[Adelie]

It was vast and empty, with no signs of life.

A small copse of trees, an odd sight on such a flat expanse of grass, began vibrating suddenly, leaves shaking off the stunted trees and small cracking noises made as the branches bent under some unseen force.

Perhaps there was life after all.

Two large creatures tumbled out of the trees, one white and laughing hysterically, the other Christmass-y in red and green with a false growl rumbling out of his throat in good-natured fun.  They play-wrestled for a few more moments, finally untangling themselves after, apparently, causing some injury due to a particular boulder that just had to be sticking out there.

"Don't do that again!" scolded the radill half-heartedly at the evren soldier.  "We've probably just frightened away any wombear that might be in existence around these parts, and who knows where we're going to find on now."

The evren sulked playfully.  "They were probably already scared away by that annoying rain-calling whine you gave out earlier."

"Are you calling me annoying?"

[Adelie]

They weren't really here just for the Wombears.  Those little blobs of fur and fun were not topmost on their priority list; they weren't even expecting to see anything, especially considering that neither large, dragon-like creature was very likely to lure a small, scared, and possibly edible small creature out.

Any imaginary Wombears that might have been lurking in the corners were probably thinking something along the lines of "Great Zu'hai, I'm going to die and those big monsters are going to EAT me!"  and would've run off instantly, especially after watching the two great hulking beasts try to patch each other off after that play-fight.

"You need to do something about those claws," exclaimed the radill mournfully, eying a small scratch on his fourth leg.

"That was from a rock!" protested the evren.  "Since when have I been in charge of whatever injury rocks do to you?"

"Since yesterday, when you threw a rock at my eye, thank you very much."

"That missed!"

[Adelie]

A few small disagreements erupted, resulting in various loud noises that caused a slynx a few miles away to jump and run off into the distance, wondering what kind of strange demons had inhabited the plains this time.

"First that invasion by the Garagnirs, and now this?" the slynx muttered to herself silently as she ran off to a location in which the odd sounds where more muffled.  From here, she could still faintly hear the argument that went on.

"It did not miss!"

"It. So. Did."

"Do you call it hitting my ears missing?"

"First, it was aimed at your eye, and secondly, the fact that it hit your ear is your fault!"

"And how does that work?  Magic?"

"No, it's your fault for growing so big and making yourself a huge target."

"Well, it's your fault for being so stupid as to throw rocks at me!"

[Adelie]

It took what seemed like a few more years to sort out the differences, until finally both large creatures were sitting quietly, scanning the horizon for wombears and enjoying the warm, low sun on their flanks.

The white one was a little smaller than the one with the Christmas colors, her colors showing more silver-grey than white now in the dimming light.  Thin bands of blue and black dotted her long limbs, which ended in large, paw-like feet covered in an odd apparatus that seemed like golden, metal scales.

The larger one was maybe a few inches taller than the white lizard, although it was hard to tell, as the white one was resting itself against the radill, her body in a curve similar of to that of a sideways C.  His body was patterned into many stripes, mostly of white, with small green splotches along the back of the long body and small stripes inside the white ones.  An interesting combination.

[Adelie]

Izanette, the evren, yawned, showing a pink mouth edged with neat, sharp teeth.  "Don't you think this seems like one of those romantic outings they always televise in bad soap operas?" she asked, referring to the surroundings and the fact that she was leaning against the male radill's cool body in a way that did seem quite reminiscent of bad soap operas and quixotic paintings.

The radill looked somewhat sleepy, big green eyes hooded and half-closed.  "Are you suggesting we get married and have little evren-radill crossbreed babehs?" he requested, being unusually non-combative.  He'd have usually pounced on this topic and turned it into an argument by now, but the long day had worn him out.

"Oooh," sighed the evren, swishing her tail slightly.  "They'd have my pretty eyes..."

"And your flame-y breath, so we won't need another barbecue lighter..."

"And they'd be this delicate shade of light pink..."

"I am NOT raising pink guy babies!"

"Who said they'd be male?"

[Adelie]

"Well, you never said anything about them, but I figured there had to be some male babies in a clutch of eggs."

"Oh, you won't believe what science can do nowadays."

"Science?  That nonsense that potions seller practices is considered science?"

The evren sighed and got up.  "I'm going to get myself something better to sleep on," she announced, plucking up some grass and beginning to arrange them in a vaguely nest-like shape.

"I'm not good enough for you?" The radill sounded mournful and unloved.

"No, dearie, I'm afraid you're not."

"Oh, well at least you could get me something to sleep on while you're at it."

"For your ten or twenty feet of tail?  No way."

[Adelie]

As the sunlight dimmed and night began to unfold, muffled sounds were heard from the ground which soon resulted in some muttered curses.

"Great Zu'hai, do all radills snore like you do?"

Silence.

The evren pulled herself off her newly made nest and smacked the radill with her tail.  "What?" mumbled a slightly ruffled radill.

"You have something wrong with your nose, apparently."

"What's it now?"

"You snore."

"And you've lived with me for three months and never noticed."

[Adelie]

"Well, that's still your fault."

"How am I to blame for your inattentive-ness?"

"Because you never told me you snore!"

"And I don't!"

The evren stared at the radill.  "And you're trying to contradict my wonderful hearing."

The radill sighed for what was the fiftieth time that evening, turned over, and tried to go back to sleep, gradually tuning out the angry mutters emanating from one annoyed evren.

[Adelie]

One night later, Izenette and Telken refused to talk to each other, which was probably a good thing, considering that when they did, it usually erupted into good-natured and sometimes bad-natured arguing.  And this arguing was a surefire deterrent to any wombear who might be coming their way, considering that those creatures were known to be timid and probably did not think that two immensely large dragon-like creatures squabbling like an old married couple were interesting enough to check out.

Eventually, the silence was broken.

"Izan, the glare off your back is getting in my eyes."

[Adelie]

This, of course, led into another argument, one that started with coat colors and eventually dissolved into an attack on each side's political views and resulted in a squabble too trivial to even write down, as it would result in the dear reader's ears dissolving into a pile of mush.

Again this argument resulted in silence.

Again a stupid comment came up from one side.

Again another argument took place.

And the cycle continued for an overly long time, in which no wombears were spotted, a few local creatures deafened, and a couple rainclouds accidentally called.

[Adelie]

"Oh, now look what you did.  It's raining all over my paws and making them get all rusty."  This was an illogical argument, considering that in past times, Izanette had loudly proclaimed that she loved the rain.  Also contradicting her point was the fact that paws did not rust.  Maybe.  Possibly.  I'm not sure.

"Uh-huh.  Whatever," replied the radill in typical 'oh-gosh-shut-up-I-have-a-football-game-to-watch' manner.

[Adelie]

As usual, there was more silence in the group, which was now creeping through a stretch of particularly tall grass that could've swallowed a kuhna but went up to the radill's knees, slight exaggeration included.

Telken vaguely thought that if there were any wombears, they'd probably step on them first, but decided not to mention this in case this was something else that could spark an argument.  Eventually, though, he couldn't resist.

"Don't you think that if there are any wombears around, we've probably stepped on them already?"

Izenette, of course, interpreted this badly.

"Are you telling me I'm fat?"

[Adelie]

Telken backtracked.  "No, Izan, I'm not saying you're fat, it's just--"

"I don't need your stupid excuses, you said I was fat!"

"Izan, listen to me, I'm not--"

"What did I say about making excuses?"

"I didn't say--"

"Telken!"

He found the best way to get out of this was to take the blame onto himself.  "No, I meant myself being so fat that I'd step on the wombears.  Not you."

Izanette was satisfied.  "Thank you, dearie.  Now, what do you think about heading that way?"

[Adelie]

The nice conversations were up again.  Or at least, until one of them slipped up and said something stupid.

"Great idea!"  They trekked through some bad terrain and nearly died.  "Izanette, you're really good at making decisions.  You choose the next way to go."

"How about that way?"

"Great idea!"  More near-death experiences followed.  "Okay, now which way?"

"This way, maybe?"

"Great idea!"  We can guess what resulted.  "Izanette, just let me navigate."

This, again, resulted in near-death experiences for Telken.