Chapter 7 Midas' Palace

The passageway turned to a grand staircase that led to something unbelievable. Fruits and flowers lined the walkway into the sun soaked chamber. The Garden is quadrangular, and consists of arched vaults which are located on checkered cube-like foundations, a small marble water fountain located at each corner.

The garden has plants cultivated above ground level, and the roots of the trees are embedded in an upper terrace rather than in the earth. The whole mass is supported on stone columns. Streams of water emerging from elevated sources flow down sloping channels, these waters irrigate the whole garden saturating the roots of plants and keeping the whole area moist.

In the middle of the room was a pool, where each of the channels along the walls carried crystal clear drinking water. The opening in the roof was lined with exotic butterflies and insects swarming near the line of equally exotic flowers. Across from her at the other end of the room was the main attraction, a statue of King Midas the size of the Lincoln Memorial. He was setting on a throne that was on top of a giant pedestal. At the bottom of the pedestal going across was the name MIDAS in gold lettering.

At each foot and knee there were four small rectangular indention's. In one of them was a gold bar that fit in perfectly. At his foot was the statue's hand, chipped from the rest by time. Lara stepped further into the lush garden-

-and stopped short as three gorilla's ran out from behind the statue. She aim her pistols at the closest two and opened fired. They stopped, surprised by the wave of pain. Then they howled and began running toward her. She ran to the side, doing several flips past some columns, firing all the while. One of the primates crashed into a pillar, causing one of the channels to collapse.

It crumpled into a heap in the rubble. The last two gorillas were spaced apart, one close to her and one examining Midas' hand. She focused on the close one as it raised its fists and began pounding its firm chest. She aimed at the gorilla's head and open fired, killing it instantly. She looked over at the other one, which had leapt up into the hand. It look around confused, then began screaming as a sheathing of gold crept over its body, continuing to its head until it was a golden statue, before falling to the ground and shattering in a golden heap. She holstered her weapons, walking over to the rock hand with a giant smile on her face. She dare not touch it, but just looked at it for a second.

She then looked back toward the broken channel, using it to climb up to the balcony. Up here there was a stitch that she pulled, which opened one of the three large iron doors in the garden. She made her way down and over to it. The passage was dark and wide, continuing on to the left. She pulled out a flare and made her way down, going down another dark corridor after turning left. Here it turned right, opening to a giant puzzle chamber. The floor tiles were a light yellow green, surrounded by white marble. Going along the corners of the room all the way to the middle of the floor was iron grating.

The floor was covered with circular pits of Roman spears, some surrounding short marble pillars or short pillars lined in gold and iron, with holes in the top. On the left and right walls were large openings, one with a pedestal and one with a large switch protruding from the floor. Across from her was another doorway and steps leading to the opening with the switch.

There were four large holes in the ceiling, allowing sunlight to flow through. She dropped the flare and followed it, coming out to the balcony. She griped the switch and pulled it down, making it touch the floor. All the pillars rose up slowly, making eerie scraping sounds from the stones.

After they were all raised, she could vaguely make a jump pattern from the pillars, ledges, and ramps to the other side of the room. She vaulted herself over the balcony and then took the large step over to the medium sized white marble pillar. As soon as all her weight was on it, she heard a deep clicking sound, then the pillar started to vibrate.

She quickly jumped over to the iron pillar, slipping from the top but grabbing the iron outcrop a little ways down. The marble pillar slowly retracted back into the floor, while all the iron pillars with the holes on top, like the one she was on now, all sprouted spears. She moved carefully around the pillar, leaping to a ramp.

She slid for a moment, then jumped forward to grab a dark gray ledge coming from the wall. It began to also shake and move, so she pulled up and jumped back toward the middle of the room where another iron pillar was. She moved around it, jumping to a white marble pillar that started to retract to a ramp where she jumped forward onto another ledge completely on the opposite side of the room.

It began to retract into the wall, so she continued forward by jumping to another white pillar, then an iron one, and then a ramp over to the other balcony. She wiped the sweat from her brow, bending on her knees to catch her breath.

She tightened her gloves, then brushed some hair from her eyes before walking over to the dark granite pedestal. On it was a lead bar the size of her fist. She picked it up and found it was rather heavy. She placed it in her backpack, and made her way back down to the floor. She headed over to the corridor, but stopped as she heard the sound of something heavy hit the floor from the other end of the corridor. She drew a pistol and kept her back pressed against the wall as she moved down slowly. She neared the end and peeked around the corner-

-and jerked away quickly as a boulder was hauled at her. It obliterated the wall at the corner, sending razor sharp pieces flying. She drew her other pistol and then dived sideways into the corridor, guns blazing. There were now two gorillas and a female lion at the end, all running and snarling toward her. She kept firing, standing steady. She took down the lion and slowed the gorilla in front. The other one shoved it out of the way and kept running toward her.

Her guns clicked empty, and she sprinted back down toward the puzzle room. She ejected a clip and spin kicked, sending it flying down the hall. It hit the primate with little effect. She quickly reloaded and began firing some more, finally ridding herself of the gorilla. She came back out into the garden area, and decided to climb up the statue of Midas. She reached the balcony behind his head and pulled herself onto it, finding a switch on the back of the head.

She pulled it, and the second of the three doors opened, this one at the ground level as well. She made her way down to it and followed similar dark corridors to the next puzzle room. This opened up into an incredibly large chamber with a huge column in the middle. It easily stood the size of a redwood tree. She made her way around the column and followed steps downstairs.

The air became cooler quickly, and as she rounded the corner at the bottom, she stopped as large male lion stood up proudly near the base of the huge column, roaring defiantly. She drew a pistol and fired several times at the large cat, causing it to hiss and come running at her.

She kept firing until her gun was empty, and the lion fell down dead. She reloaded it and holstered it, then went and examined the base of the pillar. It was cracked and look very unsteady, with several wooden beams hooked to it for stability. She went around and kicked then, shooting the hooks off the chains. The column rumbled, then collapsed on itself. Another lead bar fell from top, and Lara quickly pocketed it. She made her way back up to the main area, to find it filled with sand and completely different.

The way back was cut off, so she'd have to get up higher and traverse the room from above to make it back to the garden area. She pulled herself up on some rubble, reaching a higher balcony. Here she leapt over to a pile of sand that reached up pretty high, latching onto an outcrop in the wall. Here several bats were disturbed, causing her to stumble.

She regained her balance, taking several short breaths before tossing her hook grapple to a weak part that was left of the pillar and pulled it down, creating a bridge over near the opening she was trying to reach. There was a wide section of wall separating her from the opening.

"If only I could walk on walls…."She mumbled, looking around. Finally she spotted an ornate golden ring coming from the wall. She threw her the hook at it several times before it finally hooked. She tugged on it, then pressed a boot against the wall.

"I can't believe I'm about to attempt this…"

She thought worriedly. Then, freeing her mind, she leaned back and then jumped laterally toward the wall, the wire from the hook grapple taking all her weight.

Then with some effort she swung herself toward the opening, running against the wall. She jerked on the cord to unhook the grapple then landed sideways in the opening. The grapple retracted back, and she stood up, overcome with a bit of self-pride. She wasn't into herself at all, but she knew when a tough obstacle had been overcome. She made her way back to Midas' Palace, coming out on a balcony unreachable before.

There was another switch here, and she pulled it. It opened the final door that was located behind the statue of Midas. She made her way over to it, noticing immediately this corridor was different. Lining the whole way to the puzzle room were large goblets of fire.

She shook off the odd feeling and continued on, noticing that this puzzle room was a bit darker cause of a lack of any major source of light. This room was all an off orange colored stone, which had about twelve feet of water at the bottom. There were several circular pillars in here, some going higher than others. The walkway extended a few feet over the water, coming close to a shorter pillar. She stepped onto the walkway-

-and the entire chamber was suddenly engulfed in flames. All of the pillars became active, each one sprouting balls of fire from the bases and along the sides. It looked impossible to traverse. At the opposite end of the room were a grand archway and a pedestal with the third and final lead bar.

After doing some mental preparation, she stepped back onto the walkway and jumped to the first short pillar while the fire that burst from the top stopped. She moved quickly to the next larger pillar, careful to avoid the flames that were rotating around the base. She jumped to the next short pillar, but stumbled back as the fire erupted in her face. She caught on to the edge of the pillar, and pulled herself up once the fire stopped. She then jumped over to the next, larger pillar.

This one had no base to stand on, but was covered in handholds. Bronze faces decorated this one, the fire shooting from their mouths. She carefully climbed her way to the top, avoiding the spurts of flame. She stood atop this pillar, which towered above the rest. The last pillar she'd have to jump to look the most difficult. Around the base were rotating flames, which complemented the sprouts of fire the rotated around the length of the pillar. She readied herself, then jumped to the base when it was clear. She quickly jumped up and grabbed one of the handholds, the fire rotating underneath starting to melt her shoes.

There were two balls of fire that were moving back and forth on both sides of her. She reached up again, underneath an inactive bronze face. Here she maintained her grip and rotated around the pillar, pulling herself up one last time before dodging a shot of flame before jumping laterally to the balcony. She picked up the lead bar hastily and dived into the water to quickly make her way back to the entrance of the room.

She came back into the garden area, then made her way over to the hand. She carefully removed all three lead bars and placed them on the hand. She watched in amazement as they slowly turned to bars of gold. After they were all done she put them in the appropriate slots in the statue. She heard a deep rumbling come from the pool in the middle of the room, and walked over to it.

A gate had opened up, allowing access to a new area. On an adventurous high, she dived into the water all smiles, ready for anything.