I am not making any money with this. I do not own Lara Croft, Tomb Raider
etc.
Only to be archived at Fanfiction.net and 'Lara Croft's Tales of Beauty and Power'. All other sites email me first to gain permission.
========================================================= The Last Revelation Part III: Garden of The Five Towers by Heidi Ahlmen (siirma6@surfeu.fi) =========================================================
Chapter 4
"So," Jean started after they had unpacked their things in their rooms in the shabby Grand Hotel d'Angkor and met in the garden, "are you too tired or could we take a short walk around the city?"
The suggestion to take a walk around the city would have sounded insane in Phnom Penh, but not in Siem Reap. The city was incredibly small, with some food stalls, about five not-so-luxurious hotels, some restaurants from the French period and an airline office. Tourism had restarted in Cambodia in 1986, but that summer no tourist group had dared enter the country - the peace negotiations were nearly ongoing and the fighters acted as though they wanted to cast their final vengeance on each other.
Lara and Jean were sitting in the tropical garden of the hotel. They had both changed clothes; Jean had replaced his dirty T-shirt and shorts with clean ones, and considering the Lara's choice of clothes, the question about taking a city stroll seemed unnecessary. She looked like any ordinary tourist. White linnen dress and sandals. And a brimmed hat with round sunglasses. Taking the glasses off, Lara replied, "What do you think I'm dressed for if not a walk? A marathon?" she said, unable to keep some bitterness out of her voice. Travelling always made her a little edgy - she hated being cramped up with other people with no space for her thoughts.
"Pardon, Lara, I do not yet know you well enough to know if you're a sport dresser or just aware of the current situation."
Lara was amused. "Sport dresser?"
"You dress for fun when you can, overdressing for sitting in the garden."
"Jean, if I didn't know you're French, I'd have taken that as a sarcasm."
Jean grinned at her. "How do ya know it wasn't, mate?" he replied, overdoing a Scottish accent.
"Let's go," Lara said, leaping down from the low garden wall she had been sitting on.
Siem Reap was, indeed, small. It wasn't very much like a city, more of a group of hotels, temples, and roads some ill-humored demigod had sprinkled near the lake Tonle Sap. Lara and Jean crossed a bridge that lead them over the Siem Reap river and started walking towards the road leading to Angkor Wat as the sun was setting. The sun was merely a huge, sparkling star, framed by grey clouds, forming a contrasty background to the city.
"I'm starting to really like this country," Lara said, as they were approaching the fountain on the other side of the town area.
"So am I. Did you see anything interesting in the jungle?" he asked politely.
"Well, I can't say I have seen a leopard before. Nor have I seen elephants in the wild."
"Nor can I say that I've seen khmer rouges in the wild before," Jean said, and they both laughed.
"Seriously, Jean," Lara underlined her mental note, "what do you think of all this? I read that most of the statues in the nearby temples have been decapitated by the khmers. I'm all up for their independence crusade, but as an archaeologist."
". you hardly consider destroying ancient treasures for fun fundamental when talking about independence," Jean finished her sentence. "What can I do but agree. Are you hungry by the way? I checked the guidebook you had and it said that there's a nice restaurant somewhere on the other side of the river."
"Can't we get something nearer the hotel? I'm getting kinda tired, actually. Lets' go and see the fountain before it gets dark and return to the hotel. I'm sensing the headache is coming back, " Lara explained apologetically.
"I was almost sure you were so packed full of energy after we'd get here."
"I usually am, it's just that. "
"Strange things happen in the world," Jean finished, taking Lara's hand and leading her up the stairs to the Siem Reap fountain. Lara followed, wondering whose fault was the fact that they never really seemed to have deeper-than-average conversations. Perhaps they were just mere friends. Lara wanted to be perfectly happy with it, but somehow she wasn't. And the fact that she didn't know why annoyed her a great deal.
The Temple of Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument ever built.
It was early morning, the only observers of two young archaeologists making their way through the temple yards were monkeys.
Lara Croft and Jean-Yves DuCarmine walked down endless stone corridors, photographed the beautiful reliefs of the temple, and shares a compassionate sigh of sorrow everytime they passed a decapitated guardian lion or other statue.
Near a corner of the corridor leading to the library Lara stopped. The temple was silent, unless you wanted to count the monkeys. They had kept quiet the whole time, as Angkor Wat was supposedly used as a post by the khmers.
"What is it?" Jean whispered, remembering a certain night in Peru, where Lara had also stopped - that time to point out a deadly trap.
Lara peeked behind a corner and quickly pulled back. "Khmers," she whispered, reaching for her right hand pistol.
"Are you sure that's wise?" Jean asked sceptically, as Lara loaded her gun.
"This is just life insurance. Do you think there's another way to gallery of the thousand Buddhas?"
"Of course we could go around the rest of the temple - but didn't you say that South gallery was a part of the collapsed area?" Jean reminded her.
"True. Damn it all," Lara cursed, and peeked behind the corner again. In the middle of the bas relief corridor were a group of khmer, walking around. It was a wonder the archaeologists had not heard them or that the khmers had not heard Lara and Jean arrive. "They must be using the corridor as an ammunition storage," Lara whispered and felt a shudder as she noticed the assault rifles and the rocket launchers. Lara leaned back on the side where Jean was, and her eyes caught his worried eyes.
"I could try to take them from here, but there are too many." Lara talked to herself.
"What are you talking about?" Jean spat out, unsure of what he'd heard.
"I don't think we can avoid battle if we want to get in." Lara said nonchalantly.
"Then we don't go in." Jean said, but Lara continued loading her guns. She sat down to the ground. She didn't notice her leg peeking around the corner. There was a sudden change in the khmer's tones. Lara and Jean could hear guns being loaded and footsteps approaching. The two archaeologists looked at each other - and started running for their lives along the bas relief corridor back to where they had come.
Khmers rushed from behind the corner, yelling and firing point blank at the escaping Lara and Jean. They kept urnning and turned behind the next corner - Lara decided it would have been blatantly stupid for her to start firing. It would perhaps cost her a second too much. They rushed behind the next corner, and Jean stopped as she noticed Lara gone. He quickly glanced around, panicky, then he felt a sudden hand pulling him to a nearby wall. Lara pulled him towards a staircase hidden behind a large, headless Vishnu statue leading to a dark corridor that was not visible to the gallery where the khmers had just rushed in right behind Jean.
In complete silence and darkness, Lara and Jean waited for the footsteps and voices to disappear. From their hiding place they could see that a soldier had sat down on the corridor. There was no way they could get out the way they came.
Jean turned back to the darkness. and noticed Lara gone.
Lara Croft wiped off the sweat the escapade had formed on her forehead, and leaned on the wall in the darkness. She had run past the entrance to the dark stone alley and continued in utter silence deeper to the depths of the temple. Her head was now pounding, something Lara knew could not have been just for the run and the heat.
She had waken up the night before, sweaty and somehow light-headed. She had had some fever, and stumbling to the bathroom had made her feel awful. She had spent two hours in bed, shivering before catching another array of sleep.
Reasoning that the area was safe, Lara dug out a small flashlight from her pocket and continued down the narrow corridor. In the flickering MagLite light she noticed that the corridor was filled with outsandingly beautiful reliefs. She stopped in front of one. Thanking God for the fact that she could read some Sanskrit, she started deciphering an inscription. First there was a picture of Harihara - a Cambodian god, a combination of Hindu gods Shiva and Buddha - holding a sabre before a group of obvious enemies. Suddenly remembering Jean, Lara wondered if she should go back. There were two corridors leading to the cellars of the temple behind the statue. If Jean had started to follow the right one - he was to arrive soon. If he took the wrong one - he'd return to the statue - or if he got out, went back to the hotel. He would be okay, Lara assured herself, shivering slightly. Was it cold? Not really. Something had raised goosebumps on Lara's skin. Shrugging to herself, and coughing slightly, she returned to the inscription. In the next picture there was Harihara again , this time standing next to someone, perhaps a king? Harihara was handing something to the person - Lara's heart jumped as she saw what it was in the faint light of the flaslight - The Iris. Quickly, Lara moved to the next picture. Actually, it was no picture. It was a phrase, very hard to decipher.
"Continue. if.. You." Lara whispered to herself, reading the text, "would rather be a tiger for a day than a bird for a hundred years," the inscription read.
Suddenly, a fit of coughing hit Lara, forcing her to lean on the wall. Deciding it was time to go back, Lara took a last glance at the reliefs. Preparing to leave, she took a quick glance behind the next corner, just to make sure nothing lurked in the shadows. She stopped as she noticed that behind the next corner was a huge stone door. She walked to the door, running her fingers on the raw surface.
The door was incredibly beautiful - with tigers, elephants, birds and humans carved in the surface to an endless chain of life. Flowers and complicated ornaments framed the scene, and Lara noticed four so-called Naga snakes carved on the four corners of the door.
There was also an another inscription.
"Of all the footprints The elephant's is the greatest; Of all exercises of humbleness Considering your very own Death is the greatest".
Lara pondered the text for a second, pondering its significance. It this door lead to the other route to the Iris, the text must have meant something. Lara studied the door more carefully, and a wide, wicked smile spread on her face as she noticed that all the human reliefs on the door were missing something.
'So that's where the golden skulls von Croy called worthless trash go. Old Werner-dear, you're about to witness a victory greater than any of yours,' Lara swore to herself as she started walking back to the huge statue guarding their escape route doorway, feeling tired. The other corridor was probably a route out, Lara reasoned, and continued walking. After the revelation of the door faded, she started noticing her headache again.
It was crushing and pounding. And she felt incredibly tired. Her muscles ached - probably because of the run. Lara continued to the other corridor after arriving to the doorway statue, and in a short while she arrived on the temple yard. Wondering why she was panting and coughing for such a ridiculous exertion as walking down corridors, she started her slow return to Siem Reap, nine miles from the temple. Jean was nowhere to be seen.
Hours and hours later, Lara woke up to the sound of her hotel room door opening. Blinking hard as a late evening sun twisted through the curtains to, how it almost seemed, straight to Lara's eyes. She stood up slowly, her head spinning. Sinking back on the bed, she decided hazily, that whoever it was, the matter should wait until she could get some sleep.
It was Jean, who determinately walked next to the bed and started shaking her hard. "Lara? Lara, it's time to get up."
"Are you crazy?" Lara stuttered and pulled a pillow on her head. "It's midnight. Probably. Midnight or so."
"It's not midnight," Jean's stern voice answered, and someone slipped a hand on Lara's forehead under the pillow.
"Stop poking!" she complained, annoyed. "My head is bad enough as it is."
Taking the pillow from her, Jean sat down to the bed. Lara sat up slowly, stretching and feeling chilly.
"You have fever," Jean said quietly. "I wanted to ask you something in Phnom but I forgot.
Trying her own forehead and cursing silently but light-headedly, Lara asked, "So, what was it?"
Jean got up and disappeared outside the bedroom for a second. He returned with a book; "Guidebook to Cambodia", with a print of paper inside it. Jean pulled out the separate sheet of paper and pointed the encicrled word he had noticed in the aeroplane. Doxycycline. A malaria preventative medicine.
"You're taking this, right?" Jean asked Lara, who sat on the bed, wondering why the room kept spinning around.
Lara leaned closer, read the name and nodded. "Twice a day with water."
"What about mefloquine?" Jean asked, sounding slightly concerned.
Lara shrugged. "I'm allergic to that and cloroquine. Cycline should be enough."
"But mefloquine is the only one that really prevents all the types of malaria in Cambodia.There are many types that doxycycline doesn't kill."
Lara sighed. "And what is the meaning of this medical lecture, Jean dear?" Lara yawned, feeling cold. She got another fit of coughing. Jean brought her his bottle of water.
"Thank you," Lara said between gulping from his water bottle, "see, I've just caught the latest flu."
Jean eyed her suspiciously. She seemed quite alright, despite the alarming fever, so he didn't say anything.
"Jean - I think I found the entrance. The other entrance, I mean. I don't remember telling you everything about my last trip here."
Jean sat down to a chair next to the window. Lara dug out two aspirins from her bedside table drawer, and after swallowing them continued; "We broke the floor in the South gallery to get in. We ended up in a huge corridor, that every once in awhile, lead through temple yards with waterfalls and such. As we proceeded further, I kept finding these golden skulls. Lara rose from the bed, walked to her suitcase, still open on the floor, and dug out a plastic bag. She poured its contents on the bed.
Small, golden skulls.
Picking up one of them, she continued, "I found eight of them. After hours of exploring, we found our ways to a temple yard, that ,in the inscriptions found in King Jayavarman's tomb that were our main reference when looking for the Iris, was called 'Garden of The Five Towers'. It was surrounded by countless guardian lion statues, and there were two huge doors. The one that we used, was referred as something like "the path of the virtuous". The one we couldn't open was called "the path of the heretical"."
"Yes?" Jean was getting excited. Lara had obviously found or realized something.
"After we entered the dark hallway behind the statue I found a door in which the golden skulls work as a key. Next to the wall was a relief with the Iris in it."
"Bull's eye, Lara. Give me some of that water, let's raise a toast."
Lara coughed slightly and looked at Jean, puzzled. "A toast to what?"
"A toast for archaeology. And you, Lara Croft. I know I like you more than a decent colleague should."
Lara misled, passing Jean the bottle after drinking from it herself. "Colleagues aside, partner. Three hoorays to archaeology." 'And us,' Lara almost dared to add, still remaining more careful than perhaps was necessary.
-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
As always, comments and reviews would be much appreciated - they're the fuel that feeds this creative furnace.
siirma6@surfeu.fi
Only to be archived at Fanfiction.net and 'Lara Croft's Tales of Beauty and Power'. All other sites email me first to gain permission.
========================================================= The Last Revelation Part III: Garden of The Five Towers by Heidi Ahlmen (siirma6@surfeu.fi) =========================================================
Chapter 4
"So," Jean started after they had unpacked their things in their rooms in the shabby Grand Hotel d'Angkor and met in the garden, "are you too tired or could we take a short walk around the city?"
The suggestion to take a walk around the city would have sounded insane in Phnom Penh, but not in Siem Reap. The city was incredibly small, with some food stalls, about five not-so-luxurious hotels, some restaurants from the French period and an airline office. Tourism had restarted in Cambodia in 1986, but that summer no tourist group had dared enter the country - the peace negotiations were nearly ongoing and the fighters acted as though they wanted to cast their final vengeance on each other.
Lara and Jean were sitting in the tropical garden of the hotel. They had both changed clothes; Jean had replaced his dirty T-shirt and shorts with clean ones, and considering the Lara's choice of clothes, the question about taking a city stroll seemed unnecessary. She looked like any ordinary tourist. White linnen dress and sandals. And a brimmed hat with round sunglasses. Taking the glasses off, Lara replied, "What do you think I'm dressed for if not a walk? A marathon?" she said, unable to keep some bitterness out of her voice. Travelling always made her a little edgy - she hated being cramped up with other people with no space for her thoughts.
"Pardon, Lara, I do not yet know you well enough to know if you're a sport dresser or just aware of the current situation."
Lara was amused. "Sport dresser?"
"You dress for fun when you can, overdressing for sitting in the garden."
"Jean, if I didn't know you're French, I'd have taken that as a sarcasm."
Jean grinned at her. "How do ya know it wasn't, mate?" he replied, overdoing a Scottish accent.
"Let's go," Lara said, leaping down from the low garden wall she had been sitting on.
Siem Reap was, indeed, small. It wasn't very much like a city, more of a group of hotels, temples, and roads some ill-humored demigod had sprinkled near the lake Tonle Sap. Lara and Jean crossed a bridge that lead them over the Siem Reap river and started walking towards the road leading to Angkor Wat as the sun was setting. The sun was merely a huge, sparkling star, framed by grey clouds, forming a contrasty background to the city.
"I'm starting to really like this country," Lara said, as they were approaching the fountain on the other side of the town area.
"So am I. Did you see anything interesting in the jungle?" he asked politely.
"Well, I can't say I have seen a leopard before. Nor have I seen elephants in the wild."
"Nor can I say that I've seen khmer rouges in the wild before," Jean said, and they both laughed.
"Seriously, Jean," Lara underlined her mental note, "what do you think of all this? I read that most of the statues in the nearby temples have been decapitated by the khmers. I'm all up for their independence crusade, but as an archaeologist."
". you hardly consider destroying ancient treasures for fun fundamental when talking about independence," Jean finished her sentence. "What can I do but agree. Are you hungry by the way? I checked the guidebook you had and it said that there's a nice restaurant somewhere on the other side of the river."
"Can't we get something nearer the hotel? I'm getting kinda tired, actually. Lets' go and see the fountain before it gets dark and return to the hotel. I'm sensing the headache is coming back, " Lara explained apologetically.
"I was almost sure you were so packed full of energy after we'd get here."
"I usually am, it's just that. "
"Strange things happen in the world," Jean finished, taking Lara's hand and leading her up the stairs to the Siem Reap fountain. Lara followed, wondering whose fault was the fact that they never really seemed to have deeper-than-average conversations. Perhaps they were just mere friends. Lara wanted to be perfectly happy with it, but somehow she wasn't. And the fact that she didn't know why annoyed her a great deal.
The Temple of Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument ever built.
It was early morning, the only observers of two young archaeologists making their way through the temple yards were monkeys.
Lara Croft and Jean-Yves DuCarmine walked down endless stone corridors, photographed the beautiful reliefs of the temple, and shares a compassionate sigh of sorrow everytime they passed a decapitated guardian lion or other statue.
Near a corner of the corridor leading to the library Lara stopped. The temple was silent, unless you wanted to count the monkeys. They had kept quiet the whole time, as Angkor Wat was supposedly used as a post by the khmers.
"What is it?" Jean whispered, remembering a certain night in Peru, where Lara had also stopped - that time to point out a deadly trap.
Lara peeked behind a corner and quickly pulled back. "Khmers," she whispered, reaching for her right hand pistol.
"Are you sure that's wise?" Jean asked sceptically, as Lara loaded her gun.
"This is just life insurance. Do you think there's another way to gallery of the thousand Buddhas?"
"Of course we could go around the rest of the temple - but didn't you say that South gallery was a part of the collapsed area?" Jean reminded her.
"True. Damn it all," Lara cursed, and peeked behind the corner again. In the middle of the bas relief corridor were a group of khmer, walking around. It was a wonder the archaeologists had not heard them or that the khmers had not heard Lara and Jean arrive. "They must be using the corridor as an ammunition storage," Lara whispered and felt a shudder as she noticed the assault rifles and the rocket launchers. Lara leaned back on the side where Jean was, and her eyes caught his worried eyes.
"I could try to take them from here, but there are too many." Lara talked to herself.
"What are you talking about?" Jean spat out, unsure of what he'd heard.
"I don't think we can avoid battle if we want to get in." Lara said nonchalantly.
"Then we don't go in." Jean said, but Lara continued loading her guns. She sat down to the ground. She didn't notice her leg peeking around the corner. There was a sudden change in the khmer's tones. Lara and Jean could hear guns being loaded and footsteps approaching. The two archaeologists looked at each other - and started running for their lives along the bas relief corridor back to where they had come.
Khmers rushed from behind the corner, yelling and firing point blank at the escaping Lara and Jean. They kept urnning and turned behind the next corner - Lara decided it would have been blatantly stupid for her to start firing. It would perhaps cost her a second too much. They rushed behind the next corner, and Jean stopped as she noticed Lara gone. He quickly glanced around, panicky, then he felt a sudden hand pulling him to a nearby wall. Lara pulled him towards a staircase hidden behind a large, headless Vishnu statue leading to a dark corridor that was not visible to the gallery where the khmers had just rushed in right behind Jean.
In complete silence and darkness, Lara and Jean waited for the footsteps and voices to disappear. From their hiding place they could see that a soldier had sat down on the corridor. There was no way they could get out the way they came.
Jean turned back to the darkness. and noticed Lara gone.
Lara Croft wiped off the sweat the escapade had formed on her forehead, and leaned on the wall in the darkness. She had run past the entrance to the dark stone alley and continued in utter silence deeper to the depths of the temple. Her head was now pounding, something Lara knew could not have been just for the run and the heat.
She had waken up the night before, sweaty and somehow light-headed. She had had some fever, and stumbling to the bathroom had made her feel awful. She had spent two hours in bed, shivering before catching another array of sleep.
Reasoning that the area was safe, Lara dug out a small flashlight from her pocket and continued down the narrow corridor. In the flickering MagLite light she noticed that the corridor was filled with outsandingly beautiful reliefs. She stopped in front of one. Thanking God for the fact that she could read some Sanskrit, she started deciphering an inscription. First there was a picture of Harihara - a Cambodian god, a combination of Hindu gods Shiva and Buddha - holding a sabre before a group of obvious enemies. Suddenly remembering Jean, Lara wondered if she should go back. There were two corridors leading to the cellars of the temple behind the statue. If Jean had started to follow the right one - he was to arrive soon. If he took the wrong one - he'd return to the statue - or if he got out, went back to the hotel. He would be okay, Lara assured herself, shivering slightly. Was it cold? Not really. Something had raised goosebumps on Lara's skin. Shrugging to herself, and coughing slightly, she returned to the inscription. In the next picture there was Harihara again , this time standing next to someone, perhaps a king? Harihara was handing something to the person - Lara's heart jumped as she saw what it was in the faint light of the flaslight - The Iris. Quickly, Lara moved to the next picture. Actually, it was no picture. It was a phrase, very hard to decipher.
"Continue. if.. You." Lara whispered to herself, reading the text, "would rather be a tiger for a day than a bird for a hundred years," the inscription read.
Suddenly, a fit of coughing hit Lara, forcing her to lean on the wall. Deciding it was time to go back, Lara took a last glance at the reliefs. Preparing to leave, she took a quick glance behind the next corner, just to make sure nothing lurked in the shadows. She stopped as she noticed that behind the next corner was a huge stone door. She walked to the door, running her fingers on the raw surface.
The door was incredibly beautiful - with tigers, elephants, birds and humans carved in the surface to an endless chain of life. Flowers and complicated ornaments framed the scene, and Lara noticed four so-called Naga snakes carved on the four corners of the door.
There was also an another inscription.
"Of all the footprints The elephant's is the greatest; Of all exercises of humbleness Considering your very own Death is the greatest".
Lara pondered the text for a second, pondering its significance. It this door lead to the other route to the Iris, the text must have meant something. Lara studied the door more carefully, and a wide, wicked smile spread on her face as she noticed that all the human reliefs on the door were missing something.
'So that's where the golden skulls von Croy called worthless trash go. Old Werner-dear, you're about to witness a victory greater than any of yours,' Lara swore to herself as she started walking back to the huge statue guarding their escape route doorway, feeling tired. The other corridor was probably a route out, Lara reasoned, and continued walking. After the revelation of the door faded, she started noticing her headache again.
It was crushing and pounding. And she felt incredibly tired. Her muscles ached - probably because of the run. Lara continued to the other corridor after arriving to the doorway statue, and in a short while she arrived on the temple yard. Wondering why she was panting and coughing for such a ridiculous exertion as walking down corridors, she started her slow return to Siem Reap, nine miles from the temple. Jean was nowhere to be seen.
Hours and hours later, Lara woke up to the sound of her hotel room door opening. Blinking hard as a late evening sun twisted through the curtains to, how it almost seemed, straight to Lara's eyes. She stood up slowly, her head spinning. Sinking back on the bed, she decided hazily, that whoever it was, the matter should wait until she could get some sleep.
It was Jean, who determinately walked next to the bed and started shaking her hard. "Lara? Lara, it's time to get up."
"Are you crazy?" Lara stuttered and pulled a pillow on her head. "It's midnight. Probably. Midnight or so."
"It's not midnight," Jean's stern voice answered, and someone slipped a hand on Lara's forehead under the pillow.
"Stop poking!" she complained, annoyed. "My head is bad enough as it is."
Taking the pillow from her, Jean sat down to the bed. Lara sat up slowly, stretching and feeling chilly.
"You have fever," Jean said quietly. "I wanted to ask you something in Phnom but I forgot.
Trying her own forehead and cursing silently but light-headedly, Lara asked, "So, what was it?"
Jean got up and disappeared outside the bedroom for a second. He returned with a book; "Guidebook to Cambodia", with a print of paper inside it. Jean pulled out the separate sheet of paper and pointed the encicrled word he had noticed in the aeroplane. Doxycycline. A malaria preventative medicine.
"You're taking this, right?" Jean asked Lara, who sat on the bed, wondering why the room kept spinning around.
Lara leaned closer, read the name and nodded. "Twice a day with water."
"What about mefloquine?" Jean asked, sounding slightly concerned.
Lara shrugged. "I'm allergic to that and cloroquine. Cycline should be enough."
"But mefloquine is the only one that really prevents all the types of malaria in Cambodia.There are many types that doxycycline doesn't kill."
Lara sighed. "And what is the meaning of this medical lecture, Jean dear?" Lara yawned, feeling cold. She got another fit of coughing. Jean brought her his bottle of water.
"Thank you," Lara said between gulping from his water bottle, "see, I've just caught the latest flu."
Jean eyed her suspiciously. She seemed quite alright, despite the alarming fever, so he didn't say anything.
"Jean - I think I found the entrance. The other entrance, I mean. I don't remember telling you everything about my last trip here."
Jean sat down to a chair next to the window. Lara dug out two aspirins from her bedside table drawer, and after swallowing them continued; "We broke the floor in the South gallery to get in. We ended up in a huge corridor, that every once in awhile, lead through temple yards with waterfalls and such. As we proceeded further, I kept finding these golden skulls. Lara rose from the bed, walked to her suitcase, still open on the floor, and dug out a plastic bag. She poured its contents on the bed.
Small, golden skulls.
Picking up one of them, she continued, "I found eight of them. After hours of exploring, we found our ways to a temple yard, that ,in the inscriptions found in King Jayavarman's tomb that were our main reference when looking for the Iris, was called 'Garden of The Five Towers'. It was surrounded by countless guardian lion statues, and there were two huge doors. The one that we used, was referred as something like "the path of the virtuous". The one we couldn't open was called "the path of the heretical"."
"Yes?" Jean was getting excited. Lara had obviously found or realized something.
"After we entered the dark hallway behind the statue I found a door in which the golden skulls work as a key. Next to the wall was a relief with the Iris in it."
"Bull's eye, Lara. Give me some of that water, let's raise a toast."
Lara coughed slightly and looked at Jean, puzzled. "A toast to what?"
"A toast for archaeology. And you, Lara Croft. I know I like you more than a decent colleague should."
Lara misled, passing Jean the bottle after drinking from it herself. "Colleagues aside, partner. Three hoorays to archaeology." 'And us,' Lara almost dared to add, still remaining more careful than perhaps was necessary.
-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
As always, comments and reviews would be much appreciated - they're the fuel that feeds this creative furnace.
siirma6@surfeu.fi