Nathan Drake stepped out of the small boat that brought us to our destination: The Lost River Delta, an isolated piece of land located deep within the jungles of India. He held out his hand and offered it to me as I stepped out of the boat.

"If I may be so kind, Miss Croft," he said. Instead, I merely slapped it for a high-five, then hopped out with ease. "I don't know why I bother," he mumbled, looking confusedly at his hand.

I offered a soft chuckle, raising my eyebrow as I passed him. "Thanks for your chivalry, Nathan, but I really won't be needing it."

I turned around and saluted the skipper, smiling. He nodded and waved, then turned back around to the helm of the boat and began to sail away. I watched the boat as it left, my eye catching its name: "Amazon Belle."

"Thank god that's over," I said when the skipper was out of earshot. "I don't think I could stand another second of those damn jungle puns."

"Come on, Lara," he said. "Everybody loves the backside of water, right?" He crossed his arms and smiled.

"Oh yes," I said, fake-enthusiastically. "Who could ever forget the 'Eighth Wonder of the World'?"

I turned around and eyed the entrance of the temple standing before us. It wasn't very large—probably only about two stories tall. Its design was similar to that of a pyramid, but at its peak was a small, round adornment similar to a dome. I began to walk toward the entrance, and Nathan followed close behind.

"So that's it? The legendary 'Temple of the Forbidden Eye'?" Nathan called from behind me.

"That's it," I responded over my shoulder, continuing forward with haste.

"…Not as big as I was expecting, to be honest."

"Size doesn't matter. It's small, yet effective."

"Words no man ever wants to hear," he said, suppressing laughter.

I ignored his immaturity, continuing to speak over my shoulder as I pressed forward. "Jones' record insists that the inside is unfathomably huge, with never-ending caverns and a seemingly-infinite labyrinth of tunnels." I stopped and sighed, admiring the craftsmanship of the architecture. "Beautiful. A true Bengalese temple... Amazing it's still in such good condition after all these years, isn't it?"

"Definitely," Nathan said. "It's incredible. But Jones never found what he was looking for, did he?"

"Depends who you ask. If by 'what he was looking for' you mean the Jewel, then no. He failed in that regard. He did, however manage to find the bloody tourists that got themselves lost in the damn place."

"Why did it have to be tourists…" Nathan muttered. "So… the jewel's still in there somewhere."

"Possibly… hopefully." I looked around at all that Jones and his group left behind 80 years ago.

One of the remnants was an old Mercedes truck. Across its doors read "Lost Delta Archaeological Expedition." I ran my fingers across the wording as I walked by, then peeked inside the window to see if there were any goodies remaining; it seemed to have been picked clean.

As we approached the entrance to the temple, we passed several columns that had stone snake relief sculptures engraved in them, with overgrown plants spewing out from the tops. I stopped at the foot of the stairs, looking down carefully at the steps. Two stone king cobra statues guarded the entrance on either side, seeming to attempt to dissuade us from entering. I glanced to my right, noticing that a rope bridge was constructed, for some reason, so that visitors could access the entrance without using the stairs. I guessed the stairs must have been booby trapped at one point in time. I doubt it would have still been operational, but I didn't want to risk it. I took a running jump, grabbing on to the side of the rope bridge as I landed, and hoisted myself over the side. I treaded carefully along the wooden planks until I reached the stone platform at the entryway.

"You're some kind of monkey, aren't you?" Nathan called from below.

"Gymnastics lessons certainly paid off," I smiled. "If you don't think you're up to the challenge, you could always try the stairs."

Nathan looked at the stairs for a few seconds, then down at his feet. He bent down, picked up a rock, and tossed it gently on the first step of the stairs. Nothing.

"Ha," he said mockingly. "Stairs it is."

Just as he was about to place his foot on the first step, it collapsed. Then the second step. Then the third, and the fourth. Then the rest of the steps gave way until there was nothing but a giant hole. I leaned over slightly to see what was left of the stairs, but all I could see was a gaping, pitch-black, endless hole. I let out a small laugh and pointed at the hole.

"Oh, I just think the stairs are a lovely idea. Don't you, Nathan?" I said snidely, placing my hands on my hips and tilting my head a bit.

Nathan rolled his eyes and hopped onto the rope bridge, clumsily rolling himself across the top. He landed on his feet, albeit with a thud, and placed his hands on his knees.

"Brilliantly done," I said. "What do you say we stop 'monkeying' around and get in there already?" I quickly approached the doorway and pulled out one of my blue glow sticks. I cracked it, and its light illuminated the darkened space.

"Ha ha," Nathan said sarcastically. "Very punny. I thought puns annoyed—…whoa."

"What?" I said said, cranking my head around to see what had cut Nathan's comment short. I clipped the glow stick to the belt loop of my shorts and slowly went over to Nathan, where he was looking intensely at an old stone tablet. It had letters carved into its surface that were foreign to me, but I recognized their distinct shapes.

"Marabic!" I said softly. "Or, so Dr. Ravenwood called it. It's that language he was talking about—the one the worshippers of Mara used to tell others of the god's power."

"Hmm… it must be some sort of warning." Nathan said. "Hey, try that little decoder doohickey Ravenwood gave you."

I nodded and pulled out the card from my backpack, then studied the tablet to match the letters and translate the message.

"Let's see…" I murmured. "It says: 'If you dare to look… into the eye of Mara… you shall be… Incinerated'?" I glanced up from the card, scanning the environment for more of these letters. "Oh, look, there's one up there, too—just above the doorway." I pointed to the message, and looked down at the card again to translate the characters. "'Beware… the Eye of Mara,' it says." I scoffed, folding the card and slipping it into my front shorts pocked for easy access. "This one's short and sweet."

"They're pretty serious about this whole 'don't look into the eyes' thing, aren't they?" Nate said with a chuckle.

"Well, you know ancient civilizations can be." I said. "Best to not look into any depictions of Mara with her eyes open… just for good measure."

"You don't have to worry about that. I'm spoken for." Nathan laughed. "You really don't think I have enough self-control to keep my eyes off of a 2,000-year-old woman?"

"Right, I suppose we don't have to worry about any deities throwing us into the incinerator," I said. "We've just got the get to the Jewel before Trinity can get their hands on it."

Of course, I'd had my share of encounters with deities and mystical beings. I was aware that anything was possible, but I wasn't so sure about this one. There wasn't much information on Mara or this temple in any of the texts I read. The only word I had to go off of was Dr. Jones' first-hand "experience" after he attempted to rescue several tourists that got lost in the temple. Jones claimed he had come face to face with Mara, and that he narrowly managed to escaped her wrath. He had intended the find the mystical 'Jewel of Power,' while locating the missing tourists, but he failed in that regard. The Jewel, said to be a piece of a star that Mara brought down from the heavens, was believed the be the source of the temple's power. If such an artifact had the power to grant everlasting life, untold riches, and visions of the future, I had to find out for myself it was real.

"Obviously this culture—this people believed very strongly in the whole 'Mara' thing, huh?" Nathan said softly. "And Jones did, too."

"I'm not so sure if Mara exists, but I'm not counting anything out—not after what I've seen recently. Even if these inscriptions and stories are based off of a simple legend, I've found there's always some truth behind myths. And if Dr. Jones believed the Jewel was here, then I've got no reason to doubt him."

"I don't doubt you on the whole 'truth behind myth' thing. I've seen some shit that I never would have thought in a million years existed. Let's make 'ole Henry proud, shall we?" Nathan crossed his arms and looked at me, grinning slightly.

"Right," I said confidently. "Let's go."