NOTE: Uncharted and Tomb Raider do not belong to me, this is simply an AU. Enjoy! Thank you 3

"I'm gonna be honest, I wasn't expecting there to be any of this stuff," Nate sighed, almost annoyed. He figured that most people had not attempted the find of the amulet, though this puzzle proved him differently. Lara walked up to the stones with him, studying it for a moment. She began to pull the levers, seeing if the pictures engraved in the stones would match the ones on the walls, trying to see if there were any patterns. She stopped then in her thought, trying to figure it out in her head.

Nate squinted in trying to do so as well. He realized some of the pictures matched, but he couldn't quite figure out if there was a pattern. His annoyance of there being a test was still burning and nipping at him, so half of him was distracted anyway. Lara stood directly in front of the middle lever then, aligning herself with a torch that burned on the wall. She walked to the lever on the right and aligned herself with another torch. Finally, she went to the lever on the left and, once more, aligned herself with a torch on the wall. While Nate was trying to figure out what she was doing, Lara perked up in realizing the sudden pattern.

She pointed ahead of her to the torches, "The torches are lighting up the significant drawing."

"They are?"

She nodded, telling him to do the same thing she had done. He agreed and moved from lever to lever, noticing each torch had lit up a drawing above them on the wall that held similarity to those on the stones. "Well, look at you," Nate complimented her, grabbing onto the lever he was at. He began pull it until it matched the stone with the picture on the wall. Lara did the same with the lever she was at, in which they had the last one to take care of. "How about you do the honors," he suggested to the woman, nodding towards her.

Lara gave a gentle smile, "You're such a gentleman." Though she said that with a playful tilt her voice, she did somewhat mean what she said. She grabbed at the middle lever and matched the stone with its respective picture and pulled away. When all were matched up, a sudden rumble occurred from the right side of the room. Double doors began to pull apart from each other, exposing a lit up room of golden color.

They looked at one another in awe before they stepped forward. The room was lit up by golden torches, lighting up the treasures that were stashed away by others long ago. Though cobwebs and dust lived in this area of the cave due to the neglect over the years, the scene was amazing no less. Nate soon grew confused in remembering how old the cave was, and how it was supposed to be abandoned.

"Lara," he suddenly let out, "Who the hell lit those torches?"

"I have no idea," she admitted, beginning to walk along the path that was cleared of treasures. There was a want to take something for artifacts and studying, but she decided it would be best to just leave everything as it be. Walking along the path felt as if they were getting closer and closer to their goal, though Lara wasn't sure how to feel. Her stomach twisted into knots as they began to approach what seemed to be a podium; it was where the Amulet of the Red Dragon sat. Something about this didn't feel right. She felt as if this wouldn't be as easy as she believed.

Lara kept hesitant as they stopped in front of the podium. The two of them stared at it for quite some time, the shadows that lurked behind the podium seeming menacing to the both of them. Nate began to reach his hand out, "Should I take one for the team if there's a weird booby trap?"

"Nate—"

His hand grabbed hold of it, but he didn't take it off the podium just yet. The amulet remained where it was as the both of them were suddenly met with what lurked behind the shadows. A large snout revealed itself, slowly coming forward to expose the face of the zmei. This was it; this was the red dragon that guarded the amulet. The creature only revealed its face to them, but it didn't seem to be aggressive or even protective of the amulet. The dragon looked like it was an elder, old and worn down, protecting this amulet for over hundreds of years.

"Do you see the dragon too?" Nate asked, his eyes wide but his voice low.

Lara gave a simple nod before she looked to him, "Be still."

He followed her instructions. His hand remained on the amulet and his body remained stiff. The dragon let steam release from its nostrils, its yellow eyes staring at the both of them. They suddenly realized who had kept the torches lit. Nate pursed his lips, staring up at the dragon with a sense of worry. The dragon looked tired, but he was more so concerned about if this dragon were to kill him or not.

The dragon suddenly nudged the amulet into Nate's hand with its snout. It was telling them to take it. Lara perked up, part of her realizing what exactly was happening. She looked to Nate, who picked up the amulet and began to study the treasure at first before looking over to her. "I don't think he wants to do this anymore," she laughed softly, "He's tired…"

"He's probably been protecting this thing for hundreds of years," Nate replied, turning back to the dragon. He looked to Lara before back to the creature, in which he began to walk closer to it. When he shined his light on the shadows, it revealed the dragon's body that held up that side of the cave. He gave a wince in sympathy, "I wish we could help you, bud."

The creature laid down its head in showing it was trusting of the people who freed it of its duty. Lara walked closer to the dragon's head, along with Nate, and sighed softly at seeing how the creature had been treated. She held her hand out to touch its snout, and although she was hesitant at first, she eventually laid her hand on the scales. The dragon's nostrils let out steam again, closing its eyes in response. Lara smiled softly, but she had nothing to say. Nate simply watched; there really was nothing they could say to this. The most they could do was try to sign to the dragon they would be taking the amulet, and that they wished they could help.

"We should probably try to go before—"

"Right," Lara said quickly, taking her hand away from the dragon and back away, "..Goodbye." She turned around then, Nate following after her as they began to walk out of the treasure filled room. With each step came a rumble, dust falling from the ceiling as if it were threatening to collapse at any moment.

Nate began to grow worried. Why was it suddenly doing this? He looked back at the glowing red ruby in the middle of amulet before realizing that, with each step, it grew dim. He turned around for a split second to see the dragon was beginning to fade into a sickly pale. "Wait," he let out, "I think… the dragon's connected to the amulet." Lara looked between the dragon and amulet and agreed with him. "We're gonna have to run for it," he said, handing the amulet to Lara.

Lara gripped the amulet quickly, "On three?"

"On three."

"1… 2… 3!" She began to run with Nate falling quick behind her. The further they got away from the dragon, the more rubble fell in hopes of squashing one of them. It struck them that the dragon held the cave with its back, and now that its life was being taken away from it, it no longer would be there to keep that side of the cave in tact. It was a difficult situation to deal with considering they had to run fast enough to make it out the double doors.

As they began to approach them, Lara quickly jumped out into the other room. The cave's rubble fell quicker, and Nate forced himself to slide out into the room and make it out, but not without letting a small yelp escape him. A rock had managed to trap his foot. Lara looked over to him and realized the only light now was of their flashlights again; the torches were now burnt out. She kneeled down and sighed softly, "Oh, shit."

The cave's damp darkness didn't help matters when Nate let out a vicious groan of pain. The rock that had took hold of his ankle had no intentions of letting him leave, and while he let out winces and whines, Lara had stuck by his side and attempted to give him support. She grabbed a knife out of her sheath and gave him a look as to indicate she was about to use it to get the rock off, considering she needed some leverage to help her with it.

"Calm down," she told him, "I'm getting you out of this. Just calm down."

She slid the knife's blade under the rock then, in which Nate wanted to jerk away but kept himself from moving as to ease his fears. He started to watch her slowly lift the rock away from his ankle, though it was somewhat painful, he was able to move his leg away and have full control again. He let out a heavy breath and Lara put her knife away, gesturing for him to follow her out of the cave. She realized part of her felt as if this were her fault, but she tried to push that down and forget about it.

Maybe if she had let him go first or something, that wouldn't have happened. Regardless, she saw he was limping after he got up and attempted to walk. She stopped quickly and ran over to Nate's side, helping him walk since he was limping so bad. Eventually, they had made it out of the cave together, and Lara let Nate sit down for a moment as they sat at the entrance of the cave.

"That hurt," Nate let out, starting to rub at his ankle before laughing softly, "But at least we got the damn amulet, huh?"

Lara looked at the amulet she had taken from the man earlier and smiled softly, "We did…"

Nate looked up at her, happy to see she was smiling, regardless of his injury and what had happened to the dragon. Lara put her hand out to Nate then, helping him back up to his feet, "Let's go get those drinks, huh?"