“You’d eat every plant in sight, and then things would go totally out of whack. There wouldn’t be enough food to go around and everyone would start dying. So, you are really alive in part because of me and the other coyotes!” Coyote Fionn threw his head back and howled for all he was worth. “Oh, and, I can sing a heck of a tune.”

Buffalo Susan shook her mighty head and pawed at the ground. A moment passed, and then she said, “Wait, I get it. Listen to what we all have been saying. It kinda fits together, I mean, what we do fits together.”

“What are you talking about?” said Prairie Dog Jake.

“Okay,” said Susan, “not to be sappy, but you know what, we are all part of the balance of nature.” She took a moment to wave her tail and swat away a fly. Then, she said, “Hey, our report can be about the balance of nature in The Grasslands.”

Prairie Dog Jake looked at her in disbelief. “Wait a minute, we’re here. We get to be things that no human has ever been before, and you’re thinking about school?”

“What? You think we’re going to be here forever?” answered Buffalo Susan, and just when she said this, the wind started to blow, really blow. It was going maybe forty miles an hour, hot and dry. It took everyone by surprise.

Ann Marie Grass could feel the moisture being sucked out of her. She could sense the golden-green feeling being slowly pulled away and replaced by something else, something brown and dry. It’s not that it felt bad, just different, and sudden. Ann Marie Grass figured it was a part of the grass’ plains life, so she just went with it.