Mako had jolted awake at the noise of the... human thing. He looked up out of the hole and felt anger at the brightness of his tail. He looked over at Terra as the thing crashed on top of the hole. He would be spotted for sure but she just might be able to hide from the humans while he distracted them. "Terra, hide behind me and when the humans leave run." He whispered to her as he waited for the thing to move out of the way. He heard the loud voice from the human but couldn't tell what he was saying because his ears were still ringing from the loud noise of the metal grass killer. He crouched in front of the exit waiting for the perfect moment to burst out and run from the humans hoping they'd follow and not look down the hole to find Terra. It would be his fault if she was caught too because of his stupid red fur. She wouldn't be noticed at all with her more mud color coat.

(Sorry lost my train of thought half way through!)

After a quick bout of thought, Terra decided to follow Mako's escape plan, abeit with a slightly guilty conscience. She slowly rose from her tense crouched position, sauntered behind Mako's fluffy red tail, and resumed her crouching. Every muscle in her hindquarters was completely tight, coiled like a spring, ready to jump to action at any second.

There was a sort of silent tension within the hollow as Terra and Mako waited. The human continued to talk, this time in a more quiet voice. By the time ten minutes had passed (it felt like ten hours), Terra began to feel her muscles grow tired. The constant chattering of the human ceased. It felt like a kind of calm before a storm. It worried Terra. She began to lash her tails back and forth with nervous anticipation.

Mako felt Terra moving behind him. "Stop moving or he'll see you." He whispered hoping that the plan would work. He was starting to get stuffy from being in such a small place for so long without tons of fresh air coming in. It was starting to smell like the dirty water that the humans put in their metal things. He needed air then thought of his scarf. He shoved his face into it and took a deep breath. He remembered that Terra was probably getting the worst of it because she was further from her hole. He felt bad for making her wait there. He pulled off his scarf and put it around her neck. "Breathe through this." He said.

Terra sputtered a bit before taking a deep breath through the checkered cloth. Her head hurt a bit less after taking a breath of filtered air, and she relaxed her muscles slightly. She nudged the cloth back off of her neck and gingerly set it onto Mako's back with her teeth, making sure to not tear it. If Mako cared about a human object to wear it around his neck all the time, she didn't want to be the sylesti to destroy it.

Suddenly, in the distance, Terra's alert ears picked up the sound of a moving vehicle. The human who had been guarding his lawnmower let out a yell, and the motor of the metal vehicle grew louder. It was obviously heading toward the man.

When the vehicle was within ten feet of the hollow, the sound of the motor ceased and a door clicked open. Leaves crackled as a new human walked forward. The new human smelled like sylesti, slightly muting its typical scent. Two sets of footsteps, one belonging to the man and the other to the new human, approached the hole. The humans exchanged a few words, and the lawnmower began to shake. As it was lifted out of place, a large net replaced it. Terra looked to Mako, confused as to their course of action.

Mako was confused. Why the other human? He looked back at Terra hoping she might know what to do. He sighed when he saw how confused she looked as well. He picked up his scarf and put it back on Terra. "Stay here. I'll distract them then you run." He said then quickly turned to the net and poked his face where the humans could see it clearly. He started barking hoping they'd at least push the net around him so that Terra could get out. He stopped barking and started growling when the humans didn't do anything. He went a little high still avoiding touching the net. The humans still did nothing but they started talking again. Mako thought he might understand them a little but couldn't be sure.

Seeing Mako lay his scarf on her and ascend toward the net, Terra began to panic. He's going to get caught! She flicked one of her tails at his side and let out a low, worried growl, scared to say much at all. She shifted her body so that she could see the humans more easily, and watched as they talked amongst each other. The now obviously female human cut the chatter short and walked to her vehicle, opened the door, and grabbed a stick with a loop of rope on it. She briskly walked back to the tree roots. Once back within a few feet of Terra, she made a few soft cooing noises and said something to the male human. He put his huge leather clad foot onto the side of the net, effectively anchoring it in place, and the female stuck the noose of the stick through the top of the net. She inched it toward Mako's head, smiling and cooing the whole time.

You know, Terra thought to herself, for someone holding a stick that could potentially strangle me to death, I'm receiving very mixed signals here.

Mako backed up a bit away from the stick still growling. He knew that those stick weren't good. He never trusted humans to begin with but this one seemed to want to try and give him bad fruit for his good berries. He wasn't buying it. Mako almost tripped over Terra's tail as he tried to step over it. Mako thought about turning around to look at her but then he thought that the humans might figure out she was there. He backed up a bit more. He turned his head to the side to look at Terra with one eye. "You need to be quiet if you don't want both of us to get caught." He said quietly hoping the humans wouldn't figure out she was there.

Watching the looped stick inch closer to Mako (and by extension, herself considering that she was in the same pit) was one of the most nerve wracking events Terra had ever sat through. Mako would take a step back only to have the stick shoved in his face again. When his back hit a tree root and he could no longer step back, Terra instinctually leapt for the stick and grabbed the loop in her mouth. At that, the two humans began a quick bout of chatter again, only to focus their attention back on to the zolnixi.

Terra held the loop in her mouth firmly as the female human continued to push it toward her. All of a sudden, a look of confidence entered the female's eyes, and she pulled the stick backwards, out of Terra's mouth, only to immediately push it forward again, this time around Terra's neck. Terra let out a yip as she felt the human pull the stick out of the hollow.

Mako was a little shocked at it. He was frozen for a good ten seconds. He wasted no time after it though. He leapt at the stick and pulled at it back to the hole. He wasn't sure why Terra would do that, he had it under control. Now the humans knew she was there and that bugged him. The fight he was having with the humans was failing and they inched towards the opening. He thought of something. He let go of the stick and jumped at the net. It was over him but he was out of the hole. He bit at the female human's leg trying to get her to let go of the stick. The other humans tried catching him but he kept running around her biting at her legs. He hoped that it would work. He was as good as caught now but he was hoping Terra would get away.

If the previous ten minutes had been calm, then the storm was now beginning. The mowed lawn around the tree hollow exploded into chaos, everything happening all at once. Terra, seeing that she was as free as she could be with a heavy metal stick around her neck, bolted out into the grass. Mako continued to bite the heels and lower legs of the female human with the net still wrapped around his body. The female human was still eerily calm through the pain, but though calm, could move as quickly and precisely as a viper trying to snag its prey. The male human was as far from the state of the female human as one could possibly be. As he saw Terra scurry out of the hole, he dashed after her, through the tall prairie-like grass, clumsy and tripping over every rock and log in the field. Terra wasn't exactly aided by wandering into the grass, either, as the pole kept getting stuck in bushes. She could hear the male behind her; stomping, almost falling, and then proceeding to sprint toward the fire-red metal stick parting the grass.

Terra looked forward, trying to chart the most efficient path to a street or other flat place where the darn stick would stop getting caught. Between two rocks, under a bush-

snag

Well, crud.

thunk

The male human fell stomach first onto the stick, then picked it up in his hand.