For those of you still reading this, sorry it took so long! Gaaahh I slack to much! I hope you like this anyway and please review!
Chapter 11
Obelisk of Khamoon
The faint smell of freshwater came to her nose, making the back of her throat feel dry. The short passageway opened up into a bright, airy chamber. There was a huge stone and gold decorate obelisk in the center of the room, the monument rising high into the air, going past the opening in the ceiling and into the outside light. There was no telling how big it was. Giant heart-shaped green leaves were snaking in through the opening, adding a touch of color to the gray and sandy colored stones. One each side of the obelisk was a drawbridge, each raised, and a passageway leading into darkness. She looked up and realized that she was actually under a second floor.
She stepped closer to the raised bridge, and saw that each passageway except for the one she was under cause she couldn't see and the one on the left wall had a switch, also had a passageway. The switch was set into an ornate section of the wall, and she figured that there was another switch above her.
She looked down and saw that the area around the base of the obelisk was filled with crystal blue water, reflecting beautiful ripples along the walls. She looked around the alcove she was in, spying a switch to the right. Above it was an ancient painting of the Eye of Horus. She walked over and pulled it, the switch requiring two hands. The ground beneath her rumbled, and she saw one of the raised bridges start falling forward, crashing to a halt in a cloud of dust and rocks.
Thankfully it was the bridge connected to this passageway. She walked over to the central obelisk, spying an object in a small crevice. She reached in and pulled it out, seeing that it was a stone carving of the Eye of Horus, about the size of her fist. She placed it into her backpack and looked around, seeing no where else to go but down.
"The water looks refreshing anyway…" She mumbled, figuring her next destination could be a spike filled deathtrap instead of a simple dive into the water below. She lowered herself down on the bridge, then released her grip, falling only for a few seconds before the icy cold water engulfed her body. She surfaced, taking in a large gasp of air.
There was an opening down here, with a dark passageway beyond. She could hear the sound of something incredibly large and heavy crashing into the stone walls over and over in a 1-2 rhythm. She pulled herself out of the water and struck a flare, inching down the dark corridor. Finally, as the sounds grew louder and more intense, she found the source. After taking a sharp left she stopped abruptly, seeing two thick stone slabs coming out of the walls, slamming together with bone shattering force. The floor underneath the trap was full of holes and cracks, allowing tiny glimpses of a dark void below.
She waited until the stone walls had finished the cycle, then made a flying leap across, feeling the wind from the force as they closed together just as she cleared.
She smiled, turning right down the passage. But her pride quickly diminished as another wall trap came into view, this time on set right after the other.
This would be a little trickier. She studied them, hoping to find a certain pattern. The first set would slam close, and then actually start to open before the second set would slam. She waited until the first trap was opening, then stepped into the tiny space. It was only a few seconds, but it felt forever before she could finally hop past the second trapping, missing the first by inches. Again she was lucky to be alive. At the end of the corridor she came into a dark room, which was all crumbling from age.
She looked up an saw that the chamber actually ascended several stories, with color paintings of Egyptian women and Pharaoh's dressed in white and gold. In the back of the room was a small staircase, fallen through thanks to time and weathering.
She saw a golden throne lying upside down in a pile of rubble, figuring that this must be Khamoon's Throne Room. On the wall behind the stone square plinth at the top of the stairs was an icon, accented with a golden ring. She stood on the plinth and jumped over to it, her weight bringing the icon down. Behind her she heard stone moving, and leapt back to the stairs. A column had slid into a cubbyhole on hidden hinges.
She watched it for a moment, and was then surprised to see it rise up back into the air. She pulled down the icon again, then ran over and stood atop the pillar. It quickly shot her up into the air, making her level with a large structure in the center of the throne room.
There was a pole protruding from the wall to her left, and she spied several cracks in the old stone wall that she could use to make it over to the center of the room without risking the deadly plunge to the cold, dark ground below. She did so, spinning once on the pole and grabbing the crack with ease. As she neared the ledge, however, the rock began to crumble, and her grip began to falter. She pulled herself up just as a large section of stone broke away, shattering as it hit the ground below.
Here there were several pillars, each made with a hole in the center of them, which was quite peculiar. She reached up and pulled herself up on top of the pillar, a swooshing sound immediately filling the quiet chamber. Now she saw why holes had been carved. On the left and right walls were two tiny, hidden holes, each one now shooting tiny wooden darts.
She must have triggered it unknowingly somehow. She looked up and saw the ledge she was trying to reach was still quite a ways up, and the sun coming in from a square opening in the ceiling was causing her to perspire, making her uncomfortable. She saw on the north wall of the chamber was a gigantic, color painting of several Egyptian's surrounding a beautiful woman dressed in white. The Pharaoh, who was the closest to a woman, had a golden idol on the top of his hat. She peered closer and saw that the idol part was actually 3-D and protruded from the wall. At the moment it wasn't too useful, but she had to get over there to reach the very top ledge of the huge throne room. A blocky, U-shaped platform was jutting out of the wall only a short hop from the pillar she was on. She proceeded to leap over to it-
-and was caught off guard as the platform slowly began to retract into the wall. She lost her balance, one leg slipping from the quickly disappearing platform. The rough rock scraped against her thigh, a sharp pain shooting up her entire left side. She scrambled back up and quickly tossed her grappling hook toward the ring on the pictogram on the wall, hooking it the first time.
Now or never, she jumped from the now last tiny section of the platform and ran laterally toward the wall, clearing the large space quickly. At the end she unhooked the grapple and grabbed onto a wooden pole that was jutting from the wall. She looked up and saw now her destination was almost reachable.
Besides ascending this room was wearing her muscles out and causing her to feel fatigued. She hooked her foot on a crack in the wall, then kicked up, taking a once only chance at grabbing the lip of a broken ledge above her. She caught it with one hand, struggling at first to reach around with her other hand to steady her grip, and then she pulled herself up.
She took in a deep breath, wiping beads of sweat from her forehead. She took a peek down the throne room, the height nauseatingly creating a slight dizzy feeling, which would probably cause other people to completely freak out. She turned and started down the dank corridor, hearing another wall trap in the distance. As she rounded the left corner she stopped, awing in mild disbelief. Even though she had cleared many traps before, including several on this adventure, this looked the toughest so far. There were three vertical poles, each one with about five inches of space on top. The poles extended vertically into darkness with no telling how far the blackness extended. Periodically spinning blades would come out of a horizontal slit in the wall, making traversing the hallway even more dangerous.
"Okay…I can do this…"
She tightened her gloves and the laces on her shoes, then after willing some more courage, she jumped out as soon as the blades slid smoothly back into the wall, overshooting a little to much as she landed. She leaned forward precariously, her one foot dangerously close to slipping off the tiny pole top. She regained her balance, however, and stood back up from a crouched position. She jumped to the middle pole, landing more gracefully this time.
She jumped the last, then waited and jumped past the slamming doors and into freedom. She stood up, seeing that she was now on a ledge at the very top of the enormous central obelisk. She looked down, the water at the bottom looking very minute. The hot Egyptian sun was flooding in through the large opening in the top, many snarled vines snaking in around the corners. There was a switch as well up here, and she pulled it. There was a slight rumbling, and she saw two more bridges fall from their raised position toward the obelisk.
"Three down now, one more to go. Pretty good for a Brit gal I'd say…"
She saw three other ledges around her, one with a now open passageway thanks to pulling the switch and one with a large inscription.
Here is entombed Khamoon, forever loyal to hide the Abused piece of the Scion deep within his Sanctuary.
Lara smiled, feeling a few steps closer to an incredible discovery and one step closer to the third and final piece of this artifact. The final ledge was simply for decoration, with more pictograms and Egyptian hieroglyphs. She hooked her grapple to a few jagged cracks near the opening in the ceiling and swung herself over to the passageway. She was now very thankful Winston had decided to offer this hook to take on this adventure, and wished him well.
Again she heard the wall traps in the distance, and was also now fully assured that the Egyptian culture were the most advanced in their time for making deadly traps, and for the first time Lara doubted her ability to succeed.
She turned a few corridors, striking a flare to illuminate the darkness. The trap came into view, and her jaw fell open. It was similar to the last trap, with three vertical pillars and spinning blades that would come out of the walls, but now at each pole there was a slamming wall trap, and each would slam close after another, with only about two seconds in between and about four seconds in between each recession. Her stomach quivered slightly, but not enough to jar her nerves of steel. Not to mention when Natla found out Pierre was dead and that she had taken the second piece of the Scion, she would no doubt be out to find her.
"With Larson tagging along for the ride I'm sure…"
She focused back on the trap, trying to shield her eyes from the dust and occasional flying piece of rock. She tossed the flare over to the far ledge, then did a couple stretches before attempting this impossible feat. She waited until the pattern had started over, then as soon as the first wall had slammed closed she jumped forward, the perching becoming a little less strenuous each time she did it. The second wall trap opened up, and she hurriedly hopped over to the second pillar. She heard the sound of mechanical gears shifting, signaling that the blades would soon retract from inside the wall.
The final wall slammed closed, then began to repeat. She jumped toward the third pillar awkwardly, quickly slipping. She wrapped her arms around the pole, holding on to it for dear life. She felt her self slowly slipping, the wall above her slamming again.
She kept pushing away panicked thoughts, reaching out to see if she could reach the ledge. Surprisingly she was able to touch the hard rock, and maneuvered around the pillar to where she could reach over and pull herself on the ledge. The next chamber opened up, different types of insects flying around in the sunlight coming in through crevices in the ceiling. The walls were covered in decorate horizontal slits, something Lara figured couldn't be good.
A big carving of the Egyptian god Anubis was carved on the rock ceiling, which was very crafty. She looked to the left and saw a bronze ring weight. She walked over and pulled down on it, and the chamber was suddenly alive with the rhythmic sound of swooshing blades, and she saw along the horizontal splits were now sliding and rotating blades.
She saw further toward the bottom of the huge room was another passageway, and at the very bottom she spied several of the mummy creatures, waiting for her to fall. She saw at a brightly-lit corner of the room there was an opening and a short tunnel going downward. She waited until the blades had passed and then crouched down and grabbed the lit of the opening, and started shimmying to the right, keeping her eye on the blade.
As it started to slide back toward her, she dropped down a few inches and grabbed a natural made crack in the wall, and made her way over to the corner, where she used chipped pieces of the wall as handholds to climb back up to the ledge. She dusted off her knees and turned the corner down the tunnel-
-and jumped back as a fireball came flying toward her, causing her to dive to the ground. The wall behind her exploded, and she focused her eyes in front of her. There was another mummy standing there, hunched over with it's mouth open. She stood up and drew the shotgun, firing several powerful blasts into the creature. It pounced forward, long arms extended.
She raised the shotgun to try and shield herself, but both of them fell to the ground, Lara on her back and the monster snarling on top. She felt for a pistol and pulled it from the holster, firing several shots point blank into the things head. Several sprays of dark crimson colored the ceiling of the tiny area.
She kicked the dead carcass away, quickly leaving the closed in space. The passageway ended in a drop off, requiring Lara to drop down and shimmy to the right, avoiding another spinning blade in the process. Here she could drop down onto a small lip jutting out from the wall.
The mummies she had seen earlier were no where to be seen. The passage was now directly across from her, all it would require would be a short jog across the bottom of the chamber, granted anything wasn't lurking around in the shadows. She stepped down, keeping her hands resting at her hips as she moved across the room. The she heard it, a deep, low growl from a corner. In a quick second she decided to start sprinting, already halfway across.
The she saw a blur of white-hot light speed bast her, exploding as soon as it made contact with the stone wall. She ducked, keeping up her sprint. She drew a pistol and fired several shot blindly behind her, hearing most of the hit the wall, but several hitting the mummies. She jumped up, clearing the ledge and continuing to sprint down the hallway. Light hit her eyes, so did the smell of fresh air. She was back in the central obelisk room. There was a huge metal grate blocking off access to the room, and a switch on the left wall. She pulled it, the grate retracting into the ceiling.
The fourth and final bridge fell toward the monument, finally allowing access to all of its contents. She couldn't help but smile, diving into the much-needed cool water.
On the far wall was a ladder that led back up to the first story of the obelisk, and also able Lara to take the goodies Khamoon had waiting for her. After the strenuous climb, she obtained the first artifact she could reach, which was the Scarab of Osiris, made from blue gold. She hopped over to the next bridge and claimed the Seal of Anubis. The last trinket was the Ankh of Isis.
As she took the last item she heard something moving from underneath the obelisk. She saw bubbles rise from the water below, and dived back in. A metal grating had opened, allowing access to new tunnels. She took in several deep breaths, then as much as her lungs could hold, sucked in and dived underneath, squeezing through the tiny opening. She lit a flare, thankful they were waterproof, and took the first tunnel she came to, swimming through the crisp, clear water with ease.
Next there was a left or right turn, and she chose left, seeing light shining at a right turn at the end. She pushed a little harder, the rushing sound of water deafening in her ears. A strange fish was startled and in a cloud of dust quickly swam away as she approached it. She took the right turn, seeing an opening in the water. She swam faster, realizing she was in a small little room. Through the opening was a tiny, dark chamber with a ledge and a ladder leading up to a closed door, with a switch the left of the ladder. She pulled it, the entire room shaking.
"Something heavy is moving above…"
After everything went quiet, she climbed up the ladder, taking in her surroundings. Things began to feel familiar as she saw the huge stone statues of the kings, and the opened panther cages.
"Well, this brings back memories…" She whispered. It had felt like ages since she had been in here. The she remembered the area where she had first seen the mummy monsters, with the two sphinx statues. There had been a smaller obelisk in a pool of water in between the statues, with an indention to place something on each side. And then there had been those huge double doors… She must be able to pass through them now!
She hurried back through the kings room and into the sun soaked main chamber, her eyes falling first on what she wanted, the obelisk. She walked over to it, pulling the four items from her backpack and placing them in the corresponding places. The double doors slowly swung open, just as she had thought. She saw a huge grand staircase, each step lined in gold. At the top she could barely spy four grand looking pillars.
"This must be it…This must be the Scion's sanctuary…" She whispered, feeling butterflies in the pit of her stomach. She quickly pressed onward.
