Chapter 1: New Arrival

==== Madagascar, Africa… ====
==== Midday… ====

    Deep within the jungles of Madagascar lay a temple.  No one knew its origins, or from what culture it came from.  The temple was so overgrown with flowering vines and worn down by weather, that it was impossible to tell anything about the temple at all, save that in the remaining understandable text on the temple walls, there was no mention of curses or monsters at all.  Historians had forgotten about it.  Researchers weren’t interested in it.  The locals couldn’t use it as a tourist attraction.

    For Lara Croft, who had recently gone through several soul-wrenching adventures, the humble little temple was perfect.  The buxom, athletic young British woman was looking for someplace peaceful to explore, after everything she had been through recently.

    “Zip, how are things holding up on your end?” Lara said, speaking into her comm-link.  

    “Just peachy, Lara.  Although I’m a little concerned about the conditions around here…  You sure it’s safe for you to be climbing about the rafters of this place?”  

    Lara, standing on the moss-covered stone rafters high in the ceiling of the temple, just scoffed.  She pulled out the grappling wire from her waist and threw it at a far wall.  The electro-magnetic claw hook latched onto the stone wall with a click.  As she set up the line to cross the gaping chasm beneath her, she said, “Pish posh.  I can handle things well enough.  Haven’t I always been careful?”  

    “Need I remind you about the incident in Borneo?”  Zip said, grumbling.  

    “Hey, I DID managed to kill that demon before it stole everyone’s souls,” Lara said, scowling as she climbed across the rope.  

    “What about that one time in Greece?”  Zip pressed.  

    “Look, I figured out the riddle of Bacchus and got my body changed back to normal, didn’t I?”  Lara snapped.  

    “What about…”

    “ALL RIGHT!” Lara almost snarled, “Mistakes were made.  And unfortunately, lives have been lost… We just have to keep moving forward.  Besides, that’s why I picked this place.  No traps, no demonic legends associated with it, no nothing.  It’s just an old temple.”  

    Lara crossed the rope bridge over to the far ledge, and retracted the grapple cable.  “Nothing will go wrong, Zip.  Trust me.”  

    “I certainly hope so…” Zip said, the dark-skinned American rubbing his temples, “I don’t know if I can take any more surprises…”  

    Lara smiled.  “I’ll bring you back something nice, Zip,” she said, sliding down a fallen slab of stone and into the inner temple.  She pulled out her camera as she looked around.  The temple was surprisingly well kept inside, the gold artifacts adorning the walls with very little moss on them.  She debated claiming one to sell it… a debate that lasted approximately one second before she decided against it, as she knew full well what disturbing holy artifacts from their proper resting place could do.  

    After taking a few more pictures, Lara sighed and sat down against an altar.  “This truly is a beautiful place,” she said, letting the cool breeze, so different from the hot weather outside.  

    And then the place started shaking, rubble falling down from the ceiling.   

    Lara bolted to her feet, looking around for whatever trap she might have triggered.  “Zip, what’s going on?!” she said frantically, not finding anything obvious trying to kill her.  

    “GET OUT OF THERE!” screamed Zip, “IT’S AN EARTHQUAALLLRRGGH!!!” The voice was lost in the sound of falling rubble.

    “Zip!?” Lara said, her voice wavering in fear, “ZIP!?” Oh God, not you too!

    A massive tremor shook the inside of the temple, nearly knocking Lara off of her feet.  She pulled out the cord of her grapple cable, but the ground began shaking with ever increasing intensity, keeping Lara from getting her footing.  As she tried to struggle to her feet, a massive crevasse opened in the ground.  She tried to throw her grapple, but because of the shaking it wouldn’t latch on to anything.  She screamed, falling into the widening gap underneath her.  She tried to move to the side to grab something, but she was falling too fast and the ground kept moving away from her, far out of the reach of her grappling hook.  Tears in her eyes as she plummeted to her doom, she pressed a button on her commlink/watch, broadcasting a special signal back to Croft Manor…

=== Croft Manor… ===

    Winston, Lara’s ever loyal butler, calmly dusted the computers in Zip’s main office, muttering irritated comments about the slovenly nature of the computer hacker Zip.  He was about to move on to the next room, when a signal he had never hoped to hear started playing over the computers.  He turned on the nearby television, seeing the news reports about a massive earthquake in Madagascar, and understood immediately what to do.  

    “My dear lady Lara… As per your final wishes, I shall see that the Croft family’s funds are properly donated to charity…”

=== Madagascar… ===

    Lara stared down into the dark depths, wondering in a manic moment if she was going to fall straight through the Earth.  She mourned the death of her friend Zip, of Alister, and of herself.

    Lara chuckled wearily.  “My only consolation in this is that I’ll see you again, Mom and Dad…”

    She closed her eyes, feeling tears flow down her face as she mentally prepared herself to face death.  

    The last thing she expected to feel as she was plummeting to her death was the scent of flowers washing over her.  Lara opened her eyes, staring in the direction she was falling, and gasped.  Instead of cold, hard ground, coming up on her fast was a massive white cloud of crackling energy.  It reminded her all too much of the portals during the Excalibur mess.  She looked around, trying to find some place to attach her grappling line to.  She saw a sharp, spiky ledge protruding out, and threw her line at it… missing it completely.  

    Lara screamed as she fell into the portal, raising her arms in front of her face to protect herself.  The scent of flowers grew frighteningly intense as she passed through the portal.  But instead of further falling as she passed through, she found herself tumbling down a hill.  She opened her eyes, yelping as she found herself tumbling down a hill of sunflowers, the stems flying apart as she came in contact with them.  Lara tucked into a roll, bracing herself, wincing as the flower stems cracked around her, and then launched herself forward, trying to land on her feet.  

    She just barely made it, her foot catching on a sunflower stem and sending her toppling forward.  She yelped, putting her arms forward to try and balance herself as she fell face-first out of the garden of sunflowers.  

    Instead of feeling her face make contact with the ground, her nose and mouth ended up burying itself in something soft and moist.  To top it off, she distinctly thought she heard someone say “OW!!!”

    Lara looked up, wiping her face, getting a good look for the first time at what she landed on.  When she saw what it was, she stared, dumbstruck.  

    A naked woman with rabbit-like features, right down to a soft, downy white coating of fur, a fluffy puff of a tail on her back, and long, floppy ears.  She was rubbing her vagina, wincing occasionally as she glared at Lara.  

    It took her a moment, but she realized that the soft, moist thing she landed in was the bunny woman’s sex.   

    “Oh my God, I’m so sorry!” Lara said, her hands going to her face in shock, “Are you okay?”

    The bunny woman sighed.  “I’m fine, I’m fine,” she said, “I don’t mind a girl going down on me.  Especially one as stacked as you, honey.  But that was a little rougher than I like.”  

    Lara blushed at the woman’s implication.  “Well, while I appreciate the compliment, I just don’t swing that way…”

    The bunny girl grinned.  “You sure seemed quite eager just a moment ago.”  

    Lara shook her head vigorously.  “No no, it’s nothing like that… I just fell through this portal up on the hill…”  

    The bunny girl blinked.  “Portal?”  

    Lara nodded, and pointed to where she thought she had come in.  “It was right there… This portal appeared just as I was about to fall to my death… And I showed up rolling down this hill…  I’m guessing I’m not in my own world anymore, right?”

    The bunny girl nodded.  “You’re in a pocket dimension owned by my Master.  My name is Cottonears, and I’m a Bunnygirl, which is a species of Pokégirl.”  

    Lara stared at her, not comprehending.  “Okay… If you say so.  I’m Lara Croft, and I apologize for the rather rough way we met each other.  Can this ‘master’ of yours get me back home?”

    Cottonears bit her lip, frowning.  “Well…  If you were drawn here at a moment of death…” she said, hesitating.

    Lara frowned.  Already she didn’t like where this was going.  

    Cottonears sighed.  “There are others who’ve come here at moments of death like yours.  Shootings, fallings, drownings… Master never explained how each conversation with them went, but they’ve all ended up staying here and becoming Pokégirls, servants of the Master like me.”  

    Lara blinked.  “They all turned into bunny people?”  

    Cottonears shook her head.  “Not all.  Only one other that I can think of, and she’s a different species of bunny than me.”  

    Lara shook her head, scowling.  “…So you’re saying this ‘Master’ of yours drew me here at the moment of death.  While I appreciate the save, I don’t intend on staying here, so if you could kindly take me to him…”

    Cottonears shook her head.  “Nono, it’s not like that.  This pocket dimension kinda has a mind of its own.  It was an empty spirit world before the Master turned it into this place and…” Cottonears sighed, “…I’m not really the best person to explain all this.  We need to find one of the magic-users, or even the Master himself.”

    Lara nodded.  “That’d be best, I think.  While this place is quite lovely,” she said, looking around for the first time and going wide-eyed at the sheer natural beauty of the grove around her, “…VERY lovely, in fact… I still want to go home.”  

    Cottonears nodded, standing up.  “If you say so.  I think he’s cavorting with Captain Suha and her crew over in the Darkonda Sea.  It’s about a three day walk from here, if you don’t mind.”  

    Lara nodded.  “Let’s go.  I don’t want to stay here any longer than I have to…  I need to let my butler know I’m all right.”

    Cottonears nodded.  “Sure thing.  Let’s stop at the warren first and pick up some supplies, though,” she said.  She didn’t speak what was on her mind, though.  Because if what she guessed about her Master’s previous conversations with other ‘visitors’ to this reality that arrived under similar circumstances as Lara was correct, then the lovely Ms. Croft was stuck here forever…

---------TO BE CONTINUED---------