by H. Y. Hanna
“Where are we going?” Honey asked as they rushed to keep pace with her.
Suka gave a big Husky grin. “The school library.”
FOUR
THEY CREPT DOWN THE long, empty corridors, with Suka leading. She had been in the school before, when her Boy had brought her into class for Show & Tell, and she had no trouble finding her way around.
“I never realised schools were so creepy,” muttered Biscuit, looking around warily.
With the lights off and only the green glow from the “Emergency” signs above the double swing doors, the corridor was steeped in shadows. Posters with painted words and figures lined the wall on one side of the corridor. The other wall was interspersed with doors, each bearing a letter and a number. 4C. 5A. 6B... They were all shut, except one which showed an empty classroom filled with desks and a table by the blackboard.
“That’s my Boy’s classroom,” said Suka as they passed a door labelled 5B. She quickened her steps. “Come on! We’re almost there!”
At the end of that corridor Suka pushed through the double swing doors, but instead of continuing down the next corridor, she turned sharply to the right where a side corridor led off from the main one. It also ended in a set of double doors, this time with the letters L-I-B-R-A-R-Y stencilled in an arch across it.
Suka nudged the double doors with her nose. They didn’t budge. Honey came up next to her and shoved with her nose as well. The doors creaked slightly. Honey pushed again with all her might, digging her weight into her front paws and throwing her full 150 lbs forwards. There was a sucking sound and then, suddenly, the doors swung inwards with a whoosh!
Honey and Suka nearly fell into the library. Ruffster, Biscuit, and Tyson followed them hurriedly and the double doors swung shut behind them. Honey looked around. In the dim light, she could see books everywhere. Books in rows upon rows of shelves along the walls, books displayed on racks in the corners, books stacked haphazardly on a trolley by the door, books teetering in tall piles on the librarian’s desk. She had never seen so many books in one place in her life.
Ruffster looked around, his nose twitching. “There’s somethin’ in here...” he muttered, his hackles rising slightly. “I know that smell...”
Honey raised her own nose and sniffed the air. At first, all she could smell was a sweet, musty fragrance tinged with an oily, inky scent—the smell of books—but after a while, she realised that Ruffster was right. There was a faint odour of something familiar as well, but she couldn’t quite put her paw on it. She glanced at Biscuit. The Beagle had the best nose of any of them—there wasn’t a smell yet that he couldn’t identify. But Biscuit was busily snuffling in a pile of cushions in the corner, where children sat to read their books. Probably looking for dropped snacks and forgotten sweets...
“Come on, we haven’t got much time!” Suka called from the other side of the library.
They hurried over to join her, with Ruffster still sniffing the air and looking around uneasily.
Honey looked at the bookcases around them. “How are we ever going to find anything in here?”
“It’ll be in a book about animals,” said Suka confidently. She led the way amongst the bookcases until she came to a shelf filled with tall, hardback books. A label underneath the shelf said: ANIMALS.
Tyson dropped the note he’d been carrying and jumped up on his stubby hind legs, putting his front paws on the shelf and sniffing each of the spines.
Ruffster groaned. “It’ll take us all day to look through all o’ these.”
“Let’s start with this one,” said Suka, pawing at the spine of a thick book. It was wedged quite tightly, but it tilted slowly outwards under her persistent pawing. Finally, it flipped and thumped onto the floor. They all looked down at the glossy front cover. A picture of a parrot with a sapphire blue head and a bright orange chest looked back at them. Above the parrot were the words: Birds of the World.
Honey looked back at the shelf. There was a gap now, where the Birds book had been, and the other books sagged into the gap. She grasped one carefully by its spine with her front teeth and dragged it out, dropping it on the floor as well. This one said The Secret Life of Invertebrates and showed a picture of six hairy legs and two bulging eyes.
“Ugh,” said Ruffster. “I ain’t lookin’ through that one, mate.”
One by one, other dogs each dragged a book off the shelf and spread them open. Suka had spent hours with her Boy reading books and she showed them how to flip the pages by sliding their paws. Tyson nudged the note into the middle so they could all see the word they were looking for and, for a while, there was no sound but the snuffling of noses and the rifling of pages.
Honey went through hers slowly, her eyes widening in dismay at the huge tracts of words covering the pages. Her book seemed to have fewer pictures than the others. How was she ever going to find those two words, Rangifer tarandus, in the middle of this black jumble? She furrowed her brow, trying to concentrate, and didn’t notice that she was drooling until a long, slimy trail of white dangled down from her jowls and plopped onto the page.
Ticks.
Honey glanced hastily around. None of the other dogs had seen what happened yet. They were all engrossed in their own books. She leaned down and quickly tried to lick up the slobber, but all she managed to do was smear it even more across the page. The words were not only jumbled up now but a big, blurry mess. Honey moved her paw surreptitiously, flipping the page over to the next one. There was a squelching sound as the two previous pages stuck together. Her heart sank. This was going from bad to worse. She flipped the book shut, deciding that the secret life of invertebrates could include some secret drool in the pages too.
“I...I’m finished with that one,” she said quickly.
Suka sighed and sat back on her haunches. “I’m finished too. But Ruffster’s right. This is taking too long.” She thought for a moment then said, “I know! What we need is a special kind of book. An encyclopaedia!”
“I saw one of those when I was checking out the librarian’s desk,” Biscuit spoke up. “A big, thick one.”
They all trooped back to the front of the library and surrounded the librarian’s desk. There, at the very top of a pile of books that towered above their heads, was a big, thick volume with the words Encyclopaedia of Animals in gold letters along its spine.
And lying on top of it was the source of that faintly familiar smell.
A cat.
FIVE
IT WAS AN ENORMOUS, ginger feline with a wide face and bushy tail. The library cat.
“Oh!” Honey breathed in sharply and took a few hasty steps back, her eyes terrified. The strong tang of Kitty Odour filled her nostrils, making her skin prickle with dread. She ducked her head, embarrassed—no one could ever understand how a dog as big as she was could be scared of cats—but she couldn’t help herself.
Ruffster didn’t have any such fears. In fact, cat-chasing was his favourite hobby. His eyes popped out of his head as soon as he saw the cat and a fierce growl erupted in his throat. He rushed at the stack of books, lunging and barking and jumping in the air.
The cat at the top looked down at him disdainfully.
“Shhh! Ruffster, quiet!” hissed Suka, trying to shoulder him away. “You’ll bring all the humans running.”
“MANGY HAIRBALL-BRAIN!” yelled Ruffster as he was pushed away, his eyes still on the top of the stack. “WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, YOU FAT FLEA BAG!”
The cat licked a paw, twitched its whiskers, and yawned.
Suka went up to him, wagging her tail hesitantly. “Um... we really need to look at that book you’re lying on. Can you just get off it for a minute?”
“No.”
“I can bring you a cushion to lie on,” offered Biscuit, eyeing the pile of cushions in the corner of the library.
“No.”
“This is really important,” pleaded Suka. “We just need to have a quick look.”
“No.”
Tyson
growled. “Just shove him off.”
The cat turned its head and fixed Tyson with its yellow-eyed stare. Then, very deliberately, it unsheathed its claws and flexed them.
“Try.” The voice was a silky purr, but there was no doubting the menace behind it.
Honey shivered, staring at the sharp claws, and took another step back. She could feel drool dribbling from her jowls again. Stress drool.
“I ain’t scared of you!” snarled Ruffster, lunging at the stack of books again. “Get off that book! Move your fat kitty bum or you’ll be sorry!”
The cat looked calmly at Ruffster and flicked its tail. “Ask me nicely.”
Ruffster stopped in his tracks. The other dogs looked at him.
“Ruffster... just try to humour him,” whispered Suka.
Ruffster wrinkled his muzzle, looking like he had tasted something disgusting.
“Ruffster, please.”
Ruffster took a step back, then lowered his head and muttered through gritted teeth, “Can you get off the book, please?”
The cat smiled at Ruffster.
“No.”
“Aaaarrrggghhhh-grrrrrrrr!” Ruffster threw himself at the stack of books, snapping at the air. The cat hissed and lashed out with one paw. There was a yelp and Ruffster scrambled backwards. Honey saw three parallel red lines appear on Ruffster’s snout. He whimpered and pawed his nose, wincing in pain. The other dogs looked from him to the cat and took a step back, uncertain.
Honey paced around in desperation. Fighting and threats weren’t going to work. Then she had an idea. Maybe there was another way...
Steeling herself, she stepped up closer to the cat. It narrowed its eyes at her and hissed again, its claws extended and ready. Honey flinched, but she stood her ground. Then she gathered herself and shook her head as hard as she could. Her ears and jowls flapped crazily. Drool flew from her baggy lips in all directions.
“Miaaaaaaooooow!”
The cat reeled backwards as it was smacked in the face by a big gob of slimy saliva. It hissed and arched up, its tail like a brush. Yowling again, it pawed frantically at its face, but it was no match for Dane slobber. With another angry hiss, it leapt off the stack of books and shot out of sight.
“Honey! You did it!”
“What a brilliant idea!”
“Pawsome, mate!”
The other dogs barked in delight and jumped around as Honey carefully grabbed the thick spine of the encyclopaedia in her mouth and lifted it off the top of the stack. It was really heavy and her head nearly got yanked down by the weight of the book. She dropped it carefully on the floor by the librarian’s desk. It fell open at a page full of words again. There were a few pictures here and there, but it was mostly covered with letters. Honey stared at it in dismay—this was even worse than the book she had been looking at earlier!
Suka seemed undaunted, though. “It’s alphabetical,” she explained. “We just have to find R in the book and then we can look for our word.”
They watched as she nosed her way past H, K, M, O, and P then finally R. She spread her paws on the double pages and peered at the words.
“What’s the word again?” she asked.
Tyson pushed the note towards her with his nose. Suka looked at the scrap of paper, then back at the encyclopaedia, then at the note again, then back to the encyclopaedia.
“Here! Found it!” She jumped up, wagging her tail.
They crowded around her and read the entry:
Rangifer tarandus—the Latin name for “reindeer”—is a species of deer native to Arctic and Subarctic regions. Both sexes grow antlers and the different sub-species vary considerably in size and colour. Man has domesticated the reindeer and uses them for meat, hide, antlers, milk, and transportation. The reindeer is well known in folklore due to Santa Claus’s sleigh being pulled by flying reindeer and they are a popular icon of Christmas.
“Reindeer, huh?” said Ruffster.
“It’s a clue,” said Honey excitedly. “The note says: ‘look for... Rangifer tarandus’—which must mean, look for reindeer.”
“But we aren’t in the Arctic,” said Biscuit. “There aren’t any reindeer here.”
“Maybe it’s something to do with reindeer,” Honey suggested. “I don’t know... I think we just need to try and look.”
“So where do we start lookin’?” Ruffster asked eagerly.
“Most of the classrooms will be shut...” said Suka.
“Outside,” growled Tyson.
“Yes, I think Tyson’s right,” said Honey. “We should look outside. I remember Jones wearing heavy black boots that left wet marks on the floor when he brought the box to Olivia, so he must have come in from outside.”
Ruffster grabbed the note and trotted over to the library doors. Looking back over his shoulder at the other dogs, he barked, “C’mon, then! What are we waitin’ for?”
SIX
IT HAD STARTED TO SNOW outside—a light, feathery snow that dusted the tops of their heads and tickled their noses as they walked through the school playground. The sun had nearly set and the light was fading fast; they had to squint to see through the hazy dusk. All around them, the playground equipment stood like the skeletons of metal monsters, frozen in time. It was eerily silent, except for the faint whisper of falling snow.
Biscuit was walking ahead, his nose to the ground with his tail waving briskly as he stopped, started, stopped again, ran in a circle, doubled back, then continued his weaving way across the playground. Honey didn’t know what he was tracking since none of them knew what a reindeer actually smelled like. If they were looking for a reindeer at all...
“I’m freezin’ my paws off,” Ruffster grumbled as he trotted next to her.
“Maybe we should go back,” Suka panted next to them. “The humans are probably looking for us by now. My Boy might be worried about me.”
Ahead of them, Biscuit suddenly stopped, one front paw raised. He turned his head from left to right, his nose twitching.
“Biscuit! Find somethin’?” Ruffster asked eagerly.
The Beagle didn’t answer, but dived towards the right, crawling under a snow-covered see-saw. The other dogs watched hopefully. A minute later, he wriggled back out and stood up, holding something in his mouth.
Honey’s ears dropped in disappointment. It was a wrinkled foil packet. The vinegary, salty smell of potato crisps wafted towards her.
“Biscuit!” Ruffster shook his ears in exasperation. “Thought you were lookin’ for the clue, mate!”
“I was,” said Biscuit defensively. “That could be a clue.”
Suka rolled her eyes while Tyson turned away in disgust. Honey sighed. She was beginning to think that Suka was right and they should return to the school hall when she froze, her eyes fixed on something in the distance.
“Wait—” She stretched up on tiptoes, craning her neck to get a better view. “Do you see that in the distance?”
The others tried to follow her gaze, but none of them was tall enough to see. Honey blinked, wondering if her eyes were deceiving her, but when she looked again, it was still there. Over the tops of the trees surrounding the playground, she could see a plume of smoke rising from a chimney next to a thatched roof. And on the sloping side of the roof were five figures. They had long, slender legs and sweeping antlers sprouting from their heads, and behind them on the roof was mounted a red sleigh.
“Santa’s reindeer,” breathed Honey.
“What? What do you see?” asked Ruffster, bouncing up and down in a vain effort to see.
“I think we’ve found the clue,” said Honey. “Come on, I’ll show you.”
She led the way around the trees surrounding the playground and into the grounds at the back of the school. As the bushes parted before them, a cottage came into sight. It had pale grey stone walls and a dark thatched roof which was just beginning to be covered by a fine layer of snow. Multi-coloured Christmas lights were strung from the cottage eaves and a wreath with a red ribbon hung
from the doorway.
They looked up. They could see the reindeer clearly now—plastic models with brown spotted coats and legs crooked and raised, as if running, attached to a red plastic sleigh by a glittering harness. Four of the reindeer were placed in pairs and the fifth was at the front, its mouth open in a wide grin. They looked a bit old and faded, though. Honey could see the paint chipping and peeling from their plastic bodies and the lead reindeer seemed to have something wrong with its nose. In fact, now that she looked again, she could see that the Christmas lights on the cottage had several bulbs missing and the wreath looked quite limp and scraggly.
“What is this place?” whispered Ruffster, looking warily around them.
Honey followed his gaze and noticed the dark shapes in the garden around the cottage: a giant owl, a spiral pillar, an elephant with a raised trunk, a unicorn, a giant teapot, and something with scales and wings. All pruned from bushy leaves and branches.
Suka looked at the carefully trimmed hedgerow-dragon next to her. “This is where Jones lives.”
“We’ve got to look inside,” said Honey. “Maybe the child is trapped in there.”
She took a deep breath and started slinking towards the cottage. The others hesitated for a second, then followed her. Honey crept close to one of the front windows and tried to peer in, but it was set too high, even for a Great Dane.
“How about standin’ up on your hind legs?” suggested Ruffster.
Honey looked at the window doubtfully. It didn’t have an outer ledge so she would have nothing to hook her front paws on to. Would she be able to support her weight up there? Still, it was the only way she could have a chance of looking inside...
She took a step back, gathered herself and reared up, throwing her front paws out. They struck the side of the window, making a loud bang against the glass, and Honey scrabbled frantically to find some hold while she teetered on her hind legs. Her paws jammed against something—the edge of the windowsill—and she sagged in relief, letting her weight settle onto her front paws. She peered through the window...
