Tomb Raider: The Awakening

Chapter 1: A Helicopter Needed

(...)

It was wrong. No matter how many times she tried, it was wrong. She clutched the pencil in her hands, then gritted her teeth, and finally threw it on the pile of sketches.

"Fuck!" She muttered. Almost instantly she regretted it. She shrugged and looked around quickly. But her mother was not around.

Luckily, since she hated swearing. Lara Croft was very strict about "that legionnaire jaw you've learned from your father" and although she struggled to control it, it always sprouted up when she was angry.

There was no way that drawing would come out well. She felt frustrated.

Fidgeting on the wooden bench, Anna scrunched her face like a pig's snout and put the pencil between her nose and upper lip while she examined the sketch. Then she picked up the artifact her mother had recovered from the main temple area two days earlier, and spun it in her hands. A beautiful piece of amber, like a drop, carved with thousands of wavy and zigzag lines. The Teardrop of Brahma.

She'd tried to draw it from every possible angle but it was hopeless. And that was frustrating because she was really good at drawing. Another thing she'd learned from her father, who had an innate talent for it, and it was something that, for a change, her mother didn't complain about.

If only he was there to help her. Anna was dumbfounded whenever Kurtis grabbed a pencil and with short, quick gestures, created a world in a moment. She was really good for her age, but also dreamed of being like him someday.

But of course she'd never make it if she kept on with that crap.

She tore the sheet, crumpled it into a ball and threw it over the pile of objects Lara had taken from the temple. Then she fell back on the seat into a squatting position, sulking.

"Waste of time." She muttered through clenched teeth, another inherited bad habit.

Suddenly she heard a rumbling in the distance. She concentrated her hearing.

It had vanished. That was odd, it had sounded like a...

There it was. Again. And now there was no doubt.

It was an explosion. A bomb or a landmine.

But... in this place?

She immediately jumped from the bench and ran toward a tree. Almost immediately she turned and went back, grabbed the Teardrop of Brahma, and put it into her shoulder bag. She slung it over her shoulder, turned to the tree and began to climb.

Among the many things she was learning since the age of twelve, when she joined her mother on some of her trips, was that never, never should an artifact be left behind for any reason. Most times it was risky enough just to retrieve it without her losing it after. In fact, Lara had left it there with Anna not just for her to practice her drawing by documenting its appearance and details...

...Her mother was also testing her. And Anna had no intention of being a disappointment.

She continued to climb, panting, clinging to the trunk and moving from branch to branch. Fortunately, the huge jungle trees were easy to climb, full of foliage and easily handled by anyone with a minimum of physical condition.

Unfortunately, the tree was huge, massive, soaring, so she took several minutes to reach the top. She dropped herself, sweating, on the last safe branch, and after checking its safety she peered above the tangle of leaves.

What she saw left her speechless.

"Oh no!" She shouted. A flock of parrots flew shrieking a few meters from her, scared by her voice.

There was a column of smoke rising over the horizon. Black smoke. Burning gasoline, if she guessed right. She also heard something in the distance, dimmed by the natural sounds of the jungle.

Shooting. Shrapnel blasts. And the distant rumble of engines.

Then she saw a shadow approaching. She looked at it carefully. The rattling and muffled sound came to her before she could even distinguish what it was.

A helicopter. And it came toward there.

"Damn it." She muttered. Well, that was no time to worry about swearing.

She adjusted the shoulder strap around her body and started descending the tree, trying to remember where she had stepped before. But she went down so fast and giddy that she soon misstepped, lost her footing and began to fall uncontrollably, smacking against leaves and branches. Luckily she managed to grab a branch to stop her fall and descended more carefully, mumbling curses under her breath.

Indeed, this wasn't one of her easy days.

(...)

That pilot was really taking his chances. Well, she had done real crazy things not only with helicopters, but also airplanes, motorcycles, cars and all kinds of vehicles. But going down among that mass of soft and unstable foliage covering the top of the jungle was something she was not crazy enough to try.

It was going to crash, no doubt.

Lara shrugged, pulled back her braid with a slap and headed towards the small clearing where they had their camp. She wasn't surprised to not see Anna around there. There was no way that girl could stay still, not for half an hour anyway.

She took a quick look at the drafts and picked up the crumpled paper ball thrown at a distance. She smiled, almost hearing her grumbling, wrinkling her nose as she tried to depict the artifact from different angles, and dropping some occasional soldier curse.

In fact, Lara was hearing her now.

She approached one of the large trees surrounding the clearing in time to see her dropping from the latest branch to the ground, sweaty and red as a tomato. She almost smiled again at seeing her landing with flawless elegance, but then she noticed her facial expression.

"Mom!" She shouted, and stopped to catch her breath. Lara frowned. It had been fourteen years... and she still couldn't get used to that word. "There's a war out there!"

She'd guessed. So that was the distant havoc inexorably moving toward there.

No, she thought, shuddering. No. This damn place was safe.

It wasn't anymore.

Wordlessly, she entered the tent and ran to the radio. Maybe she could contact the archaeologists who had hired her to recover the Teardrop of Brahma. They had left them up there with their jeep, but taking back it with them. They only had one vehicle... damn cuts to government subsidies.

With microphone in hand, she hesitated. Then she dropped it. No, it was too dangerous. If the rebels had indeed come up in arms - if they'd only waited for a few hours - the frequency could be tapped.

So, they were caught in the middle of the jungle, among the ruins, in a real battlefield.

"Great." Lara sighed. "Just great."

It took her a moment to realize her daughter was standing there, staring at her, covered with dirt, twigs and with scratches on her face, arms and legs. It wasn't usual to see Lara unsure about what to do, and she'd noticed it, still looking at her with her striking blue eyes.

That girl need something to take care of.

"Pick up our stuff." Lara said, and the girl nodded frantically. "Just the essentials, you know. Let's go to the base."

"But..."

"Everything will be fine. Keep calm." And then Lara smiled. "You take care of the artifact".

Anna smiled back and seemed to relax.

"Roger that!" She said, patting her shoulder bag, and started collecting things. She pocketed the paper ball absentmindedly. Not that it was a must, but perhaps she could show it to her father and find out what the hell she was doing wrong.

If they ever saw him again, she thought grimly, but determined to not to be scared. At least for now.