Taterskin & The Eco Defenders: Book 2, Chapter 42
Book 2 ("Tell It to Future Generations"), Chapter 42 of 56
CHAPTER 42
Ravelle, Stripes and Marmalade, Rory, Jubatus, Ooga, Falcona, and Yukyuk first traveled slowly in the Zephyr around their assigned area, the jungle, on a reconnaissance mission to get a Birds-eye view of it all and to get an overview of what was going on down below.
A little south of the mouth of the Amazon River, they noticed a giant iron ore mine. They made increasingly tighter circuits of the forest, the Zephyr describing concentric circles that got smaller and smaller. They also saw humongous cattle ranches and farms, and many other mining and logging operations.
Finally touching down near the confluence of the Rio Negro and the Amazon, they got to work after a short break.
Ravelle and his team had located a good hiding place for their JNG (Albert had removed the Float from the Zephyr, and thus it had gone back to being a simple JNG and was no longer — for the time being, anyway — a JNG-F) and set up their base camp so that they would be ready for action when the rest of the animals arrived.
Similarly, Chapawee, now piloting the Androcles, flew to the mouth of the Amazon and then followed it all the way west to its source in the Andes, Nevado Mismi, which is located between Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca. Having scouted it all out, she flew back to her starting point on the river and, after hovering briefly in the air to get her bearings, descended straight down on the same island the Eco Defenders had originally used.
Hugh the Manatee and Boto the Dolphin happened to be on flipper to meet Chapawee, Jowls, Rinky, Terri, and Drako.
Hugh and Boto stuck their heads out of the water at the shore of the little island and welcomed their friends back. Chapawee nonchalantly got out the Compressor/Decompressor and used it to supersize Rinky and Drako: click-click-click-click-click. Hugh stared, dumbfounded, as Boto imitated the sound the device had made, seeing if it would cause someone else to grow in size. She didn’t want to make herself larger, but she thought it would be funny if Hugh grew to the point of blocking the channel, thus impeding commercial traffic on the river. That didn’t happen, of course, but it worried Hugh a little, as he was able to guess what Boto had been trying to do.
“Don’t use that contraption on me!” Hugh said to Chapawee, “I wouldn’t be able to fit in the river anymore if you did.”
“Don’t worry, Hugh, you’re more than big enough as you are,” Chapawee reassured him. “The reasons I enlarged Rinky and Drako were: first, to show Terri that even though she has returned to her normal size (we had to shrink her earlier, for cause), that doesn’t necessarily make her the biggest fish in the pond (so to speak); second, the Platypus and the Bearded Dragon will no longer have to cope with being minuscule by Amazonian standards; thus, it will be much easier for them to intimidate any interlopers that we encounter, as these will think that our friends are prehistoric monsters.”
“Interlopers?” queried Boto.
Chapawee and Rinky then explained to them, and to the other Dolphins, Manatees, Bull Sharks, Caimans, Stingrays and such that had begun to gather around, all about the Eco Defenders and our mission. As could be expected, all of them were entertained by the information and enthused about the opportunity to take part in the operation.
Meanwhile, Drako had swum over from the tiny island to the mainland. Terri crossed the channel by jumping up, flapping her wings a single time, then folding them against her body, sinking to the earth near her friend and co-member of the scaly sisterhood.
Drako and Terri called for the Tapirs and Capybaras, Giant Otters, and all the other animals within hearing distance to come and hear them relay the same message that Chapawee and Rinky had delivered to the water-bound creatures.
As for those that Chapawee had spoken to — the animals who never leave the water or at least spend most of their time in it — they agreed to keep on the watch for speculators and surveyors and such traveling into the area by boat or ship (some oceangoing ships could reach almost 1,000 miles up the Amazon).
When such were spotted, Chapawee would politely but firmly let these ‘interlopers’ know that they could not commence or continue business operations in the Amazon (or, if she was not nearby, the river animals would call one of the Macaws whom Alexis had trained, and they would “open a dialog” with the humans).
The non-negotiable message was that the Amazon was closed for business. Absolutely no gasoline or gas-powered tools would be allowed in the jungle. Tourists or visitors could walk into it, camp in it, and paddle its rivers, but nothing that would pollute or destroy the region would be allowed. No guns would be allowed. Machetes would be allowed, for hikers to hack their way through the jungle, but nothing more powerful or dangerous than that. And it probably goes without saying that no garbage was to be left — visitors must pack out what they packed in. They could have campfires; pick and eat berries, beans, and nuts; and pack out as much as they could carry in a sack on their back (that is to say, besides carrying out their garbage, they could also take whatever coffee beans, cocoa beans, Brazil nuts, etc. they could carry — but that was all).
Back at Mount Roraima, Albert, my family and I, Alexis, Tubthumper, Chumbawumba, and Ocero had been doing more or less the same thing as the other two teams: educating the curious animals that had approached us. We were “training the trainers,” as this vanguard would go forth to pass on the information to others, all around the perimeter of the Amazon Basin.
We were an impressive bunch, if I say so myself. The Elephants and the Rhino alone were intimidating enough that all it took from Albert to dissuade would-be despoilers of the Amazon was an explanation of how from now on all infiltrators who had plans to burn, scrape, or deforest the Amazon would be kept out.
Albert was polite with them, knowing that many genuinely didn’t understand the extreme harm they were doing. To the first group that arrived, he said, “Consider this, the Amazon Basin, to be the Central Park of South America, or even the Central Park of the World.”
“What do you mean by ‘Central Park of the World’?” one of them asked.
“Have you ever been to Central Park, in New York?”
“No.”
“Have you heard of it?”
“I think so.”
“Do you know its purpose?”
“I’m not sure; it’s a place to have picnics and push your kids on a swing or around in a stroller, I guess.”
“OK, yes, but more than that: Central Park cleans the air, keeps the city cooler in the summer, helps people build up their physical health and maintain their mental well-being” —
“I’ve always heard New Yorkers were kind of crazy,” another said.
“Not nearly as crazy as they would be without Central Park,” Albert pointed out. “It’s the saving grace of that pile of glass, concrete, plastic, and artificial rubber. And that’s what the Amazon Basin is to the earth: it’s the Central Park of the World. To preserve the earth for its inhabitants’ welfare, we need to keep it pristine, virtually untouched, and inviolate.”
Taterskin & The Eco Defenders (in paperback, kindle, or hardcover) is available here.