The crate waited open, dark, and lined with straw from Mara’s enclosure. Elias had asked for that deliberately. Strange metal and city smells might make her hesitate, but the straw carried home with it: soil, bedding, old wood, the quiet part of her world before the storm. Mara paused at the entrance. Elias stopped moving. So did everyone else. For one long moment, the entire street seemed to hold its breath.
Then Mara lowered her head, sniffed the straw, and placed one front paw inside the crate. Elias felt the moment before it happened, the fragile shift from panic to decision. Her second paw followed. Then her shoulders. Then her hips. The instant her back feet cleared the frame, Lena pulled the release rope. The steel gate dropped with a hard, final clang.