"So. You got my message, anyway. My dream message. Dreams can be carried by mana, and I persuaded Myrrh and Loszina to give you the dream. I hope you don't mind, but we needed you and we still do and it seemed a good way to go about things. I picked that particular scene myself. I thought you'd like it."
Fred, who was sat opposite his uncle's spirit-form on a tree trunk, smiled briefly.
"Yeah. It was a good choice."
James Jones smiled as well, his glowing eyes seeming to emit even more light.
"And my voice. When I said "I will talk to you tomorrow night", I meant I would "talk" to you through Loszina taking you. It was to try and reassure you, but I don't think it worked. I'm sorry, Freddy. I should have kept it simple with the dream, but I thought it would help."
"I don't mind."
"I'm no druid, Freddy, but I can sense you're not quite telling me the whole truth when you say that."
Fred shrugged.
"Well, at the time it was a bit creepy. And nobody believed me and I tortured my mom when I went missing because we'd just argued over it. So yeah, I do mind. But I don't blame you for that."
"Thank you, my boy."
Myrrh intervened quietly.
"Fred came here to be told about what it was like to be a Mana-Bringer, James. I accept that you want to catch up with him and make any apologies necessary, but now that's over- we need to get Fred back to civilisation as soon as is possible and chats are taking up too much time."
James nodded, standing up.
"Your point is a good one, Myrrh. Freddy- what would you like to know?"
"What you actually do when you're a Mana-Bringer."
"You regulate the flow and production of mana. As well as mana existing on live creatures and plants, it is produced by them. However, some produce more and some produce less. The aim of the Mana-Bringer is to regulate the supply and ensure that all are producing the same amount. The reason the mana is waning is because some organisms are making more and some less, and that spurs all organisms to produce less. It's a simple thing to do- all you need to do is commune with the mana and tell it what to do, since mana is not intelligent. It has no brain or anything of its own, and so you have to tell it what to do. It is essential that there is a Mana-Bringer to regulate the mana for the existence of shamans and druids, e.g. clans like the Arruichi, and so since my death the clan has been seeing a steady decrease in mana. You are needed, and you have the gift. I need you to use it."
Fred's eyes were on the other side of the clearing as he drank in the words his uncle had spoken. Myrrh broke the silence.
"We won't force you to be our Mana-Bringer, Fred. But we need a person to do the job for us. When you employ mana, you cannot regulate it, and we all employ it in the camp. So we beg you, for our existence, to go ahead with all this."
Fred slowly turned to face him. Loszina, who stood next to Myrrh, drew her breath in sharply.
"What?" Myrrh asked, turning to face her.
Loszina pointed behind Fred, and they turned. Fred yelped with shock.
A very familiar Great Dane stood behind him.
"SCOOBY DOO, GET BACK HERE!"
Shaggy lunged for Scooby's collar as the dog rushed towards a road, seeming to follow instinct more than logic. Both Velma and Daphne quickly shut their eyes, not wanting to see, but when they opened them again Scooby was on the other side of the road and very much not flattened. Velma sighed.
"How does he do that?" she asked softly as the Great Dane vanished from sight. Daphne smiled, but then gasped.
"Daph, what is it?"
"I think… I think he's gone to find Freddy."
The two other teens stared at her.
"What?" Velma asked, incredulous.
"I told him to put a note on Freddy's bean bag in his corner. It was something like "Freddy, you idiot, get back here", just rubbish. I was half-asleep. I guess Scooby thinks I'm going to do something stupid if Freddy's not found soon, so he's run off to find him… oh goodness, what if the people who took Freddy are violent? What if they hurt both of them? Oh goodness, guys, I am so stupid… this is all my fault… I've been saying for ages to Scooby that I should go and find Freddy, but I didn't think Scoob would take it on himself… Someone pinch me, please, this isn't happening… Why do I have to screw everything up?"
Immediately, Shaggy and Velma grabbed her arms and guided her into the malt shop to buy a malted milkshake each. It was bad enough to have Scooby missing, although they knew he would come back, deep down. It was worse to have Daphne near meltdown. Silently, Velma cursed the world as she sipped her milkshake. Shaggy cursed Fred, Scooby, the people who were holding Fred, and then the world.
"Scooby?"
"Reddy!"
The Dane bounded onto Fred, panting with joy, and started lathering his face in licks, wiggling with puppy-style joy.
"Hey, hey, Scooby, get off!" Fred gasped, pushing the eager tongue away and wiping his face. Slightly sheepishly, Scooby stood up and moved back.
"What's he doing here?" Loszina asked, pointing to Scooby. Her eyes glared at Fred as she pointed, asking for a reason, and Fred turned to Scooby, the same question in his head but a good guess already thought of.
"Did you come to find me, boy?"
Scooby nodded, giving his friend one last lick.
"Ruh-huh!"
Fred smiled, stroking Scooby's back, and then turned back to Loszina.
"I guess he just came to find me."
"How did he track you?" Myrrh asked suddenly, turning and looking round the glade as though he suspected there was a microphone hidden in the rampant undergrowth. Which, Fred reasoned to himself, he might well be thinking. He was wrong, though. There was a much more logical reason why Scooby had managed to find him.
Fred drew a small brown nugget from his pocket, smiling, and immediately Scooby started nuzzling his hand, trying to get the nugget. Myrrh and Loszina stared at it, confused.
"What is that?"
James was smiling, a beam of remembrance on his ethereal face. Fred smiled.
"I'd forgotten I had it. It's a Scooby Snack."
He reached down and fed it to the eagerly-awaiting Dane, smiling as the rough, warm tongue sloshed over the palm of his hand.
"There you go, boy. A reward for finding me."
Myrrh was smiling by now, his mood turned at seeing the two friends together, but Loszina was feeling less cheerful.
"We will be discovered! Others will come looking for the dog and they will find us all. We cannot be discovered, but we cannot simply let the boy go either, we need him and his Mana-Bringer skills… Can you tell the dog to go back to his owners and not tell them where you are?"
Fred nodded, a little sad that his friends wouldn't know still where he was but pepped up by the appearance of the familiar dog, and put a serious face on, turning back to Scooby.
"Scoob, I need you to go back and tell the guys that you didn't find me, and stick to that. OK? I need to stay here for a little while, without intervention from the others. I don't like it either, but it needs to happen."
"Ri ran't."
"Why can't you?"
"Raphne's roing razy."
"Daph won't go crazy, Scoob. I just need a few more days and I can come back. I know the guys are probably worried and missing me and stuff, but I only need a little while. I want to get back home as much as the others want me to, boy, but I don't have a choice. Promise me you won't bring them here?"
Scooby shook his head firmly.
"Ru rave ro rome rack."
"Scoob… I don't know what to do if you insist I have to come back, because right now I can't. I will soon. Just a couple of days, that's all I need. I will come back, and as soon as I can. I promise."
"Ru rave ro. Ror Raphne."
Fred turned away for a second, quietly wiping a small tear away from his eye. When he turned back his face was softer, wishful, somehow younger, more like the little boy Scooby had once played fetch with in the park after school all those years ago than in many months.
"Please, Scooby. Please."
Scooby shook his head again, whining softly.
"Then we have no choice," Loszina said abruptly, reaching down and stuffing something to the back of Scooby's throat. Fred jumped; he hadn't heard or seen her approach. "He won't wake up until he's restrained."
"No! Don't take him away from the guys as well! Just take him back to them," Fred begged frantically as Scooby relaxed into unconsciousness, just as Fred had done when Loszina had given him the same treatment. Loszina shook her head firmly.
"And be discovered? I can't believe how much trouble you've brought on us, Fred Jones."
Fred snapped.
"Alright then! If I'm so much trouble, why don't I just leave?" he snarled, standing up to his full height, a good inch taller than Loszina, and picking Scooby up with both arms. Loszina stepped away, uncertain suddenly; had she just lost the clan their Mana-Bringer?
Fred walked towards the entrance and exit for the clearing, and the mile walk back to home and safety. Myrrh tried to stop him with spells, giving him guilty thoughts, even simply making his feet heavier, but they bounced off the iron wall of resoluteness and certainty that Fred was feeling. Nothing could stop him now.
His figure disappeared into the distance, heading home.
A/N: Ooh… I didn't intend for it to go that way, but when you stray from the beaten track you get a good plot… ;P Please read and review, as always, and thanks to Angel1008 for your support! Jazzola :)