Little Boy Blue

SIX

SCOOBY

"So what exactly does this mean?"

Ashley licked his lips and made a face. "We have to go on an 'adventure,' something I absolutely dread. There's a fear in me that we're going to have to do something we won't really like."

Scooby looked at his friend, wondered what thoughts and fears gazed at him from behind Ashley's eyes. He couldn't tell what was there, but he knew what was in his own heart.

He would do anything for Ashley, anything at all. No matter what shocking truths he had learned, his liking for Ashley had not faded.

A part of him wanted to escape to somewhere warm and safe where he would have room to think. But that voice in his heart told him that Ashley was his friend and he couldn't run away. If he ever knowingly abandoned a friend, he would never be able to look at himself in the mirror again. He wouldn't be able to say his own name without feeling sick to his stomach with the shame of his cowardice.

With a sense of vague disquiet, Scooby lay his hands on Ashley's shoulders and looked into his eyes. "Don't worry. If we're going to have an adventure, we're going to have an adventure."

A faint smile touched Ashley's lips. "I'm glad you're my friend," he said, and that was enough.

They stood there, both young and beautiful. Ashley, tall and lean with his dark red hair and beautiful face, his skin a warm gold. Scooby, a little chubby, standing a couple of inches shorter than Ashley, with incredibly fair skin and short, dark hair. They had nothing in common physically, yet as they stood there they could have been cast from an image of the same person seen from different angles.

The moment was broken when the door opened and an angel strode in.

"Ku Domineris pinaria vos teruque et ku Certalo Sausisto," she said. "He ysuva epthe maior dunciomont he volatia tenul creffingo tenul semquamaelyun."

"What did she say?" Scooby asked. He wished that he could understand this language that everyone seemed to know but him.

"They want us to go to the Main Hall," Ashley said. "She would have told us in English, but she doesn't know the language," he added as an aside.

Scooby looked at the angel and felt a little bad. He had been a bit down on her in his thoughts, and now he wished he could wipe them away. At least he hadn't said anything out loud.

He nodded at the girl and she smiled, fluttering her snowy-white wings with a gentle rustle of feathers. She was beautiful in the high-foreheaded, clear-featured fashion generally reserved for religious paintings of saints and martyrs.

"What does he want to say?" Scooby asked.

Ashley shrugged. "We have to go to find out."

"Great." Scooby looked down at himself. His old clothes had been filthy and stained with dirt, blood and vomit, but at least with a pair of pants on, he didn't feel quite so naked. This simple white robe made him feel like he was wearing a cotton nightgown. In the right lights, he could see right through it. "Do you think I could at least have something else to wear? It might be a bit of a faux pas for me to go in there wearing a pair of pajamas. You know."

Ashley turned a smile on him, and for a moment, he was afraid he was going to melt. "I'll ask the angel. Maybe there's a thicker robe or something you can borrow." He turned to the angel girl and said something in that other language.

At first she looked a bit confused, then she turned to examine Scooby and a look of enlightenment crossed her face. "Vos dae dexcis. He inbidoun vedo ster yspa. Sisut fo human, he erlustia inridelum," she said. "Ego voli trouvaent pausiresei."