• Batz's throat was parched. She didn't know how long they had been running, hours, for sure, but she had no clue exactly how long. Her black fur was dusted with particles of God-knows-what and her green eyes were dull. Pebbles, her best friend, was running alongside her, even though she looked as if she would collapse any second. Batz looked back. Lilee was bringing up the rear, Fuzie was on the left flank, and Cally was on the right flank. They were deep in a dry forest and didn't know where they were going-- They were just following the direction where the sun set. Batz loved being leader because then she could state her opinion without having to outscreech everyone. The other four listened to her and when she reprimanded them, they hardly ever did it again. Except Lilee, who always questioned Batz's leadership. Every once and a while they would blow off their rivalry steam by having a good squawk, but Batz always won, because she was ten times the fighter Lilee would ever be.
    "Batz? I'm thirsty," Cally whined.
    "Drink your spit and deal with it because we aren't going to run in to a giant lake any time soon!" Batz said gruffly.
    "Well sor-ree!" Cally huffed.
    "Um, hello? We're in the middle of a freaking drought! Water is out of the question!" Pebbles snapped.
    "Pebbles, shut up! Nobody cares about your opinion!" Fuzie defended.
    Pebbles's eyes flared and her ears automatically flattened. She whipped around and snarled angrily, "That is not an opinion! That is a known fact! There will be no river, no lake, no ******** ocean! We will be lucky if we even find a Goddamn PUDDLE! Now shut the hell up you whiny dumb overgrown infant!"
    "Pebbles!" Cally said, shocked. Nobody in the group talked that way. Sure, they called names but they hardly ever cursed.
    "Yeah, I said it!" Pebbles yelled. Cally made a face when Pebbles turned around. She would've never done it straight to Pebbles's face, so Batz glared at her. Cally stuck her chin out and sniffed indignantly. Batz smacked her, right in the side of the head. Fuzie leapt at Batz, and suddenly, Fuzie, Cally, Batz, and now Pebbles were fighting. Lilee sat back and watched, grinning. Batz jumped away, and the fight disintegrated. Everyone was covered in saliva, and tufts of fur littered the ground. A twig snapped, and the cats all jumped in the air and whirled simultaneously. A fox stepped out, saliva dripping from its sharp white teeth.
    "Run!" Lilee yowled.
    "No!" Batz ordered.
    "What?! You're crazy!" Lilee yelled, backing away.
    "Do you want to eat or not?!"
    "... We'll be killed."
    "That's not what I asked!" Batz said, leaping at the fox. She dug her claws in to its flesh and began biting and scratching. She bit its shoulder, hard and deep, and blood squirted into her mouth. The fox bucked about, barking and growling and swiping at Batz.
    "Help her! Let's go!" Batz heard Pebbles yowl. Then the other four came to Batz's rescue.
    "Sechass! Toto allay! Neckerchu! Goveryou egway eustedes! Bandada!" Batz yelled in their secret language. Pebbles pinned the fox's left shoulder, Lilee, the right. Then Fuzie and Kali clamped the fox's jaws together and pinned its head. Batz sat on it's chest and bit into its throat. She clamped her jaws down tight, and slowly, very slowly, the fox went limp. Batz, Lilee, Fuzie and Cally jumped away while Pebbles checked vital signs. She nodded and the cats fell on the fox like human teenagers.
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    After they ate, the cats washed their matted, grimy fur. They were thirsty, and Batz had sent Pebbles out to look for a puddle. Now Batz lounged under a tree, sprawled in the shade. It didn't help much, but it still helped a bit. Pebbles arrived, followed by some weird brown animals with flat tails and beady eyes. Batz leaped to her feet, growling.
    "No, it's okay! They're... beakers," Pebbles said. Batz layed back down and relaxed.
    "Beavers," a brown animal corrected.
    "Right... They're here to help us. They have a lake and a big reserve that they live in and they said we can live with them until the drought is over," Pebbles finished. Everyone looked at each other. Batz sighed and pushed herself to her feet.
    "Let's go," she said, padding up to the beavers.
    "How do you know if it's safe?" Lilee asked, a hint of challenge in her voice. Batz turned slowly.
    "If anything happens, I will resign as leader, and someone shall take over and hopefully be a better leader than me," Batz said quietly. Lilee grinned.
    "Don't think about it Lilee! If anyone should take over it should be Pebbles because you will destroy our unity, our culture, our honor, and everything else that makes us a Stanich family," Cally spoke up. Lilee whirled, angered that her plan was thwarted by the "weakest link."
    "Get over it Lilee, let's go," Pebbles sighed.
    "Oh, since when are you calling the shots?" Lilee demanded.
    "Just shut up and come on before you get left behind!" Pebbles called as Batz, Cally, and Fuzie walked ahead with the beavers.
    "WHEN DID BATZ DIE AND MAKE YOU LEADER?!" Lilee shrieked. Pebbles shrugged and trotted up to Batz. Batz rolled her eyes as Lilee caught up and walked alongside Batz. I could really go without her pissing me off, Batz thought. She sighed and forgot about the whole thing.
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    The reserve was huge, and there was a huge lake behind it.
    "Can we swim?" Cally asked immediately. The head beaver- Jingo- nodded.
    "Anything for you guys," he said with a wink. Batz sighed in relief and climbed onto the reserve. It was wobbly, but Batz didn't think it would tip over. She took a flying leap off the reserve and landed in the water. She paddled around, feeling the water swoosh through her fur and slide harmlessly across her face. She took a big gulp, then another, and another, until her seemingly endless thirst was quenched. Then she reluctantly climbed out of the cool water while the three younger cats splashed each other and played. Lilee hadn't even touched the water.
    "You've been head of these cats for too long... your time may be running out," Lilee said solemnly. "You already have one cat against you... and she's starting to convince Cally."
    "Who?" Batz asked.
    "Fuzie. She's slowly turning the cats against you, but I will always remain on your side. I know we have our arguments and our squawks, but I always have respected you on a deeper level than a leader. I respect you as a sister and a best friend," Lilee whispered. Batz felt her heart leap in to her throat.
    "Thank you... I'm really sorry for everything," she squeezed out. Lilee smiled slightly, then put her tail around Batz. They watched the sun set side by side for the first time.
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    For their second week in a row, Batz went without trying to reprimand Lilee, and Lilee was less irritating. The other cats were baffled when they saw Lilee and Batz walk in, side by side, without trying to kill each other. Then they let it go.
    A beaver ran in to the reserve- actually the beavers called it a dam-, panting and huffing.
    "Jingo!" He huffed.
    "Sergio, what's wrong?" Jingo demanded.
    "Wolves! On the shoreline!" Sergio said, looking ready to vomit from exertion.
    "Damn! SOLDIERS! FRONT AND CENTER!" Jingo yelled. About 50 soldier beavers crammed in to the main room.
    "Alpha Squad, you take left flank, Bravo squad, the right flank. Water Warriors, you provide the encore with dead center across the lake. Kit-Kats, come with me and the Night Squad. We'll sneak in a wide circle and attack from behind. LET'S GO, GO, GO!" Jingo ordered coolly, as if it was just a drill. Batz and her group followed Jingo and the rest of the Night Squad through the dark forest. They made a wide arc, and right when the squads were in position, and the wolves were too distracted with drinking water, they attacked. Batz and her group used the same technique they used when taking down the fox to tackle down a big wolf.
    As Batz clamped her jaws around her second throat of the battle, a wolf sank his teeth in to her shoulders and threw her hard and far. She hit the ground hard and tried jacknifing to her paws, only to find she didn't have enough air in her lungs to do it. So she lay there and took deep breaths, feeling like she was going to vomit. I wish I hadn't had that third fish, Batz thought with an inward groan. Feeling a sudden rush of energy, she sprang to her paws and yelled, "WINSVEEL! NASDACK! FALL BACK! FALL BACK!" When the cats tried to finish off their last vicitim, Batz yelled, "ABORT! ABORT! BLASKEMEY!" They wouldn't stop ripping at the wolf. "Sacre bleu!" Batz hissed. "ABORT YOU IDIOTS!" They heard her this time and ran. They went into the same position as before, running through the forest at top speed.
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    Batz's throat was parched. She didn't know how long they had been running, hours, for sure, but she had no clue exactly how long. It felt like deja vu. Lilee was coughing, and Fuzie was showing symptoms of a bad eye infection. Cally already had an ear infection, and the group was always stopping to let her scratch her ear.
    "We need to stop and rest," Pebbles said with a rough, crackly voice.
    "We can't," Lilee wheezed in an equally rough voice.
    "And why not?"
    "Because it's not safe out here," Batz interrupted drily.
    "How?" Cally chimed in hoarsely.
    "There's wolves and bobcats and God-knows-what-else out there. We need to find a safer place."
    "How about here?" Pebbles called quietly from up ahead. Batz and Cally had fallen back, and the rest had found a hollowed out tree with a narrow hole at the base. Batz looked thoughtfully up and down the tree. Good height, no low branches that a predator could jump on to ambush us, the hole is something we could barely squeeze in to, feels cool inside, nice and dark, a pool of water in a corner, she noted silently. Her intrest flared when she saw the puddle. It was a ginormously freaking big tree, both tall and very, very wide. It was spacious enough inside for everyone to sleep in their own spot without crunching up against another cat. The exact opposite of the dam. It was almost like a house made just for cats.
    "Lilee, go in, check your corners," Batz said. Lilee went in cautiously, then peeped back out and said, "Corners all checked. All clear." The cats squeezed in and rushed to the pool of water.
    After they each had a good long drink, they sat in the dark, luxurious tree. Batz was licking her chest fur, her head bobbing rythmically.
    "Now what about food?" Lilee wheezed, but her voice less scratchy. "We aren't thirsty anymore but we're all hungry."
    "I'm sure there's crickets or someother bugs that come out at night," Cally said hopefully.
    "Chicken feed."
    "There's ants too..."
    "Chicken feed," Lilee said with great finality. Cally slowly folded her ear back against her head, sad that her idea had been rejected. Pebbles put her tail around Cally and glared at Lilee.
    "Don't be an a**, Lilee," she snapped.
    "You're the a**," Lilee retorted.
    "At least I'm not an overdramatic sickly spaz!"
    "Quit talking about yourself!"
    "I ain't talking about myself I'm talking about your ugly fa-"
    "Pebbles shut up!" Fuzie butted in. She was looking out the hole. "Look, it's raining."
    "Rain?" Batz asked, shocked.
    "Yeah," Fuzie replied.
    "Rain!" Everyone yelled. They ran outside into the now steadly pouring rain, letting it spray down their throats and all over their bodies. The drought was over.
    END OF BOOK 1.
    Credits of Falling Leaves: The First Drought:
    Author: Luna-Jayde Mercedes Smith (ObliviousCali24)
    Co-Author: Davis Land (musicismylife1234567890)
    Inspiriation: My cats.
    Pronounciations:
    Batz (Bats)
    Pebbles (Pebbles)
    Lilee (Lilly)
    Cally (Kalee)
    Fuzie (Fuzzy)