- Dreamland

"Where am I?" Lara heard her thoughts cry out. All she could remember was the bright white light that emerged from the deceased phoenix body...and then a vortex sucking her body and mind into it. What had happened!? Where was she!? Where was Ayesha!? There was no sign of her...

Lara was in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by an empty space and strangely hovering in mid-air. Nothing was there; no feature or no sound was made. It was simply a nonexistent reality full of...nothingness. Lara looked all around, but everything remained the same as before, and as minutes flew by, not even one spec of the environment changed.

'How on earth did I get here? Is there a way out? What if I'm trapped here...eternally forever!?' Lara continuously asked herself, even without knowing the answer to the questions. But Lara knew there was always a way out, you just had to search for it, nothing was impossible.

Out of the blue, Lara's answer came forth. A man dressed in a mixture of purple/yellow robes walked calmly towards to where she was floating. He was an old man, with a great beard and strikingly orange eyes. He looked with his enchanting eyes piercingly into Lara's hazel eyes, studying her deeply, like reading a page in a book. After a lengthy few seconds of examination, Lara had enough of the silence and wanted answers.

"Who are you? Where am I? What am I doing here?"

The old man gave no indication at what he was going to say or do next. Instead unexpectedly at Lara's point of view, in that precise moment he just snapped two of his fingers together.

All of a sudden, a flood of memories came pouring into the space they were in. A dense forest grew around them and a mountainous range began to develop, rising up from the ground. It was as if someone was painting and colouring afresh on a blank canvas with vivid paint and watercolours. Finally a small settlement had started from small beginnings as four straw huts, until the settlement expanded greatly over time into a village, and from then on became a large metropolis.

Lara knew that she was seeing the history of Mystiaja in its full glory, right before the natural disaster that had fallen upon the city. The city was majorly populous, people going about through their busy days and normal everyday life. Lara was nothing but a ghost to them, some even walked straight through her as they were nothing more than preserved memories. Lara turned her floating body an entire 360 degrees to take in the whole atmosphere of the thriving city. That was until she spotted something out of the ordinary happening near the temple.

Two hooded figures wandered out of the shadowy street corner of the city, looking from left to right, being wary if they had been followed. Carefully but speedily, they hurried along through the crowds and stepped onto the stone stairs of the recognisable temple. One was bearing a wrapped item in their palms. The other knocked harshly on the red/golden crystal decorated temple door. There came a hesitation's pause and thereafter came an answer from the creaking widening from the door, Lara listened in closely...

"You're late..." A low irritated voice came from the proud humongous doors.

"I know, we were delayed along the way, you know it's hard travelling such a long range"

"You weren't...followed were you?"

"No, we've kept a close eye on any suspicious activity in the area, but there was none"

"Good, now there are important matters to discuss, please come inside so we are not overheard..."

That was when Lara first saw the person whom answered the wanderers as he finally stepped out of the temple. She looked upon the man, taking note of what his facial features and how he dressed. Instantly she noticed a resemblance to the person standing in front of her who'd still remained quiet. Lara broke the silence between them once again.

"Hang on... Are you the magician that summoned the phoenix in the myth of the lost city many years ago?" Lara asked the mysterious robed man whom was overlooking the forgotten city longingly. The man began to speak in English with a heavy accent.

"Yes...I am. I have come forth into your mind through making you unconscious and your friend too. This is just a dream to you, for I am not of this world anymore. Listen carefully to what I have to say as time is short, and I will no longer be part of this universe..." He closed his eyes and begun to chant.

"Long ago there were three...Three mysterious relics, unnatural power hidden within, believed to be not of this world...They were separated from each other given to three guardians ...For those who have defeated the guardian..." He stopped his chanting of words quite suddenly and then smiled at Lara.

"Hmm, you find out the rest one day if you continue this journey, but let me give you one piece of advice...Don't let your lust and temptation overcome you. Now I must go and leave you one final clue to where the next relic lies..." He next lifted his right hand high, and swiped through the air. As he waved his hand across, glowing in yellow light were scripted writings in a particular language. She read the script and instantly, Lara recognised the writing, it was in the Arabic language that she knew quite well...

"Knowledge of this language is the key to what you're looking for, somewhere in the Sahara" It had said. After reading through, Lara glanced back at the man.

"Farewell" He bowed respectively at Lara commending her for defeating him in his phoenix form, with her doing the same for the challenge he gave, and then he walked off into the distance.

Taking once last gaze at the glowing script before it faded away, Lara knew where to find the next artefact. She kept the writing in her memory and hopefully she could be able to recall it later on. From this enigmatic encounter she had learned a few useful things to keep in mind. There was more to this than meets the eye. But still there were a lot of questions unanswered, which would no doubt be solved along the way.

Lara began to feel herself drifting away from this dream vision she was having. A whirlwind gradually turned the virtual world and thoroughly washed away any sort of evidence or mark of it. Until it eventually fully vanished into a vacuum, Lara woke up from her dream and returned to reality.