- A Large Celebration Banquet

It wasn't a long car journey and for the second time, Lara and Ayesha were staring at the grand entrance of the hotel of where they met up earlier in the day. During the trip, the girls updated Eric on what happened underground, finding the mysterious temple, how they faced the demon phoenix, and how they had a strange vision after defeating the guardian.

"Our next destination now lies somewhere in the Sahara, no doubt that is where we'll find another artefact like this, or maybe something more..." Lara finished the explanation, with Eric stroking his chin in deep thought, planning and formulating his next move.

"This is fantastic news! When we get back to the hotel, I shall alert one of the company branches in Egypt to set a search party in the desert. We will use the latest advancements in technology to scan in stages the desert land, and we should have a full report in three days. For us, we will be staying at the hotel for the night, and hopefully by tomorrow morning, my private plane will be ready to take us to Egypt."

The car parked up outside the stairs, and on cue the driver opened the back door for the duo and the front door for Eric Copper. They went up to the reception desk, and were greeted with a smile from the receptionist.

"Hello, how can I help you?"

"Good Afternoon, have you got the room keys for Ms. Croft and Ms. Christensen?"

"Yes, I have them right here Mr. Copper" The receptionist picked out and handed over two keys to Eric Copper.

"Excellent, thank you very much" He gracefully thanked the receptionist, and then he turned to the duo's direction.

"Right then Ayesha and Lara, you both have separate rooms in the hotel, so you can relax and refresh yourselves ready for our meal later on. May I have the artefact please, so my research team can study the mysteries behind it?" Eric asked Ayesha, who still had the object in her possession. Ayesha gave a hidden look, to which Lara in that moment spotted on her face. She knew that Ayesha really didn't want to hand over their discovery to Eric. But in the end, Ayesha got it out and handed it over to him. Lara had never seen Ayesha gave an expression like that before, luckily Eric didn't see it as his attention was fully on the mystic artefact.

"Thanks" Eric said though it was more like a whisper. He then handed over the two keys for the duo.

Ayesha and Lara took their respective keys, and took a quick glance at their room numbers. Lara was in room number 98, while Ayesha was in room number 57.

"Cheers Eric" They both said together.

"No worries, if you follow the stairs or elevators they should point you in the right floor to where your rooms are. Now if you don't mind being left on your own, I would like to rest up before our dinner together, if that is okay with you?"

"Not a problem, what time are we meeting for the meal?"

"Around seven, no later than that"

"Alright, see you tonight then"

They departed in their separate ways, Lara and Ayesha headed off to the staircase leading to the first floor, whilst the businessman went in the opposite way. It didn't take long until they were right on the doorstep of Ayesha's room number, around the central hallway of the third floor.

"Well, this seems to be my room, I think I'm going to take a nice deserved shower after that little adventure!"

"Okay Ayesha, I think I may do the same as well. All righty then I'll knock on your door around five to six, for when we are scheduled to meet up for dinner with the others, that alright with you?"

"No problem. See ya later!"

Ayesha unlocked the door and went inside, leaving Lara on her own to find the room she was designated to be in. A sign next to the stairway had pointed Lara up the stairs to the upper floors, where the range of rooms included her room number. She followed the directions, and to the right, ten doors across, there was indeed Lara's room.

Inside was a luxurious living area, featuring a very comfy four poster bed, a premium on-suite bathroom, two cushiony large sofas, a widescreen 26 inch LED television, some well polished and looked after furniture with a bowl of tropical fruit on top of one, and finally a nice balcony view, overlooking the region. As well for top marks in service, her luggage was delivered to the room and was left on the surface cleaned laminate flooring. It was as if they had already planned for her to be in that room, even before she had arrived back from the jungle. Though a bit questionable, Lara thought nothing of it, and continued to admire what the room had to offer. 'Gosh, this feels more like a holiday then an adventure,' Lara thought, as she took in the magnificent view from the balcony. After a reflection, she then decided it was time to visit the gleaming shower.

Lara started the shower and once it became quite a nice warm temperature, she stepped in and took a bathe in the downpour of aqua water. A few minutes later, Lara came out of the shower, and wrapped a towel around her to dry up. While waiting for this, Lara looked through her packed belongings, knowing she must've taken along with her an evening dress just in case an occasion like this came about. It didn't take long for her to find a suitable classy outfit that was nicely folded in her luggage. Lara took it out and hung it on one of the handles of the main wardrobe, ready for tonight.

For the meantime, Lara temporarily wore a dressing gown that was provided by the hotel, and then lazily slumped onto the comfy four poster bed. After closing her eyes for a few seconds, and feeling the cozyness snug of the mattress, duvet and pillows, she looked over to her left side. The time shown on the digital clock on the cabinet next to the bedside was 4:30, two and a half hours to go until this formal supper. At first, Lara had the idea of going into the marketplace nearby to have a little wander, however soon after this thought she'd unexpectedly fell into a deep snooze.

"...Hmm..." Lara mumbled, as she started to open her eyes from her little nap. Immediately her hazel eyes caught the sight of the time.

"Blast! I'm going to be late!" Lara annoyingly thought to herself, within an instant she rushed to her evening dress for the night. Quickly, yet with patience, Lara put on her dress and prepared herself for the banquet. Once she was ready, Lara stepped out of her room, and made her way towards the second floor, heading towards Ayesha's door.

Knock knock...No reply...Knock Knock! ...Still no reply...What was going on?

"Ayesha!?" Lara called softly near the doorway, not too quiet and not too loud, someone would've heard her call, but yet again there was no answer. Time was getting on, and Lara knew Eric Copper wasn't one to forgive people being late. She decided to go after waiting for a response from Ayesha for at least three minutes. Lara thought maybe Ayesha had already gone downstairs without telling her, but there was a part of her saying that she wasn't going to be there.

"Ah Lara, glad to see you again, I must say you look very elegant" Eric Copper said as he stood below the staircase with a smile awaiting Lara's presence. He was not only admiring her punctuality, but also how radiant she was for the night ahead.

"Thanks, where are we going to dine?" Lara replied, glancing around briefly to see if Ayesha was around before returning her focus to Eric. There was no sight of her anywhere...

"Right this way, we are with the directors and some promoted workers of the company"

"Have you heard any news from Ayesha? I tried her door, but she wasn't answering"

"She delivered us a message saying that she had taken ill. I'm sure this is only a short spell of illness, but it is unfortunate news to me that she won't be joining us tonight..."

"Yes...though I find it a bit odd, she seemed fine when I left her"

"Hmmm, my only guess would be that it had slowly crept upon her until the effects started to become serious...I wouldn't worry too much, I'm sure we will see her in the morning. Anyway, shall we go through?" Eric theorized, and pointed Lara into where they were going to eat.

Lara had taken a seat close to Eric Copper and his directing team, though she felt like a stranger at the table. She wished Ayesha was there to keep her company, as she didn't know most of these people to well. Whilst the guests decided to where their places were going to be for the evening, Lara took the opportunity to study the dining room. It was a beautiful decor, with exquisite furnishings, a vastly carved ceiling and a grand fireplace warming the entire hall-like room. Some nice soothing music was playing too creating a calm feeling, which just added more to the atmosphere of the place. The amount of food that was offered on the table was an impressive selection. So much choice and variety, it could have even fed a table full of around fifty people, even though there were only around sixteen present.

"Before we tuck into our glorious feast, I would like to propose a toast and congratulations to Ayesha Christensen and Lara Croft, for their bravery, courage and determination through the mine we had discovered days before. Our reward was the amazing artefact they discovered within a historic temple, to which our research team is currently uncovering the potential of this relic. Unluckily Ayesha cannot make it tonight due to illness, but let us raise our glasses, and say to Ayesha and Lara!"

"Ayesha and Lara!" They all shouted in glory, raising their crystal-like glasses and then they drank the champagne content from them. Lara blushed a little from the praise, but she just smiled at the others, as they applauded her. Straight after the commendation speech, all began to select what they wanted and started to eat their course.

Throughout the dinner and afterwards, the conversation over the course of the night had varied. There were discussions all around ranging from current affairs in the news to company business and finances. There was even a point where Lara was asked about her background and how she got into adventuring, and everybody listened attentively, some even expressed how intriguing her story was. The night event had slowly drawn to a close, with the guests leaving one by one, retiring to their rooms for sleep. It was near past midnight, and Lara began to feel herself getting more tired, and even started to yawn out.

"I think I'm going to head off to bed Eric, I can feel myself nodding off to sleep, thanks for meal and the speech" Lara added, rubbing her right eye.

"No problem, you deserved the recognition tonight. Alright then, good night Lara, see you in the morning" Eric nodded with a kind smile.

"Good night" Lara tiredly said, as she exited the dining room and headed up the stairs.