Death Raids A Heart

Pt. IV

Amazon River, Peru
15:50 hrs 

In silence on board a plane, Lara drifted her eyes over to her friend, Jonah, after holding an argument over the importance of saving injured peoples and stopping a catastrophe she started. While she tried to comfort him, Jonah remained shaken by the sight of the people who lost their homes and loved ones. He could empathise their suffering. As the plane neared the Kuwaq Yaku airstrip, a storm hit. Turbulence became more coarse as rocks flew through the window, one striking the pilot clean that caused them to get knocked out which in turn caused them to drive the plane downwards. In hopes of correcting the plane's trajectory, Lara unbuckled herself and made her way to the front of the plane when the rest broke apart, Jonah flying off while Lara was left to buckle herself in the pilot's stead when the landing caused her to black out, her body hanging as her front remained sore from the impact that left the front of the plane broken apart also. 

Lara found herself in a jungle environment, muddy after unbuckling herself from the plane as she began to trek through the jungle. Along the path, Lara found salvable items from the wreck as well as plants and herbs to mix for nutritional mixtures. After what felt like hours, Lara found herself peering over a cliff overlooking the Silver-Crowned mountain she was looking for when she noticed a flare shoot up near her location. Lara made dangerous climbs along trees and down hills towards a campsite howler monkeys loitering the scene. Part of the wreckage provided her her bow and quill and a fully charged walkie-talkie after crafting a functional knife to cut her gear free. 

"Hello? Miss Croft? Anyone? Come in." A voice called from the other end of the communicator. 

"Miguel? Where are you?" Lara responded, receiving a static-y response. 

Recalling the previous adventures she wandered through forests, Lara perfected her skills once more as she hunted animals to use as food sources before continuing forward towards the flare she spotted moments ago. Blood plastered on rocks and the floor which brought much concern to the brunette when she stumbled upon a body, mauled as it had its jaw ripped off and its lower body missing from the rest. A jaguar prowled, staring with yellow beady eyes on Lara as monkeys hung over her, watching on as if she were Tarzan when she sensed a second jaguar which knocked her over, causing her to lose sight on the two animals. 

Cautiously, Lara wandered along a narrow path, her eyes constantly scanning the environment for the two predators as her heart raced a thousand miles an hour, her arms itching to fire an arrow at a jaguar preparing to attack. Only until she found herself in the jaguars' den, did she find herself fighting for her life, firing arrows at one of the jaguar's attacking her. Then, one jumped her, its mouth clamped over the bow until she drew her knife and impaled it in its ear, fatally killing the predator as its blood spilt onto her when the second came along, scaring her to crawl against a wall when it stared beadily at her before removing itself from the scene with the carcass of the dead jaguar. 

Relieved that she didn't meet the same fate as the corpse from earlier, Lara gathered her bow and made her way out of the jaguar's den to trek through the jungle. Quickly bathing herself in water, Lara continued to climb up trees to make it to the next stage of the jungle, constantly 

"I thought you got killed." Lara cried and embraced her friend in a hug. 

"Hey. Do you know what happened to Miguel?" Jonah panted a response. 

"He didn't make it. What's wrong with your arm?" 

"Ah, some sort of parasite. I was looking for some wormwood but it doesn't grow around here." 

As Lara drew an arrow, Jonah became hesitant of what she planned on doing until she asked him to trust her, which lead to Lara removing the parasite by cutting open his arm in order to remove it. Once that was done, the two rested for a while until they decided that it would be best to keep moving forward for Kuwaq Yaku. Fortunately, it was on the other side of a river, but the long way around was the route they chose where more ancient sites were discovered along the path when she was attacked by the second jaguar. 

Clawing at her back, Lara cried in pain when adrenaline kicked in, enabling her to fight the jaguar until its death that which she skinned it before she and Jonah set up camp for the evening. There, the two had a somewhat succulent meal from the flesh of the jaguar, where Jonah was able to stitch up her back which left a nasty scar behind along with the rest as they conversed about family which brought up some fond memories and some bad ones.