Nasty Jack

Chapter 21

From the top of the cliff, a male Haast's eagle had seen it all. At first he had been eyeing the moa herd in the distance, then suddenly, next to them he had noticed a strange light and something had stirred in his memory. He watched as a heavily pregnant female human appeared out of the light and headed towards another human-a male-at the bottom of the cliff. He had seen them talk with each other, and then the male human pulled a gun on the female and shot her. A second male arrived and the two had engaged in a fearsome verbal battle, during which the first male human had forced the second to the cliff face.

Then, as the eagle took a good look at the human with a gun, he remembered. He remembered the strange light next to his nest on the plateau, he remembered being carried away from his family and shoved in a tiny cage surrounded by strange creatures. He remembered being absolutely terrified. But most all, he remembered the glassy blind eye. This human was none other than the one that had kidnapped him when he was an eaglet.

But he was no longer an eaglet, he was a fully grown Haast's eagle with a mate and eaglets of his own. And he had the perfect meal in mind for them. Spreading his enormous wings, he launched himself off the cliff and hovered for a moment. Then he folded in his wings and dived like a falcon towards Jack.

* * * * * *

Jack heard the sound of flapping wings and looked up just in time to see the Haast's eagle diving towards him at 80 km/hr. He aimed his gun at the bird and fired, but nothing came out.

"Damn" swore Jack, he had used up his last bullet on Abby. He hurled his pistol to the ground and ran. Meanwhile, Connor curled up into a ball and waited for the eagle to snap him up.

But the eagle did not attack Connor, at the last minute, he unfurled his wings and soared close to the ground towards Jack.

"No, leave me alone!" screamed Jack. he pointed at Connor. "Go back, kill him, kill him, not me!"

But the eagle could not understand Jack's pleas, even if he could he would not stop. Right now he had only two things on his personal schedule. The first was to get his revenge on the human who had caused him so much misery as an eaglet. The second was to feed his eaglets, he intended to do both right now.

As he got closer to Jack, the eagle's talons-each one the length of a man's arm-unfurled. As they came over Jack's shoulders, they closed again.

* * * * * *

Abby came to. She had not actually been shot badly by Jack, instead the bullet had only grazed her shoulder. It was painful but not fatal.

"Abby" said Connor weakly. Abby looked up to see Connor looking at her with amazement, the redness of his cheeks told her that he'd been crying. "Oh Abby" he said, tears of happiness running down his face.

"Connor" she said weakly, "Where's Jack?"

"Aaaargh, no!!!!".

Abby and Connor turned in the direction of the scream just in time to see Jack plucked off the ground by the male Haast's eagle.

* * * * * *

"Aaaaargh, no, no! Put me down!" cried Jack.

The ground below him was getting further and further away as the eagle carried him up to the clifftop. As they reached it, Jack saw a light brown eagle, the female, sitting on a nest the width of a large fishpond. For a moment, she examined the prey her mate had brought. Then slowly, shakily, she rose to her feet and got off the nest,revealing three, fat, fluffy Haast's eaglets. When they saw Jack, they immediately started chirping for food.

For a moment, the father eagle hovered above the nest, while the eaglets leapt up and down, trying to get at the squirming, screaming Jack. Then the biggest of the three elbowed his way to the front, before opening his beak wide, allowing his father to lower Jack in with agonising slowness.

Down on the ground, Connor covered Abby's eyes so she wouldn't see the terrible thing that was happening to her brother. But nothing on earth could have blocked out Jack's final, blood-chilling scream.