eyes slowly open to look back at her. Not wanting to wait a moment longer, Lara having the same notion, both moved in for a second kiss. Getting lost in what Sofia feels should be forbidden, but she doesn't care. Her undeniable attraction to her is being returned and she slowly moves Lara to lie on her back on the mattress.
Lara looks up as Sofia pulls away from the kiss a second time to look at one another, reaching up she pulls a lock of Sofia's hair away from her face to go behind her ear. Her heart hammering away in her chest and all she can smell is smoke and the woods on her, Lara gently places her hand onto the back of Sofia's head to pull her in for another kiss and Sofia obliges. Their lips meeting for a deeper kiss, and this time neither stop the moan that closed off behind the kiss.
Footsteps approach the tent make Sofia jump back and Lara grab a blanket to cover herself as a village man comes to the entrance but doesn't enter. "Sofia? Are you there?"
Clearing her throat and putting on her stone face, though she knows she's still blushing from the recent excitement. "Yes, what is it?"
He pulls aside one of the flaps to view inside, "I'm sorry, I lost the list for the watch and supplies that you wrote up."
Sofia stands up and looks at Lara, "I won't be long," she smiles at Lara and Sofia is just happy that her blush will be masked by the darkness and the fires outside.
Once Sofia left Lara sat up to pull her shirt back on in case someone else walked in without knowing she is there. Her cheeks going redder at the fact that they had just been kissing. Days ago Sofia was holding an arrow to her and threatened that if she didn't leave then she would kill her. However when Jacob called Lara a friend she noticed her eyes traveling her body, sizing her up no doubt, but in the end possibly the start of her attraction towards her.
She hears some footsteps come to the tent, Lara feels herself blush more knowing it's been months or more since she's been intimate with anyone. "You weren't kidding," Lara comments and turns around to feel all blood drain from her face.
A severely injured man stands before her, scars from fire cover most of his face and his clothes are a black mess with spots of blood. Her eyes search his face, wondering why he's come here. Surely he has his own tent to sleep in, unless it was wrecked sometime during the fight.
"Croft…" the man grunts and Lara's eyes widen, she cannot believe her ears, Konstantine alive and standing before her. She watched him fall through the floor while on fire. "You… are mine!" he hisses, pulls out a knife and charges at her.
Lara glances around for a weapon and grabs a stool, taking the seat end she swings it at him. However he grabs it and yanks hard. She doesn't let go, so she gets pulled closer, the knife is thrust at her abdomen so she releases the stool to spin around. Thankfully he isn't too fast due to his injuries and she kicks out his right knee making him bend that knee part way. Grunting Lara jumps onto his back and puts him into a choke hold.
'Don't make a scene, if he's here, who else is here from Trinity… wait maybe I should alert the others,' Lara thinks and realizes her tired mind is affecting her judgement. Before she knows it the knife is suddenly in her left thigh and she gives a cry of pain before he yanks it out, losing her focus he grabs her forearm and flips her up and over his head. Her body just nicking the post to the tent and sending some dishes to clatter to the ground.
Sofia looked up, hearing the sounds, but with so many wounded and people being moved to new sleeping locations she doesn't know where it came from. 'Come on Sofia, finish counting up the amount of supplies and then you can get back to Lara and get lost in that world again with her,' she looks back at the crate and fingers each item as she counts.
Konstantine moved himself over Lara and pins her to the floor with his hands around her throat, her eyes widen as she grabs for his hands to try to get them off, then up his arms to grab for any wound. Her vision is going darker and spots are forming as her lungs are burning for oxygen, grunting and feeling around with now flimsy hands for anything nearby her knees keep hitting his butt.
"Next time, make sure your enemy is dead Croft!" Konstantine spits as he watches her eyes roll up and her hands drop. But then he feels what he's been dealing with for the evening since their fight ended, fluid coming into his throat and burning his chest. He coughs up blood, and his body starts shaking from the exertion and internal bleeding he's been suffering from.
Clutching at his chest he's forced to let go of her throat to cough up more blood.
Air seeps into her lungs slowly and Lara starts to cough, her head hurting and chest burning, her eyes coming back down to focus on Konstantine who is now temporarily distracted. She rolls to her hands and knees to go to her belongings and watches as he stands up, coughing less and turns to her. The first thing she finds is her revolver, she turns to him and points the gun at him just as he takes her by the wrist and shoves it up to avoid the gunshot.
Konstantine grunts and back hands her with his free hand, but she doesn't let go of the gun, instead in her dazed state she looks to the table where the cutlery fell off to see a mug. Grabbing it she smashes it over the side of his face.
He cries out, "Gah! Damn you Croft!" and releases her wrist for fresh blood to start spilling down his face. His fingers cover his face to feel the broken skin letting loose the blood and his vision now red, he falls to his left knee and reaches to his right ankle for his ankle gun.
"I don't know how you survived, but this ends now! The suffering for these people ends now!" Lara says as Sofia opens the tent flaps with a few people behind her.
The first thing she takes in is the redness around Lara's neck and the bloodied, burnt man kneeling before her. Lara looks up at Sofia for a brief glance, which was all it took, in his red vision he whips his handgun out, and Sofia can feel the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end as she then charges for him. Wanting to protect Lara from what she doesn't see.
Lara quickly returns her attention to Konstantine, as soon as she sees his gun she fires. She feels nothing, but she can see his eyes' closing as she gradually feels her upper body losing feeling. Sofia freezes and looks between the two. Sofia's Her heart hammering in her chest, Lara's her fresh adrenaline rush fading quickly this time, no one moves for the first seconds. Sofia can feel her stomach drop as Konstantine finally collapses onto his side with a pool of blood forming beneath him. She runs to Lara and her eyes widen, she finally sees the red dot that has formed at her left collar bone and is getting bigger, "Lara…" Sofia hurries to her side just as Lara's knees give out, catching her.
Resting her weight in Sofia's arms, "I… I didn't feel it… at first," Lara breathes and she holds onto Sofia as her face quickly turns shades paler. Sofia then feels it, a warm sticky mass on Lara's back.
"The bullet went right thru," Sofia feels herself perspiring at the knowledge that Lara bled out her back first a large quantity before the spot on her chest started. After all that Lara had been through to find the Divine Source, to stop Trinity and help save her people, she had to be attacked in a place of comfort and safety, and she said she'd be back soon. Judging by the mess in the tent, Konstantine had come for her soon after she'd gone. Looking over her shoulder to see the village doctor rush in with medical supplies and Jonah, she looks back at Lara and puts on her mask of the soldier as she feels Lara's full weight and sets her down carefully.
"Hold on Lara," Sofia says in a firm voice that shows a hint of desperation as Jonah watches the doctor come to the other side of Lara and he follows behind him. Then his eyes land on Konstantine.
"I'm sorry…" Lara whispers while her right hand fights to hold Sofia's left shoulder, "I… I should have…" Lara feels a dark cloud come over her. Vision going darker with the specs again, her mind muddled and finding it hard to feel most of her body.
"I should have been here with you, Lara hold on girl, alright?" Jonah asks and looks at the villagers who are watching from the entrance.
"Shhh Lara, no more apologizing," Sofia says as the doctor uses scissors to open up the shirt and see the wound properly.
Jonah ignores the fact that he's now seeing Lara in her bra, the amount of red on her chest in contrast to her now pale skin scares him deeply. He's seen her beaten up badly from the elements she ran into on their first escapade, but this is different. Now understanding when he had been stabbed the worry she had for him, is all reversed.
The doctor looks around, "I need more space, she's lost a lot of blood," he looks back at the entry wound and uses whiskey to splash it onto the wound to clear away some of the blood.
Lara barely flinches, and Sofia watches her eyes close finally, unsure as to when she actually passed out. "Is she going to make it?"
Pursing his lips as he presses gauze to the exit wound and to the entry wound, "I have no idea in this moment, I need to stop the bleeding and start getting more blood into her."
"Use mine, my blood is good for any blood type, just tell me what to do," Jonah says hurriedly as a couple of villagers move Konstantine's body out of the tent and start fixing it up for the doctor.
Coming in and out of consciousness, Lara barely opens her eyes, the sounds all muddle together, briefly seeing Sofia leaning over her to help a man with wrapping gauze around her torso. Then seeing Jonah sitting next to her, hands together holding hers and her location is different, she has a warm feeling flooding into her. Just not enough to keep her conscious to try and take in what all is going on. She also remembers hearing screaming, and white hot pain, blurry figures moving about but nothing more.
Time doesn't faze, but what does is a flash of lightning through her eye lids with a loud crack of thunder to boom through the whole area, she jerks awake to see Sofia to her right holding her hand and she quickly calms her.
"Shhh it's okay, just a storm. You've actually slept through the worst of it," Sofia informs and holds her free hand out to motion for her to lie back down, Lara does and she sighs.
"How long?" Lara asks, she knows from her groggy state that it has to have been at least a few days due to the physical and mental trauma of the prior days added to the bullet wound.
Sofia smiles at her, "two days," she answers and watches Lara looking around at her surroundings. Inside of a log building, tucked away in a corner with an oil lantern to her left and a heavy fur blanket covering her body to help keep her warm.
Turning her head, Lara blinks a couple of times as her eyes adjust to the light and take in her own mental and physical state. Her head is clearing, it doesn't hurt, but what does hurt is her left shoulder blade area. Body is warm, she feels tired and a little hungry.
"Why can't two days of sleep mean I'll be fully rested when I wake up?" Lara asks with a smile to which Sofia shakes her head.
"Because it wasn't restful sleep, you were in and out all day and all night. Sometimes you tossed and turned which caused the wound to reopen and you started to bleed again, you were screaming… I won't deny it. You scared me more than once," Sofia says and Lara looks at her, locks her eyes with her.
'It was me that was screaming… the white hot pain was the bullet hole reopening,' Lara realizes. She feels herself start to get hotter and realizes it's because the last time they were alone, they'd been kissing and the look in her eyes again is giving her a fuzzy feeling in her stomach up to her chest. "I scared you… and I wasn't conscious for this?" Lara teases and Sofia glares at her.
"You were partially conscious," Sofia reaches her left hand up to pull a strand of hair away from Lara's right cheek. Her hand moves up to caress her face, feeling quite vulnerable again as she is being open with Lara and she doesn't like to be open like this. "Watching you grow pale, feeling your weight drop into my arms and your blood soak the back of your shirt… after what…" she swallows, "after what happened between us, and then seeing that you'd been strangled and you fighting for your life. It scared me that… the one person I've-" Lara places her free index finger onto Sofia's lips to stop her.
"I'm not going anywhere," Lara says softly and moves her hand to move her fingers into Sofia's hair a little and then gently hold the side of her head. Thumb lightly stroking her cheek.
Sofia then bent down and kissed her, releasing Lara's hand finally and placing it to the other side of Lara to support herself hovering over her. Lara melts into the kiss and feels Sofia part her lips and Lara grants her access for their tongues to meet, deepening the kiss. Moaning into the kiss, Sofia places her left hand next to Lara's head for support as her right hand pulls away to go to the fur blanket and tugs it aside for her hand to slip under.
Feeling hot enough in the heat of the moment, she doesn't notice Sofia's hand sneak under her cover. Heart racing in her as Lara holds Sofia's left shoulder and continues holding the side of her head. Not wanting her to pull away this time, Sofia tilts her head to the side and opens her mouth wider, Lara's tongue dancing with her's in her mouth and moans at the pure bliss of it all.
Lara's eyes shoot open when she feels her pants get undone and looks at Sofia to see her face is flushed red, pulling away from the kiss, "S-Sofia?"
"No one is coming in here at 3 in the morning, please Lara, let me do this," Sofia says and her soft finger tips rest at Lara's panty line. Lara can feel her cheeks getting hotter, and her breathing starting to pick up, she stares into Sofia's eyes and can see she is confident and truly cares.
"Okay," Lara breathes and she doesn't take her eyes off of Sofia's as she feels her hand go down and then her finger tip brushes her sensitive spot and Lara gasps out, her body jerks in surprise to the sensation and Sofia smiles.
Lara shoves the rest of the cover off of her as her body feels like it is radiating heat with how much Sofia is working her and making her feel. Sofia smiles genuinely at the sight of what she's doing to the outsider, her middle finger sliding down to Lara's heated, wet core and thumb resting on her sensitive spot.
Leaning her head down to kiss Lara passionately and receive the same in the kiss before slipping her finger inside, she feels Lara's moan into the kiss and slips her tongue back into her mouth. All while feeling Lara's legs close on her wrist and try to hold her there from going, her hips rising in want, she sucks on Lara's tongue as she rubs the sensitive pearl and her middle and index finger start sliding in and out.
Gasping and moaning into the kiss that is becoming a hungry one for Lara, she reaches her right hand down to place it over her pants where Sofia's hand is to pin it there in need. Her left hand reaching up to hold the back of Sofia's head base.
Nibbling on her bottom lip, Sofia keeps feeling a little more daring, moving over the bed to straddle Lara and keeps moving her fingers in and out of her heated core. Listening to Lara's breathing getting heavier she gasps herself when she feels Lara lifting the bottom hem of her shirt. Her soft, smooth fingers caressing her sides and moving up slowly, feeling her toned torso and moving up her front. Sofia looks down just as she feels her warm hands slip up to cup her breasts, this elicits a gasp from Sofia and Lara smiles, having had a feeling she wouldn't be wearing a bra. Her hands move down again to hold her at her waist.
Taking a chance, Sofia moves her finger into a hook and Lara gasps louder, her back arching, ignoring the mild pain it brings to her left side. Panting heavily and stifling a cry when Sofia starts rubbing her vigorously. Her chest heaving, Lara holds Sofia by her waist as she feels she needs to hold something. Her hips bucking to the new thrusts of Sofia's fingers and the working of her pearl, gasping shallower and shallower breaths.
Sofia watches in enjoyment, knowing she's causing Lara to feel and react like this, watching her back arch more. She watches the bandage on her collar bone area for any signs of bleeding. And then feeling Lara grip her sides tightly she leans down and seals her lips with her own just in time to absorb her cry as her orgasm hit. Withdrawing her hand from Lara's pants and feeling Lara's hands shaking on her sides before slowly relaxing from her little orgasm ride, Sofia pulls away slowly only to have Lara lean up and kiss her again, nibbling her lower lip before finally watching her pull away.
"Wow…" Lara breathes, "I didn't… expect any of that," she giggles a little and Sofia smiles while staring at her.
"I nearly kill you with an arrow and at the end of it all… I wind up crushing and falling for you," Sofia comments and looks at Lara's bandage to see a little bit of pink. "And I may have pushed you too soon," she moves off of her to go to the supplies on the table around the wall.
Moving back to the bandage Lara sits up slowly, wincing a little at the discomfort. Sofia pulls open the shirt where they've made it easier to unbutton the top portion just for this wound, carefully she undoes it and unwraps the gauze to reveal a thick square piece of gauze on each side. Both sides have blood soaking into them, "yeah, too soon."
"I don't regret it," Lara says for Sofia to glance at her as she uses some wet cloth to clean each side before placing fresh gauze on. "I will live, this is bound to happen Sofia and after what you just did for me… I don't regret it."
Sofia blushes at the comment while wrapping fresh gauze around her as she'd seen being done a few times already. Once done she buttons the shirt up again and goes under the bed to pull out a set of folded underwear and pants. "These were made up recently for you, I think you'll rest better with something dry on," she winks and Lara blushes this time.
Holding her hand out Lara takes it with her right hand to steady herself into standing up off of the bed. Sofia left her to change while getting Lara some food and water, returning with cheese and bread that is loaded with raisins and nuts.
Sitting on the side of the bed, in clean clothes Lara eats, not realizing she was so hungry till she took her first bite. "I remember my first real meal on Yamati, my first adventure," Lara says as memories go by in her mind of the pouring rain and finding a little spot to make camp.
"What happened with your first adventure?" Sofia asks and takes a seat next to her, watching her in earnest, being she's never left her village and the ruins surrounding it.
Lara closes her eyes briefly, "my best friend from College told me about Yamati, and her own family history with it, about a ruler named Himiko the Sun Queen who it turned out kept cheating death by trading souls with young girls who were deemed to be worthy of carrying on the tradition. We were traveling by ship and the island would not allow people to come or go, ships and planes were found littered along the outskirts and on the island. The wrath of Himiko's soul trapped in a mummified state had powers that made wicked storms rise up around the island. I found a high ranking officer of her storm guard who had committed seppuku, he had a message left behind that said her last successor took her own life rather than receive the Sun Queen's power. There was a cult there that still worshipped Himiko and an insane man who felt the only way to get the storms to stop to escape was to give Himiko a new vessel to inhabit. While I was there I made my first kill on man to save my life, that was a big… emotional thing for me to take another persons' life. I lost my mentor who helped coach me on how to survive on my own. He performed CPR on me… mouth to mouth precipitation as I had died for a couple of minutes at most I gather, he gave his life to protect me from a tomahawk. I killed Himiko with a torch to the chest before she could take my best friend. I learned a lot and grew a lot from there, understanding that because that myth was true that others around the world had to be investigated… such as your Divine Source."
Sofia listened intently, another who sought to live forever, with powers and trapping people on an island, a cult, and the knowledge of how Lara had to grow quickly on that island to survive. "Fast learner, quick to adapt and know what it takes to survive. You have a strong will, as evidenced by this adventure," she smiles at her and stands up. "I'll leave you to get your proper rest."
Looking up at Sofia, Lara nods, she wants to say more but knows that she also needs to get her rest. "Thank you, good night."