The Scion
Lara rounded the corner and emerged into a large hall with a grand staircase that started about hallway across the room where the curved ceiling became higher. The walls consisted of the same gold carving theme and in between the protruding square-shaped columns supports on either side, Lara could see many small and beautifully crafted statues sitting in their places. The statues sat much higher above the staircase along even ledge that went all the way across from the opposite doorway to where the ceiling suddenly became lower. The dominate red and gold hues remained the same as in the other rooms of the tomb complex. Lara took a small step forward and suddenly heard what sounded like a footstep behind her. She turned around and saw nothing. After taking another step, Lara heard the noise again and swiftly turned back around to where she had come from. Still nothing. She started to become suspicious and even a little frightened.
"There's something or someone behind me." Lara said as she continued down the grand hall. "I can sense it."
Suddenly, Lara tripped over a loose piece of stone and momentarily lost her footing as she struggled to maintain her stature. Then, Lara unwittingly stepped on an almost invisible pressure pad embedded in the reddish tiles in the center of the aisle (gold was prominent on either side of red strip) and activated a set of dart traps that she was barely able to miss. Her heart was pounding from the sudden surprise.
"Take it easy, girl." She said to herself. "Don't get too far ahead of yourself. You don't want to end up dead!"
One after another, Lara timed herself through the dart gauntlet and emerged onto the grand staircase in one piece. Being cautious not to activate any more hidden traps, Lara slowly walked up the steps and approached the other doorway which lead into another hallway leading to the right. She emerged into the hallway and looked straight ahead to see the Scion standing on its pedestal in the dark throne room.
"There it is!" Lara said in an excited tone. "My search for the Scion is over!" She immediately started running down the hallway, ignoring her previous self-warning to take it easy. After all, why would anyone want to take it easy when they just found a huge chunk of missing history buried in the heart of the Andes Mountains of Peru? For Lara, it was like walking into a candy store on Christmas Eve as she stepped towards the raised centre of the room and walked up to the pedestal where the Scion stood. Being around the size of Lara's hand, the Scion looked just like how Natla illustrated it on the computer. It was composed of a gold metallic circular plate and three circular nodules around the edges. One of the nodules was just an empty metallic ring while the second one was filled in and had a strange indentation in it, almost as if something else could fit onto it. The last of the three nodules had a beautiful gemstone (most likely a diamond) built into it that was cut with laser precision into the shape of an icosahedron. However, the thing that made the Scion so strange was that it was glowing by its own mysterious light source. What was causing the Scion to glow? Lara guessed that it had something to do with the power that was said to be vested within it, according to the legend. Whatever the light source may be, Lara saw that the light was being refracted by the icosahedral diamond, casting colourful rainbows around the room.
"It's just beautiful." Lara said as she continued looking at the artefact in awe. Before she grabbed the Scion, Lara decided to go take a look at Qualopec's body as well as the two mummies that were standing on either side of them. The Atlantean ruler, despite his current skeletal state, looked as though he could rule the world. The two mummies looked like his assistants as far as Lara could tell, but she could not be entirely sure. Looking under the three large symbols above Qualopec's throne, Lara saw some kind of ancient and strange-looking script. This dumbfounded Lara for one reason: the Incas never developed an alphabet.
"That doesn't look like any script that I know." Lara said as she starred at the wall. "This is just completely intriguing! How I wish I had a camera with me…This could be a whole new language that no one has ever seen before! Perhaps of Atlantean origin? I wonder if the Incas had anything to do with this or if the tomb that was built here came after the Incas themselves discovered Qualopec's body as well as the Scion and revered them as sacred… Would they do that? So many questions, but no answers. If only I knew it all…"
Just then, Lara heard the strange footstep noise again. This time, it was coming from down the hall she entered the room from.
"Alright, whoever or whatever may be following me, this is not funny!" Lara said. She turned back towards Qualopec's corpse, only to find her gaze stopping at the mummy that was standing on the left side of the great ruler. Its head had moved since Lara first entered the room and it seemed to be fixated on her. Lara moved a little bit closer to the mummy and saw that its head moved as well, and was still looking right at Lara. She started to get scared as the room seemed to get much quieter. Then, out of nowhere, the mummy out a loud and horrible hissing sound as it suddenly seemed to try and attack Lara as it fell forward and lay flat on the ground. The attack was enough to make Lara draw her weapons and make her heart lurch out of her chest. She slowly back away from the throne and back towards the pedestal.
"Something tells me I should get out of here." Lara said as her attention refocused on the Scion. Slowly, but surely, she reached out and touched the artefact before grabbing it off the pedestal and putting it in her backpack. Suddenly, the whole place began to shake and large rocks started falling from the ceiling and crashed into the hard ground. The whole tomb was about to collapse.
"I really need to get out of here!" Lara said as she started running to where she came from. Then, almost as if it were meant to happen, three large stone slabs fell from the ceiling above the doorway and blocked it off, preventing her from escaping the room.
"How am I going to get out of here now?!" Lara said as she panicked and looked around the room. Then, she spotted the giant gate looking down into the slanted hallway that had the boulder trap opening upwards like a drawbridge. She wasted no time in getting through and started sprinting down the hallway as the tomb continued to meet its untimely fate. Once Lara reached the main room of the tomb, large boulders and rocks came crashing down from the ceiling, revealing the greyish rock behind the bright red stone that dominated the ceiling. Lara was quick in dodging the large boulders as she ran straight towards the tomb entrance, which was now the tomb exit. Looking back from the cave, Lara watched as the entire tomb collapsed before her eyes. Her next great discovery was now in ruin and the evidence it left behind of the Atlantean civilization was now certainly erased from the chaos that ensued after she took the Scion. It almost made her sick to her stomach just thinking about it. However, none of that mattered, for the ground beneath Lara was still shaking and she had to get out of the small cave before the rock above was able to crush her. She sprinted as fast as she could before re-emerging into the large cavern with the small lake where the giant waterfall was before Lara blocked it off to get into the tomb earlier. She swan-dived into the water as soon as the earthquake started to die down and swam over to the edge of the small lake where she saw a human figure looking down at her from above the surface of the water. Lara surfaced and saw Larson starring at her with evil-looking eyes…
Lara has finally taken the Scion and has just escaped the collapsing tomb. And just when she thinks it's all over, Lara sees Larson starring at her from above the water (inspired from Tomb Raider: Anniversary).
There were many elements that I implemented both from Tomb Raider and Tomb Raider: Anniversary in this chapter. The geometry of the room, the appearance of the Scion, and the way that the left mummy locked its line of sight on Lara were all inspired by the original game. The way Lara went about exploring the throne room and examining the strange inscriptions on the wall, as well as the first moments of Lara's surprise encounter with Larson, were all inspired from Tomb Raider: Anniversary. The dialogue in this chapter, however, the result of own thinking.
One more chapter and then I should be completely done with Peru! After that, it will transition over to the next portion of Lara's adventure, so stay tuned for more updates! See you then :)
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