Fire on Fire

Prologue

Happy little barks sounded inside the pet store on Fifth Avenue. There were ten puppies in all. Most of them were cocker spaniels, two of them were bloodhounds and there was one pug and one Dalmatian puppy in all. All ten were no more than three months old. And all were excited to find their forever home.

A red ball bounced around in the puppy play pen. A moment later, the pug pounced on it. This caused both him and the ball to roll over and over, finally coming to a stop beside the wall that made up the pen. Sprawled out onto his back with the ball perched upon his tummy, the pug let out a playful growl before he kicked the ball off. Scrambling to his feet, he chased after it.

A sharp whistle sounded, catching the attention of all of the puppies. The red ball rolled away scott free while the pug raced over to the other puppies. His curly tail wagging nonstop, he sat down and followed everyone else's gaze. They were all looking up at the pet store owner.

"Alright guys, I brought you a new roommate. I want you all to be nice to this little guy," the pet store owner declared in a soft but stern tone. It was like he expected the puppies to understand what he was saying. Good thing most of the older pups understood one bit of his words. Regardless of whether or not they knew what the human said, all ten puppies watched as the owner placed a brand new puppy into the play pen.

"Play nice now," the pet store owner pointed out before he walked away to help customers somewhere else. Most of the other puppies ran off, resuming their game or whatever they were doing before the meeting. The pug puppy, however, approached the newcomer. It was a dachshund puppy with sleek black and tan fur and brown eyes. Giving the newcomer the biggest smile he could muster, the pug spoke, "Hi, do you want to play with me?"

"Really?" the dachshund replied with his own smile as he got to his paws, "I would like that very much." Wagging his curly tail even faster, the pug jumped with joy and yipped, "Come on, let's go play!"