1. Greetings and welcome to chapter three of Romance Versus relics! The chapters are still sort of like pic spam on some frames, but it is getting more like a regular story all the time. In this chapter, you will notice, during the second half, that Nellie has an aura of sparkles all around her. This comes from the eye candy reward that came with this EP. If you hate sparkling Sims, don't pick that reward! Lol I had to download a hack to remove the sparkles from Nellie because the disturbed me greatly. In any event, I hope you enjoy the story! When Nellie arrived in China, she barely spared a minute hanging around base camp before she rushed off to the marketplace to find her best friend, Zhan Su.
Zhan
she spoke his name softly and he whirled around with a big smile plastered on his face. He barely had time to register her presence before her arms were wrapped tightly around him, telling him how good it was to see him again, even though it had been less than a week since her last visit.
Nellie
he cried, returning her embrace,
It's so great to see you! What brings you back so soon?
She told him she was anxious to continue her adventure and needed to buy some more supplies to aid her during her up-coming exploration. A dark expression of concern marred his delicate features as she told him she had received a request to journey to The Temple of Heaven to find and collect Pangu's Axe. Before she left his shop, he hugged her tightly and begged her to be careful because the temple was a very dangerous place.
I will say a prayer for your safe return, my friend
he whispered quietly to himself as he watched her go out the door. Nellie was feeling a bit hungry, so she decided to stop by the food merchant before make her journey. Although she had seen him before, it struck her that she had not noticed previously how handsome he was. She shivered as goose bumps seemed to break out all over her body when he looked at her. When his eyes met hers and he smiled, she felt as if her knees may buckle and give out beneath her weight. Shaking it off, Nellie order her food and took it outside to consume it, away from the food Merchant's burning gaze. (Pic spam alert!) While Nellie ate her stir fry, I took a moment to pan around the area and came across something I found interesting and decided to share it with you. This is Terracotta Army. Nellie finished her meal and made the journey to The Temple of Heaven. Her eyes widened in awe as she gazed upon it and she knew why it was given that name. It seemed to almost reach into the heavens. The place was beautiful! She slowly made her way to the top, being careful to look around for anything she may be able to use later. She found nothing, but took a moment to gaze over the city from her perch on a balcony. As she gazed at the beautiful scenery, her eyes drifted toward the Market and the little shop where she knew the handsome food merchant was in attendance. A chill trickled down her spine and she shivered as her mind shifted to thoughts of wondering how it would feel to be held in his arms.
Stop that!
she scolded herself out loud. This was no time to entertain fantasies of a roll in the hay with a man whose name she did not even know! Shaking herself hard, she made the long trek back downstairs. As it turned out, the entrance to the tomb where the axe lay hidden was in a small building off to the side of the actual temple. Nellie cautiously opened the door and stepped inside. She spied a staircase and made her way down. Once again, she found herself awed and a little frightened at its mysterious beauty. With a heavy sigh, she took out her pick axe and began to chip away at the pile of rubble on her left. Some instinct deep within her, told her not to worry about the door straight ahead. That would be another adventure for another time. As the pile of rubble became smaller and Nellie's strength and energy was draining more with each swing, she began to long for the mighty axe which she sought. Having that in her hands would certainly save a lot of effort on these adventures! To her right, there was a doorway blocked by a huge boulder and to her left was a stairway leading down. She had no choice but to take the stairs. As she approached and then began to descend the stairs, Nellie wondered what she would find as her excitement grew. Once down the stairs, her way blocked by a locked door and she was suddenly grateful she had purchase a keystone from the special merchant before making her journey. As the keystone slid into place, her heart pounded wildly as the door became passable. When she stepped through the door, Nellie found herself staring at what seemed to her a sea of mazes and she moved cautiously forward along a tiled path. As she followed the path, her eyes always scanning and searching for treasure and clues, Nellie discovered several tiny rooms which held treasure boxes with various items inside. Nellie entered a large room with strange bordered sections on the floor, which piqued her curiosity, but her main focus was to find out what was inside a treasure box which was against the far wall. Soon, Nellie was making her way down another set of stairs after passing down a few more hallways. She found herself looking at steam trap, stopping just in time to avoid being caught in it. She made her way past that to a little room where she collected a couple of expensive cut stones. Nellie went back through and turned to a diving well. With no other place to go, she dove in. And she found herself looking at even more diving pools. Nellie bent down to inspect some strange markings the floor. With a heavy sigh, she rose and muttered under her breath,
Steam traps!
Unable to disarm them, Nellie carefully made her way across them and reached the other side unharmed. Nellie dove into the pool to explore. (Now, we come to the part where I got very slack in snapping pictures. This place is a HUGE maze of doorways, stairs, and diving pools. By this time, Nellie was getting very tired and I was hoping to find a place to set up her tent so she could rest, but all the rooms were too small. Finally I saw a big space and put the tent there, but then I realized that Nellie couldn't get to it from where she was! I was beginning to fear for Nellie's life at this point, except thank goodness she had plenty of food with her … lol. Anyway, Ellie trudged on and actually found the axe!) Nellie's eyes grew as big as saucers when her gaze first fell upon the mighty Axe of Pangu. It was beautiful! The young woman felt almost empowered by its mere presence. The axe seemed to be speaking to her, as if it were begging her to release it from its prison. Gingerly, almost lovingly, she stretched her hands out toward it. Nellie could feel the power flowing through it into her arms as she lifted it from its place on the wall! It seemed to vibrate in her hands and she gasped in surprise as she tightened her hands around its handle and brought it down closer to her body. The power the ax emitted was almost electrifying and Nellie screeched loudly as it seemed to thrash around in her grip for a brief moment. Finally, all was calm and the axe seemed almost like any other and Nellie looked around to survey her surroundings. Suddenly she realized that even though she had found the axe, she could not complete her mission of taking it back to Maya because she was lost in the maze! Nellie's heartbeat quickened as a deep panic settled into her heart. Would she make it out alive? As she searched for a way out in her panicked state, Nellie used the axe to destroy her first boulder, but it did not get her any closer to finding a way out of the intricate maze in which she was trapped. I forgot to take pictures in my anxious state, but I went back later and took a picture of where Nellie was when she found the axe. I circled where I placed her tent and it's still there now...lol. An arrow points to the place the axe was hanging on a section of wall. I never could get Nellie to her tent and I couldn't place it back into her inventory myself, so it was left there. I plan to go back in one day and see if I can get to it, but I'm going to make sure to buy some escape dust from the special merchant first! Lol Anyway, between a combination of my telling her where to go, and telling her to deliver the axe, we finally made our way out of that maze. Nellie was much too tired to deliver the axe to Maya just yet though. She had passed out briefly several times in the maze before finally making her way out, so she went back to base camp for a nice long rest. So, Nellie took the axe upon waking and delivered it to Maya. Maya then gave her another mission to go find a relic somewhere else, because she would rather Nellie keep the axe in exchange for the relic. Nellie headed for the merchant to get some more supplies, but decided to stop in at the food merchant's store first. The two of them got into some heavy conversation and discovered a mutual attraction for each other. The Food Merchant's name was Ho Sung Kim and he was the most exciting man Nellie had ever met. He was handsome, kind, and had a way of making her smile. When he began to casually flirt with her, she eagerly flirted back. Soon, things had progressed a bit further than innocent flirting. It was not long before Nellie realized that she was deeply attracted to this man in a romantic sense, and when he moved in closer to kiss her, she did not resist and even kissed him back. This man became Nellie's first love interest and her first kiss. In the back of Nellie's mind, the thought occurred to her that she wanted him to be her first lover as well. All at once, Nellie's cheeks blushed hotly and she was embarrassed by her naughty thoughts. She pulled her lips from his, quickly said goodbye, and hurried on her way to complete Maya's request of her. Nellie's quest was to venture out to Hot Springs to search for the relic which Maya sought. The first thing she saw was a large boulder blocking a path, so she took out the mighty Axe of Pangu and smashed it to smithereens. Nellie knew she would never tire of using the Axe, even though she had only acquired it the night before, the axe already felt like a dear and close friend to her. It would never cease to amaze her how the Axe had the power to reduce a giant boulder into tiny pebbles in a matter of seconds without much effort on her part. When the dust settled, Nellie's way was clear! Although it was getting late, she decided to dive into the pool to do a bit of exploration. The curiosity and excitement was just too much for her to ignore. She emerged from the pool gasping for air and found herself in a brightly room as she pulled herself out of the water. A fire trap! Nellie closed her eyes tightly and sighed heavily. There was no way she had the energy to deal with such things tonight. No, she decided, she would find something more relaxing and fun to do and come back to deal with this after a good night's rest. Taking a deep breath, she dove into the pool and swam back the way she had come. Ah yes, this was more like it! Nellie was thrilled to find a beautiful pond which held many species of exotic fish. She happily spent a couple of hours fishing and then decided to head to the nearby Camp Lotus to spend the night. She cooked a nice meal and then curled up in the tent and spent a peaceful night. The next morning, she woke well-rested and quickly went back into the tomb under Hot Springs. Nellie quickly got past the fire traps and found herself in another room with more things to explore. Reaching into dark holes to find coins and hidden switches . . . . Pushing large, heavy statues around to stop the fire traps from burning . . . . And smashing rubble to reveal hidden doors and treasures . . . . Finally, Nellie entered a room where there was yet another diving pool to be explored. Taking a deep breath and holding it, she dove in . . . And emerged into a room where she noticed another pile of rubble that needed to be cleared just to her right. She climbed out of the water, grabbed her friend, the mighty Axe of Pangu, and quickly smashed it to smithereens! Once the rubble was cleared, it revealed a room which contained three treasure boxes. Nellie opened each one methodically, but before she even began, she could tell which once contained the relic she sought by the eerie aura that emanated from it. Exploring tombs, disarming or figuring out ways to get past the fire traps, and inspecting areas for hidden switches or doors takes a lot of time, so by the time Nellie made her way back to the surface, it was too late and she was too tired to take the relic back to Maya, so she had a nice nap on the sofa inside the building at Hot Springs. Maya was overjoyed to have the cherished relic in her hands and rewarded Nellie handsomely. Afterward, the two women did a bit of friendly sparring before Nellie left to rest up a bit before checking the adventure board back at the base camp. It growing near to the end of Nellie's stay in China once again, so she chose an adventure she thought would be quick and easy. She was to find two pieces of platinum and bring them to Jiao Hong. She also needed two precious stones, Lapis Lazuli, which she already had in her possession. As it turned out, there was more to the adventure than that, so Nellie had to return home before her adventure reached completion. She arrived home on Wednesday evening, and had just enough time to do some gardening and other small tasks around the house before having to work the next day. Although she just returned home, she had already begun to miss being in China and her wonderful friends there. So after work on Friday, she invited Ho Sung to come for a visit. She was thrilled when he said he would arrive the next day! Meanwhile, Nellie filled her time by doing cardio exercises to her favorite music. Saturday morning, while waiting for Ho Sung's arrival, her anxiety level increased beyond belief, so decided to do some practicing on her board-breaking skills to ease her nervous tension. Nellie was concentrating so completely on her current task that she failed to hear the taxi pull up on the street behind her.
Nellie
his soft voice reached her ears and her heart skipped several beats. He was here! Ho Sung emitted a sharp gasp of surprise when she whirled around and flung herself into his arms. Instantly, his arms wrapped around her and her heart pounded wildly as he pressed his body close to hers. The couple expressed their happiness at being together without using words. Soon, their lips met and nothing else in the world mattered to them. Wordlessly, Nellie took him by the hand and led him into her bedroom. Soon, they were wrapped in each other's arms on Nellie's bed. Before long, Nellie had experienced her very first intimate encounter with a man, and it was more wonderful than Nellie had ever imagined t could be, even in her wildest dreams! She suddenly had a wild fantasy of never leaving the comfort of Ho Sung's arms. If she could remain in this moment in time forever, she would be content and her life would be complete. Nellie happily whipped up an Autumn Salad and the pair enjoyed a quiet dinner together. Nellie already knew that Ho Sung Kim was a good man who was hopelessly romantic, and that he adored children and the idea of a big family someday. Now, she also learned that he was adventurous by nature, as well as athletic. She found that amusing because she had decided before he arrived to give up vegetarianism and become more adventurous, which gave them something in common. She had also forgone her frugality to become more disciplined, because she desperately wanted to be better at Martial Arts. Ho Sung practiced on Nellie's dummy while she showered and cleaned the kitchen. She offered him massage when she entered the room and he gratefully accepted. It was not long before the touching led to the desire for a more passionate activity. This time, it was Ho Sung who took Nellie by the hand and led her down the hallway. Soon, they were, once again enjoying the pleasure of being in each other's arms. Nellie fell asleep that night thinking about all the wonderful sights she would show him around town the next day. Unfortunately, Nellie was heartbroken to wake and find a note from him on the pillow next to her saying that he was sorry, but he had to leave and would explain more fully later. She felt crushed and used, but she did her best to understand and wait to hear more from him before getting too upset. Nellie was unable to sit still for long, so she soon found herself in China again, on the way bring the key that had been constructed from the platinum and stones to Lu Zhi. It felt sort of strange to her to be back in China after what had happened between her and Ho Sung, but Nellie had to shrug it off because she had journeys to make and adventures to conquer! Nellie was informed that something was wrong and the key needed to be taken first to the Phoenix Academy of Martial Arts and then to the Scholar's Garden. Upon doing so, and returning, Nellie was told the key was perfect and was asked to enter The Temple of Heaven once again to retrieve an important relic there. Nellie was a bit frightened after what had occurred there on her last trip, but she graciously accepted the challenge. Nellie was too anxious to sleep right away that evening. So back at the base camp, she decided to read the book her boss had given her back home. After reading the whole thing, she felt tired enough to fall asleep, so she went to her bed and slept like a stone. As Nellie made small talk with her Egyptian breakfast companions the next morning, her thoughts were never far from the task at hand. She sighed heavily and rose from the table as she headed out to make preparations to, once again, enter The Temple of Heaven . . . .