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.
===================================== Tomb Raider: The Sadhana by Heidi Ahlmen (siirma6@surfeu.fi) =====================================
Chapter six
I was hungry. So hungry the sight of a human being it would have been highly plausible for me to consider a career in vampyrism. I was also thirsty, but that was more easily helped than my hunger. I had a can of peas - the clicheed last resort food - and about one day to go.
I had left the Hangadara valley where I had my little incident in as good as a mood one can have after being robbed somewhere behind God's back. My backpack felt lighter - albeit for reasons that were too morbid to think about. I had been robbed. What a god-awful cliche. I knew Murphy's law - whatever can happen, it will. I had a desire to give my own head a good kick - I had been careless for leaving my things without guard. I never do that. I had thought I was alone.
It was difficult to admit, but I felt a little scared when walking down the first hill after Hangadara valley. I felt as if someone was chasing after m, following, spying on me. It's an easy feeling to catch in the subway, but it was almost new to me in its purest form. Gradually, my anger had mildened, and I could continue with a calm mind. It took seventy miles until I was able to assure my mind that me chance of revenge had passed long ago.
Hunger started gradually creeping in and giving me a lot more to think about than robbers in the middle of a Tibetan mountainside. The whole thing began to sound like a James Bond novel, and I abandoned the scene in my mind. It was time to continue.
Valley after valley, I walked, until I lost both my count and my location on the map. It's funny how all the mountains start to look all the same when you're seen too many of them. I walked long without knowing where I was. As I had been doing for seven hundred miles, I just walked, my hope crumbling piece by piece with every step. Not the hope of survival but the hope of finding The Sadhana.
The hill I was walking that afternoon started curving upwards. It became quite steep, and I considered seriously the thought of really, for once, trying to find myself on the map. Then I discovered that I was near some kind of an edge. Again, I stripped of my backpack. I walked to the edge and looked down, expecting to see another range of mountains - I had almost began to hate mountains by then - but what I saw was something quite different.
It was a lake. I grabbed a stone, dropped it off the cliff. It fell to the water and disappeared deep into the depths. Without hesitation or sensible thinking, I ripped off my gunbelt and dove off the cliff. If I died of a broken neck, I wouldn't at least starve to death.
I was greeted by the coldest water I've yet to experience in my life. Forget the Andes and the mayas' sacrificial wells, forget all about the Antarctica, that water was cold. I screamed as I do, and continued screaming as I surfaced. When water is cold enough it burns. I swam to the shore. The water was clear, turqoise by colour, a lot darker than the sea water in Bermuda or Borneo. I rose from the water and sat on the beach. Dripping wet, I begun thinking about warming up. I had to climb up to get my gear. Now I had the time to see what kind of a cliff I had jumped from. It was steep. And high. But a hill next to it looked promising. I began climbing, my wet shoes slipping on the rocks, and the sharp stones ripping up my palms. It didn't hurt. My hands were blue with coldness. I was shaking with cold as I reached my backpack on the windy cliff. Awarding myself with the title of the most stupid and irresponsible person in the whole of the Himalayas, I stripped off my wet clothes and slipped into my sleeping back. I've never been so cold in my life. A weaker person would perhaps have passed out. I had gotten my gun and paid for it. Gradually I warmed up.
Don't take me the wrong way here, but diving off the cliff was important. It made me go on. I ate half of my peas that night and decided that if I died out there - it wouldn't be of hunger. I wasn't feeling too heroic, but I knew that if I found what I was looking for the following day, everything else would settle quite nicely. Of course, if I didn't find the Sadhana, and there was noone to help me nearby, I would die. Now that's a thought for a lonely night on a clifftop in a tent surrounded by the Himalayas.
The next morning, I had serious trouble lifting my eyelids. The ever- present wind whistled louside - a lot louder than the previous evening. I remember twisting around in my sleeping bag, my back felt sore and cold. I slowly unzipped the bag, adjusting myself for waking up properly.
The wind whistled. I realized it was also snowing heavily. I was suddenly wide awake. I was in a hurry. I had to seek cover before the whole tent was to get buried in snow. I quickly shoved all my things to my backpack, and rambled out of the tent. I had been right - it had already snowed a half foot. The storm hit my face as I turned it to the wind. I was afraid my map would get wet and unreadable I started walking down the hill towards the lake.
On the lake surface was a thin coating of ice. I've never seen a lake freeze that fast. I hurried myself down. I nearly trampled over as my boot hit a small rock covered by snow. I got to the lakeshore, and kneeled under a projecting rock. I dug out the map from my breast pocket and inspected it. Soon my legs started giving away so I had to sit. I was dead tired as I was running out of food. I didn't recognize the lake in the map so I folded the map and put in back in my pocket. It was time to evaluate the situation.
I didn't know where I was. A thunderstrom was catching up with me. The only significant landmark around was the lake.
A sudden thought rushed through my malnutritioned brain. I checked the map again. And wondered how I could've been so bloody stupid. I was standing next to Lake Manasarovar, and behind me, in a direction I had somehow missed, stood Mount Kailash. It had exactly the kind of a white pinnacle that the map picture featured. Its peak was the shape of a pyramid top.
I started walking again, my backpack more heavy than ever.
Mount Kailash. What then? A cross was marked on my map, but it could mean anything short of the west side of the mountain to a single rock. I didn't even want to start thinking that if I never found the Sadhana, would I ever find a way back home, or wherever I was going?
I need not say again that I was tired. I discarded my backpack below the mountain - Mount Kailash was small, compared to many others. I took a sip from my water bottle that I had filled with the water from the holy lake.
Around me, nothing but mountains. I sat down on the ground.
"WHAT NEXT?" I yelled. "WHY AM I HERE?"
Only an echo answered. I was as alone as one can be. If I ever was afraid, it would have been then. But no, I can't say that I was. I just felt being pitter against something that I couldn't even see. An invisible assassin. A mountain. The wind. There was noone to answer.
I felt strangely peaceful. There was noone in the world who could affect my situation in any way. My fate was in mine and the mountains' hands. It was still snowing but the wind had calmed. I had once seen a movie about a teenaged girl who had deaf parents. She'd once told her father that when snow fell, it made the whole world silent. Her father had said it was probably the most beautiful thing he had ever heard. I agreed.
It was twilight because of the clouds. A shadow leaked on the mountainside. I left my backpack and ran towards it. It didn't go anywhere. My feet made no sound as I approached the shadow. In my eyes it soon descended into a square of darkness. Then a shrine of some sorts. Then I realized it was a cave. I ran back to my nackpack with wobbly legs and dragged it to the cave entrance. Leaving it just inside the entrabce to avoid snow wetting it, I dug out a flare from its front pocket, and entered the darkness. The entrance lead to a small, stony room. The room dissolved into a narrow corridor. The cave wasn't man-made. My flare died so I switched on my flashlight, which seemed to work despite all the odds.
-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
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.
===================================== Tomb Raider: The Sadhana by Heidi Ahlmen (siirma6@surfeu.fi) =====================================
Chapter six
I was hungry. So hungry the sight of a human being it would have been highly plausible for me to consider a career in vampyrism. I was also thirsty, but that was more easily helped than my hunger. I had a can of peas - the clicheed last resort food - and about one day to go.
I had left the Hangadara valley where I had my little incident in as good as a mood one can have after being robbed somewhere behind God's back. My backpack felt lighter - albeit for reasons that were too morbid to think about. I had been robbed. What a god-awful cliche. I knew Murphy's law - whatever can happen, it will. I had a desire to give my own head a good kick - I had been careless for leaving my things without guard. I never do that. I had thought I was alone.
It was difficult to admit, but I felt a little scared when walking down the first hill after Hangadara valley. I felt as if someone was chasing after m, following, spying on me. It's an easy feeling to catch in the subway, but it was almost new to me in its purest form. Gradually, my anger had mildened, and I could continue with a calm mind. It took seventy miles until I was able to assure my mind that me chance of revenge had passed long ago.
Hunger started gradually creeping in and giving me a lot more to think about than robbers in the middle of a Tibetan mountainside. The whole thing began to sound like a James Bond novel, and I abandoned the scene in my mind. It was time to continue.
Valley after valley, I walked, until I lost both my count and my location on the map. It's funny how all the mountains start to look all the same when you're seen too many of them. I walked long without knowing where I was. As I had been doing for seven hundred miles, I just walked, my hope crumbling piece by piece with every step. Not the hope of survival but the hope of finding The Sadhana.
The hill I was walking that afternoon started curving upwards. It became quite steep, and I considered seriously the thought of really, for once, trying to find myself on the map. Then I discovered that I was near some kind of an edge. Again, I stripped of my backpack. I walked to the edge and looked down, expecting to see another range of mountains - I had almost began to hate mountains by then - but what I saw was something quite different.
It was a lake. I grabbed a stone, dropped it off the cliff. It fell to the water and disappeared deep into the depths. Without hesitation or sensible thinking, I ripped off my gunbelt and dove off the cliff. If I died of a broken neck, I wouldn't at least starve to death.
I was greeted by the coldest water I've yet to experience in my life. Forget the Andes and the mayas' sacrificial wells, forget all about the Antarctica, that water was cold. I screamed as I do, and continued screaming as I surfaced. When water is cold enough it burns. I swam to the shore. The water was clear, turqoise by colour, a lot darker than the sea water in Bermuda or Borneo. I rose from the water and sat on the beach. Dripping wet, I begun thinking about warming up. I had to climb up to get my gear. Now I had the time to see what kind of a cliff I had jumped from. It was steep. And high. But a hill next to it looked promising. I began climbing, my wet shoes slipping on the rocks, and the sharp stones ripping up my palms. It didn't hurt. My hands were blue with coldness. I was shaking with cold as I reached my backpack on the windy cliff. Awarding myself with the title of the most stupid and irresponsible person in the whole of the Himalayas, I stripped off my wet clothes and slipped into my sleeping back. I've never been so cold in my life. A weaker person would perhaps have passed out. I had gotten my gun and paid for it. Gradually I warmed up.
Don't take me the wrong way here, but diving off the cliff was important. It made me go on. I ate half of my peas that night and decided that if I died out there - it wouldn't be of hunger. I wasn't feeling too heroic, but I knew that if I found what I was looking for the following day, everything else would settle quite nicely. Of course, if I didn't find the Sadhana, and there was noone to help me nearby, I would die. Now that's a thought for a lonely night on a clifftop in a tent surrounded by the Himalayas.
The next morning, I had serious trouble lifting my eyelids. The ever- present wind whistled louside - a lot louder than the previous evening. I remember twisting around in my sleeping bag, my back felt sore and cold. I slowly unzipped the bag, adjusting myself for waking up properly.
The wind whistled. I realized it was also snowing heavily. I was suddenly wide awake. I was in a hurry. I had to seek cover before the whole tent was to get buried in snow. I quickly shoved all my things to my backpack, and rambled out of the tent. I had been right - it had already snowed a half foot. The storm hit my face as I turned it to the wind. I was afraid my map would get wet and unreadable I started walking down the hill towards the lake.
On the lake surface was a thin coating of ice. I've never seen a lake freeze that fast. I hurried myself down. I nearly trampled over as my boot hit a small rock covered by snow. I got to the lakeshore, and kneeled under a projecting rock. I dug out the map from my breast pocket and inspected it. Soon my legs started giving away so I had to sit. I was dead tired as I was running out of food. I didn't recognize the lake in the map so I folded the map and put in back in my pocket. It was time to evaluate the situation.
I didn't know where I was. A thunderstrom was catching up with me. The only significant landmark around was the lake.
A sudden thought rushed through my malnutritioned brain. I checked the map again. And wondered how I could've been so bloody stupid. I was standing next to Lake Manasarovar, and behind me, in a direction I had somehow missed, stood Mount Kailash. It had exactly the kind of a white pinnacle that the map picture featured. Its peak was the shape of a pyramid top.
I started walking again, my backpack more heavy than ever.
Mount Kailash. What then? A cross was marked on my map, but it could mean anything short of the west side of the mountain to a single rock. I didn't even want to start thinking that if I never found the Sadhana, would I ever find a way back home, or wherever I was going?
I need not say again that I was tired. I discarded my backpack below the mountain - Mount Kailash was small, compared to many others. I took a sip from my water bottle that I had filled with the water from the holy lake.
Around me, nothing but mountains. I sat down on the ground.
"WHAT NEXT?" I yelled. "WHY AM I HERE?"
Only an echo answered. I was as alone as one can be. If I ever was afraid, it would have been then. But no, I can't say that I was. I just felt being pitter against something that I couldn't even see. An invisible assassin. A mountain. The wind. There was noone to answer.
I felt strangely peaceful. There was noone in the world who could affect my situation in any way. My fate was in mine and the mountains' hands. It was still snowing but the wind had calmed. I had once seen a movie about a teenaged girl who had deaf parents. She'd once told her father that when snow fell, it made the whole world silent. Her father had said it was probably the most beautiful thing he had ever heard. I agreed.
It was twilight because of the clouds. A shadow leaked on the mountainside. I left my backpack and ran towards it. It didn't go anywhere. My feet made no sound as I approached the shadow. In my eyes it soon descended into a square of darkness. Then a shrine of some sorts. Then I realized it was a cave. I ran back to my nackpack with wobbly legs and dragged it to the cave entrance. Leaving it just inside the entrabce to avoid snow wetting it, I dug out a flare from its front pocket, and entered the darkness. The entrance lead to a small, stony room. The room dissolved into a narrow corridor. The cave wasn't man-made. My flare died so I switched on my flashlight, which seemed to work despite all the odds.
-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
As always, comments and reviews would be much appreciated - they're the fuel that feeds this creative furnace.
siirma6@surfeu.fi