A long time ago in a land far, far way, there was a neighborhood consisting of rabbits, squirrels, frogs, foxes, and cats, all of which lived in a spacious clearing in the woods. Most everyone was friends here in the neighborhood. This is not the kind of neighborhood in which houses would be found, but one in which animals lived in foxholes and logs. The community in which these friendly animals lived has short grass and is in a one-acre clearing in the woods. The friendly animals that lived here did not have owners of any sort, but barbarian-like people did live in medieval villages in the hills and valleys nearby. Though the land was fairly peaceful for human and animal alike, the temperature had been rising for the past two months which eventually dried up the animal's neighborhood pond which was their only source of water. Besides the lack of water, everything was as happy as can be.

One of these friendly neighborhood creatures was a grey and white cat with four years of age and a generous personality. Never did he cheat anything. His name was Keno, and he was known in this neighborhood for his assumed mean looks, but his personality always turned out to be opposite of his appearance. He was loving and nice to everyone that passed near him. Overall, Keno was respected as the best cat in the neighborhood. This cat awoke from his cozy foxhole on a warm spring afternoon. He always awoke at the same time every day and fell asleep the same time every night. Keno lived a very happy and peaceful life.
On Keno’s routine afternoon stroll around the clearing, he walked by the famed Hare’s log this time. The elongated log had always been fancy in the Hare’s opinion, but to most everyone else it was just a normal log. Today, however, Keno noticed right away that something felt different and smelled different as he approached the log to tiptoe across it as he always liked to do. Then out from the shadow behind the log quietly came a neighborhood cat named Fluffy. Fluffy had become a weak-spot in Kenos perfect personality. Keno could not help at times than to make fun of all the mistakes that Fluffy made each day. As Fluffy ambled forward, Keno immediately noticed that Fluffy was twitching his whiskers wildly which most likely meant that Fluffy was feeling extremely nervous. “What’s the matter?” Keno asked attempting to be friendly.
“It started on my afternoon stroll yesterday when I heard the Hare in the woods yell troll!” Fluffy stated shaking all over like he was watching a horror movie. It took every bit of energy for Keno to stop himself from laughing. Keno had never heard of trolls in the woods. Trolls were just in fairy tales. “I have not seen him since,” Fluffy said still shaking.
When Fluffy was done telling his nerve-wrecking story, Keno politely said hoping to make Fluffy feel better, “Can we go together to scout the area out where you saw the Hare last?” Fluffy the cat took this offer into long consideration.
Fluffy then nervously replied, “I guess we could tomorrow morning.” Both cats returned silently to their foxholes.
The next morning, the two cats awoke from their cozy foxholes and began their journey through the forest and to the location were Fluffy heard the Hare last. Neither Keno nor Fluffy had a keen since of smell, but they did their best to determine the scent. The scent was strongest at a place that Keno had never seen before. It seemed to look like water flowing at really fast pace. But, at the moment, neither of them felt like going into serious danger to get there. By sight, both cats could see a bridge that lead from one side of the river to the other. Fluffy the Cat then determined from his weak sense of smell and intuition that a minimum of three trolls surely lived near this flowing water and most likely under the bridge that stretched across it.
Again, Keno suppressed a laugh, but even so Keno was as impressed by this flowing water as Fluffy was. They both stared at it for a while. In the worried, dramatic speech Fluffy was known for, he said, "I think we ought to call it the River of Everlasting Water!"
"No wonder the trolls want it with a name like that," Keno smirked. However, the roar of the water even at this distance raised the hairs on Keno's neck a bit. So, drawn back to the safety of the meadow, the duet sprinted back to their cozy foxholes pondering about what they saw.
All day and all night Keno thought about the River of Everlasting Water and the three trolls predicted by his pal Fluffy. Should he go scope it out for himself? If could find an easy way to the water, then that may be their new source of water for the community. At last, he decided that a journey to the River of Everlasting Water was necessary for the community. Keno was going to do it all by himself, without silly Fluffy trailing behind. After a nice long snack, he announced to the neighborhood that he was going on a journey to this river by himself. Everyone especially Fluffy objected to this journey, for Keno would be sacrificing his comfortable home and the pleasure of being a part of the beautiful neighborhood if he never returned. Without listening, Keno set off into the creepy forest hoping to find not trolls, but a safe source of water.

As Keno set off into the wild forest, he began to ponder how he was the make it past the trolls that Fluffy had mentioned. After many hours of walking carefully enough not to break a branch and all that time pondering, he finally determined that the best way to get past the trolls was to either run up to the bridge from the side or to climb a tree and peer down into the ditch under the bridge attempting to spot something, possibly a troll. But meanwhile, he had many things to focus on other than trolls. There were medieval villages and towers in his view now, and were so interesting to look at. Birds chirped on Japanese Maples. Colorful fish jumped in a nearby pond beneath on of the towers. Keno didn’t see any reason why he should be afraid, but began to think the world outside of the meadow was rather grand.

After strolling peacefully through the woods Keno came to a dangerous area that must be crossed in order to arrive at the River of Everlasting Water. Keno said to himself, “This area is not big, but it is going to be a challenge to cross”. Keno wondered why he had not spotted it when he and Fluffy went scouting. After investigation, Keno learned that the reason why this place was not visible from the two cats’ scouting area was because this place he had found was a deep valley hidden by the hundreds of plants surrounding it and also because the scouting area chosen by the two cats contained low ground. The land around the valley was high. He could walk around the valley, but that would take days to complete. Keno finally decided to name it the Valley of Great Destruction. The name may sound dramatic, but it wasn’t, for Keno saw that the Valley of Great Destruction contained vipers, scorpions, and spiders as big as Keno. No plants grew in this land. The Valley of Great Destruction looked almost like a desert. The slope of the valley was steep and was made of dirt, yet he could see a larger proportion of the white River of Everlasting Water just on the other side. How was he to cross?

Keno began planning how he was to get across this dangerous area. He cleverly figured out that the best and safest way to cross was to charge down the slope at such a fast pace that the creatures of the Valley would not have time to react to a cat jumping out of nowhere. As he prepared to make this move he thought about the end goal: the River of Everlasting Water. Suddenly, Keno found himself charging down the slope. However, the scorpions at the other end of the Valley of Great Destruction gathered together and prepared for Keno to come running up their slope. Panicking, Keno meowed desperately. Out of what looked like nowhere came a barbarian from the nearest village. He seemed to be running at the scorpions. He grabbed two in his bare hands and ran back to the village leaving the other creatures running for cover and unconcerned with Keno. Keno safely arrived at the other end of the valley. What a relief!

A straight dirt path to the River of Everlasting Water was visible in the warming sun. Wary about potential trolls, Keno silently thought about how to approach the bridge leading across the river. At last, he guessed that the safest way would be to stay along the side of the path where he would be hidden while he slowly and silently crept closer to the bridge. Keno then unintentionally ran to the side of the path out of sheer nervousness. He paused for a second to catch his breath and to think about what he was doing this for. He remembered his community in a severe drought. Everybody was dehydrated by this severe drought. Their pond had dried up a week ago. Keno suddenly realized that he was day-dreaming. “It’s time to get down to business”, he said to himself. As he crept along the dusty path, he thought about what he would do if trolls were to show up. Keno would be in a dead end with nowhere to run because of the valley behind him. What is going to happen?

Confident that everything was going to be fine, and finding strength from the pride he had in his community, he progressed down the path at a great pace. At the end of the path he stopped to catch his breath. As he waited he suddenly heard the rustling of leaves. One moment he thought “Run!” and the next moment he thought “Do something quick!” However, the rustling passed and Keno progressed towards the bridge at a more moderate pace, both of his ears on high alert. The only sounds he heard now were his own footsteps and the sound of water rushing. Would the trolls hear him?

As Keno approached the bridge, he smelled something familiar. He was unsure of what it was, but he was still wary. It was time to make a move. As he cautiously peeked under the bridge, he saw something small and strange-looking. He pulled his head back and thought for a minute. It couldn’t be a troll. What should he do?
Considering the odds of ever finding another water source, Keno pushed out his claws and decided it would be best to attack it. Preparing to leap under the bridge, he then smelled something familiar. This time he was sure what it was. It was the Hare! As fast as possible, Keno happily leaped under the bridge and found the Hare taking a nice nap right beside the river. He ran up to him and gave him a big nudge. With a yawn, the Hare woke up and happily said, “Keno! It’s great to see you. I meant to return to the community, but this place was just so comfortable and fun that it slipped my mind.”
Keno the stated, “It’s great to see you alive. Fluffy has everyone thinking you got eaten by a troll.”
Then the Hare said, “A troll! Trolls are in fairy tales. You should know that!”
Keno replied, “Fluffy said that he heard you in the forest calling the word ‘Troll!’”
Then the Hare simply stated, “He needs to get his ears checked! I just got so excited that I had found mole family here. We used to have them according to my deceased father, but they haven’t been around in years. You know I have always wanted to see a mole. My excitement turned into me yelling the word mole. Since then, I have had the time of my life playing with a family of moles who wish to relocate to our meadow…and drinking all this fresh water they led me to. There seems to be an unlimited supply here. Take a sip!”
Keno paused for a minute to absorb all the information the Hare had given him and also to realize how silly he had been to believe that trolls lived under the bridge. Then another question came to mind. “How did you get across the valley?” questioned Keno. “Well, one of those villager-barbarian people thought I was cute when I was in the woods trying to get to the river, so he took me to his house and gave me some tasty food. I do not know what it was but it was good! Then when he was not looking I escaped out of a window in the front of the house. The village happened to be positioned so that I could easily get around the valley. Boy was that convenient! I finally got to my end goal which was the river.”
Keno sighed and thought to himself, ““Well, mystery solved, and drought solved!" Then he leaned down and took a long drink of water. When he looked up, with water on his chin and whiskers, he saw the mole family immerge from the dirt beside Hare. They weren’t pest but rather friendly animals. Keno rather liked them. Much preferable to trolls! He thought.”
As the mole family, the Hare, and Keno headed back to tell the exciting news, they were faced with another problem: the Valley of Great Destruction. The youngest mole piped up then, however saying, "Notice how the lack of water in the desert has deprived the surrounding trees of water so much that they are falling every hour or so.” Keno watched as several trees fell, but suddenly one fell across the dangerous valley creating a bridge well above the scorpions and quicksand. The animals ran to the tree-bridge quickly still in awe about their luck. On their way across the tree-bridge, the animals made fun of all the dangerous creatures below. Finally on the other side they all leaped off the tree and onto solid ground. It felt good to be finally going home. It felt even better to be bringing good news back to the inhabitants of the neighborhood. With a sigh of satisfaction, the animals followed Keno's fresh trail back through the forest toward home.
Arriving back at the clearing, Hare ran eagerly to each foxhole and log to spread the good news about a new source of water and about the new family that would be joining their community. Keno felt that a trip to Fluffy’s foxhole was a necessity for him. Five holes down on the left was where Fluffy resided. Sprinting to his destination, Keno thought about how he treated Fluffy on occasions. He would laugh at his mistake and poor decisions. But now, he realized that these were truly honest mistakes and that honest mistakes should not be laughed at or taunted. Fluffy hearing “Troll” instead of “Mole” was a common mistake that even Keno himself made very often.
Remembering his destination, Keno ran to Fluffy’s foxhole. Hearing Keno approach, Fluffy turned around and asked, “Keno? Is that you?”
Keno solemnly replied, “Yes, it’s me.” Both cats then cheerfully greeted each other.
After that Keno stated, “Remember the trolls you talked about hearing in the forest?”
Fluffy eagerly said, “Yes, I do. What about them?”
Keno stated, “Well, it was moles you heard not trolls. I found the Hare hanging out with a family of moles beside The River of Everlasting Water. And we now have a new source for water in this drought and a new mole family in our community. I can't wait to take you there, my friend.”
Fluffy jumped up and down, “Wow! Thank you so much for going on this journey and not hiding away in a foxhole like I did! The whole community will be happy!”
Keno put a paw on his friend’s shoulder, and said, “Fluffy, without you starting us in the right direction--”
Fluffy started laughing then, “Moles! Not trolls!”