The Great Fire Dogs

by Megan Rix

  The other dog disappeared into the smoke and although Woofer’s throat was raw he gave one of his distinctive woofs, then looked back down at the cobblestones as he trotted on. A moment later he heard a bark in reply and lifted his head. Coming through the smoke, running towards him as if her life depended on it, was Tiger Lily.

  Tiger Lily couldn’t believe that she’d found her friend at last and her tail lifted in a joyous wag as she raced through the smoke-filled air towards Woofer. Her coat was no longer cream and tan but soot-blackened grey.

  Woofer’s tail-stub had never wagged so hard in its life and he made happy little whimpering sounds as he ran towards her.

  Neither of them saw the men placing the gunpowder, then stepping back once the fuse was lit.

  The explosion threw the dogs to opposite ends of the street like leaves, the sound of it ringing in their ears.

  The men who’d detonated the blast slapped each other on the back as the lions, elephants, great apes and bears in the king’s zoo at the Tower roared and howled in terror.

  ‘We’ve just helped to stop the fire!’ the men said to each other. ‘It can’t keep going if there’s nothing to burn in its path.’

  Other firebreaks like it had been lit around the city, blowing up buildings in the fire’s path so it couldn’t jump from one to another.

  But as the wind dropped and the fire’s frenzy gradually abated, one of the dogs crawled slowly and painfully on its belly through the smoke-filled air across the cobblestones towards the other.

  The men who’d set off the explosion didn’t notice a small dog lying on the ground, not moving, and they were walking away when the other dog threw back its head and howled into the sky.

  CHAPTER 13

  Teeth and Claws led George and Annie through the grey fog of smoke, thick dust, fine ash and steam. There were explosions all around them as more houses were blown up and others collapsed and crashed to the ground, weakened by the fire.

  In some streets they went down, the flames were now under control but the stones and rubble were so hot that the soles of their shoes and the dogs’ paw pads were burnt as they walked along them. The brindle-coloured fur of Teeth and Claws was now a soft grey because of all the dust and they looked almost like ghost dogs. George glanced over at Annie. She resembled a ghost too, apart from her eyes.

  So many buildings had been destroyed that London was almost unrecognizable and the thick, strange-smelling and cough-inducing air made detecting the scent of Woofer and Tiger Lily almost impossible for Teeth and Claws. Their trot turned to a walk until finally they stopped.

  Claws looked up at George and gave a whine as Teeth lay down on the hot cobblestones, too exhausted to care whether they singed his fur or not.

  George bit his cracked lip. It had been hours since they’d had anything to drink and his mouth felt as dry as the dust that surrounded them. It was hopeless. They’d never find Woofer and Tiger Lily.

  But just as George was thinking this, Teeth suddenly jumped up and ran over to a large pile of debris from one of the houses that had been pulled down to make a firebreak. Claws followed close behind him.

  ‘Do you think they’ve picked up the scent again?’ Annie said as the dogs started pawing at a particular spot. George didn’t know but they both went to see what the dogs were doing.

  Claws looked up at him and gave a bark.

  ‘What is it, Claws?’ George asked as they watched the dogs digging and pawing.

  ‘Do you think someone’s under it? They couldn’t still be alive, could they?’ Annie said doubtfully.

  ‘I don’t see how anyone could be alive under all that,’ George replied. ‘Come on, Teeth. This way, Claws!’

  But the dogs wouldn’t leave the spot. They barked and whined as they dug away at the ruins of the wattle and daub building.

  Passers-by gathered to see what was going on and suddenly George heard a small cry coming from under the rubble.

  ‘There’s someone down there and they’re alive!’ he cried.

  The bystanders started to help the dogs by moving the wood and stones.

  ‘Careful now, not too fast or it could all cave in,’ warned a man wearing a battered hat.

  Ten minutes later two small children and their mother were pulled out. They’d been safe but stuck beneath two heavy oak timbers that had fallen across each other, leaving a narrow space for them to crawl into when the building came tumbling down.

  ‘The house collapsed around us,’ the mother said. ‘We’ve been under there all night. I kept calling and calling for help and had just about given up when it finally came.’

  ‘You and your children are lucky to be alive,’ the man in the battered hat told her. ‘You’ve got those two dogs over there to thank most of all, as well as this young man.’

  Annie and the two children were stroking Teeth and Claws.

  ‘Thank you,’ the mother said to George.

  ‘They’re good dogs,’ he told her, ‘but I didn’t know they could do that.’

  Teeth and Claws had spent most of their lives in the turnspit wheel and only now, in this crisis, was he seeing just how amazing they were.

  ‘We’re heading to Moorfields,’ the man in the hat told the children’s mother, and she nodded. That was where most people were going.

  Teeth and Claws watched as the now homeless family grabbed whatever belongings they could find and followed the throng heading towards the city wall. Some of the crowd pulled or pushed handcarts containing all their remaining possessions. Everyone was loaded down with as much as they could carry on their backs. They didn’t talk much as they walked. The expressions on their tired grimy faces were sometimes bewildered and tearful, but more often than not there was also a determination about them. They gritted their teeth as they trudged on, not knowing what was to become of them now.

  Annie gave Teeth and Claws the rope toy to sniff again and this time Claws held it in his mouth as the dogs led them onwards past piles of rubble that shifted and slid as they carefully edged their way along them.

  The hard biscuits she’d been trying to ration were almost gone now but Annie broke one into small pieces and gave them to the dogs. Teeth and Claws – briefly dropping the rope toy – gobbled the crumbs down.

  They were all hungry and exhausted but most of all they were desperately thirsty.

  George didn’t want to say out loud what he’d been thinking all day, because it was too terrible to contemplate, but if they didn’t find Woofer and Tiger Lily soon he feared they might never find them. What chance did they have in this grey, sooty, smoke-filled desolation?

  Annie looked up at the yellow-tinged sky. ‘If only it would rain,’ she said. ‘Just rain.’

  But although there was lots of smoke there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

  George couldn’t bear to think about poor Woofer and Tiger Lily, alone and frightened. They didn’t even know anyone was searching for them.

  As they approached the river again Teeth and Claws’ tail-stubs started to wag. Claws gave an excited whine and the next moment the two dogs broke into a run, and George and Annie grinned at each other and ran after them.

  George’s heart was thumping hard. He was gasping for air. Maybe, just maybe they were going to find Woofer and Tiger Lily at last.

  But then, close to Tower Street, Teeth and Claws suddenly stopped. Teeth sniffed at the ground, pawed at it and whined. Then he looked up at George and barked.

  George stared down at the blood on the ground where Teeth was pawing and his heart sank. He didn’t know whose blood it was but he feared the worst when Claws lifted his head to the sky and howled.

  ‘Do you think the blood …’ Annie started to say.

  But George shook his head. He didn’t want to talk about it. He wouldn’t give up hope.

  ‘Find,’ George told the dogs. ‘Find!’

  And Teeth and Claws put their noses to the ground and sniffed. Their way towards London Bridge was blocked and they had to turn back, fi
nding themselves close to where George had first met Woofer, seven months ago.

  He remembered holding the terrier in his arms on the ice, the smell of his puppiness and the fragility of his furry little body.

  ‘Where are you, Woofer?’ George murmured as Teeth and Claws turned away from the river and walked on and on through the night. ‘He’s a tough little dog,’ he told Annie. ‘If anyone can make it he can and as for Tiger Lily, well, when she wants something she won’t stop until she gets it.’

  Annie smiled and brushed away a tear as George told her about Tiger Lily coming all the way down the steep stairs from the king’s apartments to the kitchen when she was just a few months old.

  Telling Annie stories about the puppies made him feel more hopeful but he couldn’t rid his mind of that blood on the ground.

  Finally, at dawn, they reached the Moor Gate in the city wall that led to Moorfields.

  ‘Oh no,’ Annie gasped.

  Before them, as far as the eye could see, were thousands and thousands and thousands of people, covered in the same grey dust that covered them.

  Teeth had the rope toy in his mouth now. Claws, George and Annie followed him as he trotted on into the crowds.

  Most of the people were lying down, exhausted by the horror of it all. Many of them looked like they were asleep, not wanting to wake up and discover that the nightmare they’d been having was actually real.

  They lay huddled together for comfort, their heads resting on their sacks of belongings, still wearing the clothes they’d run away from their homes in. Some of their garments were burnt, many of them tattered and torn, all of them smelling of smoke.

  George, Annie and the dogs stepped over outstretched arms and legs of sleepers. Annie raised her hand to her eyes as she looked out at the sea of people ahead of them. She couldn’t see where it ended – it seemed to go on forever.

  George felt as though he could fall asleep right where he stood. But he forced his feet to keep moving, one in front of the other, as the dogs walked ahead of them. Impossible as it now seemed, they had to keep looking for Woofer and Tiger Lily. They couldn’t give up on them.

  As they made their way through the crowds more people started to wake up.

  ‘What’ve you got those dogs for?’ a man wanted to know.

  ‘These aren’t my dogs. They belong to the king and they work in his kitchen,’ George said.

  ‘Then why aren’t they with him now?’

  ‘We’re looking for two other dogs that belong to the king,’ Annie replied. ‘One spaniel and one terrier. Have you seen them?’

  But no one had.

  Lots of families and friends had become separated in the panic of the fire and were searching for each other. People wandered past, looking dazed. Most had lost everything.

  ‘How are we supposed to survive?’ they asked each other.

  Lost children wandered among the vast crowds looking for their relatives. A boy aged about four stopped in front of them and Claws nuzzled his hand for stroke.

  ‘Have you seen my mother?’ the boy asked Annie and George as he patted Claws. His eyes were red-rimmed from crying and tiredness and the smoke. The dust made his hair look as grey as an old man’s.

  George shook his head. ‘What’s your name?’ he asked.

  ‘Henry,’ the boy replied as he went with them through the vast crowd, looking desperately from side to side for his mother as his hand rested on the dog’s back.

  More than food, they still needed a drink and George gratefully took a jug of barley water that some soldiers were handing out. George, Annie and Henry took it in turns to gulp and gulp. The boiled-grain water had never tasted so good. Teeth and Claws needed to quench their thirst too and George and Annie poured barley water into their cupped hands for the dogs to lap but made sure any drips fell back into the jug. They didn’t know when more would be coming and didn’t want to waste a drop.

  George wiped his mouth on his sleeve. How were they supposed to find Woofer and Tiger Lily among so many sad, weary, desperate people?

  ‘We’re all doomed,’ George heard one woman say to another. ‘The comet in January foretold that it was coming.’

  ‘What was coming?’ the other woman asked her.

  ‘Judgement Day.’

  ‘Henry!’ a woman shouted as she ran towards them, pushing through the crowd, stumbling and almost falling but recovering. ‘Henry!’

  And then Henry saw her and ran to his mother and she scooped the little boy up in her arms and hugged him tight.

  ‘I thought I’d lost you forever,’ she cried, Henry clinging to her as if he’d never let go. ‘Thank you,’ she said to George and Annie as they and the dogs walked on.

  ‘How are we ever going to find two small dogs among all these people?’ Annie said, an hour later.

  ‘It’s impossible,’ George said, but they carried on through the mass of people anyway and eventually passed out of Moorfields and further into Finsbury Fields, the crowd thinning out a little towards the wooded end.

  As they walked they kept asking people if anyone had seen a spaniel and a terrier but everyone just shook their weary heads. They kept on walking and asking anyway. They couldn’t give up on finding Woofer and Tiger Lily.

  Finally they came across a girl sharing a tattered blanket with her mother, who said she’d seen two small dogs.

  ‘One of them was bleeding,’ she added, pointing towards the trees.

  George, Annie, Teeth and Claws ran for all they were worth.

  CHAPTER 14

  The raggedy cat sat on a low branch, her tail twitching every now and again as she watched the spaniel in the stream. Tiger Lily’s celebrated capture of the small trout at Tunbridge in July had just been for sport; now she had to catch fish for herself and Woofer to eat. She caught some for the raggedy cat too although the cat was more than able to fend for herself.

  Tiger Lily waited for a fish to swim past in the dappled light of the water and then she pounced. The raggedy cat stretched and leapt down from the tree to join Woofer, who was lying beneath it.

  The wound in Woofer’s side where the debris from the explosion had hit him was infected, and he lay on his other side, panting. Every now and then he cried out or whimpered in pain.

  Tiger Lily laid the fish next to him but Woofer didn’t even seem to know it was there. A rat, caught earlier for him by the raggedy cat, lay untouched close by.

  Tiger Lily pushed the trout closer to Woofer with her nose but Woofer still didn’t eat. Tiger Lily curled up next to her friend and slept.

  As she dreamt her paws twitched at the memory of the night of the explosion.

  Woofer’s blood on the ground, so much blood, but she knew they had to get away, somewhere safe. She’d pushed and pawed at him and finally he’d stood up and, leaning on her for support, had staggered through the night streets.

  They wouldn’t have made it without the raggedy cat, who’d appeared out of the smoke and helped to bear the weight of the little dog from the other side.

  When Woofer was about to lie down and not go any further, they pushed him on. Tiger Lily didn’t trust the people around them any more. People who’d tried to put her in a cage, people who’d hurt Woofer, and so she led them as far away from everyone as she could. But even here wasn’t far enough.

  Her sleep was disturbed by the sound of someone calling her friend’s name.

  ‘Woofer!’ a voice cried, and Tiger Lily opened her eyes to see George, Teeth, Claws and Annie standing there.

  The raggedy cat hissed at them and scampered back into the tree but Tiger Lily jumped up and wagged her tail at Teeth and Claws as the turnspit dogs wagged their tail-stubs back at her. Teeth dropped the rope toy that he’d been carrying at Tiger Lily’s feet. They’d found their friends at last.

  Tiger Lily licked Annie’s hand over and over as Annie stroked her, while George knelt down beside Woofer.

  ‘It’s all right,’ he told the little dog. ‘I’m here and you’re safe now
.’

  Woofer looked up at him and whimpered.

  George bit his bottom lip as he looked at Woofer’s wound. It needed treatment – and fast. Without it the puppy would die.

  He went to the stream and soaked the apron Annie had given him in clean water and then came back to wash Woofer’s wound.

  Woofer whined and put his paw out to stop him but it had to be done and George was as gentle as he could be.

  In the distance, too far away for George and Annie to hear but not too far for a dog’s sensitive ears, Tiger Lily heard a familiar voice. She turned her head towards the sound and gave a yap. But George was too busy seeing to Woofer to pay her any attention and Annie was down at the stream with Teeth and Claws, who were having a long drink.

  The raggedy cat was still up in the branches of the tree, refusing to come down.

  Tiger Lily gazed in the direction of the noise again. It was the sound of strokes and food and play, soft cushions and kind words. It was the sound of home.

  ‘I desire you all to take no more alarm …’

  She looked at Woofer, safe now with George, and whimpered, looked towards the sound of the voice and whined, and the next moment she was gone, racing across the late-summer fields, weaving in and out of the homeless people that surrounded him until she reached the tall man on the horse.

  ‘Tiger Lily!’ the king cried, and he climbed off his horse as the tan and cream puppy, her coat still damp from the stream, ran into his arms. ‘I thought I’d lost you forever, little one,’ he said, hugging her to him.

  Tiger Lily’s little pink tongue licked and licked his face.

  ‘Time we were departing,’ he said at last and stood up. But Tiger Lily squirmed in his arms and then jumped from them, racing back towards the wooded area.

  The king found George tending a shivering Woofer while Annie sat with Teeth and Claws. He didn’t even notice the raggedy cat up in the branches of the tree.