Lara shivered as she wrapped her coat a little more snuggly around her. She had lost track of how long they had been trekking through the snow, but she knew it was long enough for her to have effectively lost all feelings in her fingers and toes. Even through the half-dozen layers. The wind whipped up into a frenzy, throwing snow high into the air and slapping her in the face.
She winced, and drew her balaclava a little higher onto her nose as she stomped after her guide. Her guide was an older man with graying hair and wizened features that were hidden so thoroughly by his own winter garments that be looked more like an enormous walking carpet, rather than a man.
The old Sherpa stopped abruptly, and turned around to her. Lara didn't speak much Spanish, but she knew enough to know that her guide would not be going any further. That was fine by her, she had anticipated as much. She thanked the old man, who began the long trek back down the side of the mountain. Likely content to have made a considerable on what he doubtlessly believed to be a fools errand.
Approaching the mountain-face, Lara drew her climbing picks free, and began setting up her lifeline's and carabiners. It would be slow moving, and she would likely have to make camp along the wall of the mountain for the evening, but it would be worth it for what she knew laid in store.
It wasn't every day that someone managed to track down one of the lost idols of the ancient Incan Empire. But if she had done her job correctly, which she was certain that she had, then Lara was confident that at the peak of this mountain would be the burial chamber for one of the old emperors of one of the most influential empires in the world.
With a hefty swing, she dug her pick into the thick wall of ice of the mountain face. The serrated blade of the pick sunk deeply into the ice. The teeth anchoring the pick snugly and securely into place. Pressing her crampons into the ice wall, Lara grit her teeth and began the slow climb up the mountain.
It was a monotonous, tedious ascent. She couldn't go too fast at the risk of dislodging the ice wall, and falling, and every second she was exposed to the cool air, the longer she wished that she had chosen a different career path. With each step up the mountain, the colder it got, the more the wind bit and nipped at any exposed particulate of flesh. After nearly four hours of progress, she had made barely any considerable progress whatsoever. The night was starting to descend on her, and between the coming darkness and the flurry of the storm, it would have been too dangerous to continue for much longer.
She spent the night curled up inside her tent, picked and suspended on the side of the mountain. The not so gentle rocking of the wind against her precariously situated sleeping arrangements was a strangely comforting and hypnotic sensation, and she was soon drifting off to the sleep.
The storm had firmly abated by the time she awoke the following morning. The sun was shining and the wind had downed down to little more than a gentle breeze. It made her final ascent to the peak little more than a leisurely exercise, with the beauty and majesty of the Peruvian mountainside as the backdrop to her ascension.
It took most of the day, but just as the sun was beginning to dip below the horizon, Lara finally crested the final peak, and hauled herself onto the to of the mountain. She was greeted by exactly what she had been expecting.
It was clear that the peak of the mountain had once been home to a beautiful and ostentatious home of some kind. Lara had climbed up into a small cavern at the peak of the mountain. The inside of the cavern had been completely hollowed out, and cascaded deep into the belly of the mountain itself. The remnants of impressively carved works into the face of the mountain decorated lined a path deeper and deeper into the earth.
Unable to keep the grin of excitement off her face, Lara freed her torch from her waistband and powered it on. Shining the light along the walls of the cavern, she was greeted by colorful, artistic renditions of the life of a man. The paintings on the wall, crafted in bright and vibrant colors, detailed the life and legacy of an emperor as he was born from the gods themselves, and led campaigns of subjugation on their neighboring kingdoms.
She spent nearly an hour going along the walls of the cavern, taking photographs and detailing in her journal everything that she was finding. When she felt that she had found and recorded everything she needed to, she turned back to the original reason she was there.
There was a well-worn trail in the cavern. Likely man-made, judging by the grooves and indentations in the earth. The path led deep into the bowels of the mountain. Climbing down deeper and deeper until Lara was fairly certain that she had descended down into the very base of the mountain. The deeper she got, the more ornate and colorful the decorations along the walls.
She stopped, after nearly an hour of walking. In the bowels of the mountain, was an archway. Large and imposing, and constructed out of gold and obsidian, the archway guarded the entrance to a large tomb. The tomb was dark, and stank of mildew and decay. It was a smell that Lara was unfortunately largely familiar with. Thankfully, Lara wouldn't actually need to crack open the mummified remains of whomever this particular tomb belonged to. The Inca, like many in the ancient world, mummified their dead and buried them with their treasure and possessions. Unlike other societies, however, the Inca usually stuffed their imperial dead in a large urn or vase of some sort.
As far as Lara was concerned, that meant she didn't need to worry too much about actually disturbing the remains of the emperor.
It had taken considerable time and money to get this far. She'd had to get some of the best forensics experts in the field to analyze soil particulates in order to determine exactly where in the world this particular idol was likely to be found. It had taken her nearly four months of work to get here, but as she began to poke around the through the tomb, and she found more treasure and loot than she could have hoped for, the familiar thrill of excitement danced along her spine.
This was what she wanted. This was what sh loved. It wasn't just the thrill of adventure, it was the thrill of success. Practicing history, at least to Lara, was a lot like acting like a detective. There were all manner of clues about things that happened decades or centuries, or even millennia ago. It was all about taking those clues, and putting the puzzle pieces together. There was nothing more exciting for Lara, than the rush of excitement and the thrill of success, when her hypothesis proved correct.
It was why she did what she did. Her father had amassed enough wealth, where Lara could have comfortably lived as just another member of Britain's societal elite without having to want or worry for nothing. However that had not been her desire. That kind of lifestyle, it bored Lara. It did not agree with her. She needed a challenge. She needed intellectual stimulation.
Her father had been the same way. It was what had driven him to the field of archeology in the first place.
At first, Lara had only followed in his footsteps in order to find put what had happened to her father, but she had eventually fallen in love with the discipline and had not turned away from it since. For nearly six years, she had been using her inherited wealth to travel the world, to uncover and unlock some of the greatest mysteries that history had to offer.
Not only did it provide the kind of intellectually stimulating challenges that she was deprived in other day-to-day living, but she enjoyed the feeling of closeness to her father. The shared discipline gave Lara a sense of peace and comfort that she had ben otherwise lacking in her life. By taking up the practice that her father had devoted his life to, she felt as though there was still a bit of her father living with her.
It was comforting to Lara.
As Lara boarded the private jet, three days later, with the idol of the Incan emperor tucked safely away in the cargo hold of the plane, Lara allowed a contented smile to play across her face.
She enjoyed her life, and she couldn't wait to see what was in store for her next.