China Blonde - IV

[ Headed Home]

The road they'd been following since lunch came to an abrupt end in a stand of pine trees. The compass had directed them to it in a small village in the hills above the Yangtzee and while at times it had resembled a goat path more than a road they'd still managed to coax their vehicle up it.

"Lady Croft..." Buffy began as she started to climb out of the vehicle while Xia and Yumiko rummaged around in the back.

"Lara."

"Lara. You really don't have to come with us past this point. If this turns out to be dangerous you probably shouldn't get involved."

"I've come this far and I'm really curious about what you'll find." Lara shook her head. "I'm also quite capable of taking care of myself."

"Okay, but I would appreciate it if you stayed back until we've cleared anything we find. Our boss would be upset with us if we let you get killed, even if it was your own idea."

"Not a problem. If I get killed it won't be your fault. I can even call someone and tell them if you would like me to."

Buffy shook her head. "That won't be necessary."

"What do you have for weapons?" Lara continued. "I'm assuming you have something better than that stake I was given earlier. You probably don't have any ammunition that would fit my pistol?" she asked hopefully.

"Sorry, no. No guns or the things used in them. Our operating agreements with the Chinese government don't allow the kind of guns that would be useful against the kinds of things we normally face." Buffy answered in a matter of fact tone, as if reporting the weather. "We do have several kinds of crossbows, knives, and other sharp objects that we've found useful over the years."

The charmed compass had led them into the center of an ancient stone building. They'd found no sign of any recent occupants and paused for a few moments in the late afternoon sun that flooded the small courtyard they'd found themselves in.

While the compass continued to indicate that their target was still somewhere in the building, while exploring the rest of the single story structure it had soon become clear it was either well hidden or one of the empty rooms really wasn't.

"Lara?" a frustrated Buffy asked the renowned adventurer who had followed them around the structure out of curiosity but who hadn't interfered with their explorations.

"Yes?"

"Any ideas would be welcome." she grimaced. "If what we are looking for is still here it obviously is going to require someone with your expertise to find it."

"Well, I don't think you'll find anything in the rooms themselves. Something like this can be a big puzzle. It's the whole building that is the clue to solving it. And if you don't approach it that way it won't make much sense." Lara told them.

"Okay, Oh Puzzle Mistress," Buffy deferred to her with a bow, "what does the whole thing tell you?"

Lara grinned at her. The humour occasionally exhibited by the blonde and her cohorts tended to match her own. "This was obviously built by an astrologer. You'll notice that each room has a painting that depicts a sign from the Chinese zodiac and that all but one faces this courtyard. Which happens to be the center of the building."

"And that one would be?"

"The dragon."

"Of course." she sighed. "So does that mean there's an entrance to some other room there?"

"Possibly. Or there is something else in that room that will tell us what we need to know."

"Shall we check it out?"

"It is also almost a guarantee that whatever we find will be a trap." Lara warned her. "So we'll need to be careful."

Buffy shrugged, "Traps we can deal with." She motioned the other two women to follow Lara. "Let's see what happens."

Lara hadn't been wrong about a possible trap. When she'd pressed a small depression they'd found in the wall facing the painting, directly opposite the dragon's eyes, the floor had collapsed underneath them, dumping them into a long stone chute that eventually dropped them, covered in dust, in the center of a large, torch lit chamber.

Quickly standing and gathering anything they'd dropped, they surveyed the room to find themselves surrounded by several vampires and other demons.

"Welcome to my humble abode, ladies. I wasn't expecting such illustrious guests." a harsh voice announced from one side of the chamber. "You're just in time for the final ceremony."

"I hate when that happens." Lara heard Buffy mutter. "I bet he's planning on ending the world."

"Buffy?"

"Yes, Xia?"

She pointed with the compass towards a small cage next to a small, blood encrusted altar, across the chamber from the large shrouded figure that had spoken to them. "Our dragon seems to be over there."

"Okay, why don't you help Lady Croft get it out of that cage and then find us a way out of here while Yumiko and I distract them." And with a sureness that spoke of greater planning than Lara was sure had occurred, Buffy and Yumiko charged towards the large creature. Lara simultaneously found herself being pulled towards the cage by Xia.

The fight didn't last very long. Xia was able to quickly eliminate the vampires and demon guarding the cage before Lara had a chance to open it.

As soon as the cage door was open a long flowing creature had poured out and wrapped itself sari-like around Lara. "Xia, it looks like you were correct." she said as she found herself looking into the eyes of a small Imperial Chinese dragon.

Lara found the rest of the dragon retrieval to be anticlimactic. Buffy and Yumiko seemed almost disappointed at the quickness with which they had dealt with the demon that had been holding the dragon captive. Lara only wondered briefly about that, the dragon seemed to occupy most of her thoughts.

Leaving the underground chamber carrying the dragon and the scraps of ancient documents they found scattered near the remains of the demon after the fight proved to be the most challenging part of the rescue.

The trip back to the temple with the dragon, while not stressful, provided its own amusements. Although the dragon clung to Lara during the trip, it spent the entire time staring at Buffy and ignoring the fascinated Xia and Yumiko.

The monks who'd met them at the temple gate were able to coax the dragon loose from Lara, leaving her shivering in the damp early evening air.

"I think that does it for this trip." Buffy announced as they all climbed back into their vehicle. "Lara, let's get you back to your hotel and then we need to head back to Tokyo."

Several days later, headed home in disappointment at a trip that following the dragon rescue had become suddenly bogged down in unavoidable red tape, Lara had plenty to think about. It had taken a long conversation with Hillary and Bryce the previous night for all of the information to sink in but she was starting to get some idea of who these women were and what they did. The why still seemed shrouded from her but she knew she would find that out eventually.

She wondered how often she'd just missed running into them in the past. This was the second time she'd encountered them when her path collided with creatures she'd once thought were mythical like demons, vampires, and now dragons. Sure, she'd fought the occasional minor deity or magic user in her long career as a tomb raider but this was different. They seemed to do it as if it weren't anything extraordinary.

And they weren't ordinary. She'd seen them fighting against creatures even she wouldn't willing face, expecting to win. Their fighting skills outmatched anything she'd seen before. The few glimpses she'd had of them while she was fighting had been amazing. She'd dealt with commandos and other hand-to-hand combat specialists with decades of experience who would have been hard put to match them.

But they couldn't be doing it alone. Somewhere in the background was some shadowy organization that kept them going. And she wasn't sure she approved. The secret organizations she'd had experience with usually didn't work for the best interest of others.

She shook her head at the image of a girl powered society of monster hunters. While close encounters with death did bring out her inner philosopher, she was probably reading too much into her brief encounters with these young women. The few she'd seen in action didn't seem to be the kind of people who would tolerate being manipulated for long.

Notes:

• The ending doesn't really work as well as I hoped it would.

© Copyright 2009 Andy Stoffel. Last update: 7/22/09; 8:13:03 PM. This theme is based on the SoundWaves (blue) Manila theme.