"Curse those meddling kids! What are they doing in there? Mastanje, you did take out Father's weaponry chest, didn't you?"
The stunned silence spoke volumes more than words- Mastanje was really regretting his moment of forgetfulness.
"You fool!" hissed Kristina, and there was a thumping sound and a crash of smashing china. "You rotting son of a weakling! May you fester in death for ever!" She walked towards him and kicked him, and he yelped in pain as her foot made contact with his side. Then we heard him scramble up and they began fighting hard, one on one, paying no more attention to us.
Fred simply pushed the hatch up, gently, softly, as far as it would go, and fired a random bullet, gritting his teeth as he did so. The sound the gun made ended the fight, and instead we heard a roar as Mastanje instantly transformed into a chimera again. Velma set her jaw firmly, and wiped away angry, hurt tears from her exposed eye as we walked up.
"Well, well, the famous fools of Mystery Inc. have rejoined us," sneered Kristina, her hand moving to the side of her body and seeming to beckon the enchanted corpses she controlled, who instantly joined her and the chimera standing next to her. "Armed, I see. Oh, the foolishness and naivety of youth… I pity you. Shall we split them between us, chimera boy? I can have the boys, you can have the girls… the little child who fell in love with you… and we'll split the dog between us, maybe even literally."
Scooby whimpered, trying to hide behind Shaggy, who instantly put his hand on the Great Dane's back, trying to calm him. Kristina laughed.
"This is the brave hound of Mystery Inc., the famous Scooby Doo! Quivering behind his owner, his "protector"? Frightened of a little enchantress and a chimera? Is the big doggy fwightened of us? Aw, poor ickle doggy!"
Kristina's eyes narrowed in malice and mocking, and Scooby growled but didn't go any closer. Mastanje laughed through his serpent head, spraying the acid green poison stored in his formidable fangs at poor Scooby.
"Come on then, poochie poochie poochie! Come on then!"
"Roochie?!"
That did it. Scooby charged.
Kristina lazily waved a thin white hand, and something knocked Scooby sideways in mid-jump, throwing him violently into a bookcase. I waited for him to stagger to his feet, but he didn't; he just lay there, as still as a corpse.
Oh… goodness…
Was Scooby…
He couldn't be…
No way…
He wasn't…
I couldn't even breathe. Shaggy rushed to him, cradling his large brown head in his arms while Kristina cackled.
"The great dog of Mystery Inc., felled like a shoot of bamboo under the wicked blade of a chainsaw. Where is the bravery of the leader, the intelligence of the young girl, the defiance of the older girl, the speed of the second boy? Gone! Gone, thrown to the heavens by the dog they seemed to love so. Mourn, Mystery Inc… Mourn… Wait… What?"
She turned slowly as we broke out into huge grins.
Behind her stood Scooby Doo. Strong, large, and very, very cheesed off.
"Now would be a good time to run, Kristina!" I jeered as she shrieked. Scooby lunged at her, drawing blood from her seemingly bloodless shoulder.
"I will not be foiled by a mutt!"
Scooby growled again.
"Ri ram rot ra rutt!"
I quietly translated in my head- he was saying he wasn't a mutt. Oh dear. Kristina was saying all the wrong things today…
Scooby's teeth slashed her arm, blood spraying like a fountain from the wound he had made, but Kristina wasn't finished yet; she raised her good arm and the bodies on the edges of the room moved forwards, arms raised and ready to take Scooby from us, maybe even kill him as Kristina had failed to do.
Scooby, in a heroic leap I wouldn't have thought possible of him without a Scooby Snack, managed to sail over their heads and land next to Shaggy.
Kristina raised a hand to try and blow him off again, but he had firmly landed by that time. Mastanje roared his disapproval through his lion head and pounced on us, all heads screaming and poised for death…
Then he stopped. Abruptly.
As though he had been speared.
He had.
While Scooby had been distracting them, Velma had dropped her pole. None of us had noticed that it had fallen into a rut on the floor and become stuck there, pointing up.
Mastanje had leapt straight onto it.
The lion raised its head, and looked straight at Velma.
"You would kill me, smart girl?"
Velma just smiled.
"It's the old saying, chimera. Look before you leap."
The lion gave a growl, but it was weak and laboured. The serpent was swaying woozily, almost as though it was drunk, and its eyes were closed. The goat's head had fallen onto the lion's back, and the horns were dulled, their brilliant reflection dim and grey.
One paw reached out and managed to slice at us, but the claws missed. Velma glared at the lion, and the creature's eyes seemed to dim, falling into a black abyss, the abyss of eternal death…
And then the mighty, crimson-streaked eyes closed, and the chimera was still as Kristina's shriek of horror rent the air that the chimera would never breathe again.