Sweet Dreams

Chapter 3

"Hey Lara?"

The tomb raider looked over to the treasure hunter. Nathen pointed towards an out of place looking stone pillar, that had vines wrapped thickly around it. Lara's eyebrows arched in interest, approaching the stone and pulling back some of the vines. The rock had an engraving of serpent headed humans on it, all worshipping something towards the top. Lara brushed off more of the thick branches, but to her disappointment, found that the object they were worshipping had been decayed away.

"They look like creatures from Chinese mythology..." Nate said, examining the engravings himself. Lara ran her fingers along the grooves, her hand shaping around the engravings. Lara recalled it being Chinese alright, but couldn't place where.

"They are. Most high figures in it are half human half serpent, but these seem to be worshiping something," Lara explained, trying to decipher what was once at the top of the pillar, "Maybe another god,"

"Didn't they think objects had spirits?" Nate asked. Lara shook her head.

"No, that's in Siberian history, but they could be worshiping an object," Lara thought out loud. Nathen took out his journal and sketched the pillar, getting halfway down before noticing a script.

"The snakes will lead, the rocks will punish, the gems will heal, and Zhu Long will welcome you to paradise," Nate translated. Lara looked at him like he had two heads, "What are you on about?"

"Chinese scripts, look," he explained, pointing to the inscribed writing at the very bottom of the pillar. Lara read it once, twice. She pulled out her own journal and wrote it down, confusion pulling at her.

"I wonder what that means," Nathen asked himself. Lara looked at the pictures again, trying to tie everything together. It suddenly clicked.

"It talking about immortality..." she said suddenly, her eyes wide. Nathen looked at her.

"Huh?"

"Immortality. Zhu Long is a Chinese god of Immortality*," Lara explained, her heart racing. Nate's own heart suddenly sped as he clicked everything together in his own mind.

"The crystal?" he asked, to which Lara nodded.

"It must be! But then where—"Lara started before two very loud gunshots went off. The two jumped, looking around in surprise. The leaves beside them rustled, and they both reached for their weapons.

Lara quickly strung an arrow to her bow and turned around, her eyes narrowed. Nathen clicked his gun in response, "Lara?"

"Shh!!" she hissed her eyes unmoving from a position, "I know you're there! Come out!"

"Your friends are hurt," came a voice, Lara narrowed her eyes further. Nate brought his gun up,

"They can't be trusted..." she whispered. Nate turned to argue with her, only to feel a pinprick in the back of his neck. Hissing, he turned and pricked the thing out of his neck. He examined it for a moment before he fully realized what it was.

A sleep dart.

Suddenly, Lara hissed as well, her arm recoiling and grabbing whatever had hit her. She pulled the dart from her arm and turned in a panic, "Run! Run..!" She ordered her voice slurring halfway through her second order. However, Nathen was already struggling to stay awake.

The two adventurers looked at each other for a split second, before the world went black and they collapsed to the ground, out cold.

- Line break -