The Quencher of Thirst

This is a story about a half/human, half/eagle terrorizing a city.

(This is a story that uses a prompt from Bryn Donovan’s 5000 Writing Prompts. Prompt number 6 on page 50. A cross between a human and a particular type of animal that happens to be a terrible idea.)

John Corssis exited the store with his sealed can of soda, headed down the Avenue on a hot summer’s day. It was shaping up to be a good day, as he had hit all his marks spectacularly.
As he walked down the street, he started to feel strange, as if someone was…watching him. He quickly looked around, his heart rate quickly pacing up. Was his left hand sweating, or was that just condensation? Little matter.
Suddenly, a scream. And then, an eagle? What was this? Corssis didn’t know what the sound was, but he didn’t want to wait to find out. His gait transformed from a cautious stroll to a full trot.
Suddenly, it appeared. An eagle. But this was…different. With the body and beak of an eagle, this destructive beast had a human head! A miniature human head. It looked like the head of a tax collector or telemarketer.
Corssis screamed.
“No, get away from me! Get away!”
But the eagle, the heagle, would not listen. Suddenly, it was circling the man as he began to run away, into the public park. That was the easiest way to get rid of a heagle, wasn’t it? Who could survive in this stifling, confusing nature.
With the can of soda still clasped in his hand, Corssis leapt over an isolated police barrier and continued in, the heagle still circling through the tree cover. Suddenly, Corssis tripped over a Nerf ball and fell with a thud. His soda can shaken up in his hand.
“Oh, God! I hope there aren’t any of those things in heaven! God?”
The heagle was unfazed. Beading down on its target from dozens of feet in the air, it came in for a final swoop, picking up speed as it went.
Even though Corssis wasn’t in the best of shape, he was still strong enough to cry.
“No, no!” said Corssis. “I never even had kids.”
The heagle swooped in for the flying kill. Bypassing Corssis’ jugular, his eyeballs, and his toupee, the heagle dipped its beard into the mouth hole of the soda can, bursting it open and sending carbonated liquid everywhere.
Corssis fought back like a man possessed, not leaving no swing unswung. But the heagle was gone.
“Oh, no!” said Corssis. “My soda!”
The heagle flew away, almost disappearing instantly behind the canopy. This was an example of pure evil. Of all the painful, destructive, yet remunerative, acts that a half/human, half/eagle could do.
Why would it dare to destroy the quencher of thirst?
This was the purest of demagogues. The scapegoat. The tantrum. The answer to a thousand riddles.
The heagle.
Thank goodness Corssis had thought to buy a dollar’s worth of insurance for his purchase! As Corssis stood up, he thought of his mother…