A young married couple lived in a sod and clay house on the plains. The house was mostly underground. Wide and deep tiled stairs led to a wooden pocket door that was inset with thick colored glass panels. The roof was steep and covered with clay tiles that matched the color of the surrounding earth. Small round windows peeped out of the house at ground level. A thin thread of smoke still spun out of the chimney. A path led to the root cellar.

Their soddy was filled with all the necessities of prairie life: a clay stove with a pile of dry chips in a clay tub, a ceramic sink with a water pump, and a bed. Shelves holding jars of dried plants lined the top of the wall. Tools for gathering roots hung from pegs at the front door. Not all of their belongings were rough hewn necessities. They had luxuries such as porcelain teapots and cups. They had a porcelain stringed instrument that was similar to a violin, and an ornate drum. There was a pile of linen and cotton yarn, knitting needles, and a built in shelf that held a pile of newly made baby blankets and clothes.

Though the house's outside was made of stacks of sod, the inside was lined with colorful glazed panels of fire hardened clay. These panels had cuneiform stories and instructions pressed into them. Every story and drawing, every song, every recipe and remedy written on the wall was designed to help the couple have their first baby. Once their child was born they would move to another house.

The doe named LoAnn-Aroo and the buck named Obed-Aroo, who lived in the house, were grazers. Grazers are like kangaroos from the waist down; from the top up, they are humanoid. They eat grass and chew their cuds afterward, like deer. They also eat roots, berries, nuts, and some small insects, as well as drinking tea and coffee, when they could get it-which was never often enough. From belts around their middle, they carry sharp flint trowels that they use to collect plants. Young grazers wear few clothes, but houses built for older grazers have progressively more and more hooks for shirts and coats, scarves and hats.

They were not home on this winter day because they were out with the herd, harvesting roots from the bleak and windy plains. They dug carroty roots that had become sugary because of the cold.

---advice on how to present these people, and their setting more effectively is very welcome.