It was a strange smell, like something was burning and it hung in the air. Edith woke up Frankie and Winnie,

“Hey girls, somethings wrong. Do you smell that? What is it?”

They had slept outside all night which was fun because the summer night had stayed warm but now they needed to warn their humans that something wasn’t right. They began to bark. And then bark some more. But no matter how much they barked no one came to the door which would never happen thought Winnie if everything was okay.

“Maybe they’re not home.” Frankie said with a scared sound in her voice. “Maybe they’re in trouble.” and this time Edith couldn’t tell her not to worry because now they were all worried. Toby, Anya and Freddy weren’t home. The truck was still in the driveway but where were they?

“What’s that noise?” asked Winnie, as they all listened to a siren getting louder and louder. “I think that’s a fire truck, like Frankie’s human drives at work. But why is it so close?” 

“And look at those helicopters flying everywhere. Something is very wrong.” said Edith, “And you know what that smell is, it’s smoke from a forest fire and it’s coming from behind the house here. Looks like it’s up near Mt. Hayes. And that’s where Toby, Anya and Freddy went hiking yesterday. That’s why they didn’t come back.”

All three puppies stopped in their tracks, each one of them not wanting to think the worst.

“They’re in trouble. Maybe they’re lost or they’ve been trapped by the fire. We need to go and find them. We need to save them.” Frankie didn’t know what ‘save them’ meant but she thought it was spelled with an ‘S’ which meant that it was very close to being scary. 

“I’m just a puppy.” said Frankie, not wanting to sound Scared with a Capital S, “I don’t know how to save anyone.”

“Oh yes you do, Frankie. You’ll see. Puppies are born with what humans call Instinct, and that’s Instinct with a Capital I. Do you know what the best part of Instinct is Frankie?”

“What?” said Frankie in her very unsure voice, the one she used when she was very unsure of things.

“It means we don’t have to think, we just have to do. We just follow our Instincts.”

“Oh” said Frankie, trying to look as though she understood what they were talking about, “Oh, I see.”

“Once upon a time our friend Finn and Winnie and I and a great old blind dog called Jet had to trust our Instincts when a Mountain Lion wanted to kill us all.” said Edith, thinking it would make Frankie feel better.

“Did you all survive?” asked Frankie, which made Edith realize she should change the subject.

“Well never mind what happened there, the point Frankie is that we just need to follow our Instincts and everything will be alright.”

“Okay, I believe you. It’s a funny name for a Dog though. Where’s this Instinct we have to follow?”

The skies were getting darker and big white flakes were falling. Edith and Winnie had lived through a winter when it snowed and they loved jumping up trying to catch big white snowflakes before they hit the ground but these flakes weren’t like that. Frankie tried to grab some as they fell but she didn’t like it, and they tasted funny.

“Phleppphhh, Phlepppphhhhle, Eeeeeccchhhhh!, that’s gross.” she gagged. 

Ordinarily that would have made Edith and Winnie laugh out loud but they both knew it wasn’t funny. These weren’t snowflakes, it was ash from the burning forest fire up on the mountain. Some of them were hot embers and they could set more forest on fire or even worse for humans, they could burn their houses down.

All around them now the three puppies could hear the sounds of firetrucks and ambulances and airplanes and helicopters, they could hear people shouting and they could see people nearby pouring water on the roofs of the houses. And when they looked up in the sky behind Frankie’s house they could see a giant plume of smoke coming from the mountain just in behind. 

Edith barked, “That is Scary with a Capital S.” and Winnie and Frankie both agreed. 

“Okay, there’s no time to waste girls.” said Winnie, “We have to leave right now. I’ve found a way out of the garden so I’ll lead, Frankie you go next and Edith will follow.” She and Edith had already decided that Frankie should go in the middle when they went off to rescue the humans, on account of she was the youngest and hadn’t been on any real adventures before.

“You know Frankie,” Edith tried to comfort the young puppy who really was Scared with a Capital S, “When we had to fight that scary Mountain Lion we called it an Adventure with a Capital A. So I think we should call our rescue mission More Adventures with a Capital A! What do you say?”

For just a minute Frankie felt good about that, although she didn’t know how long a minute was and she also didn’t know why she felt better but if Edith and Winnie were going to be brave about this whole thing, then, “I Frankie will be brave as well. Brave with a Capital B.” That felt good for another minute and then Frankie realized she was so young she didn’t even know what being brave was. 

“Okay you guys I’m in. Let’s go.”