The Midas Touch

Lara Croft’s quest to recover the Scion had taken her from South America to Europe, where she pursued the second fragment in a series of ancient Roman ruins. Presently she entered a large cavern, where she could see a massive statue, or at least its lower legs. If the rest of it existed, it was embedded above the ceiling of the cavern. Broken chunks of stone littered the ground, and there was also a very large stone hand apparently broken off from the statue. The base of the statue proclaimed “MIDAS” in massive engraved lettering. Lara recalled the story of Midas, a king whose wish to turn everything he touched into gold had become his greatest nightmare, eventually even turning his daughter into nothing more than a lifeless golden statue. She mused on the dilemma, thinking that she might not mind such ability, as long as the touch had to be accompanied with intent. Alas, unlike some stories, Lara knew this one to be simply a myth. Even if there was a man with such a cursed power, it couldn’t possibly extend to a mere facsimile in stone.

Lara explored the cavern keenly, leaving not a single stone unturned, for she always seemed to find first aid kits and ammunition magazines in the strangest places, and she certainly needed them with all the feral animals she encountered. She finished her search atop a ledge next to the enormous stone feet. There didn’t seem to be anything interesting in this particular cavern, so it would be prudent to move on to the next. Rather than risk a sprained ankle from jumping straight down, Lara decided to break her fall by hopping over to the stone hand first. Graceful as ever, she landed gently atop the hand…

Her feet suddenly felt terribly cold, then completely numb. Alarmed that she might have somehow landed badly and injured her feet, Lara looked down, only to see a cloud of golden flashes swirling about her, and her feet seemingly covered in gold…no…they were gold! Panicked, Lara tried to walk. Her feet were just as heavy as she might have expected gold to be, and she could barely lift them. Worse, she could only just balance herself with no sensation coming from her feet. The chilling feeling abruptly started working its way up her legs, followed again by total numbness. Lara watched helplessly as inch after inch of her legs glowed briefly, then hardened into solid gold. Her left leg had hit the stone first, and so the transformation was working its way up slightly ahead of the right leg. Soon both her knees were transformed, the weight of her golden legs disabling her from even trying to swing her legs at the hips.

Two thoughts crossed Lara’s mind at that point. First, even if she could somehow get herself free from the hand of Midas, assuming that would stop the transformation, what then could she do? She’d be trapped in the middle of a very isolated ruin, where likely nobody else would explore for centuries, with useless gold legs. She would starve to death before she could drag herself out. Secondly, with a sense of resignation, Lara wondered if, when somebody did eventually come exploring, they would ultimately find her increasingly valuable remains. Would they meet the same fate? Would she eventually be the mysterious artifact comprising the centerpiece of some museum in the future?

Whatever the future held, the transformation continued inexorably, Lara’s thighs now almost completely converted. All she could do was watch herself succumb to the same fate as what she now realized had probably been the very real daughter of King Midas.