[FHT] Smelly "Intruder"

Ming shook to try and smooth her feathers - what was left of them - back down. She was a mess! The indignity! The nerve! The gall! She’d been set back down in her territory with the rest of her flock after her nap in the warm space with the fluffy thing. The naked one had been rude in dunking her in water, then shoving her under a waterfall, and she would remember this embarrassment! She would!

She paused, feeling her skin twitch, but there was no itch. Instead, she shot her head back and snipped up the little bug that dared crawl on her precious skin, and it was in that moment she got a whiff of… something. Ming sneezed, trying to get it out of her nose. She shook her head like her descendants would, rapidly side to side as if that would get rid of the smell. It turned into a full body shiver, her body joining in the unsettling feeling.

Her head twitched here, then there, quick, assessing looks as she figured out through scent, sound, and sight where the rest of the flock was. Little feet hit the grasslands below, her arms tucked tight to help her maintain speed as she searched them out. A screech made her stop and her head snapped up, grey-brown eyes meeting golden brown. Cream skin and white as snow feathers flashed amongst the green of the tree.

“Intruder!” Li’l Bit screeched and Ming immediately whipped around to confront the intruder, arms flapping to make herself intimidating. Not that it worked that well given how many feathers were destroyed in her efforts for comfort and for the itching to stop. She paused when she saw no one, head twitching and tilting. Where was the intruder? 

Another screech from above and Ming barely had time to turn and claws slammed into her side and she squawked. The two microraptors tumbled and rolled across the ground, Ming desperate to get her feet up to kick. Limbs tangled and large claws lashed out. Ming’s heart beat rapidly, practically visible under the exposed skin of her chest. Li’l Bit (that was what the featherless creatures called him and is easier to translate) pinned her down, the large sickle claw twitching and itching to strike. Arms spread wide and Li’l Bit screeched in Ming’s face and she squawked indignantly, trying to get free, her own half-naked arms flapping helplessly on the ground.

“It’s me! Alpha! It’s Ming!” She desperately screeched, and elsewhere she could hear the click of metal on metal. Li’l Bit paused, his nostrils flaring as he breathed in her scent. That same strange smell she’d noticed clinging to her was probably behind this.

“Ming?” Li’l Bit crooned, hopping back with a flap and ducking into a confused, curious posture as she scrambled upright and boxed him with her wings in frustration.

“Yes! It Ming!” She huffed, before automatically starting to straighten her feathers with her sharp beak.

“You smell funny.” 

She glared at him.