It was a normal day for 7-year-old Emir. He was walking down the road near his grandparents' house. Nothing was out of the ordinary in Kırklareli, Turkey, except that the grey clouds were covering the whole sky. It was nice being in the countryside. In the midst of his thinking and daydreaming, something caught his attention.

A group of dogs were gazing at him. Not a playful gaze or a loving gaze, but that of a predator that is ready to pounce on their prey. He could even see the hatred that filled their eyes. As Emir was not strong enough to fight them he was intimidated by this. It was well known by the people that he knew, that he was easily scared by the dogs. He had many times heard that if any dog is ready to attack him or is attacking him he should throw a rock towards them to scare them away. He thought that this was the perfect time to see if their advice worked. No dog would ever be able to attack him or scare him if this worked.

He looked around for a good sized rock near him. Near him was a rock not too small to scare them, and not too big for him to throw hard. He squatted down still eyeing the dogs cautiously and picked the rock up slowly, as soon as he was in a position where he was ready to run if anything went wrong, he lunged it as hard as he could as he could at the dogs’ direction, not intending to hit them.

This, however, was not a good idea at all. The dogs were not willing to back down from a fight with him. The dogs barked furiously at Emir which could be heard from all over the neighbourhood. One of the dogs chased after, fuming with rage, while the others stood there waiting to see him get caught. He ran faster than his legs should be able to carry him. This was a life or death situation for him. Adrenaline was rushing through his body. Emir was more scared than he ever had been, and probably will be. The grey, uninhabited buildings flashed by. The cloudy day made everything look duller. But if you looked down on the street the day didn’t feel as bland as it did before. The dog was slowly catching up. Just a little more. The bright blue house was getting closer and closer. He was yelling for his grandparents. The house was just metres away. For every metre that he came closer to the house, the dog came closer by one and a half. “just a little closer” Emir was saying to himself ” just a few metres away”. He ran into the garden.

Fortunately, his grandpa had heard Emir’s cries and was already outside. He stood in front of him and stomped down. The dog understood that fighting his grandpa was like biting off more than you can chew. So the dog retreated back to its friends, and Emir could sleep in his bed instead of a hospital bed that night.