A World of Adventure

Snow Day

It was about an hour after school ended, and Ted was currently sitting on a bench, talking with Shade, a grumpy, old man that nobody seemed to be able to talk to. Shade was a massive, 8-foot-tall monster, with the signature black eyes of a Dark element. However, instead of the usual sharp, bright, pin-point pupils that changed to vibrant colors with emotions, he had unfocused, dim pupils that barely changed color at all, except to pale, unsaturated shades of color that went unnoticed unless one really knew him. Shade had dark purple scales that glinted in the night, and he was rather catlike in many ways. He had the paws and head, and he lacked opposable thumbs, which only made his life harder. He had two tails that appeared to fight with each other, and short spines starting at his head and ending at the tips of the tails. He had scaly wings with dark red membranes.

Shade was blind. He was born that way, but he had mastered his other senses to the point where he didn't even need vision. He couldn't use most modern technology, but he had lived before computers were even a thing, so he didn't want anything to do with them. He was incredibly old-fashioned. He hated mostly everyone, but he and Ted got along like the couple of weird outcasts they were. Unlike mostly everyone, Ted actually tried to avoid talking about things the huge cat hated. He was currently trying to climb on top of Shade's head, but Shade kept shaking the stubborn mouse off. "Hey, I'm shaking you off for your own good. Those spines are sharp."

"Fine..." Ted sighed. He had the mindset of a small child, and he was incredibly naive. He was darned persistent at everything he did, and he was determined to get even the grumpiest of grumpy, old men to show their good side.

Meanwhile, at the explorers' apartment...

"Okay, can someone please explain why the milk smells like cheese? Seriously, this stuff smells like freakin' mozzarella!" Dex had noticed the odd smell of the milk, and was now yelling about it. Rose grew annoyed and yelled at him. "Yes, we get it! The milk smells like cheese! It still tastes fine, so just drink it."

"Heck no! What if it's going bad!?" Dex never trusted any food that had the slightest anomaly, much to the annoyance of Rose.

"Fine, do what you want. Just don't throw it away, that's a lot of milk." Rose returned to writing her story on the computer. Nano noticed the fact that it was currently snowing outside. "Guys..." 

Dex grumpily yelled, "What is it!?" 

"Why is it snowing towards the end of Spring?" Nano inquired, as this was the time of the year when it was usually hot outside.

Rose came to a logical conclusion, and spoke her mind. "I think it's Iceflies. They're not dangerous, and they don't make the snow fall too hard, so we can just let them do their thing."

Nano became excited. "Snowball fight?"

Rose called to Nano what she needed to for the sake of everyone's safety. "Yes, Nano. I'll have a snowball fight with you. Just don't start pelting Dex with snowballs if he comes outside. I don't really want to have to knock him out again, because the pee thing was the third time this week that I've had to slash him. His feathers are already disgusting, they don't need to get even more disgusting."

"Okay!" Nano rushed outside and immediately burrowed into the ground in front of the door, waiting for Rose to come outside. When she did, he burst out of his hiding spot, an onslaught of dirt and snow flying at her. She fell down, laughing. "Jeez, Nano! I'm gonna need a shower when I go back inside!" 

"Sorry."

"It's alright. Now, let's see how you like it!" Rose swiftly scooped up some snow and threw it at Nano. "Aah!" Nano fell to the ground, but quickly got up and playfully tackled Rose. They wrestled in the snow for a while, then had an all-out snowball war. 

Back with Ted and Shade, the monster cat was not happy about the snow at all, and just curled up in a shivering, growling ball while Ted tried to get him to lighten up. "Come on, it's fine!"

"I said I hate the cold!" Shade snarled from in his ball, refusing to come out. Ted asked him why he didn't just leave. "If you hate it so much, then why are you still out here?"

"You've got a point." Shade grumbled as he uncurled and spread his wings, taking off and flying away.