The Story

It began, as most terrible things do, with something very small.
Pip was not where Pip should have been.

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This was deeply troubling, because Pip was never not where he should have been. Pip was the sort of dog who appeared exactly when expected, usually sitting on something important or chewing something forbidden.

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Mabel noticed first. Mabel noticed everything. She sat up, squinted at the empty space, and frowned in a way that suggested the universe had made a clerical error.

 

Otis followed her gaze and immediately panicked. Arthur, who had been dreaming of sausages, woke last and assumed the world had ended.

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There were supposed to be four of them.
There were only three.

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They searched politely at first. Under the chair. Behind the door. Inside the basket Pip had never once used.

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When this failed, Otis began sniffing the floor with such enthusiasm that he sneezed himself backwards. Arthur lay down in Pip’s spot and refused to move, guarding it fiercely in case Pip returned and needed it.

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Time passed.
An unreasonable amount of time.

By the time the sun had climbed, dipped, and climbed again, Pip was still gone.

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“This,” Mabel decided, “is not an accident.”

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Something had happened to Pip. Something daring. Possibly criminal. Almost certainly dramatic.

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They would have to rescue him.

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Otis suggested running very fast in all directions at once. Arthur suggested staying together and not thinking about it too hard. Mabel, sensibly, announced they needed a plan, because just having a plan meant that everything would work out fine.

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They set off like a very determined parade. Otis led the charge, heroic but confused. Mabel stopped frequently to examine clues that were not clues at all.

Arthur brought up the rear, making sure nobody got left behind or accidentally adopted a stick.

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They dug holes where the ground looked suspicious. They crept past hedges as if hedges might be dangerous. At one point, Otis stole a key from somewhere mysterious and carried it proudly, despite nobody knowing what it unlocked.

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They grew muddy. They grew tired. They grew braver than they felt.

The bits of cloth tied loosely at their necks were dark now, heavy with mud and weary with miles.

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Time stopped behaving properly.

Morning thinned into afternoon. Afternoon faded into something that felt like it ought to be evening, even if the sun hadn’t quite agreed yet.

They stopped counting how long Pip had been gone, because counting made it worse.

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Otis found the first sign.

It wasn’t much. Just a disturbed patch of ground, a set of marks heading away from where they stood. Clear enough to recognise. Faint enough to doubt.

He stared at it for a long time.

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Arthur joined him. Then Mabel.

No one spoke.

“He went that way,” Otis said finally, in a voice that hoped to be wrong.

Arthur followed the marks with his eyes, then looked back at the empty space behind them.

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“Or,” he said slowly, “he didn’t want to be followed.”

That was worse.

Mabel stood very still.

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Pip was not reckless. Pip was not careless. Pip did not wander without reason.

If Pip had gone on ahead, then perhaps he meant to.

Perhaps this wasn’t a rescue after all.

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They stood with that thought longer than was comfortable.

Then Mabel lifted her head.

“Well,” she said, with the air of someone making a decision they didn’t like very much, “if he’s gone on purpose, then the least we can do is make sure he’s all right.”

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Arthur nodded. Otis swallowed.

They followed.

The ground changed as they went. Softer. Darker. Less certain of itself. The familiar world thinned behind them, and the way forward no longer looked like a way at all.

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“This,” Arthur said quietly, “feels like the sort of place you don’t go unless you mean it.”​

Mabel looked at the trees. Then at the others.

“We do mean it,” she said.

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They took one more step.

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And that was when they saw him.

There was Pip.

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Sitting calmly. Looking pleased. Slightly dusty. Entirely unapologetic.

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No one shouted. No one scolded. They simply collapsed into a heap of noses, tails, and relief.

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Pip did not explain where he had been.
He did not need to.

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Because while Pip had been off having his own adventure, Mabel, Otis, and Arthur had discovered something important.

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They could hold the world together, and be brave, even when it went a bit wrong.

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And that, they decided, was quite an adventure too.