WHO: Lara Croft & Valkyrie WHEN: A few days after NYE WHERE: Woods WHAT: Lara's been gone for a few days and she forgot to check in. TRIGGERS: N/A
One good thing about the woods in Goodland is that while it was near a city, she didn’t have to worry about the pollution in the water. Somehow the Entity made the whole area pristine, including drinkable water. Lara still took precautions, tricks that she had learned from being out in the wild, but it was so much better than carrying around water bottles, which weren’t great for the environment.
Lara wasn’t quite sure what day it was, she had decided not to keep track in order for her mind to be more at peace. She knew she had left New Year's Eve and it was certainly a day or two after that. Currently, Lara had refilled her water pouch and headed back to her campsite. It wasn’t quite like the rough conditions she was used to. She still had a tent and a sleeping bag, a container to keep her food cold, though mostly she hunted small critters. As Lara approached her fireplace, either paranoia or otherwise, she thought she had heard footsteps nearby. Carefully and instinctively, Lara wrapped her fingers around her arrow, putting it to her bow, then quickly aimed, without firing, towards the direction of the sound.
Val had decided after a few days of not hearing from Lara she needed to go find her. She trusted that Lara could handle herself but she was still human, and the Entity wasn't always nice. So she headed into the woods.
Val liked the forest and nature. And while she was on a hunt for her friend, she was enjoying the quiet, too. She'd learned to track as part of her training, and while the woods here weren't anything like Vanaheim, they were big enough.
Once she spotted signs of life, she stopped being quiet. She didn't need to scare Lara or if by chance it wasn't her, scare anyone else. "I can dodge that, you know." She said easily as she came into view.
Lara grinned as she caught sight of Val and immediately put her bow down. “I know.” Thinking back to their sparring matches, and while Lara was getting stronger and better thanks to Val, she was still significantly less powerful than Asgardians. Not that power was important to her, but at least she felt confident taking on almost any foe that she could possibly come up against.
“How’s life back in the city?” Lara looked at her friend curiously, she didn’t seem to be rushed but she had that slight worry all the same. “Nothing bad happened, right?”
Val pushed Lara to be more comfortable fighting things outside of her weight class, as it were, because even she knew you just had to get lucky once. If she could hold out for that moment, well, Lara had a better chance of survival. She hoped they’d never have to put it into practice. She was happy to see Lara had been ready to shoot her.
“It’s been four odd days, I was worried about you,” she said gently, as she moved into the camp, and took a seat.
Lara had moved a log as Val made her way into camp. “Oh.” She blinked. Had it really been four days? Lara was used to longer, but she was still a little surprised how easily time slowed for her when she was out on her own. She hadn’t thought about it, not that she had stopped herself from thinking about her friends, but time? Not so much.
“I’m sorry I worried you,” she started to say. It shouldn’t be surprising, Val and Lara had talked before, she knew that Val saw her as family and that Lara felt much the same way. A pang in her chest told her that she felt guilty, did she worry the others too? Loki? She had no idea why that had crossed her mind, so instead, she focused on her friend. “I lost track of time.”
Val made a small noise of amusement as she looked up at her friend, then set her bag at her feet. The woman was easy going, relaxed, out here. She breathed in the scent of the forest and wondered why she didn’t make treks out here, too. The hustle and bustle wasn’t bad. And she liked living with Bruce and Lyra, but, Val was a woman out of time by far and used to being on her own to survive.
Depending on others was hard. Which, maybe, Lara could understand too. “It’s fine - I didn’t expect anything to have happened, but with the Entity, well, better to be safe,” she smirked a tiny bit. “I understand how that works. I’ve lost centuries before.” she gestured to her bag, “I brought a few things in case you needed anything.”
Lara nodded. “Right, that makes sense. We don’t get any kind of warning with most changes, especially if people leave.” Now she certainly felt guilty, of course, there would be people here who would be upset if Lara was sent home. She felt dumb for not seeing that before, it was a new feeling, in a way. Sam always cared but since their..falling out, whatever it was, she didn’t try to keep in contact with Lara. Jonah was the only one, and she was pretty used to him following her anyway.
“I’ll remember that, next time. I probably won’t be out here much longer anyway. Another day or so, the peace and quiet helped a lot.” She grinned as she looked towards the bag. “Gifts, huh? What’d you bring?”
"Exactly." She said with a smile, "I just worry. I'm glad you are fine and weren't sent home." She opened the bag and held out a fresh loaf of bread and a Tupperware of the sliced roast. "Wasn't sure how the food looked out here"
She nodded, "I bet. I forgot how nice peace and quiet was. If you want I can head right back so you can continue it." She smiled a bit.
Lara smiled brightly as she took the bread and Tupperware. “This is great, thank you, Val.” It was such an odd feeling to her, for people to take care of her like this, Lara found that she really liked being part of a found family. “It hasn’t been bad. Mostly rabbit and I had packed a few things too. Since I don’t actually need to survive off the land, I spoiled myself a bit.” She laughed.
As Lara moved to sit, she motioned Val to join her. “I don’t mind if you want to stay longer. We can even hang out for the night and head back tomorrow if you don’t have any plans.” Lara thought that Val might’ve only told Thor she’d be out and back, so if they had something planned, she certainly didn’t want to come between that.
The Valkyrie smirked a bit, “Well, I wasn’t sure, and didn’t want to come out empty-handed.” she lifted a shoulder. She took care of found family. Even if she was still a little wary about having a family herself. It was easier to just take care of them, and run with it.
She joined her, “I don’t have plans, no. As long as I am not interrupting, I wouldn’t mind hanging out for the night.” Valkyrie hadn’t really told anyone she was going, but, she wasn’t the most in-contact person to begin with, herself. She would send Bruce and Thor a message at some point. “It would be nice.”
“You’re not interrupting at all,” Lara replied. She couldn’t quite pinpoint the exact reason why she wanted to get away, but she did find that it would be more enjoyable to have a friend like Valkryie around. Perhaps she was getting used to letting people in after all.
“I probably shouldn’t wish for the Entity to throw something exciting at us, but man it’d be nice to have a tomb puzzle to solve or something.” The very idea made her laugh out loud. “Funny, you know I used to hate tombs, and now I feel bored without them.” She went to take a drink of water and looked back to Valkryie. “Are you hungry or thirsty at all. The water’s good here to drink, and I have an extra if you don’t have anything to carry water in.”
The Valkyrie often didn't let people in either. She still had trouble letting Thor and Loki in. But she was trying so she could understand where Lara was coming from. She smiled, grateful to have a friend who understood. It was nice to share the quiet with someone.
"I have water with me, I wasn't sure. We can eat what I brought and enjoy the peace of the forest. It isn't Vanaheim but it will do." She laughed softly, "I would not kind such a thing either, Lara. I am not good sitting on my hands, as it were."
“Yeah, let’s eat. What you brought looks good.” Lara laughed along and nodded at her last comment. Having someone here with her certainly eased her quite a bit. She would make a mental note to ask Valkryie on another outing in the future, as well as the other Asgardians.