
So, are you wondering just what the hell is going on and why Lara is stuck in the ice age when it is in fact the year 2001?  Well, here is the story of the ice age caves and how Lara became involved in it:

	Lara is in her library reading about Seth one night when she comes across a passage in a book about the myth of a little-known cult of semi-magical Egyptians who successfully ressurected Seth for five days until Osiris was summoned to defend Egypt.  He condemned Seth to his tomb once again.  The seven members of the cult were quickly arrested, but nobody could decide on a punishment for them.  Death was too risky; it was possible that the deaths of his servants might anger Seth.  So they were to be banished from Egypt forever.  They spent ten long years meandering around the earth, trying to find a new home.  All but three of the cult members died of disease, malnourishment, or simply just loss of hope.  The last three were on the verge of giving up when they discovered a cave of magic North of what today is Canada.  A place that had remained unevolved since the dark times of the ice age.  This was the perfect place for a new home.  They conjured up four sphinxes to guard the caves, and many puzzles and traps to defeat anybody who happened to be quick enough to avoid the sphinxes.  But nobody ever found it, except for Osiris, who captured the souls of the three men and trapped them in the tomb of Seth.  Osiris told the man who was the pharoh at that time about the caves of the ice age, and the three cult members.  The pharoh had it inscribed into the walls of his pallace, to be translated thousands of years later by archeoligists and documented as myth.  Lara closes the book, and with a large grin on her face, yells out "Winston, pack my bags, I'm going to Canada!"

	36 hours later, Lara has just gotten off her airplane only to climb into a helicopter less than ten minutes later.  They are searching for the caves of the ice age, and continue to do so for two more hours.  Lara sighs, and says to the helicopter pilot (who just happens to be everyone's favorite hacker; Zip) "Take us back.  I guess it really was just a myth after all."  Zip begins to turn around, when a gigantic snarling beast leaps out of the ground and lands on the helicopter.  Zip leaps out with a girlish high-pitched scream and pulls the ripcord to release his parachute.  "Thanks" Lara mumbles sarcastacly, as she jumps out just before the helicopter explodes, destroying the sphinx that was on top of it.  Lara found herself on a small icy mountain, and notices that the sphinx left a huge hole when it leapt out.  Lara hops inside and looks around to find a palace of snow and ice that she had hadn't seen before.  "It must only be visible from the inside" she thinks.  And it is true.  The caves of the ice age cannot be seen from the outside.

	All of the sudden, she hears thunder, and sees lightning.  She knows that she has angered the spirits of the three cult members.  And, as our level begins, a door suddenly swings open, revealing a large room with the first of the remaining three sphinxes.  "Why do I always get myself into these things?" she wonderes.

	And how does this story end?  That is for YOU to achieve.  Lara must get through the difficult puzzles, avoid the sphinxes, and find her way back to civilization.  Oh, and remember, the sphinxes cannot be killed.  So don't be waistin' your precious ammo on them!  If you see one, just run like hell!!!