It's not worth it

Ultimately, it might not be worth being a brat for no good reason, Lara has to remind herself that she is effectively somebody else's guest while in this neck of the woods... or rainforest.

"You're right," Lara flashed a semi-sincere smile. "I suppose it can wait until the business is done. Relaxing does feel much better when you've earned it."

Carab gave an unconcerned nod, starting back up almost the second Lara finished without a look back. Lara had to lurch to fall back into pace with the impenetrable wall of a woman. It probably wasn't going to matter even if they did get in the bath together or get otherwise cozy, there would always be an unspoken gulf between them. Carab's tight-lipped, almost nervous way of handling the outsider only compacted the natural language barrier. If Carab was going to be Lara's "handler" for lack of a better term, it was going to be beneficial to find a way to get her unwound. Even celibate Monks had a vice or bent that could be worked given the knowledge, it was just a question of what and how much.

Judging by the mountain of musculature and veins that bulged beneath her tanned skin, she didn't seem like lazing about would be the key to her heart. It could be food, there was always the possibility that the tribe's food sources weren't exactly optimal for storing body fat and she just worked off every errant calorie she ate. Though in the time that Lara had been there, she'd only seen one person eating, and it had been a sort of fruity seedpod. Carab herself had mostly abstained, part out of duty but it seemed like even if the tribe did have enough food to get by, it likely wasn't enough to develop a bulking routine. Lara knew her fitness regiment, anybody who looked like Carab ate a lot. Carab, seemingly, did not. Even trying to pursue lines of thought not about the "curse" or the absolute freakishness of the tribeswomen, it was impossible to conclude anything other than some bizarre **** not of this world being at play. A group of people of Carab's size back in England would have put a local shop out of stock in a day, how they maintained their physiques without some hollow-earth of food was beyond a mystery.

"Say, Carab?"

No response.

"What does the tribe eat?"

Carab slowed without stopping. "Hungry?"

"No, I'm hunky-dory dear, I was simply wondering what you all eat. It can't be easy to maintain figures like those."

Carab seemed to have trouble putting her thoughts into English, "We hungry-dory, not eat much as you think."

"Well that just seems odd, were we back in England, I think my cooks would faint just looking at two of you."

"Hungry not the body, body cursed, hungry not."

"Do you suppose if the curse were lifted, you would all start shrinking? Maybe look more like me and Izel?"

Carab looked back at Lara for a moment, looked back quickly. "Not know."

"Well, do you think so?"

"Other maybe, Carab not want."

"Do you like your current body?"

Carab shrugged, wiping her brow. "Need it. Strong important."

Lara offered her a canteen of water, "I couldn't agree with you more, a girl needs to be able to handle herself."

Carab looked like she wanted to laugh, but accepted the canteen. "Outsider different kind strong."

"Oh sure, maybe I'm not a slab of meat like you are, but I don't lose fights. I take pride in that."

Carab half-tossed her the canteen back and started back up down the trail. "If want to win, not take fight from tribe."

"Do you all fight a lot for fun?"

Carab buried her head in her work, "Fun for winner, loser punished. Fight for control, challenge is risk."

"Oh? Do you have a sort of "strongest fighter is the leader" hierarchy? We make up stories about those a lot back in my world, but I've never actually seen a real one."

"Yes, winner lead higher archie."

"And who is the current leader?"

"Me."

"So you win most of your fights?"

"All."

"That's terribly impressive Carab, I do hope you let me see you fight sometime."

Carab grunted back, something that sounded like "****." She wasn't receptive to any further questions about it.

Eventually, Lara took the hint and they traveled the last ten or so minutes in abject silence. Before the sun showed noon they had made it to a break that housed a stone structure all but wasted away to time and wet heat. It was a squat flat-topped mesoamerican pyramid, or at least half of one, unexceptional for that in everything but location. The stone that remained standing was overgrown, the wall which contained the faint writings of ancient mystics and prophets cracking and rotting away. The writing that remained intact was not from one of her antique language wheelhouses, so she snapped some pictures with her PDA to send along. The temple was small enough externally to do a circle around in just over a minute, but the disturbed earth and cave-ins in the immediate vicinity told her that it had deep-set roots. There were a few obvious entrances, but she could tell that getting around inside was going to be as exhausting as it was claustrophobic. The prospect of being stuck upside-down and having no recourse but slow **** was an everpresent niggling concern, though Lara did try not to think about it. She didn't keep weapons on her just for people who tried their luck against her. Carab, perhaps with a similar thought or perhaps in religious reverence, held back at the tree line.

"Shall I be going it solo?"

Carab nodded.

"Perhaps you could tell me a little about it before I go."

"Cursed."

"Right, got that," Lara sighed. "Can you tell me anything specific about it?"

"Moon spirit, angry."

"You don't say. Could you tell me more about this moon spirit?"

Carab shrugged, "Curse us, ask Izel."

"Are you not a religious person?"

Carab shook her head, "Cursed."

Lara finished her harness work and grimaced, "Thanks."

Working through was slow going, her least favorite kind of going. The walls sagged and swelled like they would give way at a moment's notice and without knowing how many layers of earthwork she was over, she felt like each footfall had to be taken twice and in slow motion. She had to duck under roots and sagging ceiling, never less than completely aware that she was at the mercy of the craftsmanship of people dead long enough for their descendants to resemble them genetically as much as she did. In some parts, she had to dig a way forward, at times pressing herself through slits that were a shift of rock away from crushing her. At times her arms would extend above her head, trying to narrow her shoulders and hips as much as possible. She had to thank past Lara for ensuring the flexibility and level of fitness that the world outside of catacombs took for granted. Even with world-class gymnastic skills, her clothes were still filthy and starting to look ready to give way to a barely-contained mass of micro-tears and slits. She was about ready to give way too, it was business that worked up a sweat in the Himalayas, in the Amazon it made her feel a kind of gross that was hard to describe in any language she knew.

But she did find her way to what seemed like the main chamber eventually. The ceiling had a gaping hole large enough to cast the afternoon sun onto empty platforms and piles of rubble that showed signs of human interaction. It looked less unearthed and more grave-robbed. As she stepped up to the main pedestal and embraced the feeling of the sun on her skin again, she sighed. The field of archeology was one with an embarrassing past. The cutoff line between respectful handling and quacks making up what they wanted was more recently established than most in the field wanted to admit. Even within the past few years, there was still complete quackery.

The stone pedestal showed symbols that could be distinguished as pictures and not writing. They depicted a priest cutting the head from somebody on the pedestal, the blood dripping down to a bowl that was sticking out like a toilet bowl halfway down the length. Where the blood touched the stone, a woman bathed in fire came rising out, cloaked in the moonlight. The bowl of the dish was stained with blood fresh enough to have only been a few years old, though more of a cut wrists' worth and less of a beheading's worth.

"I suppose there's nothing else to do but test it."

Lara unlatched her machete and pulled off one of her gloves, giving her finger a quick poke just hard enough to get a drop or two. It was unfortunate that so many old mechanisms required blood, but it was an easy and readily available form of magic. Blood mechanisms were common enough in occult ruins that she had gotten good at drawing just a drop or two, not really a skill she had ever envisioned herself honing.

The blood dripped into the basin, not producing an immediate result. In cases like this, you either needed to wait or start spilling more, Lara was inclined to test waiting as a strategy as much as she possibly could.

The basin began to retract with a grinding squeal. Smoke came pouring out of the slot, coating the floor. The sun itself seemed to darken as the chamber was immersed in darkness. The form of a woman, shimmering and terrible, came bursting semi-tangibly out of the pedestal.

"YOU WHO DISTURB ME WITH SO MEAGER AN OFFERING," She spoke with a booming voice directly into Lara's mind. "WHAT BOLDNESS BRINGS YOU-"

She looked Lara up and down, "OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE, ANOTHER CROFT."

Lara winced, "I really wish deities would stop greeting me that way."

"YOU ARE AS BOLD AS YOU ARE FOOLISH TO COME BEFORE ME AFTER YOUR FATHER'S TRANSGRESSIONS IN THIS HOLY PLACE."

"Yeah, I do hear that one a lot. I would like to make peace if you would allow me."

"A LIKELY STORY, AND AN IMPOSSIBILITY. YOUR FATHER TOOK MY TREASURE AND SCATTERED IT AS ASHES IN THE GALE, THERE MAY BE NO RECOMPENSE."

"Yeah, heard that one too. Look, is there at least a way that I might lift the curse on the nearby tribe? They've done nothing to wrong you, they don't deserve what's happened to them."

The shimmering woman threw back her head and laughed dramatically, as most ancient beings seemed to think was intimidating.

"YOU KNOW NOT WHAT YOU EVEN ASK. THAT IS NO CURSE THAT AFFLICTS THEM, IT IS AN ASCENSION TOWARD MY GODHOOD. AS THEY CONTINUE DOWN THE PATH THEY NOW WALK, I WILL-"

"So you're using the curse to make them conduits to bring you power."

"H-HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT?"

"Oh, it's a very common thing with ancient gods, with their religion in decline a lot of them turn to trying to manifest. It's not a problem unless they start trying to take over the world or something like that."

"FOOLISH MORTAL, YOU CANNOT KNOW THE PLANS OF GODS."

"You're not even a god, not technically speaking. Any god that actually ascended in full doesn't start to fade once their numbers dwindle. You're probably stuck in that transitory phase. Could you even smite me down if you wanted to?"

"I COULD REDUCE YOU TO ATOMS, INSOLENT FOOL-!"

"Okay, go ahead."

"I SIMPLY DO NOT WISH TO."

"Right," Lara rolled her eyes. "So... got any big plans for when you manifest? I bet you don't"

"THEY ARE BEYOND YOUR KNOWING."

"Oh heavens, I was just joking. You actually have no plans, don't you?"

"WHEN I HAVE PHYSICAL FORM, THERE WILL BE NO LIMIT TO WHAT I CAN DO."

"Yeah, but is there anything you actually want to do? Manifestation isn't all it's cracked up to be, you know. Unless you have a goal in mind, you start to unravel pretty quickly. That's why so many of you try to take over the world, it's something to focus on."

"YOU LIE!"

"I'm not! I've seen once powerful gods melt away like a candle after manifesting. Really, you'd be better staying intangible and using your strength to hang on as a minor spirit. You could possess somebody, travel the world, get a hobby or something. Hell, if you try to take over the world as a minor spirit there's no real way to tell the difference between you and any other jackass who thinks owning all of the money makes them special."

"I... WHAT IF I MANIFEST AND THEN TRY TO OWN ALL OF THE MONEY?"

"I don't suppose anybody has tried that before, not that I know of at least. Though you may find that owning all of the money is hard to do if you're starting from no money."

"I WILL HAVE AN INFINITE AMOUNT OF TIME. I MAY EVEN OUTLIVE THE CONCEPT OF CURRENCY."

"There you go! Now you're starting to get it. I still think the whole minor spirit thing is more what you want. The only problem then is the nature of the curse, if it isn't particularly strong you could wind up taking decades to even begin to manifest."

"IT... IT IS QUITE MIGHTY!"

"Really? Does it drain souls? Even one that turns the victims into soulless husks can take a long time."

"IT IS NOT... I DIDN'T CONSIDER..."

"It doesn't even drain them? Well, then that could take centuries! What exactly does it do?"

"NOW I DO NOT WANT TO TELL YOU."

"Oh come onnn!" Lara groaned, "Don't get upset at me now."

"YOUR FATHER STOLE A PRIZED ARTIFACT TO MY GREATNESS, ONE WHICH I HAVE KARMICALLY HEXED THE TRIBE IN THE IMAGE OF."

"Yes yes, a punishment mirroring the crime and all. What does it do and is it breakable?"

"IT WAS AN ANCIENT DEPICTION OF MY GLORY, A MIGHTY WOMAN WHO TOWERED ABOVE ALL OTHERS. THE MOON OF THEIR ANCIENT CULTURE WAS THE FEMININE FERTILITY AND THE MALE PASSION. BEWARE, FOR YOUR COMPANION MAY NOT BE AS SHE APPEARS, THOSE AFFECTED BY THE CURSE-"

"Is it one of those horny curses?"

"N-NO!"

"Why is it always the randy choices with you guys? Is the lower pantheon of the afterlife comprised of perverts?"

"YOU WILL NOT SHAME ME FOR THIS, MORTAL."

"Right, well, I did get what I came for so I'm going to be saying farewell." Lara started to dust herself off, looking for a way to climb up through the hole in the ceiling and save herself some trouble. "Good luck with the spirit thing if you take my advice, otherwise happy ascension. Either way, be careful of this thing called the internet, it seems like most of you lose your way soon after first encountering it."

The spirit hissed, "YES, BEGONE FROM THIS PLACE MORTAL. I GROW TIRED OF THIS CONVERSATION."

Lara fished a grappling rope out of her bag, spinning it before tossing it up to the ceiling. The female figure wafted into smoke which dispersed about the floor with a petulant grumble. The hook at the end of the rope seemed to catch decently, so she braced herself on the wall and pulled herself up into the late afternoon sun. She took a minute of pacing to find Carab, turning over some specific lines in her head. The whole "feminine and male" line was one that she felt she might understand, though most of those curses were done by spirits who were a little less ambiguous about their perversions. Come to think of it as well, it did align with the general look and tale of what had been going on. The only real question mark was how far things were along, something she would have trouble knowing until she found a way under one of those knee-length grass skirts. The good news was that no matter how far along it was, it was just a matter of finding the trigger. Lower beings like the one in the chamber were a blessing and a curse to work with because they had easy spells to break but the smart ones made the condition very specific. It was like the idea of genies and very specific wording, in fact, once she felt like proving the existence of the spirit world to the public there was probably a good analytical paper about how many pieces of mythos came from spiritual interactions. If she was lucky, maybe there was some sort of analytical prize in it. Either way, it was probably best to find a spirit who had their shit together a bit more to be the ambassador to mankind. Best to put this temple in the rearview and get this over with.

Carab grunted and nodded to her, "Earth shook, find something?"

"I did indeed, it turns out the curse on your tribe should be quite easy to break given some time. I'm afraid I'll need to stay with all of you for a while as I work it out though." Lara leaned onto Carab as she finished speaking. Carab recoiled quickly, jerkily enough to seem nervous at the touch of her.

"Feminine and male, huh?"

The going back was easier, with the path already hacked from the underbrush. It was still quiet travel, which made the time seem to drag. Carab was pointedly quiet, as though making an effort to keep the intangible gulf between them. The language barrier would ease, but Lara was going to be hitting some raw nerves whether or not Carab wanted her to. Best to rip some of those band-aids off as soon as she could. If Carab thought as much with her "male passion" as Lara was inclined to believe, she might be coaxed into being a far more helpful host. It was just a question of getting that skirt off and seeing how "physical" she would need to be to solve a lust curse. It did make some things easier for her. As an outsider, she was probably exotic and exciting in a way that was going to drive the afflicted wild. It also gave her a lever to lean on if she needed things done. Even if Carab was a shining example of self-restraint and didn't try to **** herself on Lara, no amount of rational thought would win out against somebody coming on to her. Lara had worked lust curses before, willingness to get your hands dirty always leads to faster results. Plus, a certain amount of "finesse" with those in power usually got one some preferential treatment. Carab was going to be equal parts protector and mark if Lara could just get under that skirt...

In what seemed a shockingly short time after the first trip's length, they found themselves back by the river. Lara, whose whole body had begun to feel like a singular sweat gland, resisted the urge to jump in and ruin everything in her pack. The water was deep enough that even running pure and clear it was hard to see the bottom, probably up to her neck at the deepest. Lara slid her pack off at the base of a twisting set of roots that eventually became some sort of mutant tree. She slid off her boots, trying not to grimace as she did.

Carab gave a nervous look, shifting in place. "You swim?"

"Yes," Lara said as her socks came off. "You look hot, would you like to join me?"

Carab seemed to take that as her invitation to decline. "I go, give you private."

"Carab, my friend, I insist." Lara sidled up to the tower of a woman and took her hand.

Carab seemed ready to resist, but Lara pulled her tube top up over her head before the tower of a woman could object. Lara could sense Carab's eyes glued to her pale skin before the cloth had hit the ground. Despite the hungriness of her eyes, Carab still seemed insistent on breaking free and heading back alone. Her self-restraint was admirable, Lara could tell she would have to **** the issue.

As she unfastened the belt of her cargo shorts, she took a half-real step forward. It didn't matter where she stepped, finding a patch of earth to catch her foot on was effectively guaranteed. She half-ripped her belt off as she fell forward against Carab, planting her face into the bottom of the giant woman's chest.

"Ow!" She yelped sharply, not looking up at Carab, she wrapped her arms around the Amazonian's waist for faux support, casually sliding her hands over her toned ass as she did.

When Lara did look up, Carab seemed on the verge of panic. "You hurt?"

"I'm afraid I twisted my ankle quite badly." Lara feigned innocence and pain in equal measure. "It hurts terribly when I put my weight on it. Ow!" She set it gingerly on the ground and pulled it back sharply in performance.

A flush was leaping to Carab's face, one that was only accentuating the nervous look in her eye. "We go back to village, get Izel!"

"No no!" Lara interjected. "I need to get something cold on this, stat! Could you perhaps... carry me into the river?"

Carab's face flushed deeper, she looked like she wanted to refuse so Lara gave her another show of trying to put weight on it and failing. Carab relented, wrapping one hand across Lara's back and setting the other one under her knees. She lifted Lara off of the ground effortlessly, hefting her high and closer enough that Lara could drape her arms around Carab's neck. Caran dipped into the water slowly, not going deeper than her ankles. She tried to lower Lara down, but Lara tightened her hug of Carab's neck.

"Come on!" Lara begged, then added, "Please, hurry!"

Carab gulped, biting the bullet, she took a pair of heavy steps into the stream bed and immersed herself past the waist, grunting perceptibly as the water passed her groin. She set Lara down toward the bank, letting her rest her butt on the shore while immersing her legs. Looking down at Lara, she tried to start out of the water, the grass of her skirt pulled by the current and giving Lara a couple of fleeting glimpses at what she had expected. She caught Lara's gaze, turning away. Lara unfastened her pants, sliding out of them as best as she could without getting up. The air wasn't nearly cool enough, even when naked. The stream was pleasant though, enough so that Lara strode in before Carab could think to step out. Lara sunk her hand under the water, reaching around Carab's waist and eliciting a gasp from the titan.

"You lie!" Carab hissed, her voice more than a little weak.

"Shame on me. Maybe you should do something about it." Lara whispered, pressing her tits into Carab's back. She quietly unfastened the grass skirt and dropped it on the shore, Carab didn't protest. The giant seemed more focused on trying to remain composed with Lara's hand between her legs, what Lara's hand was touching told her that Carab was doing poorly.

"It's okay darling," Lara purred. "I know about how difficult this curse is on you, you don't need to be ashamed. You were so strong to put up with me for this long, let me reward you."

Carab let out a soft, almost pained noise. It was getting harder to deny her arousal, Lara was going to make sure she stopped.

"Turn around," Lara whispered, kissing the muscles of Carab's back. "I want to see you, the real you."

Carab seemed mortified, but she turned slowly and begrudgingly. She looked down at Lara with embarrassed eyes, Lara returned the gaze with warmth, pulling their bodies together again. Her hands sank down Carab's defined stomach to her crotch, eliciting what almost sounded like a whimper.