Ok, quick word, I'm in the process of playing TR underworld, and I just found out that Alister was killed off, so i took him out and put Winston the butler in. Also, this chapter is kinda Drakecentric, and i'm going to try and make at least either the next chapter or the one after that Lara-centric for all the TR fans reading and getting pissed that she's got such little facetime.
Without further adeu, R&R and enjoy!
Mornings sucked; didn't matter which day it was, mornings sucked.
Drake yawned as he and Sully stood in the line of Starbucks. He looked over the extensive menu, there were too many 'cino's' up there. Cappucino, frappucino, Derkaderkacino… It was to the point that once the two reached the front of the line, Drake's sluggish morning brain was so overwhelmed, when the girl at the register asked him what he wanted, he responded, "Coffeecino, hold the cino. Heavy on the coffee."
The girl merely smirked at his lame attempt at humor and rang up his drink.
Drake and Sully grabbed their drinks once they came up and left the store. They had decided to walk to the fountain rather than take the town car that had been sent for them, as Drake wanted to get his blood flowing. That and he prayed he would meet the guy who invented seven a.m.
The architecture of St. Augustine was amazing to look at. The majority of the buildings were refurbished sixteenth century buildings, and a few of the roads were cobblestone. There were a few quaint mom-and-pop stores, as well as an interesting looking McDonald's.
The Fountain was going to open soon, and thankfully Drake and Sully were close to the park.
There was a very small line at the entrance, mostly full of middle-aged tourists. It was like looking at a group of Sully's clones. The thought alone made Drake shudder. The only people that stood out were the people Drake had seen the day before at the pool, the female of which looked familiar from somewhere other than the hotel, but he couldn't place it.
The woman was dressed in tight fitting olive-colored pants and a black jacket with interesting looking boots. She was no ordinary tourist.
The park opened soon after and the group paid the entry fee and made its way through the park to the small pond (1) that was the Fountain of Youth. It was a dismal sight. There were fake trees around it, trash was scattered around, and there was only a small plaque. The Fountain itself was slightly larger than a hotel hot tub, and the water stemmed from a small rock mound that protruded behind it.
Drake glanced over at the woman, she had a small digital camera pointed at the sight while speaking to her compatriots.
"So this is it, We're gettin' a wad of cash for this?" Sully spoke up, "I'm not one to look an easy job in the ass, but come on."
"Yeah…" Drake wasn't really paying attention.
After a few minutes, the number of tourists dwindled until it was just Drake, Sully, and the other group of three, whom kept shooting glances over, as if waiting for them to leave.
"Hey, Sully," Drake said after a while, "Think you can distract them for a minute?" he nodded his head to the others, "I wanna take a look at the area."
Sully glanced at the others, particularly at the woman. "You got it. Got my radio on."
Drake waited a moment as Sully worked his magic, even though they looked really annoyed. Once their backs were turned, he quickly moved over the railing and around the Fountain until he was behind the rock. He looked around, there was nothing there.
"Great," he muttered to himself. He turned to go back when he felt a cool draft on his cheek. It was odd because there was no breeze. He looked at the rock and ran his hand along it, it was cool, and there was definitely air coming through it.
Drake felt around a little more and found a small dip where he could open the source of the draft. Taking a moment, he peeked out from behind the rock, Sully was still keeping the group distracted; the older one at least. He returned to the rock and pulled it open slightly. There was a passage behind it that was just wide enough for a person to fit through. It went down into blackness, and there was a moderate breeze rising up.
"Hello, what have we here?"
He reached into the satchel he wore on his hip and pulled out a road flare. Just before he lit it he stopped and put it back, "Right, sulfur. Boom."
He pulled out his flashlight and pointed it down. The hole wasn't that deep. Drake eased himself down into the cavern and shut the wall behind him. There was a small crawlspace in the floor, which Drake shimmied into it and crawled along, grunting along the way, and hitting his head against the ceiling.
"Gah! Oh, sure, great job, Nate. Easy money, sure; there's not gonna be anything here, sure; free vacation, easy livin' in a ritzy suite. I'd better find something I can sell or I'm gonna be pissed." He complained to himself as he emerged into a spacious cavern. Drake hooked his flashlight onto his belt and looked around.
The walls were wet with runoff from the fountain above, a big basin in the floor, and odd markings around the inside of it. And then he saw the skeletons.
The deceased were dressed in sixteenth century Spanish armor, each of them had one or more arrows protruding from them, and a few were missing their heads.
"Well, now, what happened to you?" He looked closer at the markings, it seemed to be Spanish, probably the last words of dying men.
"Hey, Nate, you there?" Sully's voice sounded over the radio. "Yeah, and I found something. Spaniards, Sully, and a few of them at that."
"Great. Anything worth selling?"
"Don't know yet. Hold on, I'm gonna look around a little more."
"Alright, kid, but be careful that really fine brunette may be joining you in a second."
"Ok, I'll be careful." Drake turned off his radio and shined his light around the chamber, the same markings in the basin were also scratched in the walls, as well as a few more Spaniards. Drake approached one of the walls and ran his hand over the markings.
"Day 12: The savages send small rodents down to us, their reasoning I know not," he read to himself, "Captain De Leon has abandoned us, I know. His obsession for finding his Fountain has driven him mad. What he intends to find in the negro (2) homeland I care not for, I only wish to see my dear Maria. -Ricard Murrietta"
Drake looked down at the skeleton at the foot of the wall. It had its hand clutched to its chest, and Drake could see a locket clutched in its hand. "Poor guy."
There were large hieroglyphs carved into the wall at the far end of the chamber. Drake pulled out his journal and a pen and quickly jotted them down: A sun, a serpent, a symbol that resembled reeds by a river, and an elephant. He also wrote down different phrases from the text he thought important. "These gotta mean something." The mused to himself, "'Negro homeland'? Africa?"
Drake quickly shut off his light when he heard the scraping of the stone door at the front of the entrance and ducked behind a cropping of stalagmites near the entrance that would shield him from view.
xxxxx
Lara had found the passage easily. After that annoying old man had accepted their directions to the gift shop he made a quick exit from the area so she could look around in peace. There was nothing really remarkable about the area, but the slab stood out like a sore thumb to the trained eye.
Now she shimmied through the small tunnel, glad she didn't wear her standard tomb raiding gear as her rather pronounced bust made the crawl very uncomfortable. She soon emerged in the circular chamber and switched on her tac-light. "Amazing." She muttered to herself as she looked around at all of the marking carved into the walls.
She pulled out her small camcorder and began filming, starting with the corpse-filled basin. "Oh, these poor souls." She gasped and turned her attention to the markings on the walls. "These markings," she began narrating for her video-journal, "appear to be the last words of the dead Spaniards. There are hundreds of them."
She zoomed in on one, "Day 5: We are starving, Captain De Leon will come for us, I know. I long to reach the shores of the negro homeland and help the Captain achieve his dream, and we shall return to Puerto Rico to fame and glory greater than that of Captain Columbus. –Antonio Mardas"
Lara closed the camera, "Negro homeland? Of course! Scientists believe that life originated in Africa, so it would make sense that something life-giving like the Fountain of Youth would be there!" The only problem was, she didn't know which part of Africa Ponce De Leon had gone to. But she could easily find out. Or at least and settlements the Spanish may have had on the continent.
"Thank you, lads," she said to the skeletons, "rest in peace."
(1) Never been to the attraction, so i'm taking liberties.
(2) Period speak
Ok, so things are starting to pick up, next chap the exciting action bits start, then the groups are off to Africa after a pit stop! Also, if anyone knows of any colonies Spain had in Africa, plz let me know and save me some research. Thanks! Review por favor!