A few hours later, Piccolo sat down. 'I'm definitely lost now,' he thought. Although Piccolo had been trying to keep going south, there had been many shrubs and trees in his way that made him deviate from his course. He thought he had still been doing a good job staying on track in spite of that, but now he recognized his surroundings. Worse, he could feel the effects of thirst like a handful of sand in his throat and mouth. Piccolo buried his forehead in his palms and thought his situation over.

'So I've been going in a loop for the last 20, 30 minutes. Of course, I probably wasn't going the right way in the first place. I don't know where I am, or where I want to be.' Piccolo lifted his head and stretched his neck. 'So really, if I just go one way, I don't have anything to lose. I'll end up at a river eventually. Or the cliff. Hopefully I can get to a river soon.' Piccolo stood back up and continued walking.

Several hours later, Piccolo came across a clearing. It was a strange clearing, terraced into many long, narrow, dirt platforms ascending the slope. Each terrace contained a wave of tall yellow grass, with small yellow ears of grain on the tops of the stalks. The clearing stretched for at least a kilometer from where he was standing, and seemed to be the same distance wide. There were several large wooden structures in the middle, and a small, half-full stream flowing through it. The mountains were visible to Piccolo's right. At that moment, Piccolo spotted something he recognized. His antennae stood up in shock and he dove behind a tree. The clearing was crawling with humans.

Piccolo racked his mind for ideas. However, he could only think of one: He needed to get to the stream to drink. He was thirsty and tired, and it seemed like the only option. He decided to go to the left, as the stream was closest in that direction. Piccolo ran behind the closest tree. He peeked out and surveyed the clearing. Fortunately, most of the people were on the other side of the clearing, but there were about a dozen on his side. Most of them were crouched in the terraces, but some were standing in an enclosure near the stream with some animals.

Piccolo dropped to his stomach and seal-crawled to the next tree. He stood up behind it and took another peek. The humans were still in the same place they were before. One of the humans in the enclosure looked his way. Piccolo froze. The human started walking towards him. Piccolo withdrew his head back behind the tree and tensed all his muscles. He could feel the adrenaline speeding up his heart and tinting his mind. He could either run or wait. 'Is he coming towards me?' his fear asked. 'If he is, I should I fight or run?' his reason responded, 'Maybe if I fight, I could beat him and continue. The other humans probably aren't close enough to hear….' 'Unless he screams,' his fear finished. 'And what if he's going to get the other humans to kill me?' it said.

'He probably isn't… I think.'

'We're dead if he is.'

'I should run then.'

'What if they hear us and kill us?'

'I can outrun them.'

'Good, so do it.'

'I'm not sure I should.'

'Why not?'

'I might lose the water.'

'That doesn't matter.'

'What if he's not coming here?'

'He is.'

'How do you know?'

'I think he is….'

'I'll go check.'

'He'll see you,' Piccolo's fear said to him. Piccolo ignored him and peeked out from behind the tree. The human wasn't looking at him anymore. He was standing slightly closer, next to a large animal. Piccolo sighed in relief. He crawled several trees closer to the stream and stood up again behind a tree. No one was looking. Piccolo crawled to the stream and lapped up the water. As he got up, a sharp object poked his back. Humans were standing right behind him, with their knives hovering over his back.

"Alright, monster. Put your hands up and get up slowly," one of the humans said.

"I don't think he has any weapons…," another said.

The first one replied, "Doesn't matter. If his hands are up, it'll be harder for it to lash out at us."

Piccolo put his hands over his head and stood up. The men kept their knives at his back. Piccolo slowly walked towards the structures, and the men followed him.

'Good,' Piccolo thought to himself. He was measuring the sounds of their footsteps. He couldn't see the humans, but he could judge their distance by their steps. It took him about a hundred meters of walking before he was sure of all of the humans' location. There were three behind him. Two were about a half meter away, and the other was trailing by three meters. Piccolo suddenly picked up his pace. The humans were surprised, and the two humans closest to him fell two meters behind. Piccolo smiled.

Piccolo took off in a sprint. The humans took a moment to register this, and Piccolo had a head start. He made a sharp turn at a terrace, cutting through there to get back to the trees. The humans started running after him. One of them was gaining. Piccolo grimaced. He jumped down a terrace, sticking the landing. A moment later, the fast man's foot came down onto the dirt of the higher terrace. Piccolo's arm grabbed his pursuer's foot and yanked it down to his level. The man yelled in shock as his body slid down the terrace slope and slumped onto the lower terrace. Piccolo ran back to the trees, jumping down the terraces. The two other humans were moving diagonally across the terraces to intercept him, but Piccolo easily outran them. He looked behind him. There were five humans running for him, tearing through the tall grass in the terraces.

It was only a few dozen more meters to the trees. Piccolo turned his head back just in time for a bullet to miss his head, whizzing past his ear instead. Adrenaline filled his body as he heard the yells of the humans getting louder, and he redoubled his speed to reach the trees.

Piccolo dove behind a tree. He took a look at his surroundings, then at the clearing. The forest was full of shorter-than-normal fir trees, but there was no brush on the ground whatsoever. The humans were still running closer. Piccolo ran deeper into the forest. A bullet sped over his head, plunging into a tree right in front of him. Piccolo stopped in his tracks as the splinters showered onto his antennae. He couldn't keep running; he had to hide. The humans hadn't reached the trees yet.

'I don't have much time to pull this off,' Piccolo thought.

He took a deep breath and made a beeline to the tree in front of him. Once he got there, Piccolo jumped onto the tree trunk, gripping the bark with his claws. He shinnied up the tree. Once his foot was on the branch, he looked down. The humans were in the forest now. He now saw that each of them was carrying a musket. The biggest one (he assumed that was the leader) spoke.

"Alright, he can't have gotten that far, and there's no brush here. Anyone checking the trees?"

One of the other humans said, "Sorry, Aadarsh. I got it."

Aadarsh said, "OK, let's fan out and check the trees."

A chill went through Piccolo's spine. He clambered up a few more branches until he was certain that the ones above his feet wouldn't support his weight. 'Don't want to fall out,' he thought. The humans were looking up each tree now. They hadn't got to his tree yet. Could he get into another tree? He surveyed possibilities. It was hard to see some of the branches with the leaves in the way, but there were a couple solid-looking ones to his left. One of the men was checking his tree. Piccolo squeezed himself to try to hide atop the branch. The man looked up the tree. Piccolo's face started to sweat. The man looked down. Piccolo sighed in relief as he kept walking. Then the man paused and stretched his neck. Piccolo saw the shock in his eyes as he turned his head to the left and glimpsed him.

Piccolo crouched and leaped to one of the other trees. The human yelled, "Monster!" and raised his gun. Piccolo landed on the branch and pitched forward. He hastily shot his arms back to grab the branch. Although he was successful, he immediately regretted his decision.

'Great. I'm 10 meters in the air, hanging by the arms, and five humans are pointing muskets at me. Fantastic.'