It was a cloudy day in the village and rain was scheduled for later in the evening. The herd, besides Peaches, Diego, and Shira, was hanging out on the beach and swimming in the lake.

Lori stood out on a group of boulders that lead out a little ways into the lake. She kneeled down on the end of the farthest boulder and looked into the shimmery blue water of The Lake. Lori couldn't see the bottom and didn't know how deep it was.

Lori had never been in The Lake before, and was unsure about it, and secretly, a little scared. She squinted her eyes to see if there were any fish.

"Lori?" Lori jumped when she heard Louis behind her. She had been so focused on the lake she hadn't heard him walk up.

"Not to sound pushy, but, aren't you going in?" Louis asked

"Sure, is it deep enough to jump in here?" Lori asked him still trying to see to the bottom.

"Yeah, Peaches usually jumps in over here." Louis answered, Looking at the lake to see what she was looking at.

Lori silently prayed, hoping she wouldn't land on a sharp rock. She backed up a couple feet and then ran up and did a cannon ball, making a little splash.

The water was diffidently cold, but nice. She forced herself to open her eyes, expecting to see nothing but blue all around her. Though the sight that meet her gold and green eyes was anything but. The water was crystal clear. She could see every pebble, plant and minnow in the water. She heard a muffled bubbly sound and spun around to see Louis open his eyes and smile. She looked down and ran her hand through the stringy weeds on the floor on the lake. Louis swam over and tapped hr shoulder. She turned and saw him point to the surface and they swam up to get a breath of air. She got to the top after Louis and took a deep breath.

Louis dove down again and Lori looked below the surface and saw him stop at the bottom. She saw him just as he pulled something out of the sand and swam back to the surface.

They found a boulder that was low enough and climbed out of the water, Louis hiding the shiny thing from her as they walked over across the boulders to the beach.

"The water is beautiful!" Lori said as they walked back to the beach.

"I know it's-" Louis began but was cut off by a voice unfamiliar to Lori.

"Hey Louis!" Louis looked up and saw his almost ex-enemy Ethan. He and Peaches must have just arrived. They arrived at the beach and walked up to the couple.

"Hey Louis, you didn't tell me you had a girlfriend!" Ethan said happily.

"She's not my girlfriend." Louis said. "Lori this is Ethan, Ethan this is Lori."

"Nice to meet you." Lori said.

"You too." Ethan responded.

"Diego!" Manny called, looking down the beach. Everyone looked the way he was. "What's up buddy?" Manny asked.

Diego was running at top speed down the beach. Panic written all over his face. As he became closer, everyone picked up on the urgency. Diego soon reached the group and skidded to a stop in front of them, catching his breath.

"Diego, what's wrong?" Ellie asked with concern.

Diego, now breathing almost steadily, could speak. "Has anyone seen Shira? I can't find her."

"No we thought she was with you!" Manny exclaimed.

Louis and Lori looked at each other and could see the worry on each others' faces. Obviously neither had seen her.

This is not going to end well. Louis thought. Shira was one week from giving birth and, for Diego's sake; it had to go off without a hitch. She was most vounerable right now. Shira couldn't hunt, jump, or touch her toes.

"Let's split up." Lori suggested, thinking fast.

"Ok, me and Ellie, Peaches and Louis-"

"Dad!" Peaches cut Manny off. Manny sighed.

"Peaches and Ethan, Louis and Lori, Crash and Eddie, Finn and Brian, and Diego can go it alone." Manny instructed taking control of the situation. "Split up!"

Everyone went in different directions. Ethan and Peaches took the beach, Diego taking off in the direction he had come in, and everyone stormed the woods.

Once Louis and Lori reaches solid ground they tunneled away through the trees, popping up every once in a while to look and listen for the lost saberess.

"Louis?" Lori called as they tunneled. "Do you think Shira's ok?"

They stopped and popped out of the ground. Louis looked at her and saw she looked genuinely worried.

"I don't want to think about it, but if I had to guess, she can handle herself. I'm sure she's fine." Louis lied. He didn't like lying, but he idn't want Lori to worry. In all actuality, Louis was pretty sure Shira had gotten herself into some sort of trouble.

They kept looking. Tunneling, then popping up, listening, then looking. After a couple minutes of looking, they started to lose hope of finding her. Then after almost ten minutes of looking, they finally heard something.

Snarling and growling was coming from up ahead.

"Help!" A voice called from the location after a frustrated growl.

"Shira?" Louis wondered aloud.

"Help! Diego! Somebody, anybody!" Shira called in distress. The two Molehogs tunneled forward to find her. She was struggling to reach her foot that had a piece of twine coiled around it. Unable to reach it over her belly, she was trapped. Shira looked up, about to call for help agin, when she saw Louis and Lori standing there.
"Oh thank god!" Shira exclaimed in relief.

"What happened?" Louis asked as he and Lori ran over to Shira, examining her foot. It was turning purple as the twine grew tighter and tighter.

"I was going to get a drink from a creek near here and told Diego I would be right back, but I saw this little piece of twine. I came over to see what it was and when I was walking away my foot got caught." Shira explained.

"Louis, you go get Diego and tell him we've found her. I'll try and get Shira out of here." Lori instructed. Louis nodded quickly and tunneled away.

"Don't worry Shira, I'll get you out." Lori reassured the expecting mother. Lori started chewing on the line, using her sharp little teeth to try and sever the line.

Footsteps made themselves known through the trees, a lot of footsteps.

"What's that?" Shira asked.

"I mon't mow." Lori mumbled around the twine.

A couple woops and hollers accompanied the footsteps that were growing ever closer.

"Hunters!" Lori said in surprise at the sudden realization.

"Hurry, cut the twine!" Shira said

Lori bit even harder this time but the twine wouldn't cut. A part of the line loosened and snapped. The hunters sounded like they were right on top of them.

"Lori!" Shira screamed in terror right as six or seven men came through the bushes, looking down on them. The girls froze . All the hunters had spears and were pointing them at Shira and Lori.

One of the hunters nudged Lori off the twine with his spear and knocked her down so she was sitting and leaning back on her hands, twirling the spear ever so slightly in front of her face. Fear coursed through her as the spear grew closer. She tried to edge back a bit but her hand slipped and she fell back.

Suddenly Diego exploded out of the bushes with a defining roar and prowled over to Shira, standing over her, and swiping the spear away from Lori and to the ground. Louis tunneled up in front of Lori and climbed out of his hole. Lori scrambled to her feet and stood behind Louis who looked a little scared.

One hunter, seemingly the leader, was in the middle of the line of men stepped forward toward Diego and Shira, and then… stopped.

His expression of anger loosened and became surprise. Diego ceased growling and stepped of Shira and stood next to her.

"What are you doing?" Shira whispered urgently.

Diego didn't answer as the hunter grew closer, it kneeled down in front of the tigers and slowly reached for the twine. Shira growled and he pulled back then reached forward and cut the liune with his spear tip. Shira was so shocked she didn't move and it intangled the twine from her foot.

Immediately Shira scrambled to her feet. She quickly hissed at the humans and then disappeared into the bush. Diego looked up at the hunter and smiled, it did so too. The hunter covered his eyes and then uncovered them and Diego did the same with one paw, then ran off in the direction that Shira disappeared in.

Lori and Louis looked in the direction Diego shot off in and then looked back at the hunters. They all stared at one another for a moment. The weird hunter that Diego had looked at smiled, right at that moment Louis and Lori disappeared into the ground.

They all kept running until they almost came to the beach. Diego and Shira stopped running and tried to catch their breath. Louis and Lori came up out of the ground, also trying to catch their breath.

Shira looked up at Diego and smiled.

"Thanks softie." Shira called him by his pet name that seemed to annoy him and yet he never really wanted her to stop calling him that. She walked up to him and nuzzled his neck and rubbed under his chin and they both started purring.

Louis put his hands on his knees and leaned on them, trying to catch his breath. He looked up at Lori and saw she was doing the same, accept she looked different. Her eyes were dilated and she was staring at the ground. Louis stood up, still a little out of breath.

"Are you ok?" Louis asked with concern. She looked up at him and her eyes slowly started to become smaller. She stood up strait and her lip started to quiver and her eyes watered. Louis stared at her questioningly and then she ran forward, wrapping her arms around him and crying her eyes out.

"Uh, it's ok." Louis said awkwardly.

"I…thought…I w-was…gonna…die!" Lori cried between sobs.

Oh, she was just scared. Louis thought.

"It's ok." Louis murmured, hugging back. "It's ok, you're safe."

Lori's sobs soon quieted and they headed for the beach. When they got there the herd was waiting for them. They fixed up Shira's foot and headed for home, the sudden crisis now over.