Chapter 1 - Prologue

Lara's POV

It was sunday evening around eight. It was raining outside and I could hear the wind blow through the trees. It had been quite stormy lately; I saw a fallen tree on the road towards the city yesterday. We were heading to the mall to buy clothes for me.

After we left the clothes store with various kinds of clothes for me and a new pair of shoes for uncle Roth we walked towards the car. I spotted a sweets store across the street in the corner of my eye.

"Pleaaase uncle Roth!" I begged.

"We have enough sweets back home, sweetheart." Roth sighed.

"But Roth, daddy always took me to sweets stores, why don't you?" I told him with my best puppy eyes on.

Roth hated it if I told him what my dad would've done in contrast to him. But it was my way of getting what I wanted and I hated myself for doing that to him. He always felt sorry for me that my dad wasn't always around. Especially after he disappeared Roth would do everything to make me feel happy and he did.

"Okay Lara, you win." He smiled putting his hands up slightly.

I cheered and ran towards the store.

"Lara! Not so fast, wait for me!" He yelled running after me.

I ran across the street and almost got hit by a car. Luckily the driver braked as quick as possible. Roth gestured sorry to the driver and came up to me.

"What did I tell you about crossing the road without me?" He said slightly angry.

I started crying like every six year old would in that situation.

"I'm sorry uncle Roth…" I sobbed.

"It's okay Lara. Just don't do it again. I don't want you to get hurt." He said worriedly.

"I won't do it again." I said rubbing my eyes.

"Promise?" Roth said.

"Promise."

"Now lets get you some sweets, sweetheart." He smiled taking my hand.

I nodded and smiled back.

After we got back home and had dinner I went to my room. School started tomorrow so Roth told me to sleep early that night. I was sitting on my desk chair with a pile of my father's books on my desk.

My room was really big, I had a queen's bed in the middle of the room placed against the wall with the end of my bed facing the doorway. The bed was white with a touch of pink here and there. I had a large desk to the right of my bed with a bookshelf in the corner of the room. My wardrobe was to the left of my bed, next to the bathroom door.

I was reading through some of my father's books that evening. I always loved reading through them. I didn't understand a word of it then, but there were tons of pictures of artifacts in them. There was a beautiful crystal on page 43 which I really liked. It was a special kind of emerald that would make you immortal. The idea of not being able to grow old didn't appeal me when I was six, so I turned the page. The next page had a picture of a special ruby hidden somewhere in Wyoming on it. This one gave you super strength. That sounded much cooler to me than what the green one had to offer. I was inspecting the picture when Roth knocked on the door.

"Hey Lara, what are you reading?" He asked walking towards me.

"One of daddy's books. It's full of things that give you awesome superpowers. There's a red one that gives you super strength!" I told him.

He smiled weakly. He sat down on my bed and told me to sit next to him. "Sweetheart, I… I have something to tell you. About your mommy and daddy." He started with a sad look on his face.

"What is it, uncle Roth?" I said trying to figure out why he was sad.

Roth went quiet for a while and then took a deep breath: "They are not coming back, Lara."

I felt my heart stop for a second and the tears building up in my eyes.

"I'm sorry sweetheart…" He said putting his arms around me.

I couldn't fight back my tears anymore and they started rolling down my cheeks. I hugged him tightly and cried on his shoulder.

"They promised me to come back before my birthday." I sobbed.

"I know sweetheart, I know…" He said softly while caressing the back of my head.

I could barely sleep that night. I had to cry myself to sleep for the rest of the week. Roth was there for me, since I was born he already took care of me when my parents were on an expedition. After my parents disappeared he was the closest thing to a father I had.

"You will be alright girl. I'm here for you." He whispered.

This was fifteen years ago.

~ Summer 2013 ~

This morning I woke up five minutes before my alarm went off. Always great, because I hated the sound of alarms since I was born. Today we are leaving Los Angeles and we'll be sailing to the Dragon's Triangle at the end of the week. We've been preparing the whole week for the expedition to find Yamatai, an island presumed to be located inside the Dragon's Triangle. The island was the domain of the shaman queen Himiko, the first sun queen of Yamatai.

Roth's ship, The Endurance, was docked alongside the west coast of California in San Francisco. We were staying at a four star hotel in Los Angeles.

I got out of my incredibly comfortable hotel bed and went to the bathroom. I brushed my teeth, put my hair in a ponytail after combing it and applied a little make-up. When I got out of the bathroom, Sam rushed in.

"Calm down Sam! Check out is eleven o'clock." I reassured.

"I know, but I don't want to miss breakfast again. I'm dying to try the bacon here." She said.

"Why didn't you try it the first day?" I asked.

"Because Americans love bacon. Americans plus bacon equals no bacon left for Sam." She said dryly.

I chuckled and chose my outfit for today. I picked a grey tank-top with jeans shorts and put it on. I turned on the tv to kill some time. When Sam got out of the bathroom she put on a black t-shirt with white text spelling 'I 3 LA' and jeans shorts.

"Okay, I'm done, lets have breakfast!" She exclaimed.

I turned off the tv, took my essentials from the table and left the hotel room. We went downstairs to the buffet. Sam took two plates from the stack, one for me and one for herself. When we filled our plates we took place somewhere near the window. Sam had a ridiculous amount of bacon on her plate, together with two eggs. I only took two slices of bread, two strips of bacon and one egg. Sam stuffed some bacon in her mouth and started chewing.

"And how's the bacon?" I asked.

"Fucking amazing! This is exactly how bacon is supposed to be." She said with a mouthful.

I chuckled and ate my bacon and egg sandwich. Sam wasn't wrong, the bacon was pretty good. When we finished eating we went to the lobby and checked out of the hotel. We also asked the receptionist to call a cab for us. We left the hotel and waited in front of it.

"Man, I'm gonna miss LA." Sam sighed.

"Yeah me too. I wish we could stay longer, the weather is perfect here." I said.

"You said it. By the way, where is Roth's ship docked at?" Sam asked.

"Along the west coast in San Francisco." I answered.

"Never been to San Francisco, hope it's nice." She said.

The cab arrived. The cab driver took our luggage and put it in the back. He had short brown hair and sunglasses on. He wore a blue short sleeved Hollister t-shirt and beige shorts. I got in first and Sam followed.

"Good morning ladies. Where to?" The driver asked us looking at me and took his sunglasses off. His eyes were grey blue.

"Los Angeles International Airport." I answered.

"Okay." He said and started driving.

"So… Did you enjoy your stay in LA?" He asked after a minute of silence.

"YES! It was freaking awesome!" Sam exclaimed.

He chuckled and asked: "What about the gorgeous British lady next to you. How did you like it here?"

"I- I.. Err.. It was nice." I stuttered, taken aback by the compliment. I could see Sam grinning in the corner of my eyes.

"Tell me about it." He said.

"Err… Why don't you tell him about it, Sam?" I said to her, uncertain what to tell him.

"Why me? He asked you, right?" She grinned.

"Exactly. C'mon, don't be shy! I don't bite." He chuckled.

I sighed, thought for a second and said: "The weather here is great compared to England."

"I heard it rains 24/7 over there." He commented.

"It does." Sam confirmed.

"So, where you from?" He asked.

"Me?"

"Yes, beautiful." He smiled.

"I'm from London." I answered, blushing slightly.

"Ah London.. Always wanted to go there." He said.

"If you play your cards right, Lara might take you there." Sam smirked.

"Sam!" I almost yelled. "You are embarrassing me." I added quietly with a blush.

"Lara? Beautiful name you got there." He commented.

"Thank you." I smiled.

He looked into the rear-view mirror and smiled back at me.

"Well, we're here. Los Angeles International Airport." He said.

"Thank you, how much do we owe you?" I asked taking my wallet out of my backpack.

"Nothing. It was a pleasure driving you girls, fly safely!" He smiled.

I smiled back and handed him $30.

"It's fine, really." He refused and gave back my money. "I don't come across talkative people like you two every day and I want to thank you for that."

I smiled, got out of the cab and walked towards the entrance with Sam, who already took our luggage out of the cab.

"He was SO into you, Lara!" Sam exclaimed handing me my luggage.

"He was not, he was just being nice." I disagreed.

"Didn't you notice he was focused on you the whole time? If he was 'just being nice' he would've talked to me too." Sam chuckled.

"Whatever, Sam." I said.

We went inside the airport. The place was huge with countless people walking around.

"Where do we go?" Sam asked.

"Terminal 4." I said.

"Have you bought souvenirs yet?" Sam asked me.

"No not yet, should we look around for a gift shop later?" I asked her.

She nodded and lead the way to check-in. We then got to terminal 4. There were tons of shops here ranging from Victoria's Secret to Starbucks. We decided to go to a nearby gift shop and look around.

What should I get? There's so much to choose from. Coffee mugs, fridge magnets, t-shirts, necklaces, rings, everything.

"Lara, look at this!" Sam pointed towards a mini hollywood sign.

"Cool, do you want it?" I asked her.

"Of course I want it! It's only $7,50" She answered.

"That's quite expensive for something like that." I said.

"I don't care, I'm getting it." She said taking it to the cashier.

I looked around some more and decided to buy a coffee mug with 'I 3 LA' on it. I took it and walked over to Sam.

"That will be $7,50 please." The cashier said.

"Here you go." Sam said handing him a ten dollar bill.

"Thank you." He smiled putting the bill in the register and returning the change. Sam took the change and said goodbye.

"Hi." I said placing the coffee mug on the counter.

He scanned the barcode and said: "That will be $9,99"

"Here you are." I said giving him the money.

"Thank you very much, have a nice day and fly safely." He smiled.

"Thank you." I smiled back, put the mug in my backpack and followed Sam out of the shop.

"I'm dying to get some coffee…" Sam said.

"Should we go to Starbucks?" I asked her.

"Hell yeah." She answered.

The queue was pretty long, but we had too much time anyway.

"Grande caramel frappuccino for… Sam?" The guy behind the counter said.

Sam walked over to him and took her coffee.

"A grande caramel frappuccino for… Laura? The same guy said.

"It's Lara, without the u." I smiled.

"Gotcha." The guy took a marker, removed the u and handed me my drink.

"Here you go, Lara." He winked.

"Thank you." I grinned.

We headed to the departure hall with our drinks and took place somewhere. We waited there for 30 minutes when the intercom said:

"Good afternoon passengers. This is the pre-boarding announcement for flight 67A to San Francisco. We are now inviting those passengers with small children, and any passengers requiring special assistance, to begin boarding at this time. Please have your boarding pass and identification ready. Regular boarding will begin in approximately ten minutes time. Thank you."

The plane was normal sized. There were two columns. Both columns had 25 rows with three seats each. My seat was 15A and Sam's was next to me, 15B. We put our hand luggage above us and sat back down. I had the window seat which I always prefered, because you could lean against the wall if you wanted to sleep and because you could look out the window and admire the view.

We arrived at San Francisco International Airport. The flight was short, only an hour or so. Sam was excited, while I was kinda tired. Caffeine never had much of an effect on me. Sam however, is a different case.

"Finally I get to see The Endurance! On the pictures it looks huge." Sam said heading towards arrival.

"Yeah it's pretty big, especially if you're on it." I told her while walking behind her.

We got our luggage and left the airport. We took the shuttle bus to the port of San Francisco. We could eventually see The Endurance from a distance, docked in the harbour.

"You weren't kidding, it's huge!" Sam exclaimed.

We arrived at the harbour and went aboard The Endurance.

"Hey Lara!" Alex waved.

"Hi Alex!" I waved back.

"HEY ALEX!" Sam yelled running towards him and giving him a tight hug.

"Good to see you too Sam." Alex chuckled trying to release himself from her grip.

"How was LA?" He asked the two of us.

"It was nice." I said simply.

"It wasn't just nice, Lara, it was awe-some!" Sam exclaimed.

"Well duh, we're in America, where everything is awesome." Alex chuckled.

I smiled, rolled my eyes and asked: "So when are we leaving?"

"I dunno, you should ask Roth." Alex responded.

I nodded and went looking for Roth. I spotted him moving cargo around and went up to him.

"Hey Roth!" I said.

"Mornin' Lara, how was your stay in Los Angeles?" He asked.

"It was great! The rooms were nice and the food was pretty good." I told him.

"Good t'hear. We're leaving tomorrow, so if you need something, I would recommend getting it today." He said.

"Okay, I'll ask Sam if she wants anything."

"Good, see you later Lara."

"Bye Roth." I said and went back to Alex and Sam.

"Lara! Can you help me with moving these crates? Grim told me to move them to the storage room. " Alex yelled.

"Sure!" I yelled back, walking over to him.

"Where's Sam?" I asked.

"Over here!" She yelled. She was talking with Jonah.

"Hey little bird!" He yelled.

"Hey Jonah!" I yelled back.

"Okay, if you move that crate, I'll do this one." Alex said.

"What's in these crates?" I asked him.

"I don't know, it's just cargo." He said.

I nodded and helped him carry the boxes to the storage room. The boxes were quite heavy and sometimes required us to carry them together. We went back to pick up the last box.

"You can go now, I will handle the last one." He said, crouching down and lifting the box up.

"Okay, I'll see you at the dinner table, should I make you some lunch?" I said.

"Yeah, sounds good! I'll be right there." He said, carrying the box to the storage room.

I saw him stumbling around with the box, this one looked heavier than the other ones.

"You need help with that?" I chuckled.

"Nah, it's fine, It's fine." He said under his breath.

I entered the kitchen and walked over to the fridge, I opened it up and took butter, bacon and eggs out. I took a pan out of the cupboard and turned on the fire. I placed the pan onto the fire, threw some butter in it and cracked the eggs into the pan. I then put a few strips of bacon in it. When they were cooked I threw them on a plate and brought them to the dinner table. I then went back and did the same again. When I placed the second plate on the table Alex walked in.

"Smells good!" He said.

"Take a seat." I said to him, turning on the tap to wash my hands.

We sat down and started eating our lunch.

"You are a great cook, Lara!" He told me taking a bite of his bacon.

"It's just bacon and egg, everyone can make that." I said.

"Well, you make good bacon and egg, that's what counts." He smiled and took another bite of his bacon. When we finished we placed our plates on the counter and left the kitchen. I went to my room and saw Sam sitting on her bed fumbling with her camera.

"Hey Sam, what are you doing?" I asked.

"Hey sweetie! I'm just setting up my camera, I'm gonna film this whole expedition and make you famous!" She grinned.

"Yeah, we'll see about that." I chuckled in disbelieve.

"Trust me, it will happen." She smiled.

I smiled back and walked over to my desk.

There's still so much to learn about Yamatai. Even after spending days studying the history of Himiko and Yamatai itself, I still don't know enough.

In the evening we all gathered in the kitchen. Jonah was cooking dinner for us.

"Okay! Dinner is ready, are you guys hungry?" The big guy said.

"Starving." Alex said.

"That's too bad, because you are getting nothing." Jonah joked.

We all laughed and started eating the grilled curry chicken with yellow rice.

"This is delicious Jonah!" Sam said.

"Just like my mother used to make it." Jonah smiled.

"Then your mother was a terrible cook." Alex joked.

"Alex!" I said indignantly.

"Just kidding, settle down." Alex grinned.

Jonah laughed and said: "Well Alex, then you're cooking tomorrow."

"I rather starve than eat his shite." Grim said.

We all laughed and continued eating.

"So Roth, when exactly are we leaving?" I asked him.

"Tomorrow morning, around six." He answered.

I nodded and continued eating. When we all were stuffed full of Jonah's magical cooking, I stood up from the table and walked towards the door.

"I'm gonna go to bed now, good night everybody." I said to the others.

"Good night Lara." They all said.

I entered my room and took some pj's out of my wardrobe. I then went inside the bathroom, undressed myself and stepped into the shower. When I got out 20 minutes later I dried myself with a fresh towel and put on my pj's. I brushed my teeth, combed my hair and got into my bed. I set my phone alarm for 5 am and went to sleep.

~ End of chapter ~