Chapter 10

Temple of Khamoon

The roar of the motor cycle's engine blocked any other sound from reaching her ears as she sped through Egyptian terrain. The night she had went home to Croft manor, she had spend almost all her time studying the two pieces of the Scion, connecting them and then taking them apart.

Winston had helped her use the Scion to find directions to her destination, the lost Temple of Khamoon. Apparently this was where the traitor's piece of the Scion was taken, deep in the heart of Egypt. The desert was hot, so she had remained in her raiding outfit. She had attached a back holster to her backpack and brought along a black with wood trim pump action 12. Gauge shotgun.

The bike leapt over a sand dune, and in her view up ahead was the entrance she had seen in the vision. She slowed down, parking the blue bike beside the wall. She pulled out a flare and tossed it into the opening, seeing that it went straight down.

"Here goes nothing." She said quietly, then hopped down. She removed the round sunglasses and tucked them into her pocket, picking up the flare. The sandy cave was brighter than she though, sunlight coming in through numerous holes and cracks. She walked down the cave, her boots muffled by the sand. Finally she came to an opening way up high from the floor.

She lowered herself down from the ledge then dropped, landing smoothly. She saw straight ahead high up on the wall was another opening. There were two columns in ruins on each side of the opening. She threw the hook grapple at one of them, and it began to tumble.

It exploded as it hit the ground in a deafening boom, making an extra few steps up off the ground. She climbed atop the rubble and found she could now reach the opening. She pulled herself up and made her way down the dark corridor, glancing at the paintings of ancient Egyptians on the wall.

Finally there was a hole at the end where light was pouring in. She stepped through and slid down an incline of sand. This disturbed a sleeping black panther in the corner, which awoke with a deep growl. She backed up slowly, reaching for the shotgun.

It hissed, showing its teeth-

-then lunged at her, giving her just enough time to draw the shotgun and bring it up to shield herself, keeping mere inches from her and the sharp teeth of the large cat.

She kicked it once, then flipped up, letting go of the shotgun. She drew her pistols and fired several shots from each one until the panther was dead. She holstered those and then picked up the shotgun, holstering it as well. She vaulted up the next ledge and examined the next room.

The cave opened up at the top, letting bright sunlight pour through. There was an obelisk on a stone platform in a pool in the middle of the room, with two moderately sized sphinx statues on each side. Several lily pads floated leisurely on the water.

She slid down the sandy incline and stepped forward a bit, her eyes adjusting to the sudden brightness. She could now make out a figure standing in front of the furthest sphinx with his arms cross and his head down. She squinted her eyes and stepped forward-

-but froze as a deep, throaty hiss came from the dark corner behind her. She turned slowly until she was facing the figure, which was easily a head taller than she was. It had bandages wrapped around his head, torso, arms, and legs.

"No way…"

She thought, her mouth dropping in fear. It turned, head still lowered, until she could make out most of the body. There was no skin, only brown, dried up muscle. It raised its head quickly, and Lara jumped back. The eyes were glowing a faint, deep red.

It then screamed at her, opening its huge mouth full of razor sharp fangs. She drew her pistols, aiming it quickly at the mummy monster. The other one followed its comrade in a death howl, then it began lunging at her, running on all fours. She quickly looked back forward as this one swiped at her.

She ducked, then open fired. It stopped for a second, surprised, then continued its attack toward her. She kept pulling the triggers of her pistols, filling the ancient creature with hot lead.

The second one backhanded her across the stomach, and it sent her sprawling to the ground. It jumped on top of her, and she kicked it several times before shoving the barrel of her gun in its mouth. It opened its eyes wider and started struggling.

She smiled at it, then fired. Blood sprayed across her face, immediately smelling rotten. She kicked the carcass off her and stood up, firing at the last mummy. Something about the face of the creatures look familiar, like she had seen it before. The mummy stood up, now towering over Lara. She quickly stepped backward, keeping her eyes and guns trained on the mummy.

A bright light appeared above its head, and then it clicked. The Centaurs. Whatever race they had been, these mummies were to. She dived out of the way as it hurled a gigantic fireball at her, exploding on contact. She holstered the pistols and drew the shotgun, delivering several powerful blows to the things upper torso and head before it finally fell to the ground, twitching in a pool of blood.

It had taken a magazine from each pistol and several shotgun blasts to take them down. Hopefully there weren't more of them. She walked over to the one she hadn't obliterated with the shotgun and knelt down by it, peeling some of the bandages away.

A putrid smell wafted to her nose, and she looked away in disgust. She took several breaths and looked back at the dead creature. There was an ancient text carved onto it that she couldn't quite understand.

"They are a different race!" She said suddenly, moving away from the mummy. She walked over to the obelisk by way of the stone walkway and saw different shaped indention's on each side, surrounded by Egyptian writing.

The sphinx in the direct sunlight was more rugged, and the door in his chest was broken at the top right corner. She walked over to it and hopped several times, getting glimpses of a short corridor that quickly turned left. Before she explored, she walked over and cupped some of the crystal clear water in her hands, wiping her face and neck. She repeated this several times, then inspected her face in the waters shimmering reflection. The blood was gone, but there were a couple small dirt smudges near her cheek and chin. She shrugged, stepping back over toward the momument.

She stepped up onto the sphinx paw, then jumped up to his shoulder, sliding a little. She reached over for a ledge behind the sphinx that broke once she grabbed it.

She caught an outcrop with her foot and shimmied over before pulling herself up. She walked over behind the head and saw a switch embedded in silver. She pulled it, and felt something moving within the statue.

She heard the sound of moving stone, assuming the door was now open. She climbed back down the statue and saw that the door had opened. She pulled a flare and headed down, keeping her fingers lightly against the wall. Finally the corridor turned to an open lighter area. She ditched the flare and looked around. Several ornate grates were blocking off several holding areas, one holding two sleeping black panthers. She looked right and was in awe.

Along the two huge chamber walls were six statues, three on each side, of famous Egyptian kings, each clad in royal hat and holding a large, flat stone slab. The cave opened up here as well, letting in natural light.

At the end of the room was an opening high up on the wall, with several more holding areas along the bottom of the wall. Toward the left wall was another opening, still to high to reach from the ground. She pulled the switch that was here, and all of the statues slid forward on hidden hinges.

All of the gates to the holding area's lifted as well, disturbing everything in them. Looked around as four panthers, two from each holding area came walking out, looking for the cause of the disturbance. She began back flipping down the large chamber, ending on her feet firing the shotgun. One jumped up at her and she stuck her leg out, stopping it short. She lowered the gun and fired once, killing it.

Two came at her from the left, and she did a summersault, firing the shotgun in mid air. It clipped the backside of them, chipping the rock wall as well. The last one came from behind, standing up and wrapping its powerful arms around her stomach, claws sinking into her abdomen.

She fell to the ground on her face, the shotgun sliding from grasp. The other two wounded ones came up, joining the one latched to her back. She kept an arm out for protection as she fumbled for one of her pistols. She elbowed the panther on her back to stop it from biting at her shoulders, then drew a pistol and finished the two in front of her. The shots made the panther on her back jump off and back away.

She jumped to her feet and spun, drawing the other pistol. She filled the large cat with lead, dropping it instantly. She holstered the pistols and retrieved the shotgun, then lifted her tank to check out her stomach. There were eight tiny holes, four for each claw, trickling droplets of blood.

She took out some cleaning wipes and kept them clean until the bleeding stopped, then taped thin gauze on her stomach and lowered her shirt. She reloaded her arsenal while she took a short stop, then walked down the length of the chamber to the large statue nearest the opening. She climbed up it, vaulting herself up onto the stone slab.

She hopped over to the opening, which quickly turned left. Here the tomb opened up again, with the ceiling open for sunlight. A giant pool was in the middle of the room, right in front of a large, open shrine with a jade statue of the cat goddess Bastet.

The Temple of the Cat was set up high, with the rest of the room relatively empty. She lowered herself down and started walking to the elegant gold and stone pool-

-when she heard a deep hiss come from behind her. She turned pistols ready for a mummy monster when a giant, scaly green Crocodile came running out, its tail lashing around. She open fired, crimson splatters appearing over its back and head. It growled, then snapped up at her. She stumbled backward, falling into the pool of water. Her body turned to ice as she slid smoothly into the water. She swam up to the surface, looking around.

The croc was coming up quickly, ready to leap into the pool with her. She got out and rolled, coming up steady on her feet. She drew the shotgun again, firing one shot into the reptile's head. It slowed, squirming around as fresh blood pumped through the wound. It finally settled down, dead. She took several deep breaths, holstering her weapons. The area around the statue proved to come up with nothing of use, so she looked down into the water.

There was a tiny square opening, just big enough for her to fit through. She sucked in her breath and dived in, swimming down and through the hole. She came into a long, narrow passage. Right dead-ended and to the left was a gate blocking entrance into a larger room. There was a switch on the wall in front of her, and she reached out to pull it, gripping onto it with two hands. She leveraged her feet on the wall and pulled down, hearing the gate creak open.

She started swimming toward it, the gate almost immediately starting to close. She wasn't ready for this, and even though she picked up her pace she didn't reach it in time. Panic start to set in as she realized how far the swim back and up was, and how little oxygen was left in her lungs. She tried swimming easily, gliding through the water as calmly as she could.

Once she reached the opening however, spots were dotting her vision. She stroked a bit harder, finally breaking the surface. She inhaled deeply, filling her lungs entirely. She took in several more before holding it again and going back down, this time going from the pulling the lever to quickly swimming down the passage.

She came close, barely squeezing through as the gate shut firmly, preventing backtracking. In here the chamber became gloomy, with the soft blue water ripples reflecting off the base of the wall. There was a balcony jutting out above her, with an opening near it.

Above that was another opening but no balcony. On a platform on the second floor also was a large stone box, covered in Egyptian hieroglyphics. She walked around the platform coming out of the water, looking for a way to reach the area above.

Finally she spotted something that may help, several loose handholds that had formed after pieces of the wall had chipped and broken away. She jumped over to them, grabbing on with one hand. She steadied her grip, then placed both feet on the wall. Summing up some strength, she pushed off the way backwards and grabbed onto the balcony. She let out a small laugh, and pulled herself up-

-when she felt the entire balcony moving. She looked around quickly, realizing the platforms were sliding back into the wall on hidden rollers. She jumped over the middle gap, landing in the entrance to the next room. Here there were two wooden poles, one coming up from the floor and one coming down from the ceiling. There was another opening in front of her, but to far up to reach it. She tightened her gloves and grabbed onto the smaller of the two poles, but found she could get onto it the way she wanted. She looked over at the other one, her mind trying to work this little stop through.

She did the same, trying to get a grip on it, but found she couldn't. There were several more handholds on the left side of the wall. She walked over to them, climbing unsteadily off the wall. She then pushed off the wall backwards, one foot barely catching the tip of the pole. She stuck her arms out, trying to regain her balance as she tipped slightly, keeping the perch she had on the pole. Balancing on top of the narrow tip gave her a moment of fright, then she tried her best to jump over to the opening, one leg slipping as she landed.

She pulled up and looked around, the only interesting thing was a switch in the back of the room. She pulled it, then heard a loud crash from the water filled chamber. She carefully made her way back down, seeing that the large stone crate had fallen onto he second floor walkway. She got on top of it and then jumped to the next even higher opening.

Here she stood in triumph, looking over the Temple of Bastet and the pool of water in front of it. In the doorway in this little alcove was a switch, and she pulled it. She watched as the floor around the cat statue fell away, revealing another passageway underneath. She looked around, wondering how she could easily make it back down into the chamber.

Her eyes fell on the pool of water. She tightened her gloves, then leapt forward in a swan dive position. She cut cleanly into the water, coming up with a big smile on her face-

-but was quickly filled with panic as she saw another crocodile coming up from the depths. She swam over and pulled herself out, hopping up onto the platform of the statue. She looked down into the opening, seeing a sandy incline and…well more sand.

She jumped down, then slid down the incline and started down the long, narrow passage. She tried reading some of the old inscriptions along the wall, not able to make them out in such poorly lit conditions. She did notice however, that there were a large number of Black Panther drawings, which she noted in the back of her mind.

At the end of he passageway, the room opened up spaciously, with a large column and platform in the middle of the room, and three closed cages at the bottom of the room. She saw a sleeping panther in the corner of the room. With the advantage point that she had, she drew her pistols and easily took care of it. She lowered herself down easily-

-and froze as she heard all of the cage doors open. She must have accidentally tripped something going down. She eyed each one precariously, waiting for any sort of movement, her hands rested on her hips. She took a step forward-

-and drew her pistols as two of the panthers came running out from one of the cages. And then two more followed them and then two more out of the third and final cage. Lara's palms began to sweat as the six large, hungry feral cats started to circle around her, growling and hissing. The one closest to her swiped at her, its head almost was touching the ground.

She stepped back, then leapt forward. The cats stirred up into frenzy as she hit the ground running, trying to get to the other side of the room to put the large pillar between her and the animals. She grabbed the shotgun, pumping it once to eject the casing.

She caught it, saw that it was not spent, then loaded it back into the shotgun. She slid into a 180 spin, aiming up the shotgun. The cats were already racing toward her, one leaping at her with claws extended. She pulled the trigger, emaciating the cat in a spew of gore.

She pumped it, another cat jumping at her. She ducked and it crashed into the steel door of the cage. She quickly unholstered her pistol and fired once, killing him on the spot. She holstered that and began running sideways, the cats trying to circle her. She fired again, clipping two of them. She had to duck again as another jumped at her.

She turned and fired at it while it was above her. He crashed to the ground, twitching and spasming. The final three cats grouped up, trying to corner Lara the best that they could. The one closest to her leaped, and she raised the shotgun in defense. It knocked her to the ground, and she felt the other two start clawing and biting at her feet. She elbowed the larger one on top of her, causing it to shake its head and cringe its nose in pain. She pumped the shotgun and fired point blank at the two near her feet. They both died on the spot, leaving only the large female to contend with. Her nose was bleeding, and she was staring Lara down. She raised the shotgun and pulled the trigger-

-and heard the dry click of an empty cartridge. The cat immediately started running toward her, and she took off sprinting down the chamber, keeping close to the outside wall. She heard it running behind her, growling each step it took. She grabbed her pistols and jumped up, pivoting in mid air. Everything seemed to slow down as she raised both guns and fired simultaneously, both shots connecting to her head.

The panther barrel rolled, skidding into the stone wall, dead. Lara landed on her feet, both guns smoking. She stood for a moment, taking in several deep breaths, then she looked at her body, finding it free of any new wounds. She chuckled, holstering her pistols and recovering the shotgun.

She reached into her backpack and fished out seven shells to reload, then holstered it as well. She looked up, trying to find where she had dropped herself. Everywhere else was too high for her to reach. She spotted the crevice and walked over to it, jumping back up to the entrance. She then turned and jumped toward the platform going around the middle of the pillar.

There was a passageway here, and she came to a rather dark, empty room. Some sand was over in a dark corner, underneath an opening way out of her reach. There was an opening directly ahead as well as trapdoor above the sand. She kept that in mind, then headed across the room, vaulting up through the opening. Here was a ladder that went up, a small square opening at the top. Light was pouring in through the gap, along with an occasional breeze. She finished the climb and pulled herself up-

-and had to dive to the right into a pile of sand as a mummy leapt at her, a high pitch squeal erupting from its mouth. She tried getting back to her feet, kicking up a cloud of dust. She heard the mummy scream again, and she drew her pistols, firing blindly into the cloud of dry sand. She heard several shot connect-

-then had to roll quickly back down near the ladder to avoid being pounced as the mummy jumped at her again. She saw light forming above its head, and it raised its long arms, then hurled a ball of flame toward Lara. She ducked as it chipped piece of a wall behind her, exploding.

She had drew the shotgun and began a steady rhythm of firing and pumping the powerful weapon, taking bits off the ancient monster before it finally began stumbling around, dazed and dying.

She swiftly kicked it in the abdomen, sending it sprawling through the opening in the floor and crashing to the stone ground below, breaking and twisting in a pile of dried bones and muscle. She holstered her weapons and gazed around the room, her eyes focusing on the giant ornate scarab weight hanging on the wall. It shimmered in the light that came in through an opening in the ceiling.

She rubbed her fingers along the metal, feeling the texture. It was made almost entirely out of rare blue gold. She smiled, nodding at the magnificent work of art. There was a large opening next to the scarab, with another ladder going upward.

She ascended it, a light sweat forming along her brow. She wiped it away, keeping focused on the task at hand. The passageway took a left, and opened up above the room with the six statues of the King's. She could now spy another alcove on the opposite side of the room that immediately turned left. She looked back toward the statues, and saw that she could make her way over to the opening if she carefully crossed the room on top of the enormous statues.

The wall jutted out above each one, creating a tiny platform above each. As long as she kept her balance, traversing shouldn't be too big of a deal. She jumped toward the closest one, part of the platform breaking away. She grabbed onto the rest of it, her body dangling precariously.

She glanced back, realizing the fall was actually enough to kill her. She pulled up, regaining her position. She jumped toward the next statue, tipping backward as she landed.

She leaned forward then followed up by a jump, landing dangerously on the last statue she needed to be on. The opening wasn't too far away, and she jumped toward it with one leg extended, landing smoothly. She smoothed her top and took the left, seeing a switch on the wall ahead.

The left wall were actually metal bars, and she could peer back into the sand filled room with the ornate scarab on the wall. She pulled the lever, and saw the sand quickly start disappearing. What was left underneath was an opening leading back down into a previous chamber. She saw the sand had piled high enough to reach the opening to high to reach before.

The metal bars also retracted, allowing her easier access back into the room. She hopped down, then lowered herself down on the pile of sand that had fallen through.

Here she found that she could reach the opening easily, and followed through with making her way through it. This dark, winding passage was pretty narrow, and there were some scorpions that she had to squish. Finally she came out into a brightly-lit room. It was relatively empty, with large double doors opposite her, decorate with a giant golden scarab.

In from of the door aligned neatly in a semi-circle were five pillars, each made of reddish colored sandstone. She strolled over to them, eyeing the sides that faced the door. They were each decorated with a picture of an Egyptian offering different items. Carved into the doorway above the doors was some hieroglyphics that she could barely make out.

Give the gift of gold, then the way will be shown

She was puzzled at first, then inspected each pillar more carefully. On the far left one was the offering of shelter, with an Egyptian poor man knelt down offering a small white tent. The one next to that was the offering of death, with the man knelt holding the Gold Book of Khamoon.

The one in the center was the offering of life, with the man knelt holding the black Book of the Dead. The one to the right of the center was the offering of rest, with the man knelt holding a canopic jar. The last and far right one was no offering, with the pillar blank. The puzzled seemed simple enough, but maybe a little too easy. She walked over to the pillar carved it the gold book, and tried moving it.

It didn't budge in the least. She looked it up and down, then looked around the room. In the four corners of the room there was a switch with a picture above them. Each one was inscribed with ancient text, so she walked over and pulled the one closest to her.

The middle pillar rose up. She smiled, then flipped the switch again to reset the puzzle. She walked over to the switch that would correspond with the correct pillar and pulled. Sure enough, the pillar offering death rose up from the ground, revealing handholds near the base. She walked over and now found she could rotate it easily. She spun it around until it clicked, then it slowly retracted back into the floor. She heard mechanical sounds and gears moving underneath her feet-

-and the large doors slowly opened up, dust floating lightly in the air. She felt excitement in the pit of her stomach at the prospect of more unexplored areas. She pressed onward.