Merlin woke up to the sound of the busy Saturday morning commute to work going on around him. It was only 8'o'clock, but the world had decided to set this noisy wake up alarm for him, so now he was awake.
Lack of sleep's just what I need, he thought to himself, groggily rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, before opening them to the sight of a blanket of red and white fur covering his legs as his companions, oblivious to the world, dozed on. Not wanting to wake them- not until it was necessary to exercise them in the park, which he would do later that day, before seeing if he could salvage a scrap of food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, as was his life now- he leant back against the brick wall and surveyed his surroundings.
He wasn't so familiar with this part of the town, but after being kicked out of his last spot by a tough looking guy with a vicious looking mastiff he had little choice but where he was now, under the bike shelter by the park, but, he thought at least they was dry and safe. For now. Who knows what the day will bring?
Since he had run away, he had barely stayed in the same spot for more than a week before someone was on his back. But he had the dogs, and at this moment he was happier than he had been for some time. They had needed him, at first, but now he needed them. They were his support, his strength, his Life,and without them he was nothing.
He scratched their sleeping heads subconsciously, the action now so instinctive he didn't even think about it. Kilgarrah, the Irish red setter, had come to him first, running to him when his friend, the snowy white Aithusa, a Brittany, had fallen into a fast flowing river and got tangled in the branches of a water shrub. Merlin had, at this point, been sitting on the edge of the bridge above, thinking; He was at the lowest point in his life, only a couple of weeks after he had found himself alone AGAIN, and the only thought consuming his head was the one trying to find the courage to just jump, to just end it all right there, because he had had enough, he just couldn't take it anymore.
But, just as he had stood up, with the resolution that this was the only option he had, a dog tugged on the bottom of his trouser leg, with a desperate look in his eye, pulling him away from the side and towards his friend. In that moment the final bit of courage that Merlin had left vanished, and a new vigour entered him that made him follow the dog that was now pelting down the bridge to the edge of the river below, where a smaller white dog seemed to be caught up in some underwater shrubs, a fast flowing current threatening to drag her little body away as soon as she was freed. Merlin felt, right then, that if he could save this life, then his life could once more have meaning, and then, without a second thought, he took off his jacket and jumped into the river.
He smiled now, his mind back in the present day, thinking of what had brought this odd little trio together, and felt glad that he had gone with the animal he was now stroking fondly, as they had saved each other, and without them he knew he wouldn't be here right now.