I'm so sick of climbing, but there's a thrumming in the air. It could just be the excitement of discovery but it helps spur me on. I check the cameras, replace the batteries and SD cards one more time, then I'm ready. I'm going to discover something with Lara and this is just so amazing. My aches and pains fade and the fear from earlier is gone. If this is what she feels, I want in. I want more of it. I want the fix, too, 'cause it's really like a drug.

There's no clear way up, no ladder, or hand holds. Just faces carved into the stone. I have this irrational fear of my fingers and toes being bitten off as I start my climb. A part of me thinks that fear isn't so crazy. "Last one up gets a spanking!"

I hear her laugh to my left and her response nearly makes me lose my grip. Did she really just say she looked forward to it? I look over at her and realize she's used my distraction to gain several feet on me. That cheating bitch! I climb faster, but I know it's no use. I'll never catch up and besides, I kind of hope she follows through on her threat. I've known her since we were barely in bras and I don't even know half her kinks. The thought of finding those out helps make me move faster.

She's waiting for me at the top, and helps me up. I lean against her, and search her eyes. She's not afraid. She's excited and I devour that excitement, using it to push away my own fear, and in the process I discover, hey, I'm excited too! I don't need Lara to feed into my excitement. I totally need her for other things, but if I start thinking that way we won't leave for a long time.

"Okay Sam, I think we need to tug on these chains at the same time. Grab that one, and I'll grab this one." She walks over to the chain, and I move towards mine. I hope she knows what will happen. This could be a trap and I'd almost lost her once already today. Swallowing, I wait for her cue.

"Now!"

When we pull the chains down, the ground shakes beneath us, and then there's this loud, heavy sound, like big stone gears grinding together. A slab slides out from beneath what we're standing on and moves jerkingly towards the center platform.

I'm expecting a gust of wind, or the sound of thunder, something that would have accompanied all this on Yamatai, but there's just that click-clacking sound of the gears and the thudding of the slab as it reaches the platform.

Lara comes to my side and our hands find each other. The new bridge is wide enough for three Jonahs to walk across, so we naturally find ourselves in step beside each other.

The closer we get, the louder the thrum in the air gets and the hair on my arms stands up, like there's an electrical charge in the air. I move the camera on my shoulder with my free hand to center on what we were approaching, musing on better ways to mount it. Lara is silent, and so I'm silent. The water laps gently below us, and the only warmth in this whole cave seems to come from our fingers twined together. And whatever rests on the platform.

We're in this together, and together we step onto the platform. At the center of the platform is a raised stone dias. Lara's eyes light up and she's already explaining the significance of what we're seeing. It's an altar or a shrine, and nestled into a place of honor is a human skull. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it, but those terrible faces we've been seeing everywhere aren't present. Instead, there are swirls of white and red paint. I don't know what they depict, but I steady the camera on them so we can inspect later.

She's kneeling in front of it, after I complete a circle, and I crouch next to her. I realize then that the skull isn't made of bone. It's made of some kind of gem or crystal. It's the source of the thrumming, and it feels warm. I touch it, and it feels like something jolts awake inside me. I can't explain it, and my vision is a little hazy for a moment before the sensation passes.

"Whatever called us here wanted us to find this. Do you know the legends surrounding crystal skulls?"

I look at her, wrinkling my nose up as I made a face. She hadn't noticed my momentary distraction which was good. This was her moment! "No, but they ruined Indiana Jones."

"Don't get me started on those movies and the inaccuracies.." I clamp my hand over Lara's mouth, because she's about to get started and I've already heard it like five times. I wait for her to roll her eyes, then I let go.

"So what now?"

"Well, there are a dozen different stories depending on who you ask, but the gist of it is if you collect a certain number of these skulls and bring them together, they'll unlock some kind of knowledge. I always dismissed them as ramblings of some eighteenth century hoaxters, but after Yamatai…"

Lara exhaled, and I realize what she's about to say, just as the words come out of her mouth. "We need to go back to Peru."

My heart sinks. It had been a creepy, tiring experience, but after the things we'd gone through here the similarities were impossible to ignore. "But sweetie! We almost died. And more importantly, you owe me a date!"

A little smile tugs at the corner of her lips as she lifts the skull off of the altar, and gently wraps it in a cloth. "I suppose I should do some research as to other possible locations. So we'll have time go on our date. I want to do proper prep work on this. And then..."

"And then," I finish for her, with a melodramatic sigh. "We go back to Peru."

This was fun to write, and I'd intended it to be a one shot right up until chapter 4, but then a world started to build itself. Lara and Sam will return (There is that date, after all). Part two of this adventure is also almost complete, and much longer. I hope anyone who's read this will enjoy that one too!