“You mean; you’re one of them?!” Them?!  them?!”

    “One of the Rantaarh, yes that is correct.”  Replied Ronald Westeral in a cold voice.  John Void held his head with both his hands and turned away. 

     “I…I’m so confused.  It’s just like some nightmare that I cannot awaken from.  I just want to close my eyes and wake up to find everything normal.  Please tell me I’m having a nightmare and that this is all make-believe.”

     “Very well.”  Said Ronald, raising his left eyebrow.  He placed his hands over John’s head and a red beam appeared from his palms and projected over John and spread across his entire body.  Suddenly, John dematerialised and found himself back outside the cave.

    “What on earth am I doing here?  How did it happen?”  John was fast to realise that he was back to his normal self again.

     “It means I’ve been sent back in time, before entering the cave.”  “Hey, maybe the Rantaarh weren’t such a bad race after all and it looks to me that Ronald Westeral…”  His words were cut short as his memory suddenly elapsed.  Suddenly, he didn’t remember anything.  All he knew was that he was mountaineering.  John Void stared at the cave in front of him.  This time, however, some deep instinct, within forbade him to let temptation get the better of him.  It was exactly the same situation as before.  The same stick lay there before him, which would turn into a black serpent once he would wedge it in the cave, but this time, John did not remember.   Only his instinct was his guardian angel and this told him firmly to overlook the cave and continue on his trek.  John walked past the cave and planted his left foot on the mountain and then his right.  He was going to climb up to a higher point.

     “I want to see how high is high!”  He said to himself, placing his oxygen mask across his face.   He was so high up now that the altitude had changed dramatically and his head was practically in the clouds.

     “I’m on top of the world!!!”  He shouted out.  Suddenly, there was a loud rumble.  Everything under his feet began to move. 

     “Oh no,  I’ve just triggered off an avalanche!!!”

     End of Chapter 9