Sky Wolves by Livi Michael

of the garden, where she could make out her friends, Gentleman Jim and Pico, and a boy with reddish hair, who might have been alarming, but he was standing on the other side of the gate.
    ‘I’ve had the most terrible time,’ she started to say. ‘I’ve –oh!’
    Because the boy had opened the gate and there was Jenny.
    Instantly Flo cringed, her whole body clinging to the earth, as though fearing it might rock dangerously andfling her off. There are not many dogs who close their eyes when meeting a potential threat, but Flo had an optical condition that made frightening objects appear five times larger than their actual size and so had discovered that it was best. She shut her eyes tightly and clung to the lawn.
    ‘Don’t be silly, dear,’ said Aunty Dot, and Sam and the dogs tried to tell her that it was all right. But Jenny trotted right up to Flo and touched her nose.
    Instantly Flo’s nostrils were filled with the scent of meadows and summer streams and, well, kindliness. It is not often that one female dog takes instantly to another, but the scent in Flo’s nostrils said ‘friend’. Very cautiously, she opened her eyes and realized that Jenny was not, in fact, the size of a pony.
    ‘ Dear friend ,’ said Jenny, in the voice that was at once strange and instantly recognizable, as though Flo had been listening to it for years, ‘you will be an invaluable companion through the peril that is to come.’
    ‘P-peril?’ stuttered Flo, getting ready to close her eyes again. ‘I’m not very good at peril. I-I’m a bit of a coward actually.’
    ‘Cowardice is just one of the forms of wisdom,’ said Jenny. ‘And it is your wisdom and perception that we need.’
    ‘Oh,’ said Flo. It was not often that she received a compliment and she was so taken by surprise that she forgot to ask, ‘For what?’ Instead she was remembering that poodles are in fact among the most intelligent of dogs, and that her great-grandfather had been a leading performer in a circus, and that Flo herself learned new tricks very rapidly. She felt suddenly aware of the vast possibilities ofher brain, and she raised herself up properly, feeling brave enough to look all around.
    ‘There you are,’ said Aunty Dot triumphantly. ‘Jenny’s even made friends with Flo!’
    ‘I told you she was special,’ said Sam, and Aunty Dot said she didn’t need telling that.
    Between them they led all the dogs on to the croft and watched as they sniffed and explored, and Checkers ran round and round in circles, but sooner or later they all returned to Jenny.
    ‘It’s like they’re making a pack,’ said Sam, and in fact, this was exactly what they were doing.
    ‘ My friends ,’ Jenny said, ‘ I can see that all of you are sad, for one reason or another. That is because you are not leading the lives you were born to lead. None of you can live out your full potential. But all that is about to change. You are all members of my pack. ’
    ‘Hooray!’ cried Checkers, belting all the way round the croft again. ‘I’ve always wanted to be in a pack. Can I be the leader?’
    ‘No,’ said Jenny.
    ‘But every pack should have a leader,’ said Flo, who had watched a documentary. ‘And an underdog.’
    ‘That’ll be Pico,’ said Checkers, tearing round again.
    ‘WOOF!’ said Pico from underneath a twig.
    Jenny paused for a moment, wrapped in thought. There was a reason she was here, in this new world, and a reason they had all come together. Only she didn’t know what it was. A ripple of sadness passed through her, and she had a sense of something else dark and flickering in the corners of her mind.
    ‘This pack has neither leader nor underdog,’ she said eventually. ‘Each of you is needed for the danger that lies ahead.’
    Boris looked at Checkers, and Flo looked at Gentleman Jim. Pico stood underneath Jenny and looked up, but couldn’t see a thing. They were all thinking the same thing, though only Gentleman Jim put it into