Himalayan Revelation - A Tomb Raider fan fiction

[Rai]

Hi, so I have been working on this for a looong time. I made notes and made a start back in 2016, originally intended for the 20th anniversary. Story, short, I started late in the year and ran out of months. The story sat on my laptop stagnating until now.

I have always wondered about how it all started for Lara. I didn't know about the few paragraphs that worked as a brief origin in the booklet of the first games until I joined a forum and even then, I still wanted a more in depth origin story. Sure, we had the Cambodia levels in Tomb Raider Last Revelation and the Irish levels in TR Chronicles, but I was intrigued over what had actually happened in the Himalayan Mountains. And then came along the reboot trilogy. For me, those games are a very satisfying origin story in their own right, and yet they still did not reflect the Himalayan tragedy. So, I decided to write my own account. (I promise, Amunet, I wasn't just copying your idea!)

It's pretty long, so I made it into two parts, and you can find both on my website: https://raichel72.wixsite.com/website/tomb-raider

Perhaps I can persuade you to check it out with a short extract:

She was cold, so very cold. Lara opened her eyes, squinting slightly to adjust to the light. Everything was a brilliant, blinding white, like a sheet fresh from the wash. She could still hear Abigail’s shrill voice as she and Sylvia laughed together about the boys they’d met at the chalet. No, that wasn’t right. That had been on the plane. The sky was above her, sense told her she couldn’t be on the plane anymore. Just an echo then, remnants of a dream perhaps.
Lara remained still, trying to focus, trying to work out where she was, if not on the plane. Well, she was lying on her back on something very cold. Her head pounded and an additional throbbing above her left eye indicated a bruise. She risked moving her head to the side. Snow, she was in the snow...and the mountains. Her entire body felt stiff but she knew she had to move or freeze to death. If she could feel the cold, that was a good sign, she told herself. She wiggled her toes. Okay, that’s good, Lara. Now let’s move the rest of you before you become a living ice sculpture. Inexplicably the voice in her head sounded like the old family butler, Winston. The thought of the old man was comforting. Slowly Lara raised herself to sitting, and then to standing. She gave herself a minute to get over the dizziness before stretching each of her limbs. She was shivering and ‘Great, my backside is damp.’ The sound of her own voice sounded strange with no one to hear it. She fished in her coat pockets for gloves and put them on, grateful for having the forethought to keep them with her.
‘Lara?’ It was no more than a whisper, but distinctly female. Lara looked in the direction of the voice. She couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary at first, and then a mound of snow shifted. A glint of blue could just be seen beneath the snow, a lock of blonde hair blew in the breeze.
‘My god!’ said Lara. She moved as quickly as she could to the mound, wincing once at the wound on her leg. She hastily brushed snow away to reveal the body of her friend. No, not a body, Abigail.
‘Please be alive.’
Abigail began to cough.
‘I’m cold’, said Abigail, who was so pale, she could have been made of porcelain.
`‘Of course you are you’re covered in snow’. Lara carefully brushed the snow off her friend. Abigail was petite in height and delicate. ‘We must get you moving. I’ll help you.’
In reply, Abigail broke into another fit of coughing. ‘N...no, I’m c...cold, Lara. Save yourself.’
`‘Don’t be silly. We can get you moving and dry. I’ll find a blanket. Can you sit?’ Abigail smiled weakly.
With her arms around her friend’s shoulders, Lara gently helped Abigail to raise her shoulders off the ground and tried to pull her into a sitting position. Her friend moaned a deep, guttural groan of pain. It was then that Lara noticed a piece of shrapnel poking out from her friend’s stomach.
‘Bugger, bugger, bugger,’ Lara swore in a whisper. A large puddle of blood surrounded the wound, staining the blue jacket. Lara was cradling the other woman like a baby, supporting her head. Abigail was silent. Lara frantically swept her eyes over the surroundings, hoping to spot something that might help, a blanket, a medical kit, anything. She’d completed a first aid course at college, but she didn’t have enough knowledge to help her friend. Should she try to remove the metal or was it safer to leave it? She started to rock, back and forth.
‘Shhh, Abby. You’ll be fine. We’ll be fine. I promise.’ Abigail had gone limp in her arms. Lara looked into Abigail’s blue non-seeing eyes. Abigail was still smiling faintly, her cheeks pink from the cold, her skin almost as white as the snow. Her lips were already turning a pale blue.
‘Good bye, Abby, you sweet, sweet doll.’ Lara lay the girl’s head down onto the ground. There was blood on her sleeve where Abby’s head had been resting. Lara kissed her friend’s forehead, and then rose.

[Amunet]

This was a really nice read, Rai! I liked how you focused on the actual survival on the mountains, which was the part I personally struggled with writing and ended up skipping for the most part.

Originally Posted by Rai

(I promise, Amunet, I wasn't just copying your idea!)

The thought never crossed my mind! ♥

That brief text on TR1's booklet really is a great starting point for a more fleshed out story so it's unsurprising that fans over the years have tried to fill in the gaps.

I do think it was a missed opportunity that CD didn't keep this origin story when they rebooted the franchise. Regardless of how I personally feel about the Reboot trilogy, for better or worse, it does tell a very different story.

[Rai]

Thank you for your comments. I found it quite challenging to write survival sequences. I was so anxious about keeping it engaging. Especially with a lone character. I'm glad you liked it.

I would have liked CD to have incorporated the original origins too, but, to be honest, I think an entire game under that setting might be a challenge. They would have had to expand it considerably, I think. The closest we got was the Siberian Wilderness hub in Rise.

[Amunet]

Originally Posted by Rai

Thank you for your comments. I found it quite challenging to write survival sequences. I was so anxious about keeping it engaging. Especially with a lone character. I'm glad you liked it.

I would have liked CD to have incorporated the original origins too, but, to be honest, I think an entire game under that setting might be a challenge. They would have had to expand it considerably, I think. The closest we got was the Siberian Wilderness hub in Rise.

I really do commend you for committing to writing those survival sequences. They really are a challenge!

As for how to adapt the original backstory, in my opinion it could never be a full game solely focused on it.

One option I think could be to adapt it as playable flashbacks. Let's say the main story would be one of Lara's earlier adventures after the crash and maybe she gets injured or something and while she recovers we play the flashback.

Another option could be as some sort of extra level, like a DLC or something.