The Tomb Raider (lara) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-05-10 02:17:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, bo dennis, lara croft |
Well, I think it wants to make a meal out of us
Who: Lara and Bo
What: Honeymoon part two!
Where: Some ruins in India, because of course
When: Early May
Rating: PG-13
Status: Complete
“This was probably a bad idea,” Lara said. The ground was unsteady here, and they’d somehow gotten lost, but she’d tunnel visioned when she’d first spotted the signs of ruins and well here they were. Instead of being where they should be, which was many miles away, enjoying a hot meal with the locals and and even hotter night together.
Not that Lara hadn’t taken advantage of her wife nearly every night of their honeymoon. Except there’d been that one time with the snake and the bugs and boy had that spoiled the mood but it had been hilarious.
The ground shifted again, and Lara suddenly disappeared.
This was definitely a bad idea.
“At least we’re together,” Bo said. She hadn’t tried to stop Lara when she’d spotted the ruins. She did enjoy seeing Lara in her natural habitat. God knew Lara had seen Bo in her natural habitat almost every night on their honeymoon thus far, it was time for a change.
However, she wasn’t liking the unsteady ground. Bo was moving carefully, letting Lara lead. She really had no idea where they were anymore. While Bo had some sense of direction, she was relying on Lara’s skills in the present moment. Which seemed to culminate in Lara disappearing.
“Lara? Lara! Where are you?” Bo called, instantly stopping once Lara had disappeared. She just prayed her wife didn’t land on a spike or something just as lethal.
“I’m fine,” Lara called out, from somewhere deep below. She was dangling just over such a pit, and carefully started to climb until she found a tunnel. She looked up, trying to gauge where Bo was. “If you tie off a rope you can come down here. There’s a tunnel!”
Lara was excited about nearly dying.
Relief ran through her when she heard Lara’s response. “Okay, give me a minute to find a place to tie off the rope.” With the shape this place was in, Bo needed to ensure that whatever the rope was tied to was sturdy. It didn’t take long before she found a suitable place and tied the rope off. “Rope incoming!” She called out as she dropped the rope, then carefully started to climb down.
Bo wasn’t the best climber ever, but she’d picked up some tips from Lara along the way. At least she’d dressed for the occasion, though. While she hadn’t expected the adventure, she’d worn suitable shoes. And going against common sense, she was wearing shorts. Because it was too warm in India for pants. Shorts and a tank top and her hair was in a French braid.
Okay, maybe she was channeling Angelina Jolie’s version of Lara Croft a little bit, but she hadn’t done it consciously. She mostly just wanted to stay cool. And get a nice tan while she was at it.
Lara caught the rope and secured it down so they could find it again, then leaned against a pillar to watch as Bo climbed down. She was well aware of what Bo was wearing and honestly? It was hot. Lara didn’t really mind, though she was wearing pants, and occasionally made remarks about bugs and Bo getting lashed by twigs and rocks.
“Going my way?”
Bo didn’t mind getting the scrapes from twigs and rocks. They’d disappear the next time she needed chi. Which after this adventure, she’d probably need to replenish herself. Finally reaching the ground, she turned to Lara, smirking at her.
“I just might be, yes,” she replied.
“Perfect.” Lara unhooked some torches from her belt and handed one to Bo. She wondered if Bo’s glowing blue eyes could light their way in an emergency. Wouldn’t that be something to test? “Lets see what we can find?”
The tunnel took a sharp turn right and down, and the deeper it went the older the markings got. “It’s as though they built on this place for thousands of years.”
The floor sloped suddenly and Lara started to slide down it.
Taking the torch, she turned it on. As for Bo’s eyes, they probably wouldn’t light up much of the darkness. It’d probably just make her look really creepy, just two glowing blue eyes in the darkness that moved.
“You think it’s significant that people kept building here? Like maybe it’s some holy place or something?” Bo was really just throwing ideas out there. She had no idea what she was talking about. Archaeology and history weren’t exactly her strong suits. But she’d picked up enough from Lara and from watching various television shows on the History channel and so forth to get that impression.
As the floor sloped, Bo also started sliding a bit. “Holy crap, maybe I should’ve worn pants today. And maybe sleeves.” If the floor slanted enough, she could end up with some pretty bad scrapes on her exposed arms and legs if she wasn’t careful.
“It might be. We’ll have to be very careful, I’d rather not desecrate something holy.” Lara had plans to notify the museum in Dubai so they could get someone out here. She might even do it anonymously. “We’ll patch you up later, but now you know why I wear pants.”
The slope opened out over a pit. Lara shined her torch around, revealing the pit to be in a circle around a raised dias. It was filled with water. Carefully, she jumped over to the raised platform, and started to inspect the dias. “Interesting..”
“I won’t press any buttons or pull any levers or do anything that might otherwise spring unexpected traps or desecrate things.” Bo had seen enough movies to know when to avoid pushing buttons or pulling levers and the like. She’d rather not spring a trap that could kill one or both of them. “Yeah, I do. Had I known we’d end up doing something like this today, I would’ve opted for pants.”
Bo moved her torch around, taking in what she could of the area. “What is it?” She asked, leaping over to the raised platform after several moments. She was going to stay close to Lara. It was safer that way.
“Sure you would. You just like it when you catch me staring.” Lara sounded distracted as she took out a brush to wipe away the dust. “This symbol … I’ve seen it elsewhere, in other parts of the world. Each time, it fits the local culture, but this is depicting the same thing.”
Walking over, Bo looked at the symbol, tilting her head a bit. “What does it signify?” She asked. If Lara had seen it before, then clearly she knew, or at least had a good idea, of what the symbol meant and pointed towards what the ruins had originally been built around. Or why they had been built in the first place.
Not answering, Lara reached into her back pocket and pulled out her journal. She paged through it, then stopped at a page and showed her. “I’ve found this in Central America, in Malaysia, Greece, old Norse ruins, even Stonehenge. I’d wager China, Mexico … everywhere. This symbol repeats throughout history. And if it’s here…”
Lara shone her light around again. “There might be another skull.”
She looked at the page in Lara’s notebook. That seemed a little odd that so many ancient cultures would have the same symbol incorporated into them. Sure there were obvious connections and parallels and so forth across civilizations, but this seemed really odd.
“Skull? What, like a crystal skull? Or are we talking actual bone skull from a deceased person?” Because that was important.
“Like a crystal skull,” Lara clarified. “Like I have back home in the vault.” It would be an exciting find, and bring her that much closer to several goals. Atlantis. Immortality. So that Bo wouldn’t have to be alone, and so that Lara would always be able to explore. “Bo, I think this is a symbol of Atlantis.”
She turned to her. “If Atlantis existed, and if there were survivors, it stands to reason they spread throughout the globe. Every culture carries their seed, so that they survive in some small way.”
Bo listened, looking at Lara, then back down at the symbol her wife had dusted off. It seemed so minute, and no one would really think about it having any significant meaning. However, Lara was piecing the clues together, she’d seen enough to be able to do that. “So in a way, if Atlantis existed, we all may be in some way descended from the survivors. This could’ve been like a temple or something that they erected when they decided to settle here. And perhaps the other layers that were built over it were their descendants attempting to keep the legacy alive.”
Except obviously at some point, the place was abandoned and left to turn into these ruins that they now stood in. “This is one hell of a find if the legend is true.” And as they’d once talked about, legends and myths all began from some truth that had happened.
“Perhaps. I can’t tell without a lot more study, or finding some more sights to compare.” Lara was whispering, which was silly. They were alone. But it felt somehow appropriate.
Something shifted around, somewhere within the underground ruins. Like a rock tumbling, or perhaps something shuffling. Lara’s hand went for her axe, as she wasn’t armed with a gun.
Bo heard the shuffling and her head snapped to attention. “Oh shit, the one time I don’t bring my weapons with me,” she whispered. Getting weapons through customs was a pain in the ass these days, so she hadn’t even bothered to try. But that didn’t mean that Bo was unarmed. She had superhuman strength and excellent fighting skills.
Lara pulled a knife out of her boot and handed it hilt first to Bo. Bladed weapons were a lot easier and she’d bought one in Dubai. “This’ll have to do. Luckily they let me bring my climbing axe since I can demonstrate a non-lethal need for it.”
She might have winked, but it was dark. Then she started to edge along the platform. “There, see? Stable ground leading into a tunnel, and it looks like the only way out of here.”
Of course, that was where the sound was coming from.
“That will be fine.” Bo did use her dagger quite often. She tended to prefer a sword at times, but she could manage. Bo followed along after Lara, keeping her ears tuned into that sound. If she didn’t know better, she’d say it was some underfae that was going to leap out and try to eat them. But at any rate, there was some sort of thing coming their way.
“That sound definitely doesn’t sound like it’ll be friendly,” she commented. Bo could almost sense something was there.
“No.” They were going deeper, not out. Part of Lara was glad for it - she wanted to find secrets, and if she was honest with herself she wouldn’t mind the fight. She took the axe off of her belt.
Another hundred feet and the tunnel widened. Black water lapped up from a moat, and something moved in the shadows on the other side of it. Lara shone her torch, and it reflected gold, like the metal. It had four legs and two arms, with a head like a lion’s. It screeched at them.
She tightened her grip on the dagger as they moved down the tunnel. Then upon seeing the creature, Bo blinked a bit. It looked like something she’d fight in her own dreams. “Well, I think it wants to make a meal out of us.” This was about when Bo could use her crossbow. Or a sword.
“You go low, I go high,” Lara said, thinking her weapon was bigger and could block any attacks. She hadn’t needed to say anything, because it started to charge towards them. She lept up, kicking off the wall and jumping towards it.
Bo had to take a moment to watch her wife kick off the wall and jump at the thing coming at them. That was hot. However, she wasn’t about to let herself get too distracted. She quickly joined the fray, moving to stab the thing in one of its legs, hoping to hinder its mobility. Though it could also just make it really mad.
The axe scraped down its throat, screeching metal on metal, which was rather alarming, if Lara had a chance to say so. But it appeared to be made from real gold. “Its metal! But it’s gold, so it’s soft!”
There was an indent where she’d hit it, and Lara wondered what would happen if they could puncture it.
“Where’s a blazing fire when we need one?” Bo responded, the dagger blade making an indent where she’d struck. It was probably for the best that there were two of them and one of it, it made it more difficult for the thing to attack both of them at once. Or at least that was the hope.
“...Brilliant.” Lara ducked and rolled out of the way, and ran back the way they’d come. “When I tell you to, lure it to me! Just keep it busy!”
“Wait, what?” Bo asked as Lara took off and basically told her to keep it busy. She ducked a swing of the thing’s arm. “Next time, I’m getting the fire,” she grumbled to herself as she put another dent in it with the dagger. “Alright you gold freak, let’s see who’s stronger, shall we?”
Bo balled up her fist and gave the thing a punch to the gut. Her superhuman strength did actually knock it back several inches, but her fist was not happy about it. “Oh shit, that was a bad idea,” she said as she shook her hand out and flexed it. It wasn’t broken, but she’d at least given it a larger dent. Except she’d made it really angry.
Lara found what she was looking for, an old pit that might have been used for rituals. She tore down some vines and pulled out her light. “Come on, come on. Give me fire.”
The creature swung an axe right for Bo’s head, and kicked out with it’s two front feet.
Bo managed to duck the axe, but took the kick. She went flying backwards, landing on her back. The dagger and her torch slid out of her reach. She’d gotten the wind knocked out of her and she wheezed and coughed and managed to start breathing again. “Jesus christ,” she gasped as she rolled out of the way and got up, careful to not put her back to the thing.
“This...is probably going to be a bad idea…” Bo muttered before she charged the thing, intending to hit it like she was a linebacker and user her strength to push it back.
The fire finally lit and Lara blew on it, before she put her axe right into it. “Bo! Start drawing it this way!” She hoped the metal would be hot enough to carve through the beast like butter.
Having a thought for a backup plan, Lara tried to flare the fire up bigger and hotter, and located some pieces of ancient metal to add to the pit. “Now is a good time!”
The creature grasped onto Bo, trying to get its arms or hands around her neck. It’s feet scraped and screeched on the stone floor.
Oh hell no, this thing was not going to choke her. Bo stopped pushing it and grabbed it’s wrists tightly. Her eyes turned electric blue as she put her strength into keeping it from trying to strangle her. At least with keeping ahold of its arms it couldn’t swing an axe at her head anymore. Though it could still kick her.
“Coming!” She called back when she heard Lara. Bo then sent a kick to its midsection and let go of its arms at the same time. She took several steps backwards, careful to not turn her back to it. “Alright goldie, come and get me,” she taunted it. She also started backing up the way Lara had gone, but she waited until the creature made another rush to actually turn and run.
The creature stampeded through the tunnel after Bo, seeming to pick up speed and momentum as it ran. Lara grabbed Bo and pulled her out of the way, before sliding in low, swinging her red-hot climbing axe in an upward arc. It cut through the gold from the creature’s belly to it’s throat. It turned, stumbling into the fire pit.
The scream it made as it melted was like a thousand birds dying.
As soon as the thing started to stampede, Bo turned and ran for it. She may have yelped in surprise when Lara pulled her out of the way. She let Lara do the work as she took the opportunity to catch her breath. Though the scream it made was horrendous and Bo clamped her hands over her ears.
“Jesus that thing sounds horrid,” she commented.
“No shit. Fuck.” Lara set her axe down so it could cool, then approached the mess. There was something glowing inside the carcass, and she kicked it out with her boot. It bounced into the water and hissed, an unearthly white glow beneath the water.
“Love, I think we just found a treasure.”
Bo groaned a bit. As she settled down from the exertion, she definitely started to feel the ache where the creature had kicked her. There would definitely need to be healing later as bruises were already starting to form. She then moved over beside Lara and looked down at the glowing thing.
“What is it?” She asked. Her eyes faded back to their normal brown.
Lara approached it cautiously, then knelt to pick it up. She held up a sky that appeared to be made from some kind of white crystal, with an almost golden inner glow. “A mystery that only deepens. Three skulls, three different kinds of crystals and three different parts of the world. I need a cloth.”
Bo watched Lara pick the thing up. It was highly interesting, and Bo had never seen anything like it before. At the mention of needing a cloth, Bo pulled one out of her back pocket. “Will this work?” She asked, holding it out to Lara. “It’s very beautiful, but could also be highly dangerous.” For all they knew, it could’ve been the power source for the creature they’d just melted.
“That’s fine, thank you.” She carefully wrapped the skull in the cloth, then stowed it in her backpack. “It might be, that’s why we need to get it out of the country, which will be the hard part.”
She picked up her axe and hung it from her belt, before looking at the remains of the beast. “It might be best to leave this as is, and pretend we never found it. I’ll take pictures and rubbing of the markings before we leave, first.”
“Why Mrs. Croft, are you suggesting we’re going to break the law and smuggle this out of the country?” Bo teased. Obviously she wasn’t going to stop Lara. Her wife definitely knew how to get such objects out of their countries of origin as she’d done it repeatedly before.
“Oh shit, reminds me I dropped the torch and dagger when the thing tried to decapitate me.” She should go back and find those so they didn’t leave any clues behind that they’d been here.
“We’ll get them when we try to get out of here.” Despite the dim light, she stuck her tongue out at her wife. “Normally I’d prefer to turn it over to the Dubai Museum, but something about these artifacts is… unusual. Until I’m sure it’s safe, it’s better to keep them from the public. “
Bo chuckled a bit. “Probably for the best. No one needs these things being activated or something on accident when in a museum where innocent people could get hurt.” Bo more than understood that sentiment. “So, tomb raider, what next?” She really couldn’t help the teasing.
Lara made a scoffing noise, but slipped her arm through Bo. “We get back to the surface, found girl. And then we have a date with the locals for dinner.”