DISCLAIMER: I do not own Lara Croft or Tomb Raider. I am not making money
with this work of fiction.
Only to be archived at Fanfiction.net and "Lara Croft's Tales of Beauty and Power". All other sites please email me first at siirma6@surfeu.fi to gain permission.
Tomb Raider: Prevail by Heidi Ahlmen (siirma6@surfeu.fi)
Chapter 8
First they dived up the stairs to inspect the crew deck. Upstairs they noticed that the window glasses were gone so they could have entered through the window holes. Lara took a missing look, and Josephine turned around to see what the white thing he'd seen in the corner was.
She streched out her hand to the darkness to grab it. She brought it in front of her face. A skull. A sudden shiver went up and down her spine, and she didn't even notice dropping it. It floated peacefully down to the wooden floor, its mouth in a grimace.
Josephine tried to calm her nerves. Now that had been something she didn't like meeting underwater. The sacrificial well she had dived to in Mexico had only housed a couple of bones, no intact skulls. She wondered briefly how terrifying it would be to come across a floating body. She abandoned the thought. It made her even more uneasy. She was on the edge already.
Lara had finished her inspection, and waved her to swim closer. Lara had noticed a map in bad shape under a cracked glass. It was a map of the ship. Lara pointed at the largest cargo holds and shook her head. Logical. Why would they have hidden valuables in the midst of pineapples or whatever they had been transporting? Then Lara pointed at a small storage hall. It was at the end of a corridor of some sorts, but the water had eaten the map so harshly only the outer shape of the storage room was visible.
ARE YOU SURE? Josephine wrote to her slate with a shaky hand she hoped Lara wouldn't notice.
Lara shook her head, grinning more playfully then evilly, and started making her way down the stairs. The walls and the decoration were made of wood, which hadn't put up with the ship's watery grave very well. If you touched a chair or a railing, it collapsed and broke into shards - the water pressure had been the only thing keeping it together. Josephine startled everytime a wooden surface gave way under her touch. Lara didn't even notice such things. Josephine decided she was probably so concentrated in what she was doing. She felt like a distraction to Lara.
Soon they arrived in a new hallway. Josephine became slightly worried for she couldn't figure out how Lara could have led them down the already familiar staircase and arrive in an alien place. Until she remembered they had diven down twice as far as they had upstairs. Keep it together, woman. She tried hard to fight against the feeling of being inside something that was slowly wailing and collapsing, threatening to make her another victim of this frightful wreck.
They started following a corridor. Lara peeked inside some small side rooms that appeared to be sleeping cabins, but obviously wasn't too happy with their content. She kept checking her watch every three minutes like a responsible diver. So did Josephine - only more often.
Josephine peeked inside one doorway, and pointed her lamp blankly inside.
If she could have screamed she would have. A group of skeletons, dancing silently in the water. Josephine dropped her lamp, and quickly recovered it, having the gnawing feeling that something was haunting this sunken vessel.
At the other end of the corridor, Lara was waiting for her more or less patiently.
Lara held onto a door handle as she waited for Josephine. How could it take such a long time for her to dive down one goddamned hallway? She even peeked inside a cabin Lara had already checked. Nothing but bones. Sleeping cabins mostly never withheld anything of interest. Some light came in from a broken window at the end of the corridor. Lara appreciated the sight of natural light. It eased the feeling of being very deep.
Josephine finally arrived next to her, looking somewhat shaken. Lara checked her watch. They had been underwater for fifty-five minutes. Good enough. Lara dug out her slate.
I HAVE A HUNCH ABOUT THIS ROOM. YOU OK?
Josephine simply nodded, taking a restless look around. Even if she was nervous she was keeping it down giftedly. Lara tried the handle. Locked. She waved for Josephine to back up a bit, and tried yanking it open. It didn't work. Then she dug out a small master key from her knife strap. She pushed it into the lock, and the soft, rusty iron gave way. Another thumbs- up from both of them. Lara was the first to enter - Josephine hesitated, not being able to help herself from trying to avoid possible bony inhabitants of the metallic grave.
Lara let go of the doorway and concentrated on the insides of the small room. It was pitch dark, and some remains of wooden crates were shattered all over the floor. Grime and gunk filled the floor. Lara lowered her hand to touch the dirt that water and rust had sprinkled from the walls and the ceiling.
A small cloud of dirt hovered away, and a sight for the gods greeted Lara.
Gold.
In the form of a death mask clearly embodying Egyptian style. Lara pulled Josephine into the small cabin, and picked up the glorious death mask. They shared a heartful smile, and started whisking away more dirt. A small case that now was a small pile of rottened wood housed a necklace and a headband made of gold and lapis lazul. Josephine found a pair of small but delicate earrings. Unfortunately they broke to pieces from her touch. She gathered the pieces and stuffed them inside the sleeve of her wetsuit. Lara stopped to admire the death mask, seriously knowing it would make a great war between the two of them - and the two museums responsibly for the financing. Well, I always have my pistols, Lara thought, more of a joke than seriously.
The mask wasn't heavy underwater, and it was difficult to estimate its weight out of water. Some more jewellery was found, and even a pair of what probably were sacrificial daggers inlaid with red stones. It was a magnificent sight. Lara dug out her slate.
YOU WAIT HERE WHILE I GO GET THE NET A BIT CLOSER?
Josephine shook her head. Lara couldn't make her stay nor could she fail to notice her nervousness - she had already asked once if she was okay. She was going to be okay as soon as she got out of the living quarters - back into open water.
Lara's slate answered YOU GO GET THE NET THEN.
Josephine dived away, leaving Lara alone in the storage room that had been turned into a treasure chamber. She returned soon, to find Lara holding the mask with most of the necklaces hanging from her wrist. Josephine recovered the rest of the things, and together they dived out of the corridor and to the deck, onto where Josephine had pulled the netsack. They opened the wooden box, inserted all the smaller objects carefully, and closed it. The death mask could hold its own and was big enough not to fall off between the netholes. It felt terrible to leave the sack down until they had surfaced, but pulling the rope at such depths wouldn't have moved the rope above the surface at all - the sailor wouldn't have noticed anything.
They secured the sack, then Lara turned to face the living quarters once more, as if saying goodbyes to the structure.
Josephine looked up to the surface. Most of the sunlight was gone. It couldn't have gotten dark - they had only been diving for one hour and twenty-two minutes. It was two-o'clock in the afternoon. Lara returned to her side. Josephine pointed up. Lara nodded and started kicking. Josephine realized Lara had misunderstood her signal - understandably - and pulled her back. Lara kicked her, probably a reflex useful in case of enraged bigger fishes or squids. Luckily she noticed Josephine and turned. Josephine showed Lara her slate.
DO YOU THINK WE'VE HIT A STORM? LOOK UP
Lara did as told, and then dug out her board. IT DOESN'T CHANGE THE FACT THAT WE HAVE TO GO UP. YES, I THINK IT'S A STORM.
Lara and Josephine started slowly releasing air into their BCDs, and began kicking slowly towards the surface. They stopped four times to let the pressure come to balance.
Finally they were three metre from the surface, following the netsack line. They could see the waves now - metres high and posing a serious risk when they would come to about one metre from surface - the current could push them under the boat bottom. The anchor had held quite nicely, even though it wasn't in the bottom but some fifty metres below surface. It seemed to be heavy enough to keep the boat still.
They dived a few feet away from the hull, and then surfaced. They took off their mouthpieces. Lara yelled, and the captain noticed them. He threw them a set of rope ladder, and they slowly and painstakingly climbed up to the neck with their heavy gear as the waves thrashed the ladder around.
Josephine let out a sigh of sheer relief when she got the rocking boat deck underneath her fins. She hadn't had time to take off her mask in the sea, so she tore it off her face and strapped herself rid of the tanks and the vest. It was drizzling lightly, and the wind was strong but not strong enough to knock them over on the deck. The sailor returned to the cabin without saying a word. The simple man was probably giving them peace to change clothes.
Lara packed everything, and pulled her pilot jacket over her wetsuit. She didn't intend to change anything more. It wasn't raining anymore, but the wind hadn't calmed down a bit. Josephine stripped onto her swimming suit, carefully moving the earrings from her wetsuit sleeve to her jeans pocket, and pulled on a woolly sweater and jeans. Then they shouted to the Senegalean, and he returned to the deck, going straight to grab the netsack rope. After a nod from both women, he started winching it up. Lara began helping as the sack became heavier when approaching the surface. Finally, for the sailor's great surprise, they hauled the sack with its valuable content on the deck.
After wrapping the jewelry and the deathmask into plastic, they sat down in the bow and the boat began its way towards the shore. Lara sat silently and Josephine couldn't help fingering the earrings she'd found.
Was this what Lara did for living? Priviledged bastard. Josephine understood the lure of adventuring - that was exactly how her father had earned his living. Nowadays everything that was valuable and exciting seemed to have been found, packaged and sold to museums - including adventure. Josephine had long been certain that Indiana Jones - fictious or not - had been the last great adventuring archaeologist.
Until there was Lara Croft. She led a lifestyle Josephine hadn't thought possible. Where did she manage to dig up undiscovered temples for every day of the week, she had wondered. Lara also seemed to carry those guns around everywhere - something rather unusual and sinister for a modern archaeologist. Did she often have to use them? She did, if you believed her books. Lara Croft in the lead, guest starring thugs, murderous monks and dinosaurs. A world far from Josephine's home in downtown Chicago. The only beast lurking around the house was Ray's cat Caligula. The ultimate proof of what an ass he had been - and probably still was. Left his cat behind when he left. Such a sweet cat, despite having been named after an insane Roman ruler.
Lara was clearly good at what she was doing. And she had her heart in it all the time. It was something you probably grew into involuntarily or otherwise - not something you adopted from courses or in a university. Lara had had her plane crash.
The boat turned and now they were facing waves sideways. The movements knocked Lara continuously towards the railing, and due to the unpleasantness of it she stood up, stretching and yawning. She turned to look at Josephine, who was gently cleaning the gem of the left earring with the hem corner of her sweater. Josephine looked up and faced Lara. Something near the corner of her range of sight seemed wrong.
The wind had broken the rope keeping the fishing net scaffold located in the far front of the ship in place. Now it was swinging uncontrollably - towards Lara. Josephine dropped the earring.
"Lara - loook - "
Too late, as things often go. Josephine watched in sheer horror as the scaffold iron knocked the wind out of Lara's lungs, making her cry out in pain, and causing her to take a quick step backwards - one step too far, causing her to fall over the railing to the waves. Josephine rushed to grab her, but she was already gone. Her brain calling for a snap decision, Josephine looked at the death mask, the strange-looking sailor, then looked at the sea, and jumped, aware that she was choosing between helping Lara and the golden mask with intricate carvings and embedded stones.
Only to be archived at Fanfiction.net and "Lara Croft's Tales of Beauty and Power". All other sites please email me first at siirma6@surfeu.fi to gain permission.
Tomb Raider: Prevail by Heidi Ahlmen (siirma6@surfeu.fi)
Chapter 8
First they dived up the stairs to inspect the crew deck. Upstairs they noticed that the window glasses were gone so they could have entered through the window holes. Lara took a missing look, and Josephine turned around to see what the white thing he'd seen in the corner was.
She streched out her hand to the darkness to grab it. She brought it in front of her face. A skull. A sudden shiver went up and down her spine, and she didn't even notice dropping it. It floated peacefully down to the wooden floor, its mouth in a grimace.
Josephine tried to calm her nerves. Now that had been something she didn't like meeting underwater. The sacrificial well she had dived to in Mexico had only housed a couple of bones, no intact skulls. She wondered briefly how terrifying it would be to come across a floating body. She abandoned the thought. It made her even more uneasy. She was on the edge already.
Lara had finished her inspection, and waved her to swim closer. Lara had noticed a map in bad shape under a cracked glass. It was a map of the ship. Lara pointed at the largest cargo holds and shook her head. Logical. Why would they have hidden valuables in the midst of pineapples or whatever they had been transporting? Then Lara pointed at a small storage hall. It was at the end of a corridor of some sorts, but the water had eaten the map so harshly only the outer shape of the storage room was visible.
ARE YOU SURE? Josephine wrote to her slate with a shaky hand she hoped Lara wouldn't notice.
Lara shook her head, grinning more playfully then evilly, and started making her way down the stairs. The walls and the decoration were made of wood, which hadn't put up with the ship's watery grave very well. If you touched a chair or a railing, it collapsed and broke into shards - the water pressure had been the only thing keeping it together. Josephine startled everytime a wooden surface gave way under her touch. Lara didn't even notice such things. Josephine decided she was probably so concentrated in what she was doing. She felt like a distraction to Lara.
Soon they arrived in a new hallway. Josephine became slightly worried for she couldn't figure out how Lara could have led them down the already familiar staircase and arrive in an alien place. Until she remembered they had diven down twice as far as they had upstairs. Keep it together, woman. She tried hard to fight against the feeling of being inside something that was slowly wailing and collapsing, threatening to make her another victim of this frightful wreck.
They started following a corridor. Lara peeked inside some small side rooms that appeared to be sleeping cabins, but obviously wasn't too happy with their content. She kept checking her watch every three minutes like a responsible diver. So did Josephine - only more often.
Josephine peeked inside one doorway, and pointed her lamp blankly inside.
If she could have screamed she would have. A group of skeletons, dancing silently in the water. Josephine dropped her lamp, and quickly recovered it, having the gnawing feeling that something was haunting this sunken vessel.
At the other end of the corridor, Lara was waiting for her more or less patiently.
Lara held onto a door handle as she waited for Josephine. How could it take such a long time for her to dive down one goddamned hallway? She even peeked inside a cabin Lara had already checked. Nothing but bones. Sleeping cabins mostly never withheld anything of interest. Some light came in from a broken window at the end of the corridor. Lara appreciated the sight of natural light. It eased the feeling of being very deep.
Josephine finally arrived next to her, looking somewhat shaken. Lara checked her watch. They had been underwater for fifty-five minutes. Good enough. Lara dug out her slate.
I HAVE A HUNCH ABOUT THIS ROOM. YOU OK?
Josephine simply nodded, taking a restless look around. Even if she was nervous she was keeping it down giftedly. Lara tried the handle. Locked. She waved for Josephine to back up a bit, and tried yanking it open. It didn't work. Then she dug out a small master key from her knife strap. She pushed it into the lock, and the soft, rusty iron gave way. Another thumbs- up from both of them. Lara was the first to enter - Josephine hesitated, not being able to help herself from trying to avoid possible bony inhabitants of the metallic grave.
Lara let go of the doorway and concentrated on the insides of the small room. It was pitch dark, and some remains of wooden crates were shattered all over the floor. Grime and gunk filled the floor. Lara lowered her hand to touch the dirt that water and rust had sprinkled from the walls and the ceiling.
A small cloud of dirt hovered away, and a sight for the gods greeted Lara.
Gold.
In the form of a death mask clearly embodying Egyptian style. Lara pulled Josephine into the small cabin, and picked up the glorious death mask. They shared a heartful smile, and started whisking away more dirt. A small case that now was a small pile of rottened wood housed a necklace and a headband made of gold and lapis lazul. Josephine found a pair of small but delicate earrings. Unfortunately they broke to pieces from her touch. She gathered the pieces and stuffed them inside the sleeve of her wetsuit. Lara stopped to admire the death mask, seriously knowing it would make a great war between the two of them - and the two museums responsibly for the financing. Well, I always have my pistols, Lara thought, more of a joke than seriously.
The mask wasn't heavy underwater, and it was difficult to estimate its weight out of water. Some more jewellery was found, and even a pair of what probably were sacrificial daggers inlaid with red stones. It was a magnificent sight. Lara dug out her slate.
YOU WAIT HERE WHILE I GO GET THE NET A BIT CLOSER?
Josephine shook her head. Lara couldn't make her stay nor could she fail to notice her nervousness - she had already asked once if she was okay. She was going to be okay as soon as she got out of the living quarters - back into open water.
Lara's slate answered YOU GO GET THE NET THEN.
Josephine dived away, leaving Lara alone in the storage room that had been turned into a treasure chamber. She returned soon, to find Lara holding the mask with most of the necklaces hanging from her wrist. Josephine recovered the rest of the things, and together they dived out of the corridor and to the deck, onto where Josephine had pulled the netsack. They opened the wooden box, inserted all the smaller objects carefully, and closed it. The death mask could hold its own and was big enough not to fall off between the netholes. It felt terrible to leave the sack down until they had surfaced, but pulling the rope at such depths wouldn't have moved the rope above the surface at all - the sailor wouldn't have noticed anything.
They secured the sack, then Lara turned to face the living quarters once more, as if saying goodbyes to the structure.
Josephine looked up to the surface. Most of the sunlight was gone. It couldn't have gotten dark - they had only been diving for one hour and twenty-two minutes. It was two-o'clock in the afternoon. Lara returned to her side. Josephine pointed up. Lara nodded and started kicking. Josephine realized Lara had misunderstood her signal - understandably - and pulled her back. Lara kicked her, probably a reflex useful in case of enraged bigger fishes or squids. Luckily she noticed Josephine and turned. Josephine showed Lara her slate.
DO YOU THINK WE'VE HIT A STORM? LOOK UP
Lara did as told, and then dug out her board. IT DOESN'T CHANGE THE FACT THAT WE HAVE TO GO UP. YES, I THINK IT'S A STORM.
Lara and Josephine started slowly releasing air into their BCDs, and began kicking slowly towards the surface. They stopped four times to let the pressure come to balance.
Finally they were three metre from the surface, following the netsack line. They could see the waves now - metres high and posing a serious risk when they would come to about one metre from surface - the current could push them under the boat bottom. The anchor had held quite nicely, even though it wasn't in the bottom but some fifty metres below surface. It seemed to be heavy enough to keep the boat still.
They dived a few feet away from the hull, and then surfaced. They took off their mouthpieces. Lara yelled, and the captain noticed them. He threw them a set of rope ladder, and they slowly and painstakingly climbed up to the neck with their heavy gear as the waves thrashed the ladder around.
Josephine let out a sigh of sheer relief when she got the rocking boat deck underneath her fins. She hadn't had time to take off her mask in the sea, so she tore it off her face and strapped herself rid of the tanks and the vest. It was drizzling lightly, and the wind was strong but not strong enough to knock them over on the deck. The sailor returned to the cabin without saying a word. The simple man was probably giving them peace to change clothes.
Lara packed everything, and pulled her pilot jacket over her wetsuit. She didn't intend to change anything more. It wasn't raining anymore, but the wind hadn't calmed down a bit. Josephine stripped onto her swimming suit, carefully moving the earrings from her wetsuit sleeve to her jeans pocket, and pulled on a woolly sweater and jeans. Then they shouted to the Senegalean, and he returned to the deck, going straight to grab the netsack rope. After a nod from both women, he started winching it up. Lara began helping as the sack became heavier when approaching the surface. Finally, for the sailor's great surprise, they hauled the sack with its valuable content on the deck.
After wrapping the jewelry and the deathmask into plastic, they sat down in the bow and the boat began its way towards the shore. Lara sat silently and Josephine couldn't help fingering the earrings she'd found.
Was this what Lara did for living? Priviledged bastard. Josephine understood the lure of adventuring - that was exactly how her father had earned his living. Nowadays everything that was valuable and exciting seemed to have been found, packaged and sold to museums - including adventure. Josephine had long been certain that Indiana Jones - fictious or not - had been the last great adventuring archaeologist.
Until there was Lara Croft. She led a lifestyle Josephine hadn't thought possible. Where did she manage to dig up undiscovered temples for every day of the week, she had wondered. Lara also seemed to carry those guns around everywhere - something rather unusual and sinister for a modern archaeologist. Did she often have to use them? She did, if you believed her books. Lara Croft in the lead, guest starring thugs, murderous monks and dinosaurs. A world far from Josephine's home in downtown Chicago. The only beast lurking around the house was Ray's cat Caligula. The ultimate proof of what an ass he had been - and probably still was. Left his cat behind when he left. Such a sweet cat, despite having been named after an insane Roman ruler.
Lara was clearly good at what she was doing. And she had her heart in it all the time. It was something you probably grew into involuntarily or otherwise - not something you adopted from courses or in a university. Lara had had her plane crash.
The boat turned and now they were facing waves sideways. The movements knocked Lara continuously towards the railing, and due to the unpleasantness of it she stood up, stretching and yawning. She turned to look at Josephine, who was gently cleaning the gem of the left earring with the hem corner of her sweater. Josephine looked up and faced Lara. Something near the corner of her range of sight seemed wrong.
The wind had broken the rope keeping the fishing net scaffold located in the far front of the ship in place. Now it was swinging uncontrollably - towards Lara. Josephine dropped the earring.
"Lara - loook - "
Too late, as things often go. Josephine watched in sheer horror as the scaffold iron knocked the wind out of Lara's lungs, making her cry out in pain, and causing her to take a quick step backwards - one step too far, causing her to fall over the railing to the waves. Josephine rushed to grab her, but she was already gone. Her brain calling for a snap decision, Josephine looked at the death mask, the strange-looking sailor, then looked at the sea, and jumped, aware that she was choosing between helping Lara and the golden mask with intricate carvings and embedded stones.