Sugarsweet

Blue had been researching plants - as she often did - in the vicinity of the carnival for the last few days. The carnival had the unique opportunity of bringing dinosaurs close together without as much worry of them killing and or eating each other - not that Blue wasn’t aware in her place in all of that. No, it allowed for her research on plant life from across the islands to continue despite not being able to travel there herself. Even if most dinosaurs weren’t exactly interested in her gardening hobbies she had picked up from the Atlanteans.. The few she did interact with were at least pretty good in trading with her. All in all, her herb sack was filling up and emptying out pretty quickly.

“GAAAHHHH!” A masculine voice called out that sent Blue’s head shooting up from a brush of elderberries. 

Her pale eyes settled on the lone figure of a pink and blue utahraptor who was not so carefully scratching at his feathered hide. His feathers were scruffy and Blue couldn’t tell if that was from him itching at himself or if he was legitimately born that way. She watched as the utahraptor scratched and itched and rolled in the dirt- his glistening feathers catching Blue’s eyes.

“Are you uh.. You okay?” She asked sending the raptor a mile high into the sky not realizing she had snuck up on him. 

“What? I--” He started before pausing to itch his flank.. Upon closer inspection she could see small ant like mites were scurrying around his pelt,”I’m-- no, yeah, I need help PLEASE.” The Utahraptor said as he went back to itching at his side.

“Did you.. Roll around in a fire ant nest or something.. ?” Blue asked quizzically, cocking her head to the side as she carefully approached the Utahraptor. She wasn’t worried about a single Utahraptor hurting her, but she was worried about him being intimidated by her presence as she was significantly bigger than him and a complete stranger. 

“Its these damn mites!” He squawked out desperately, turning to burrow his face into his feathers,”They like the way I taste or.. Something. Maybe its the colors. Either way, they like me a lot and I can’t ever seem to have them go away completely!”

For once in her life Blue was relieved to be hatched with extra keratin instead of feathers. Watching the way the poor dinosaur writhed around and itched himself at feathers he clearly wanted to pull out made a pang of sympathy for Blue. It also reminded her of when she was young.

“When I was still a yearling I came down with a terrible case of snake mites,” Blue said as she watched him writhe.

“... And?” He asked pausing only long enough to get the question out and no longer.

“My parents rubbed a bunch of herbs on me and then had me roll around in some smoke for a bit.” She said as she started to look around before locating her herb sack,”Let me see if I have some.”

“Oh please yes!” the Utah said as he shook himself and Blue swore she could see little bugs flying off his feathers,”My names Sugarsweet by the way- whats yours?”

“..Blue..” She said as she stared at him,”... Why… Why the name Sugarsweet?”

“I like to roll around in honey and sugar. The name kinda stuck.” He said matter of fact and confidently,”It adds an AMAZING luster to my feathers that is simply to DIE for.”

Blue stared at him for a long while. Long enough that the Utahraptor started to get obviously antsy at her hesitation.

“Whats the hold up?” Sugarsweet asked impatiently as he bounced from foot to foot.

“You realize THATS the problem right?” Blue asked as Sugarsweet looked gobsmacked,”At least tell me youre bathing afterwards.. Right?”

“I mean like.. Yeah.. of course I am..” He said with a huff that was far from convincing in Blue’s eyes.

Either way she supposed he needed help.. Even if this was sounding like his own creation. She nosed open her sack, rooting her nose through the many herbs bundled there. She wished in moments like these that her arms were more.. Arms than nubs. Ultimately though she found what she was looking for- a bundle of peppermint, regular mint, as well as some garlic. She would nudge the bundle of herbs out with Sugarsweet getting uncomfortably close for a dinosaur with a mite infestation.

“Ooooh those smell-” Sugarsweet paused after smelling the peppermint, spearmint, and ultimately the garlic,”what the FUCK is that.” He gawked in a gagging motion.

“Garlic.” Blue said with an unimpressed expression,”You might not like it but its great at deterring bugs.”

“Okay but like..” Sugarsweet gestured to the peppermint and spearmint,”Can we just like.. Do those instead? They actually smell pretty great and THAT--” he gestured towards the bulb of garlic,”does NOT.”

“Listen dude, do whatever you want with them.” Blue said with an unimpressed tone,”But the garlic is gonna help more than you realize. Are you trying to solve the problem.. Or just smell good?”

“I’m trying to solve my problem AND smell good!” Sugarsweet retorted flaring one of his arms dramatically.

“Alright, I’ll take the garlic back then.” Blue said as she rolled the garlic back into her pouch despite the increasingly more desparate and itch twitchy Sugarsweet.

“No, no, I’ll take that too.. Should I just.. Rub it on me like the other two?”

“It would help if you crushed it up first.” Blue said nonchalantly before picking up her pouch and starting to leave.

“Uh- uh-” Sugarsweet stammered as he grabbed ahold of the two herbs,”Thank you, by the way!”

“No worries.” Blue shot him a polite smile before turning and being on her way.