LARA CROFT AND THE BEAST OF THE FOREST ======================================= PROLOGUE -------------- The five men sat on their logs, drinking coffee and cracking jokes, mainly at someone else's expense. The fire crackled noisily, and the forest was eerily still. They finished making fun of Pierce, when they couldn't think of any more insults. Pierce decided to try a new subject in the slight hope of frightening someone. "You know, they say this forest has a beast in it..." said Pierce. They all groaned, he was at it again. "It's true! They say it creeps up on the unwary, and slaughters them without mercy." "That's just a load of bullshit, Pierce!" said Jameson, and most of the others agreed. "Watch my drink guys, I'll be back in a minute," he said. "Hey, be careful of the monsters!" one man said, sending the others into fits of laughter. Jameson looked around him as he walked, it was quite cold in the forest, and he thought even more so when he was alone. He stopped when he heard a noise. He turned round, and saw nothing. He turned again, to see if the boys at the camp were still there. He double checked as he couldn't believe his eyes. He was lost, but surely he had only walked a few steps. He looked around, and realised he was all alone in the forest, couldn't see a thing and had no idea where he was. He started walking slowly to where he thought the camp was, and he started to hear the noise again, a sort of low shuffling sound, as if something heavy was getting nearer and nearer... then suddenly he heard a deafening roar, he backed away, and it came lumbering towards him. It was a huge beast, at least twelve feet in height with a jet black dense fur coat, and deep red eyes, glaring right at Jameson. Jameson tripped on a rock and fell down, banging his head on a tree, and as he tried to get up, the beast! pinned him down with it's toe, and sent a huge fist down to crush him. The last thing Jameson felt was the incredible pain as all the bones in his body broke. ONE - The Body -------------------- Lara ran out into the forest. She had gone to Southern America for an Inca archaeological dig, and hadn't found a thing. She was having her daily jog in the forest, and was loving every second of it. The sunlight shone down through the trees, the air was fresh, the scenery of mountains in the distance with lakes and trees was beautiful, but as she continued her jog, she got to a part of the forest with thick foliage, and although she could still get through, it was still quite hard. No sunlight could get through, which made it very dark. Lara felt a chill go up her spine. She slowed down to a walk, and carefully navigated her way through brambles, logs and around the strange thick roots of twisted dead trees. She brushed back a branch to reveal a small clearing, and when the flies cleared she was able to make out the horrible dead body lying on the floor. She gasped and stepped back as she saw the horrible decaying flesh on a body that looked as though it had been crushed, and then played with by some huge creature just like a child's toy. She stepped back again, and then turned and started to run back. Lara and her other archaeologist friends watched as the body was put in a bag, on a stretcher and into a van. All the different thoughts entered Lara's mind. Who or what had done it, and how? It was something that was troubling her, and she knew she had to get to the bottom of it. She walked over to her jeep, and got in the driver's seat. Chris, one of Lara's best friends, and a brilliant archaeologist at that walked over, with a puzzled expression on his face. "Where are we going?" he asked. "To the forest, tell the others to hurry up. It's a long drive," Lara said, starting up the engine. She had got her jeep quite new as a four by four vehicle to drive on rough terrain, and it was handy as it seated up to five people including the driver. Chris got in the passenger side, shut his door and put his seat belt on. "Hey, Claire, Sean, Steve, come on!" Chris said. Claire was quite young, and had recently graduated from Oxford University, she had long auburn hair, and wore glasses. Sean was a fairly tall man, quite well built who knew who to look after himself, and was one of Lara's closest friends. Steve was older than the others, and knew a lot about ancient civilisations, and had gone with them to help with the Inca dig. They all piled into the back and Lara turned the jeep around and headed for the forest. TWO - Meeting The Monster ------------------------------- It was dark when they finally finished pitching up their tents, they all had their own, and had pitched them near the lake. They all gathered around the campfire, and were talking about the body. Everybody was nervous, and although they didn't like to admit to it, a little scared too. "The thing that I want to know is how anything can be that strong to be able to crush a whole body?" said Chris. "I don't think I want to know," said Claire. She was the most nervous of them all, and was trying to think of something else, but failing miserably. "Well what do we know about it then?" said Sean. "Well firstly," Lara said, "we know that no known animal could have done this. We could be dealing with a new creature never discovered before." "How are we going to find out more about what happened?" Chris said. Steve, who was the quick thinking one spoke up, "Perhaps the Indians know something about it. They have all kinds of weird myths about beasts of the forests and things like that." Everyone nodded in agreement. It wasn't a bad idea. "We'll set off early tomorrow morning to look for the Indians," said Lara, and with that they all said goodnight and went into their tents. Lara woke up in the middle of the night, unable to sleep. She stood up, put on some shoes and walked out of her tent to get some air. She could see the dying embers of the camp-fire they had lit hours ago, and sat down next to it. Lara looked into the remains of the fire and was startled when she heard a noise. She thought she was just imagining things, but knew she wasn't when Chris came from his tent. "What the hell's that sound?" he said. "I don't know," said Lara, "but I'd feel a lot safer with my guns." Lara went back in her tent, strapped her belt on, with her pistols, and walked back to where Chris was. They listened carefully as the sound got louder...closer. They span around as they heard a deafening roar behind them. It was hideous. They saw the immense bulk of it as it charged toward them. Lara drew her pistols, and back- flipped, firing a few warning shots into the air. The noise alerted the beast and it charged towards Lara. Lara fired her guns as she ran around the great beast. Claire, Sean and Steve came from their tents, and Claire almost froze in fear as she saw it. Sean grabbed his shotgun and fired. The beast roared and turned around to face them. It saw Sean with the gun, and picked him up. He shouted out as it started to crush him in it's huge strong fist. Claire threw a rock at the beast, and it dropped Sean and headed for Claire. Claire screamed and backed away, but could not escape from it. It smashed her with one huge fist, crushing her like a bug. "NO!" shouted Lara as she fired with all her rage at the beast. It roared and ran straight for her. Lara had no choice. She ran for the lake, past the tents and dived in. The beast followed her until she went in the water. It then turned and looked for a new victim. By that time Steve and Chris had followed Lara into the river, and Sean realised it was either the lake, or death. He ran as fast as he could, firing at the beast all the way until he jumped into the lake. The beast roared at them, but couldn't go in the lake with them, and so stepped back. The sun was nearly rising from behind the mountains. The beast saw the sun, and fled. They could hear it's heavy feet pounding against the ground as it ran a mile away. Lara swam to the edge of the river and pulled herself out. When she was on dry land, she helped the others out too. "That was close," she said. Sean looked at the remains of Claire. "Too close in Claire's case." THREE - Indians --------------------- Lara drove the jeep over the bumpy terrain of the forest. They were all silent in the jeep, all thinking about what had happened, and thinking of Claire. Lara was driving to get away from the forest mainly, but also to find out where the Indians could be found from people in a small village near the outskirts of the forest. Lara didn't really know what to expect, but she knew it was the only place she might find help, and they needed it badly. The gunshots they inflicted on the beast the night before had seemed to do no damage whatsoever. Sure, the beast had felt it, but it didn't actually harm it. There was no sign of blood or damage at all. Lara also wanted to investigate the reason it wouldn't go into the lake. There was a lot of questions that needed answering, and it was the only place to go. Lara pulled up her jeep outside the local tavern, and they all got out and walked in. Steve, Chris and Sean sat down with some drinks and Lara went and talked to the barmaid, who was busily wiping the bar's surface with a cloth. She looked as though she was in her forties with brown hair that looked as though it had been dyed. She also wore a lot of make-up, far too much in Lara's opinion. "Hi, I was wondering if you could help me," she said. "Hmm?" replied the barmaid, barely looking up from her wiping. Lara knew this was going to be hard. She could hardly say they had come across a huge creature the night before that had killed her friend and that they needed help from Indians. She had to think of something else. "Do you know if there are any Indians near here?" The barmaid looked at Lara suspiciously. "Why?" she asked. "I have something that belongs to them. My great uncle gave it to me once, and I thought I should return it," she made up. It was a perfect answer. The barmaid couldn't really ask further, as it was none of her business and it sounded just about believable. Either way, the barmaid didn't ask any more questions. "There are some Indians in the mountains. I can get Mark to show you where they are, if you pay the right price. It ain't no tour mind you, he'll just show you where to go, take you, and you'll have to find your own way back," the barmaid said. Lara knew money would come into it somewhere. "Where can I find Mark?" Lara asked. The barmaid pointed to outside the window where a man in jeans and a straw hat was showing some people to the nearest petrol station. Lara thanked the woman, and led the others outside to where they paid Mark to show them to the Indians. Lara didn't expect anything like it. It was quite a strange sight. They were with an Indian who was sat cross-legged and supposedly talking to the spirits. Mark had already left them and they were waiting for the Indian to finish so they could talk to him. "May all the spirits look kindly upon us, and help us in all that we do," he said, and then went into a series of low humming chants. Lara and the others were uncomfortable sitting on rocks, but there wasn't much else to sit on , and hopefully they wouldn't be too long. The Indian finally finished and opened his eyes. "I'm sorry, can I help you?" he said. He had a deep voice, and could probably sound quite intimidating when he wanted to. "We hope so," started Lara. "We want to know about the beast of the forest, can you help?" The Indian stopped when he heard those words. "The beast of the forest," he said mysteriously, thinking about it. "The most dangerous and viscous monster that ever did live." Lara didn't like the sound of that. "We were attacked last night, our weapons did not harm it at all, and we need help," said Lara. "How are you still alive? Few see the beast and get away to tell the tale," he asked. "We all went in the lake as we had no other option. It wouldn't touch water," she replied. "Ah, of course. Water stings like a bee to the beast, going near it would put it in total agony." "Is that how it would die? Water?" Lara asked. He shook his head. "The beast only can be killed at sunrise, when it is at it's weakest with an exact shot to the heart, and even then, it may still live. It is only legend that tells us of this, and it may not be true." At least Lara knew what she needed to know, then all she had to do was make a plan. "Thank you," said Lara. "Come on, let's head back down to the village and book a room for the night," she said. The others followed. FOUR - The Plan --------------------- Lara took her sunglasses off as she walked into her tent, Steve, Sean and Chris following. "What's the plan then, Lara?" asked Chris. "I know Sean and I are the only people with guns, so Steve and Chris will be in trees, ready with the water." "How do you mean? Water pistols?" said Sean. The others laughed at the idea of hurting a huge beast with water pistols. "That won't do enough damage, we'll need buckets of water at least. With them, you can pour it on the beast if Sean and I get in trouble," she said. "What if it comes before sunrise?" asked Steve. "That's a risk we'll have to take," she replied. The others didn't look too thrilled. "Come on, let's get everything set up before dark." It was cold that night. And there was a strange mist hovering above the ground. They had already been waiting for three hours, and it wasn't that far off from sunrise. "How do you know it's actually going to come?" asked Chris from one of the trees to Lara on the ground. "I don't, but it should do hopefully, we are in the heart of the forest." They waited for a while. Chris and Steve had nearly dozed off when Lara heard a sound. "What's that?" she said. "Listen!" She could hear something, but it wasn't like the shuffling sound they had heard before, it was like running, and then suddenly, hundreds of deer came running as fast as they could past them, all in obvious fear, trying to get away from something... Lara wondered what it was, but she knew when she heard that same deafening, heart stopping roar. The water in Steve and Chris's buckets had nearly spilled with the vibration from the sound. Lara leapt up and shot at the beast, immediately ready. Sean ran around the back of it, his shotgun drawn. Steve and Chris got ready to drop their water. Chris checked to look at the sunrise. He could just see the light from the sun, outlining the tops of the trees in the distance. The beast lunged at Lara, who was still shooting at it with her double pistols. She looked up at Steve. It was immediately below him. "Steve, now!" she shouted as she realised she was running out of room quickly. Steve poured the water on the beast's head, and it cried out in pain. The beast looked up to face Steve, and Steve realised he might die. It smashed it's fist against the side of the tree, and sent Steve flying out of the tree, landing on the floor, right in front of the beast. He tried to get up, but couldn't as his legs was broken, and he couldn't support his own weight. The beast lifted it's foot and crushed Steve against the side of the tree, breaking all the other bones in his body. "Damn!" Lara thought, she knew it was pay-back time, two of her friends had now been killed by this thing. She jumped sideways, firing at the beast all the time, and then it headed for her. Chris checked the sun again. It was getting much brighter, and it was nearly sunrise. The beast reared his fist back to crush Lara, but was too slow, Lara back- flipped to dodge it, and it hit the floor instead. It roared out in frustration and Sean shot it's legs, trying to bring it down. The beast turned around and lumbered towards Sean. Sean ran away from it, firing his shotgun all the time, but he had nowhere else to run, he knew if something didn't happen quickly that he would die. Chris sent his whole bucket down on the beast, hitting it on the head, and sending the water all over it. It looked up briefly, before deciding to finish Sean off. Sean had his back up against the tree. He had no way of escaping. Chris checked the sun again. It had just risen. Lara noticed this too. Sean was about to die, and Lara wasn't going to let this thing kill three of her friends. She took careful aim, and shot again and again. It roared for it's final time, and then fell to it's side, causing an almighty thud. Lara wiped the sweat from her brow with the back of her hand, put her guns away and went to check if Sean and Chris were okay. Chris climbed down the tree, and safely reached the ground. Lara helped Sean up from the floor, and they all started the long walk back to the village, in the early morning light.