"Facing" the Danger

Lara slowly started making her way down the last passage, wondering what other surprises lurk ahead. She was still having a hard time grasping all of the things she had seen so far in her Peruvian adventure. What used to be just a search for a lost tomb that contained a lost artefact turned out to be a whole plethora of new discoveries, including hidden caves, a lost city, and living dinosaurs in a lost prehistoric valley, among other things that would otherwise remain in works of fictional literature. Lara was beginning to wonder how all of this would fit into her next travel guide that she was planning to write. Would people believe the things she would write about? After all, there were and still are many skeptics after her hunting trip in the Himalayas when she managed to kill a live yeti.

"Wow, I can't believe I've come this far!" Lara said to herself as she made a left turn down the narrow hallway. "Perhaps I'll take up writing a fictional story based off of this adventure. Although something is bothering me…Where is Larson when all of this is happening? He better not be up to something funny… I have a really bad feeling about this…"

Lara continued thinking it over as she emerged into another room. She was quick to see that the room was much smaller than she anticipated. The walls had the same gold carving designs on them and the ceiling remained the same reddish colour. The floor was also still a bright gold colour. What set this room apart from the other rooms that Lara already explored was the fact that it was very bland. It seemed to lead nowhere and the only noticeable feature in the room was a large and immovable raised block section in the floor that had the same face design on it as the one above the doorway leading into the room.

"Hmm. What do I do now?" she asked herself as she examined the walls. "There's no lever switch in this room, so how am I going to open that last gate? Was the last switch in the previous area where I fell through the floor? That can't be right…Wait a minute."

With her flare still burning, Lara held it up against the wall opposite to where she entered the room and noticed a section of the wall to be different from the others. Lara smiled as she started to catch on to what the Peruvians did to hide their secrets. It was another moveable wall section.

"This is just getting old now." Lara said as she pushed the wall section into the wall with all of her strength, revealing a previously hidden passageway. Then, Lara was surprised when the block suddenly hit another wall just behind it as Lara reached the sudden end of the passageway. Now, Lara was really puzzled. She thought about pulling the large block out of the hole, but there was no way for her to do that, since the raised portion of the floor in the connecting room would create a difficult obstacle.

"Now what?!" Lara asked as she starred at the pushed in wall section wondering what she could do next. "Perhaps I spoke too soon about this getting old…Hmm. This is just too weird."

Lara started leaning against the wall to her left and was about to take a small break when she accidentally discovered that the wall she was leaning against had large cracks in it, similar to the ones she saw in the "wolf pit". She pushed on it and was delighted to find that the wall could move forward.

"Huh. It seems like I keep running into accidental discoveries every minute or so!" Lara said to herself. "How lucky can I get? Honestly… Maybe I should start playing the National Lottery or something. But then again, I really don't need to…"

Already exhausted from pushing heavy stone around, Lara was relieved that the second wall section did not go very far and revealed yet another passageway. At the end of the short hall, Lara saw the last lever switch and began slowly walking towards it. Suddenly, the floor crumbled beneath her collapsed into a dark pit filled with deadly spikes. But Lara was able to save herself by grabbing a hold of the ledge and pulling herself back up before she met her violent death. Now standing in front of the switch, Lara's heart was pounding very fast once again from another close call.

"I guess those Peruvians knew how to keep their secrets well-hidden!" Lara said. "But they forgot to consider protecting them from people like me! If they're watching me right now, I hope they don't get too upset once I get my hands on the Scion! Let's see if this switch opens the last gate."

Lara cautiously walked up to the lever switch, making sure that the ground beneath her was stable enough to walk on, and pulled it. The wall began to glow and Lara could hear the distant sound of moving metal coming from the main room. The switch had done its job and Lara was now able to explore new territory inside the tomb. But first, she had to make her way back across the deadly spike pit, and the only way she would accomplish that is by jumping across.

"Here I go." Lara said as she readied herself for a running jump. After Lara backed away from the edge as much as she could, she immediately charged forward and propelled her body inside the tiny hallway. She barely landed on the other side of the spike pit and almost lost her balance, but Lara was able to keep things together, despite the fact that her whole body was aching from the intense exercise she had done so far throughout the entire adventure.

"Now I'm really getting somewhere." Lara said as she exited the small hidden passages and walked back through the small bland room towards the main room of the tomb back through the hallway she initially came from. She then headed straight across to the other side of the main area and down the other hallway where the three gates had previously prevented access to the areas beyond.

Meanwhile, just behind Lara Croft, Larson peaked around the corner and watched as she ventured down the hallway. Although the water seemed to slow him down, Larson was somehow able to quickly pick up on Lara's trail and find her roaming through the Tomb of Qualopec. He also had out his video camera, which despite his recent plunge into cold water, still managed to work just as fine as before. He grimaced at the sight of Lara beating him to the Scion. When Lara was about halfway down the hall, he slowly walked over to the wall next to one of the large statues and peeked around that corner to see where Lara was headed. He then pressed a special button on the camera that would enable him to use it as a webcam. He waited for a response and finally got one after a few moments.

"What is it, Larson?" Natla said on the other end of the connection.

"Looks like our girl has pulled it off." Larson replied.

"Of course she has." Natla said. "I can see it on the screen. Now it's up to you to take the Scion from her."

"Not that I'm complaining, boss," Larson began, "but what makes you so sure that she's not going to bring it back herself?"

"Lara would never part with the Scion." Natla said. "From what I know, she's far too obsessed with it, just like her father when he went out looking for it back in the day. You can tell that they are related in that respect."

"I guess." Larson said. "So what now? Do we kill her?"

"Wait until she grabs the artifact." Natla replied. "After that, the choice is up to you."

"Alright, sounds good enough to me." Larson said. "I'll see what I can do."

"Great! Let me know when you get the Scion from her." Natla said. "I'll be expecting to hear from you again soon."

"Will do." Larson replied.

With that, Larson broke the connection and turned off the video camera and continued to quietly follow Lara down the dark hallway.

Lara has finally opened all three of the metal gates blocking the hallway leading to where she needs to go and Larson is now right behind her waiting for the perfect moment to strike! The conversation that took place between him and Natla was for the most part very similar to what happened in Tomb Raider Anniversary, though I added my own unique flare to it to make it more interesting. It will only be a matter of time before things get even more interesting in Lara's adventure! See you in the next chapter :)

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