- Discovery of the second artefact

"Lara...LARA!"

At that moment Lara opened her eyes, immediately seeing the three faces of Ayesha, Eric and Tim peering over her head.

"Are you alright?" Tim asked her without any hint of nervousness in his voice, as Lara blinked her eyes a couple of times trying to get rid of the tiredness out of them. She sat up, shaking her head along with her palm holding her forehead.

"Yeah I'm fine, how about you Tim?" Lara queried in response, knowing Tim must have experienced the same or similar dream as her.

"Same, though strangely you were out longer than I was." A puzzled look grew on Tim's face as he said that sentence, though it was very soon vanished by Eric's sudden questioning in that very moment.

"What did you see?"Eric quizzed Lara, listening very much attentively to her answer. Though Lara was happy to explain what she saw to them, she kept thinking of Rhamoon's warning and kept that to herself, as well as the clue to the third artefact.

"I saw Rhamoon in my unconscious state. He showed me a view of the Ancient Egyptian city he lived in. To put simply... it was amazing. After seeing this spectacular vista, I was shown how he came to be the possessor of the second artefact. Apparently, he was chosen to be a guardian of it, and had sworn to protect it much like the magician Ayesha and I encountered back in India." Lara explained.

"Hmmmm, interesting...Tim? Did you too see him as well while you were unconscious?" Eric glanced straight at Tim, wanting reassurance that what Lara had told them was indeed true.

"Yes, I did too. I can also confirm Lara's hypothesis of the situation, as Rhamoon told me exactly the same thing in my vision of him." Tim nodded and confirmed to Eric, who now seemed to believe the duo's account of details.

"All right, well no time like the present, let's get out of this labyrinth and head on for the second artefact." Eric eagerly said.

It didn't take too long until they found their way out of the labyrinth trap. Heading back to the entrance, Lara continuously thought of how odd it was that Ayesha hadn't said one word during their venture into the tomb, or even when she awoke from her unconscious state. Her trail of thoughts were soon to be interrupted by a question from Eric when they got back to the entranceway.

"Now where do we go from here?"

"Let's search around the area, we are bound to find something sooner or later"

The party split up left and right, with Ayesha and Eric investigating on the left, while Lara and Tim went to the right. Scanning and feeling for anything out of place upon the wall, it took a while of a thorough examination of the entranceway till they spotted something slightly out of place on the ground.

"Over here! I think I found something!"

A carved pressure pad had been carefully set at the furthest corner of the entrance hall, just so anyone who didn't look around properly first time around would've missed it. The mechanics behind it began to incredibly work even after all the years of being unused. Suddenly a doorway was being lifted having been concealed and hidden within the brickwork of the tomb. After fully opening, the four entered through, unbeknownst to them what they had stepped into.

The space they were in at the moment was quite limited, however up ahead was another trap set-up ready to catch out and kill prowlers. Fortunately as they slowly and steadily walked nearer, it didn't seem like an immediate threat. It was an octagonal platform, with four slopes on four of its sides supporting it. Shining their lights on each ramp, it became clear that above each slope were boulders that were hung up just below the ceiling, awaiting to crush anything in its path.

"Gee, I do hope this trap doesn't activate once we make our way through." Tim fearfully pointed out.

"I wouldn't worry too much, just be mindful of where you step as it could be a trigger for that particular ambush." Lara warned.

"Okay..."

Every second seemed more like a minute for the group as they carefully manoeuvred their way past the snare. Unscathed and still breathing deeply, they moved forward into a long corridor leading downwards. There was nothing particularly special about the corridor they were going through, only that it was heavily dusty and covered in a variety of cobwebs in different sizes. The winding corridor soon came to an end, and the party were now staring at a grand set of two patterned stone gates. Pulling on the lever that was conveniently installed on the left side, the doors began to open inwards revealing a circular room. A sunlight beam glowed upon an object placed on a high pedestal in the centre of the new room.

There it was...

Strangely it was only Lara and Tim who approached the glorious artefact, whilst Ayesha and Eric remained standing-still observing the duo moving towards the relic with their arms folded. As both Lara and Tim cautiously walked nearer to the second artefact, a very short discussion happened between themselves.

"So, who should take the artefact first, me or you?" Tim had asked Lara.

"Dunno, you can if you want to."

"Hmmm...Nah on second thought, I think you deserve to take it first. After all you were the one who outwitted that Minotaur, and if it weren't for you, we would probably still be after the first artefact"

"Fair enough."

Lara reached out for the artefact and within the first touch of it, instantly it was something that felt eerie and otherworldly. Still in awe-surprise from handling the mysterious object, Lara brought down the precious relic without any instantaneous danger.

"Excellent..." Eric happily whispered out with his hands clapped together. An evil grin grew across his lips.