An ally?

Weighing her options, Lara felt emboldened with the knife in her hand and three days worth of stress to channel. She quietly made her way up the ladder, peaking over the edge to find...

A scrawny boy? He moved with a lithe precision around the room, gathering various objects and stuffing them into a sack. As she watched him move around she realized he was probably her age but was quite short, boyish features made him rather un-intimidating. Of course he could still have a gun.

Maybe she could get some answers from him. She couldn't take the chance that he was with the others so she'd have to be a bit more aggressive when asking. Lara waited till he had his back turned then scrambled up, sneaking up behind him, knife ready...CREEEEAAK, the wood floor gave her away. Spinning, the boy raised a crudely silenced pistol, pointing it expertly at her head. There was a hard edge in his eyes that belied his youthful appearance. Still too far away to try tackling him, Lara froze, knife still raised.

It seemed to take a moment before he really saw her. Then his eyes widened and his mouth opened slightly.

"You're a girl...." Well...

"Yes. Have you never seen one before?", a crooked smile pulled up one side of his face.

"You haven't been here very long have you?", Lara shook her head. "Don't knife me." The boy lowered his gun, holstering it in his belt. "I guess you've just been shipwrecked huh? Looking for your friends?" Lara nodded, a smile breaking over her face in spite of herself. She had finally met someone who knew what was going on (and was willing to tell her). "Alright. You...probably have questions. Want to ask me on the way to camp?"

"Wait, who are you? What camp? I need questions answered now!" He was watching the knife apprehensively and Lara realized she had reflexively raised it again. Snapping it shut and stowing it in her belt she asked again, more calmly, for the boy to introduce himself.

"Sorry, it's been a long time since I used proper etiquette. My name is Shroud. Or at least that's what my friends call me." He laughed at her raised eyebrow. "Y'gotta have a cool nickname out here, nobody takes you seriously otherwise! I mean...look at the Solarii! There just a bunch of guys name Todd. Or Clarence. When they join up they change their name to something like Jack or Mikael-" Lara rolled her eyes at the boys rambling.

"Who are the Solarii?"

"Whooo, you are new. The Solarii are the major **** on the island: the dictators, the army, the....well, they'd like to be the navy but, well." He grinned sunnily at her like he'd just told an enormously funny joke. She stared at him. He cleared his throat, "Y'see, there's something about this island. People don't leave. Like, ever. Soon as they get offshore, a storm whips up and sinks their boat. The Solarii think it's the spirit of Himiko or something but I think-"

"No-one's ever left? How can you be sure?"

He grinned, "Cause this island is jam-packed with castaways. I know what you're thinking, just radio out for help, but that's how all the Other people get here. From responding to distress signals. Nobody leaves." He wasn't grinning anymore. As his speech went on the hard light came back into his eye. Lara didn't think she'd make much progress reasoning with him, he obviously believed what he was saying.

"...have you seen my friends?"

He seemed to un-age right before her eyes, once more becoming the joking boy. "Can't say I have, been running from the Solarii for the past two days. Your shipwreck really stirred them up. If you got friends, they maaaay have been...captured." He curled his face in a rough approximation of sympathy.

"What will the Solarii do to them?"

"Depends. What gender are they?" Fury flashed in Lara's eyes, "Nonono! Not like that! ....well. Maybe a little bit like that. But it's mainly because they try to recruit men and...Ok. So you know how they think Himiko is keeping them here?" Lara nodded impatiently. "Well, they think that if they can appease her with sacrifices maybe she'll let them-"

"Sacrifices?!" He nodded grimly. Lara stared out the window, horrible images forming in her imagination.

"...but that'll take time to set up, we could try and find them before then. C'mon back to camp, we'll tell everyone and get them up and at'em for a rescue mission!"

"Just how many of you are there?"

"Couple dozen, we call ourselves the 'Lost Boys'. Hey, don't hate! It's cool and you know it! We're the survivors who managed to evade the Solarii. Usually if we stay out of their way, they stay out..."

Lara wearily followed the bouncy youth, trying to piece together her situation and every once in a while finding herself laughing at one of his jokes.