-Out of the ruin

Lara awoke from her unconsciousness, very soon feeling the uncomfortable pain from lying on the dusty hard floor. She arose quite weary from the ground and took a good look around in her environment. Everything had remained the same as before when they were fighting against the phoenix guardian. Lara next turned her attention over towards Ayesha, who probably had the same visions as her, but even still she continued to have her eyes closed shut.

'What could be happening to her?' Lara frighteningly thought, as she didn't want her friend to succumb into a forever state of sleep.

Slowly Lara went over to Ayesha's side and gently tapped her shoulder, until her eyelids began to open up in their own time.

"Hmmmm..." Ayesha groaned out as she began to raise herself from the dusty floor.

"Ayesha, are you okay?" Lara asked and supported her friend, who was still a bit drowsy and struggling to get up.

"Yeah... I think so, how about you?" Ayesha rubbed her eyes from the dimensional sleep she just had; she gave out a good stretching yawn too.

"Same, but just a bit crept out at what I had just dreamt off... I didn't know if it was just my imagination or something more...weird"

"I know, it was too surreal, did you see the mage and get the message he said? I don't know much of the Arabic language, so I didn't know what the message was."

"Ah ha, I managed to decipher it and translate to what it had said" Lara gave Ayesha a thumb up and a wink.

"Wow, there's more to you than meets the eye, so what did it say?" Ayesha said in astonishment of Lara's knowledge of the language.

"It said from what I gathered this, Knowledge of this language is the key to what you're looking for, somewhere in the Sahara" Lara answered her partner, as Ayesha looked like she had her thinking cap on.

"Interesting, I suppose in that area there may lay a hidden temple. But the Sahara covers a massive area, how on earth are we suppose to find a temple in the desert sands!?"

"Beats me, but we'll worry about that later on, I don't think there is anything else here, so let's get outta here!" Lara shrugged, and pointed to the cliff that showed the exit of the deceased city.

"Yeah, it's time to move on from here, I'm ready for some outside air!" Ayesha nodded in agreement.

"Right on!"

Lara and Ayesha dusted the millions of gathered up particles off their clothes and looked for a way out. The environment had drastically changed, thanks to the fight against the phoenix and anything that was within its path during the battle was destroyed. Luckily for our two adventurers, they worked together and moved most of the debris blocking the way forward. Both had reached the cliff from where they previously had come down from over an hour ago, and started their ascent upwards to the ledge.

Helping each other out, by supporting one another up onto the cliff ledge, all Ayesha and Lara had to do now was to pass through the dreaded tunnel filled with razor sharp traps. Knowing where the traps positioning was from the last time, the duo used that to their advantage and had little to no trouble avoiding the nasty bladed saws. At last, the smell and feeling of fresh air fell upon the two adventurers. The sunset was now in clear view, as it was only a few metres until they were out of the underground.

Surprisingly as the two ladies exited the mine, they were greeted with a semi-circle of crowded people giving them a huge round of applause all around. Lara was certainly not used to this, and it felt like a very strange experience to be congratulated when leaving a tomb. She gotten too used to leaving a dangerous tomb having completed her objective with either little fanfare, or giving herself a little pat on the back, but nothing on this scale. It was a nice feeling indeed, but too out of place for her. Lara looked over to see Ayesha's reaction to the positive reception they got, and she gave a little chuckle at what she saw as she went all red with embarrassment, her hands holding onto her lips.

"Welcome back Ayesha and Lara, glad to see you've come back in one peace!" A very happy Eric Copper called out to the ladies, as he finally emerged from the cheering crowd.

"Why thank you, we've got lots to tell and a new artefact that we've picked up along the way now within our possession" Ayesha told Eric Copper, who seemed indeed very impressed. She removed her backpack and got out the treasure, removing part of the cloth that was covering it. Lara watched Eric Copper's expression, as she saw a gleaming glint in his eyes, obviously fascinated at what he was seeing...'Fascination that could turn into obsession' Lara quickly thought until her process was interrupted by Eric Copper, who turned his longing attention away from the precious artefact.

"Excellent, come let us celebrate our new discovery over a feast at the hotel, you both must be starving!" Eric Copper stated to the two ladies, and they both looked at each other smiling.

"Famished" Ayesha answered.

"Same here" Lara said soon after.

"Right, let's make our way to the vehicles, please follow me" Eric Copper told the duo and he began to walk towards the crowd of workers.

The crowd made a path for the trio to walk through without any disturbance. In no time at all they reached the parked 4x4s that had brought them here in the first place.

"Hop in!" Eric Copper opened the door for the ladies and as soon as he got into the car, the 4x4 sped through the jungle. Lara and Ayesha won't forget what the guardian had told and advised them, as they looked back through the window of the dense forest one last time.