Hide. Hide here until it is safe. Then run.

Whatever you do, don't stop running.

"We've been sitting here for hoooours." Brazil whined, shifting his sitting position for the upteith time. "Just a little longer, then we'll call it quits in half an hour. By then if there's nothing, then the night's a bust." Japan explained, keeping an eye out on the trap.

It had been 5 days now since the incident, Russia since being released from the hospital. His father, on the other hand, had to be strapped down to the bed to make him rest. Otherwise the communist would have carried on another hunt and probably only hurt himself more.

Germany gave a yawn, Ireland silently agreeing to grab another round of their on hand alcohols. The two gave a silent cheer, not wanting to risk being heard. Russia grabbed one of the spirits as well.

Chile and Jamaica were busy playing cards, China simply sitting nearby. South Africa cast a glance over at the trap, freezing as she saw what was trying to eat the cow leg.

She waved her hand, getting the attention of the rest of the group. One by one they all looked from what they were doing, seeing the small clearing.

Clinging by its tail, there was one of the creatures trying to reach the meat. Reaching out with its clawed hands, the dark blue creature fell short. Turning it's two-horned head, the slender thing trying to get the piece. The only reason the net below wasn't sprung was that they hadn't applied pressure to the tripwire.

White swirls and splotches decorated it's side, a bright red stripe lining it's spine. There was a sort of fan thing that reminded Zar of a Lionfish or something similar sitting behind its large deer-like ears, it's limbs slender yet strong. There was more muscle in the forearms, a few stains of mud stuck to them.

The creature shifted its tail, lowering itself some. But it wasn't enough for them to reach. The thing gave a huff.

Meanwhile, all the countries were getting ready with their on-hand rope and narcotics. Russia held onto the rifle, slowly bringing it up so the scope landed on it.

Scotland, who was the one elected to sit by the trigger to the trap, was waiting for a sign from anyone else to trip it. Zar shook her head slightly, making eye contact with the Scottish. She wanted to see if it could reach it first.

Plus, part of her just couldn't believe that this thing as being the one to cause so much damage.

Just as it was about to lower itself, a sharp hiss froze it, as well as the rest of the group. Almost out of nowhere a second creature came onto the scene, it hissing and growling at the smaller. The younger jumped onto the newcomer, sitting on their back.

The camouflage-colored creature looked at the trap. Sniffing the net, the more red toned creature managed to walk around the perimeter. It gave a low hum, ordering the smaller blue off.

South Africa was curious as what was happening, given that the larger had raised its tail. On the end was a sharp blade in the shape of an ax, the creature gearing up to swing it. The sharp growth cut through the fishing line tied to the leg, managing to catch the thin string.

Holding onto the line, the red toned camo managed to pull the bait out of the trap. The smaller gave a happy thrill, tearing into half of it. They tried to offer the other half to the other, the larger declining. It was then South Africa realized that their skin clung to their skeletons, ribs somewhat pressed under the scales.

Zar lifted herself up, cursing as she broke a branch.

The two froze immediately, red giving a low growl. The blue backed away before outright fleeing into the woods. One gone.

Zar heard a gun fire behind her, watching the dart simply hit off of the red one's scales. In turn, the red brandished its tail as it growled. Now Zar could see them causing so much damage, seeing just how sharp the teeth were.

The creature hissed at the group, rearing up on its hind legs. What was once barely taller than Russia now towered over them, Brazil making the first move. The runner waved his arms around, catching the attention of the creature. Most took that moment to snap out of their stupor, Scotland deeming it now or never for the trap.

It missed, the net springing up. As another dart failed to penetrate the armor, the red thing casted a glance at the failed trap. Another tink.

"Stop wasting your darts!" "Well what else are we supposed ta do?!" "Not be a chicken with their head cut off and-"
The swishing of the bladed tail overhead cut off South Africa, the creature having sliced through the chain holding up the mesh of wire. The tail still clutched onto the net, the creature swung it towards the group.
"Look out!"

Unlike Scotland's attempt, it was successful.

The only few that were spared were Russia, Brazil, and Scotland, the three having been away from the bulk of the group. Ireland would have been in the clear if the wires hadn't snagged a hold of his arm and twisting it painfully.

The creature was now looking at the remaining three. Brazil was busy looking for something to either distract or get the group free. Russia was working on switching out his rifle for more melee weapons, and Scotland. Well.

If darts wouldn't work, then surely the butt of the gun would. With a hiss at the hit on the head, "Cem on ya big uglie brute."

Japan, who was caught in the dead center of the counter, was trying to find a way to get them out. "Chile. Start making your way to the end over there. Or pass me your arm and I'll work it out." She suggested, seeing as the lanky country was the closest to the edge and had the highest chance of crawling out.

Jamaica had since found Brazil, trying to pass Green a bat that was underneath the net. They'd hoped that it would at least get some force behind the hits. In the chaos of everything, it took the Brazilian to take notice. Green skin met green as the duo were able to wriggle a bat out from between the mesh.

With a wave from Germany and the help of an outside force, a country was freed. South Africa wriggled out, immediately grabbing the bat from Brazil. "Help them out. I'll go keep it distracte-"

A hard slam was heard behind, the white country turning to find a crumpled blue body on the ground while Russia was unable to dodge the incoming tail swing. The Russian was knocked back, landing harshly against a tree. With a sharp grunt, he was still conscious and attempting to stand back up. A few stumbles then he was back on his feet.

The green, black, and red/blue country took a running start, Brazil now in a rush to free the rest of his squad. Thanks to the help of SA, Chile was able to get out as well. When the red, white, and blue turned around to try and help- "No! Go get Scotland out of there!" Japan ordered, now having moved on to Ireland's arm.

A low growl sounded as the red creature stared down the circling South Africa. The bladed tail was swishing dangerously back and forth, the new branches on the ground giving a pretty good idea of what would happen if it went up against bone. The majority of it's scaled hide was red and white, but the many scales that were of an autumn pallet at first snow made it hard to distinguish at first glance. The horns it had reminded Zar of deer antlers, but the strange way they occasionally moved and shifted made her not so sure.

Giving a few experimental taps on the ground, South Africa kept up their game of chicken.

It was only with a feint from green did red actually go after her. Least she went in a direction away from the group.

While one jumped and avoided most of the underbrush, the other barged through no problem. South Africa fumbled out her pinger, keeping an eye on it's reception icon as she avoided tripping on the roots. With it's steady green heartbeat, South Africa plunged onwards.

Heart pounding in the throat as adrenaline powered the legs, she could not afford to slow down. But she'd have to at one point. No matter how well built you were, you were still running on two legs. If anything in the animal world proved, two legs were great for strength and reach. Not so much for speed like four legs.

So she'd have to use that for her advantage.

With a sharp hard kick to the left, South Africa halted as she found herself in a feasible clearing. With a check of the blinking green pinger, she was set to fight or loose the creature. She listened as it crashed through the underbrush to her left, then it quieted down.

Not leaving anything to chance, the 5-colored country readied to swing her bat.

The bushes remained silent, but the gaze she felt never went away.

Where was it?

She casted a glance behind her. To her left. The right.

Nothing.

No red.

Taking a few easy breaths, South Africa swung her bat behind her.

Direct hit.

The impact shattered up her arm, shaking her core. It was a miracle she kept her footing in the sandy turf.

Nursing her arm, she turned to see where the impact had hit. The sand beneath the area had the claw marks pressed into loose indents, several more being made as it supposedly shook around.

"Fight me boskok." She spat, eyes glued on where she knew it was.

The footsteps stilled.

A puff of air brushed one of South Africa's strand of black and green hair down. Defensively she swung the bat.

There was a snort of sorts.

Just as she was certain it was going to crunch down with it's powerful jaws, a snap off to her left sounded out. Both paused as a deer poked it's head up, looking at the strange country standing frigid in the clearing. Something happened with the creature, red splotches now marking where it stood.

It was a lot larger up close.

The deer was quick to bound away, the creature leaving the country in favor for the heartier prey. With a sigh of relief, Zar fell to her knees. The sound of the breaking underbrush gradually went away.

A few minutes of silence and peace passed.

Moonlight filtered through the pine needles up above, giving the clearing an eerie sort of feel. Left in a daze, Zar aimlessly looked around the ground.

What was that? Some sort of stone? There were a few of them. With a closer inspection, she determined the red rhombus to be a scale. Least tonight wasn't a total bust. Curiously, she flipped it over.

She had to do a double take at the sudden disappearance of the scale. She could still feel it however. Flipping it back over, the red was visible again.

'How.'

A gut wrenching screech cut off her train of thought.

Against her better judgment, Zar pocketed the scale and went off to see.

Following the torn out trail of the creature, the path to the place of the sound was fairly easy. Every 3 meters or so she would check her pinger, plugging onwards as she saw it's green light. Constantly she would glance behind her, ensuring that the trail from whence she came was still obvious and easy to follow.

Soon the sound of bells could be heard underneath the screech. It wasn't until a few steps closer that Zar understood the reasoning.

The red creature, apparently having blindly chased after the deer, was pinned to the ground by a scattering of well placed wires and chains. One in particular seemed to be a snare around it's horned head. Terror was clear in those serpentine eyes as it struggled against the sharp noose.

"Guys. It got caught in another trap. Come to my location." Zar said quickly, flicking on her radio to get the signal out. Such an act wouldn't be possible if they were a few spare meters North, as she later found out walking around the trapped creature. Even then, the wary gaze never left Zar.

Maybe with a bit too much confidence, she laid a tentative hand against the surprisingly smooth scales. She could feel its fast heartbeat as it gave ragged breaths. Green skin traced up red scales, her feeling along the side.

"Probably just was hungry." She muttered mostly to herself, fingers running along the far too visible for comfort bumps of the thin build. Upwards she went, feeling along the strong shoulders it sported. The scales were the thickest here. If it weren't for the wires tied around the ankles, then the country would have been swatted at several times already. As for the ax tail, that was caught mid-air thanks to a miracle.

She ran her hand along the base of the mighty antlers. The creature was spooked by this, slamming it's head up and down best it could despite the definite snare caught under it's jawbone. Not even the scales could protect all, the wire having weaseled in between and cutting into the soft flesh beneath.

"Stay." Zar commanded, grabbing a hold of both horns and pushing it's head to the ground. With thin-slit pupils, they met the much rounder ones. Terror and fear remained, the thing actually staying still. It's breathing was getting heavier as more red entered the scale pallet and slowly dripped onto the forest floor. With a sigh, the African country released her grip on the lower antler. The creature winced at first when the free hand first rubbed its head.

"You may not understand me, but I don't want to hurt you. You're ok." She soothed, feeling the now defeated thing sink deeper towards the ground. It gave a heavy sigh, awaiting it's fate.

Finally the rest of the beaten and battered squad arrived, having maneuvered their ATVs through the trees. Zar had given up trying to get the snare undone. Not only was it probably the only thing keeping the creature still, but it was also impossible to cut the wire. Getting it loose and over the antlers was out of the question. Not getting up from her spot as she was holding down the head, the now blindfolded creature was sniffing the area. Then it gave a growl, barring it's teeth as much as the wires keeping its jaw closed would allowed.

"Wow." China safely expressed the thoughts of the remaining silent. The thing gave a sharper growl, moving around more than what everyone was comfortable with.

"Move slow. It has a snare around it. . . One of you got a wire cutter?" Zar asked, moving to keep the head down and stable. Jamaica gave a nod, grabbing one from a bag of supplies. He had to dig it out from under the still unconscious Scotland. Zar caught the thrown cutters with ease. "So what exactly now?"

The thing let out another growl, testing it's limits once again. The haphazardly contained tail was at the forefront of everyone's thoughts as it moved. The wire was just so so the sharp edge couldn't snag it, but the right string of movements could cut the metal thread. "I'm not sure." China started out. "I'll start getting samples while the rest of you figure out how to get it out of here, given we're no longer a small haul to a trail road."

The thing gave a hiss as it smelled the Chinese come closer, not happy by this at all.

There was at least a plan in play now, a sort of weird balancing act on the ATV. China had gotten what samples he readily could. Loose scales, blood, antler shavings, saliva; anything surface level.

"Pass me some of those darts. Think I can get the point in to the flesh where the snare got through."

At this point they had gotten used to the aggressive snarls coming from the creature. Least at the moment it seemed to understand to not move.

At the moment.

Just as the red country was about to poke a dart or two in between the protective scales, the creature slammed it's head forward, tightening the snare. The wires holding the tail in place were cut, and hell broke loose.

Chile was just about sliced in half, with Germany almost experiencing the French Revolution. Jamaica had an antler point pierce through his arm while China got his leg broken. Many wires were cut, the creature hurriedly running off (not without throwing the Caribbean country off it's horns and into Japan and Brazil). If Russia hadn't jumped out of the way in time, both he and Ireland would have been trampled.

South Africa held onto the one antler like her life depended on it, shock and fear slowing her general thinking.

It was the sudden lurk backwards that flung her off. The brushes caught her with their thorny branches. Out between the leaves, she could spy the thing clawing at the snare still tied around it's throat. Her wire cutters were long gone.

But the ax did the trick.

The thing began to stand on its hindlegs from what she could see. She pushed herself up, only to fall back down with a sudden realization. Her arm was broken. Using the other hand, she was struggling to get up out of the thorns. With a glance back, she could make out that the thing no longer had antlers. Hands were gently guiding the trap out and around the head.

There SA could hear the few able bodied countries coming closer, calling her name. The thing moved. There one minute. Gone the next.

"I'm right here! It ran away!"

While Russia did get a firm talking to by his father for messing with the communist's trap, they were all thankful that they weren't the only ones in that part of the woods.

South Africa sat at the front row of the meeting room two days later, arm in a cast. China was reduced to a wheelchair, Chile taking it easy with the bandages wrapped around his abdomen. Jamaica had his arm in a sling, thick padding around where the antler got him. The worse Ireland came out with was a dislocated shoulder and a twisted ankle, Scotland getting the all clear after getting his head checked out. Russia had a few bruises along his spine, so his seat had a few pillows behind his back.

Germany was the most ok, having only a light wrap around his thorax while he presented the case to the rest of Pangaea with guidance from China.

South Africa already knew most of this stuff. She lived through it. So her attention was set on looking around the room to see if anyone had anything of interest. The gaze landed briefly on frightened Oceanic, aggressive Slovaks, plotting Middle Eastern, and two concerned looking Anglospheres.

She hadn't seen them since the failed attempt, so it was almost amazing that they showed up. Then again this was mostly mandatory. But why wasn't-

"We believe that the two we have seen have a sort of pack relationship. The large red one that attacked us was originally defending a smaller blue one. We weren't able to get any photos of the smaller, but we were able to get some of the red one." South Africa wasn't interested in the photos being put up, rather more so the ensuing chaos that was bound to happen if past experiences were any indication.

"Ey Russia. You've been there for both the infamous aquatic one and this one. Are they the same?"

"Da." The tri-striped country lied. The difference between the two blues was almost night and day, but it would be wise to not stir any more mass panic. Two were confirmed before, and best not start hysteria that there were more unseen.

"Anyways, I theorize that we can set a mass trap to contain both of them. From South Africa's experience, at least the red prioritizes live prey. The blue more of a scavenger. If we can secure a location out in the woods, then we should be able to corral them. It will be tricky, and has to work the first time, but I'm confident we can come up with something." Germany reinstated, bringing back the focus.

UN was actually mildly amazed. There were few events that all countries generally agreed on, like the plague every few centuries. Maybe they could actually all agre-

"Why don't we just go in guns ablazing? Take em out now. It's clear they have the power to take on several countries, and we have all seven of the current superpowers right here in this room. I say throw America, India, and Saudi Arabia into the mix and with the rest of us we can take em on. "

South Africa lost who said it, as a few accusations went flying. Many about the logistics, morality, and the sensibility of the statement. But it did bring a few things further into the light.

"Yeah. Speaking of, where's America? Where has he been in all this?! One of the strongest superpowers, and refuses to help at all!" "Unless he had a play in this whole thing." "You're right! Always looking for more ways to be the best." "Something gone wrong." "Or global domination!" "The country already dropped the sun twice on the Japanese Empire; who's to say that he wouldn't do it again!"

South Africa quickly glanced around the room, spying the country surveying the room under his black shades. It wasn't fun being associated directly to the people in power, nor unfavorable history dug up.

Through the swinging of the doors, she could see the 13 striped country walking out. Not taking this shit it seemed. New Zealand was right behind them.

"Let's go." She stood up after getting a confused look from China and Germany.

After having managed to wheel China through the gradually ensuing chaos, Germany shot South Africa a look. "Look. I have my doubts, but I want to confirm them. Now we just need to think of a place."

"For what?"

"A big bottle of beer, a shot of vodka, whiskey, whatever they drink for kicks in Canada-"

"Probably maple syrup."

"That. And I reckon we do it quick, cause America already has a target on his back."
"Were you listening to them Zar? So do we."

"I have to agree with you Zar, I'm confident as well. I've seen strange things as well around those four. But if we expose them then who knows what will happen?" Germany countered, basically mercy killing South Africa's barely alive plan. "And I'm also sure that if they know we know, they'll flee to who knows where."

"Then I guess we just need to get lucky with our traps." She admitted with a sigh.

Author here- I. Hit. So. Many. Writer's Blocks it felt like that cartoony scene in Kung Fu Panda with all the signs to the face. Or all the bricks to Marvin's head from Home Alone 2. . . Honestly Marvin relates more than Po now that I think about it. Same level of pain I feel. Aaaaaand I wrote so much I lost the topic.
Again.
The courthouse scene? That's when things went down the drain. I wanna say that I recovered but that would be a lie.
Also there are 3,9~~ words of this stuff. Not even the AN.

I'm tired. I want to start railroading to where I feel is a good point for the second book, the whole reason I wanted to write this part to lay the foundation and ease into it all, but that would mean doing some linguistic gymnastics that even rap songs at 2x speed would be impressed. Or Guns and Ships from Hamilton at 1.25x speed.
Why does this keep happening

I need sleep.
Ok! More serious stuff happening, and a lot of it coming up. I'm hoping it would be around 5-6 chapters. There will be for sure one last stab at some wholesome moments in the next chap, then watch me light these character's hopes and dreams on fire.
Oh gosh
It's more literal then you think.
This is a draft consisting of literature so don't even dare trying to commit a pun.