“Nice bird, nice bird,” she murmured, trying to keep her eye on him and on the road at the same time.
Just then, the road opened up to the clearing she had been told she would find, a small cabin at the far end. However, she had also been told she would find help there, and instead it was empty.
Do I keep driving? This is the right place. What do I do?
She brought the vehicle to a halt, and that seemed to be the signal for the flock to redouble their efforts, screaming like banshees as they alighted on the truck. Responding to the flock’s cries, Junior started to scream as well, his head twisting back and forth and his beak suddenly far too close to for comfort. With one lunge and a snap of his beak, he cleanly severed the seatbelt strap right above her shoulder, and it whirled back with a snap, making him scream even louder.
Ros pressed herself against the driver’s side door, trying to avoid his darting motions and at the same time stifling the urge to smack his head away.
He’s not trying to hurt me, he’s just freaked out and upset–
Then she pushed too hard against the driver’s side door, something clicked, and she found herself tumbling through the air, her arms pinwheeling, trying to grasp the door, the driver’s seat, the seat belt, anything that might break her fall.
She swallowed a shout, hitting the ground on her back. For a moment, she gasped for the breath that had been knocked out of her body, and then she looked up to see what looked like an army of birds descending on her, beaks as sharp as knives, feet extended to claw.
Oh no, this is going to hurt,she thought, and then Teagan was among them in his eagle form, a gray mass of wings and talons scattering the fire condors by sheer ferocity, screaming loudly enough to deafen her.
A moment later, he was in his human form, dragging her to her feet, strong arms wrapping around her so tight that she knew there was nothing to be afraid of.
No, no, that’s wrong, there are still a half-dozen murderbirds--
But then there weren’t because instead there were three people emerging from the woods, traps just like the one she'd used to grab Junior in their hands.
One of them, a lean man about her age with wolf-gray hair, grinned, thrusting a trap at her while nodding at Teagan.
“Hate to break up the party, pal,” he said, “but we don’t have anyone with wings in the group.”
Teagan looked reluctant to let go, but Ros stepped away from him, taking the trap from the stranger.
“I’ll be fine, Teagan,” she said. “Trust me.”
That made him smile, and he leaned in for a quick hard kiss before stepping back.
“Of course I do.”
As he went up in his eagle form again, the man who handed her a trap whistled.
“Yeah, we’re all going to want to hear that story.”
“I’ll be happy to tell it to you as soon as we get the birds to stop attacking us.”
It took them about twenty minutes, all told. With Teagan in the air keeping the fire condors from going too far, the people on the ground could open their traps wide and snatch them out of the air. From there, the birds could be gingerly crammed into the large carriers that had been set aside for the purpose.
Junior was the last to be caught, having mostly freed himself from the trap to flutter anxiously around the cab of Teagan’s truck. He calmed upon seeing Ros, who, ignoring the curious glances from Teagan’s friends, stamped and waved her arms to get Junior’s attention.
“Atta boy,” she crooned. “That’s a good baby.”
Then she had him in another trap, and a softly plump Vietnamese woman transferred him straight into the carrier.
“And baby makes six,” the woman said with satisfaction. “Nice trick with the mating dance, but I don’t know if I want a fire condor thinking I was his new girlfriend.”
“Oh, we had a talk on the way in,” Ros said, a little giddy now that it was all over. “Junior there has been told that I’m taken and monogamous.”
The other woman glanced up at the sky where Teagan was still circling, and then she gave Ros a delighted grin.
“Really?”
“Yeah,” said Ros, suddenly feeling oddly shy. These weren’t her people. They were Teagan’s friends, and she didn’t know anything about them beyond the fact that they were good with angry fire condors.