Rhamin

by Bryce THOMAS

  ‘Will he help me?’ his mind pleaded, still sceptical. He could see Margo was concentrating hard. There was clearly some difficulty, but eventually she looked across to her father. ‘Are we going to help him, Daddy?’

  Raymond nodded, an astonished smile still cracking his face. ‘If I can.’

  ‘He says yes, if he can,’ Ben and his parents heard Margo say, looking into Rasci’s amber eyes.

  Again, he wasn’t sure of her response, but then he saw her nodding. He knew what nodding meant. His heart leapt. He jumped in the air, spun around and raced around in a circle, sliding to a halt in front of the family again. He couldn’t stop himself. Something inside of him had snapped and sent him into an uncontrollable fit of behaviour. He suppressed it enough to look at the family again. They were smiling at him totally dumbfounded by his performance. A crazy wolf was dancing in their yard.

  Lexa and Smokey trotted over towards them, their tongues hanging out and their chests sucking in air as they panted uncontrollably. ‘How’s it going?’ Lexa asked, unsure of the silence.

  ‘You’re not going to believe it,’ Rasci said turning to his wolf dog.

  CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

  The transfer of thoughts between Rasci and Margo was not fluent. Even if she could tell what he was thinking, he still wasn’t sure he could tell what was in her mind. Eventually, while the family were all engrossed in getting to know Lexa, he went out of sight of them to a quiet corner of the garden, where Corvak stood on an old post, cawing softly. With a sigh, he lay down beneath his friend. ‘I think they are going to help me,’ he said, ‘but I can’t understand what they are saying.’

  Corvak hopped down between his front paws. ‘Then communicate the only way you know how,’ he said bluntly. ‘You must do what you have been doing.’

  Rasci lowered his head onto his paws. Corvak was a wise old bird. With his friend’s light body resting gently against his muzzle he was able to relax a little. The whole morning had been too intense, the excitement too great, but Corvak’s presence was reassuringly soothing. Gradually Rasci began to relax enough to try and meditate. The whole Rozalski family was just as excited, but if he could confirm things with Ben then the plan could still work.

  Eventually, Ben caught sight of his spirit wolf watching them, trying to catch his attention as he and Margo had snacks, and Raymond provided treats for Smokey; tasty things that were not really to Lexa’s palate, and by the end of the morning a simple and very rudimentary plan was formed; one that everybody understood. Rasci should return in a week’s time. They would go to the safari park together.

  Much would have to be left now to Raymond and it would take him time to get ready. He was going to have to make enquiries about the safari park. If possible, he was going to have to go and do a reconnaissance. Although he had agreed to help to rescue Rhamin, he would need to know what it was that he was up against. But all he made clear to Ben on the day was that it would be essential to take Rasci with him in order that The Black Wolf would know his intention was to help him escape. Rasci had to be back at the farm by first light in seven days.

  –––––––

  The following week seemed to drag on and on. The pack needed to get the whole dangerous scheme behind them. None were expected to join Rasci, because the plan had been devised with the inclusion of the only wolf that could communicate with the farmer through his children. But they had all been warned; there was a good chance the rescue would fail and there was no knowing if Rasci would end up being a captive as well. None wanted to lose a second leader and they were desperate to show their support in whatever way they could.

  For a whole week, all the wolves had to just get on with life and Rasci was no exception. At first, he decided to keep clear of the mountain forests. His last trip up there had been too harrowing to repeat. Every time he thought about Roxana he felt as if a lead weight was swinging on his insides. He thought about her constantly, wondering if she would still be interested in him after the mission. If he survived, that was. He thought about the things Zelda had said, that she had been a leader’s mate, and how Rhamin would be pleased for Rasci if he wanted to form his own pack. But everything he knew and with which he was familiar, was around the Darin. Every one he knew was around the Darin. He had been right; his life was changing. He would never be able to be the old Rasci again. He was happy that he was learning so much; things no ordinary wolf would even dream about. No ordinary wolf. That said it all. He wasn’t ever going to be ordinary. Even as a clown, he wasn’t ordinary. He had been and still was a magnificent hunter and fighter. He still had some of Zelda’s psychic talent, though now, it seemed to have channelled mainly into the ability to remote view other places and the wolves or people in them. But he knew so much more about life now. Zelda had, for years, told him about men, but he had learned even more in the last few weeks. And there was Roxana. That was an experience he had felt. He had felt it every time she looked at him with her big amber eyes. He had felt it when she brushed close to him. He had felt it with every word of her soft, velvet voice. Would she want him after he returned from his rescue mission? Would he return safely to her, he wondered? For Roxana, he desperately wanted to return.

  Every day, he went hunting with Natan and Lexa for deer, but he was only with them in body. His mind and soul were elsewhere. They were never very far from the Darin, and were well within calling distance. They went to the foothills and the first belt of trees. But he wasn’t really hunting. Not for food, anyway. He just wandered aimlessly through forest, following his companions around the slopes, thinking what he would say if he came across Roxana. But she never appeared. The vultures did. They started to follow him by the fourth day and would remain above until they left for the farm.

  Natan and Lexa knew Rasci had a great deal on his mind, so they didn’t mind his aimlessness. Hunting was easy and when they did chase a deer, it broke their leader out of his sombre mood, if only for a short while.

  The fourth night was the first time since leaving the farm that Rasci communicated with Ben. He went to a quiet corner of the cave, where he knew he would not be disturbed, and started his meditation. He soon located Ben in his room, preparing to go to bed. The boy shouted with delight when he saw his wolf spirit appear. ‘Rasci! I’ve been thinking about you.’ He ran over to his bed and jumped on it, turning around and swinging his legs back over the side.

  ‘And me about you,’ Rasci lied convincingly as Ben settled in a comfortable sitting position. He didn’t know how to explain that his mind had been elsewhere. ‘I’ve come to see what plans have been made if any,’ Rasci said, determined that he was going to make no mistakes.

  Ben explained everything that his father had done during the week. It was a longer trip to the safari park than he had expected, taking more than seven hours on the road to get there in the station wagon. So, because of that, they were going to set off on the first day of the weekend, called Saturday, and travel to the safari park ready to enter it on the next day called Sunday. Rasci had to come along because he was the only one that could communicate with the incarcerated wolves, and Ben and Margo were going in order to make the visit to the safari park look like an authentic family event. The rest of the very basic rescue plan remained unchanged.

  ‘Thank your father for doing this for Rhamin and me, won’t you?’ Rasci said gratefully to his little friend.

  Ben got up off the bed and ran to the bedroom door. He opened it. ‘Daddy,’ he shouted down the stairs, ‘Rasci wants to thank you for helping him!’

  ‘Tell him he’s welcome,’ Raymond replied with a chuckle of disbelief that he was really doing any of this.

  As Rasci came out of his trance, he realized how much more reliable and informative his dream visits to Ben were now; how easy it was to get the full picture of the plan this way. The system of thought transference with Margo, if indeed that is what it was, had not been reliable enough to communicate at anything but the most basic level and back at the farm his close pr
oximity seemed to get in the way of good communication. Now, after talking to Ben in his spirit form, he felt much more reassured.

  On the day before the weekend, the day the Rozalski’s called Friday, Rasci hunted and fed well. Corvak, who was still with him, did the same. Once again, the vultures were ready to take over when the other predators had left. But before they departed and left the carcass to the birds, the wolves rested and then ate again. There would be no time for food once they set off to rescue Rhamin.

  There had been no sign of the female wolf that had infatuated him. The sense of disappointment was mingled with relief. Let’s get this over with first, he thought. He had plenty of time to make up with Roxana, afterwards. Once she saw him alive and well, he’d tell her he was going to leave the Rhamin pack and form another pack of his own.

  In the early evening, as the sun was setting in a crimson sky, Rasci, Silvah, Ramusan, Natan and Lexa began their journey back to the farm. It was a familiar trek by now, and time seemed to pass quickly as they all loped along, silently thinking their own thoughts, not really noticing anything around them. It wasn’t until halfway through the journey that Silvah suddenly stopped in her tracks. ‘There’s something behind us,’ she warned, as the others slowed down, turned back and returned to where she was standing. Her ears were pricked forward as she faced the way they had come. They all listened intently. Sure enough, they were being followed. Rasci was the first to recognise their pursuer long before she came within sight. Although it was a calm night with the very slightest of breezes, they were all travelling slightly down wind and, once they had stopped, the scent of Roxana reached him only seconds later. Silvah picked up the scent too. ‘Is that Roxana?’ she asked quietly.

  Rasci nodded, and they all waited. Only the moonlight in her amber eyes stood out in the blackness until she came very close. Then, like a dark shadow in the night, she came panting her way towards them. ‘Oh, Rasci,’ she panted.

  ‘I’m so glad I caught you.’ She trotted to a stop and then took a breath. ‘I heard you were setting off on that trip tonight,’ she said, still quite breathless.

  ‘That’s right,’ Rasci replied, trying to keep a strong will. He knew she would try to bend it.

  ‘How did you find that out?’ asked Lexa, her look of mistrust rather than that of curiosity, cutting a cold advance.

  ‘I met one of the wolves from your pack. He asked who I was and what I was doing in your territory, and when I told him I was Roxana, he seemed to know who I was.’ She took another couple of deep breaths. ‘It seems like you have told

  them about me!’

  ‘Yes,’ Rasci replied simply. He looked at Silvah quizzically. He wondered just what Silvah and Zelda had told the rest of his wolves. He wasn’t sure what to say to Roxana either, and he wasn’t even sure if she had wanted him to tell any of his pack about her.

  ‘I’m glad you did,’ she said quickly. Her eyes seemed to glint in the moonlight.

  Rasci just nodded.

  ‘Well aren’t you going to introduce me?’ Roxana asked, smiling.

  ‘What? Oh, er, this is Roxana, everybody.’

  Silvah chuckled, dryly. ‘We gathered that much.’

  ‘Hmm, this is Silvah,’ he nodded towards his elder companion. ‘This is Ramusan and this is Natan. And this is Lexa,’ he said, nodding to his wolf dog, proudly.

  Roxana considered Lexa carefully. ‘Hmm, yes, I have heard a lot about you.’

  ‘Oh, where?’ Lexa asked, rather sharply Rasci thought. Her curiosity seemed more than just casual.

  ‘Oh, well the other packs around, you know. They all know about Rhamin and his pack. You are all quite well known, really.’

  ‘Oh,’ Lexa said, slowly. ‘Rasci never mentioned you to me.’ Roxana smiled at her, but it seemed to Rasci that the smile didn’t put the usual light in her eyes. She turned her head towards him. ‘Rasci, I need to talk to you.’ She looked at the others tentatively.

  ‘Come, we’ll go ahead a little,’ Silvah said to them. ‘Rasci will catch us up in a minute.’ She turned back to Rasci. ‘Don’t be too long, will you?’

  ‘I’ll be right there,’ Rasci said, and with a nod of acknowledgement, Silvah led the others away.

  ‘How are you?’ Roxana asked.

  ‘Fine, thanks. And you?’

  Roxana smiled warmly. It was a better smile than she had given Lexa. It lit up her whole face. ‘I’m fine,’ she said softly. ‘I was hoping to catch you.’

  ‘I thought you had left the territory,’ Rasci stated, honestly.

  ‘Why would I do that? What I want is here.’

  ‘Here? Oh, you mean…’

  She smiled again. This time her eyes seemed to take on a different look; a look that said more than her words. ‘Look Rasci, isn’t there anything I can do to persuade you not to go on this crazy mission? It can only end in disaster, you know that.’

  Rasci took his time answering. Her eyes were still drawing his will power from him, sapping his resolve. ‘It’s too late to go back now,’ he struggled to say. ‘We are on our way.’

  ‘I know, but…’ She tilted her head and looked at him in a way that made his thin legs turn to slush.

  Rasci struggled against the magnetism. ‘I’m sorry Roxana. I have to go. If you wait for me I’ll call for you as soon as I get back.’

  ‘Get back? Where exactly are you going, Rasci?’

  ‘Oh, it’s a long way to the safari park. I can’t explain now, but I have to go there. I have to try and get Rhamin and Yeltsa out, and I have to get back. Each part of the mission seems more impossible every time I think about it,’ he said, trying and hoping to gain her support. ‘I’m only going to find out just how impossible when I try them.’

  ‘I thought impossible was totally impossible. There’s no such thing as nearly impossible!’

  Rasci muzzled her shoulder. ‘We’ll have to see,’ he said, maintaining his steel. ‘I’m going now. Promise you’ll wait.’

  ‘Rasci, don’t do it!’

  Rasci shook his head. ‘It’s too late; my mind’s made up.’ He turned to go.

  ‘Don’t, Rasci. You could have so much. We…’ She hesitated. ‘We could have so much.’ Her warm eyes looked at him pleadingly. ‘You can’t do this, Rasci. You mustn’t do this!’

  Something heavy was tugging at Rasci’s insides. He felt the weight begin to draw him towards her. He put his face close to hers and breathed her in. She responded by pushing her face against his. For a few seconds, Rasci felt like he had never felt before. It was a feeling of discovery, of understanding; a realisation of what he wanted to do. He felt a wave of elation blanking out everything else from his mind. He wanted the feeling to last for ever.

  ‘Rasci, we need to be going,’ Silvah’s voice broke into the moment. She was standing behind him. Rasci turned and looked at her, wanting to say something, but couldn’t. She looked at Roxana. ‘Rhamin needs him now,’ she said plainly. ‘He’ll be back.’ There was something in her look that surprised Rasci, a look of determination, but more than that, it revealed an unbending resolve to finish what they had all started. ‘We need to do this,’ she said, looking back at Rasci. ‘Rhamin needs you to do this.’

  ‘Rhamin?’ Rasci’s vision was blurred. ‘Yes, of course,’ he said, suddenly surprised. He looked around and, realising where he was, he shook himself and took a deep breath. He steeled himself for what he was about to say.

  ‘Rasci?’ Roxana’s soft voice still pleaded.

  He turned towards her. ‘I’ll be back,’ he said, his head suddenly clearing. ‘You’ll wait for me, won’t you?’

  Roxana gave a resigned nod. She breathed out heavily. Her eyes looked very sad in the grey darkness. Without another word, Rasci turned and joined his companions, and together, they loped off into the night.

  –––––––

  The group reached the outer perimeter fence of the farm before dawn and settled down to rest until the sun came up. The outer fence seemed to make Rasci
a bit uneasy, probably because that is where he first met Roxana. The hollow where he slept was still there. It brought back memories that he would rather not think about at this particular moment in time. At first light, he said his farewells to his companions. They assured him they would be there to greet both him and Rhamin when he got back, and he set off loping towards the farm house.

  He hadn’t expected any of the Rozalskis to be up and about when he arrived but, as he approached the farmhouse in the semi light of early morning, the door opened and the farmer walked out to meet him. Without a word, he waved him inside, turned and went in. Rasci followed. Maria, Margo and Ben were all waiting to greet him.

  It was easy to see why Smokey liked being part of the Rozalski family. The farmer made a good leader. He immediately set to the task of loading items into the vehicle they called the station wagon. The back opened up like a magic door, holding itself up in the air without any help. He loaded a large container made from sticks, later to be called a basket, which smelt of some kind of food; a large container of water; a set of metal implements which Rasci could neither recognise nor describe; several thick sheets made from the fur off a sheep, which Rasci was later to learn were called blankets; and then he opened the side doors and let Ben and Margo into the seating area behind the part where, later, Rasci learned Raymond was to be seated for an enormous length of time, holding and turning things that made the vehicle go where he wanted it to.

  Rasci was directed into the back of the vehicle. The door was pulled down and was closed behind him. A feeling of panic fleeted through his insides as he suddenly became enclosed. The sides of the vehicle were covered with sections filled with a hard substance that was clearer than water. He looked around, wildly, and through the sides, he could see Maria bending her head and looking at her children. Ben was to later tell him that the clear sides were called windows. The back door and the front of the vehicle too, were covered the same. Without further delay, Raymond pressed his face against that of Maria and then said something to her before sitting inside the vehicle. There was a frightening roar, the vehicle vibrated and gave out a cacophony of sonic and infra sonic sounds, a door slammed, the vehicle jerked, making Rasci splay his legs to keep his balance, and then, gaining speed, it moved forward towards an opening in the fence and onwards to the road.